1/3 of Northern VA schools fail, low standards = low minority scores, Detroit parents leaving public schools …going to charters…

Education Reform Outrage in the news …

Examiner, DC: More than a third of N. Virginia schools fail No Child Left Behind requirements - More than a third of Northern Virginia schools failed this year to meet standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind law, up from a failure rate of 20 percent in 2006. Overall, 36 percent of Northern Virginia schools failed at either the math or the reading criteria.

Foster’s Daily Democrat, NH: Barrington votes against paying tuition to charter schools - Fearing an onslaught of requests from various fledgling public charter schools in the area, the School Board unanimously approved a policy Wednesday night that will exclude those schools from receiving tuition money.

Tucson Citizen, AZ: Back to school: Time to take stock of educational progress - Arizona public schools spend about twice the average private school tuition, while failing to teach basic literacy to half of all students by age 10.

Ventura County Star, CA: Minorities score lower on state test - It’s a vicious cycle. From our research, we believe oftentimes that schools that serve a large population of Latino and African-American students expect less from their students. These schools give less rigorous assignments, so there is already a lower expectation of achievement. If they are not challenged by the coursework, then that reinforces low standards. Certainly there is something more going on than just poverty that’s impacting these students.

Grassroots Action in the news …

Dateline Alabama: Citizens Protest Restructuring of City Schools - More than 60 parents, grandparents and supporters gathered to protest the recent restructuring of city schools, which moved about 90 students to the "Western Cluster." Many people brought their children to re-enroll them in their former school, but they left with school choice forms and directions to take their kids to their new schools. Parents are outraged because under NCLB children cannot be transferred into schools that are in need of improvement. All five of the schools in the city system’s “Western Cluster" are considered in need of improvement for failure. "It seems awfully counterproductive to take a child in a school that has made AYP and put them in a school that has not," said Mary Bruce Ogles, Alabama Education Association’s assistant executive secretary.

Education Week: As School Year Looms, Detroit Predicts Enrollment Drop - Last fall, more than 14,000 Detroit students left the public schools, either moving out of the city, enrolling in charter schools, or attending school in neighboring districts due to a 16-day teachers’ strike that delayed the opening of schools and caused turmoil in the system for weeks. Detroit is bracing for another dive in enrollment as students return to classrooms next week for the first time since district officials closed 33 school buildings this summer.

School Choice in the news …

Examiner, DC: Giving Prince George’s parents choice will fix the schools - Why doesn’t PGPS have all of the teachers it needs? It’s certainly not the money. The problems of the Prince George’s County education system have one cause; it’s a government monopoly. There is one solution: school choice reforms.