Los Angeles’ Garcia takes voices of 700,000 ELLs to the Hill, 50 yrs after Little Rock Nine, Alabama tops NAEP …

CNN Money: What to Do to Improve Our Schools - Fifty years after nine black students broke the color barrier at Little Rock Central High School, black educators, parents, congressional leaders and presidential candidates are grappling with inadequate public school education — a national problem that will immeasurably impact the lives of generations of black children.

Washington Post: Individual Student Improvement Should Trump All Else - As a fifth-grade math teacher at KIPP DC: AIM Academy public charter school, I would suggest changing one aspect of NCLB to improve teacher accountability. AYP status is based solely on an absolute measure of proficiency and does not account for student growth. I think an accountability program that does both would be more useful for teachers and schools.

KHTS Radio, CA: Nation’s Report Card Gathers Praise - Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), issued the following statement: “The 2007 Nation’s Report Card confirms what we already knew – student achievement is on the rise, achievement gaps are narrowing, and greater numbers of students are at or above basic and proficient levels in the fundamentals of reading and mathematics.

South Alabamian, AL: Alabama leads nation in gains made in fourth grade reading  - On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the nation’s report card shows that Alabama’s public schools made more improvement in fourth grade reading than any other state in the nation.

LA Times: L.A. Unified backs education reform law - "I’m here representing 700,000 children who absolutely need critical attention on No Child Left Behind. Your work to better serve English-language learners . . . is super, super important," L.A. Board of Education President Monica Garcia told aides to lawmakers.

Youngstown Vindicator, PA: Board, teachers union resolve charter concerns - In one PA district, any drop in student enrollment at the charter school sponsored by the city school district won’t translate into a reduction in teaching positions within the district. That’s the crux of a memorandum of understanding between the city school board and the Youngstown Education Association, the union representing some 650 teachers.

Washington Examiner: Voucher program at record-high enrollment this school year - A record number of District of Columbia students are enrolled in the city’s school-choice voucher program this year, officials announced Wednesday, pointing to what they consider strong interest in the controversial scholarship initiative.

Springdale Morning News, AR: Distance Learning Conference Scheduled Friday In Rogers - The University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform will host a daylong look at distance learning in Arkansas to examine questions about how distance education can be used to help rural schools satisfy academic requirements in Arkansas with a focus on technical and legal barriers.

Arkansas News: Lawmakers Discuss Ways To Stop Districts From Failing - The Arkansas Legislature needs to find ways to intervene in failing school districts before they fail completely and the state takes a district over.

WI worst reading gap, unbiased study reveals vouchers work… opponents brush off, NAEP (nation’s report card) results reveal choice impact …  

Atlanta Journal Constitution: A Slip-Up on Vouchers: Plan off to a tardy start - Program to help students with disabilities might have done more good if it hadn’t come after private schools’ deadlines.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI: Reading gap is nation’s worst - The average reading ability for fourth- and eighth-grade black students in Wisconsin is the lowest of any state, and the reading achievement gap between black students and white students in Wisconsin continues to be the worst in the nation.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI: ‘Ho-hum’ says much about school choice foes - Another study suggesting good results from school choice in Milwaukee, not that it will make much of a dent with the opposition. This tells you something about the opposition. The latest study links the ability of poor parents to take state aid to religious schools to improvements at Milwaukee Public Schools. Not linked to any school choice organization, Economist Chakrabarti of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that scores improved more at schools that were more subject to competition - schools where a greater proportion of students were poor and could use a voucher if their parents chose. This shows the improvements weren’t driven by other changes in MPS, such as new leadership. It was the increased competition.

Daily Tar Heel, NC: Grant helps state’s ESL teachers - One federal grant combined with proposed changes to NCLB could reshape the way North Carolina instructs its non-English-speaking students. UNC-Greensboro recently received a five-year, $1.4 million federal grant for its Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages project. North Carolina has a growing ESL population and needs to prepare teachers to teach all the children in their classroom.

Myrtle Beach Online: Study: Residents want high teacher quality - The study involved 3,000 hours worth of interviews with more than 800 people - business leaders, parents, students, superintendents, principals, teachers and school board members - from each county and school district. The institute is calling it the largest education study ever done from the grass-roots level.

Jackson Sun, TN: Bredesen extols state education reforms to business group - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen promoted a simple approach to education reform focused on improving the quality of teachers during a speech today to business and education leaders. Ways to improve the teacher quality include paving the way for non-traditional career experts to move into the classroom, professional development, bonus pay for outstanding performance, and evaluating teachers more closely before they are granted tenure.

PRNewswire: Nation’s Report Card: Policy Changes Have Impact - The NAEP snapshot of student achievement tells us students are learning more, but not nearly enough. With proficiency levels still well below 50 percent, we have much more to do. This data can drive education policy changes that are critical to our children’s success.

Evansville Courier & Press, IN: Advocate finds government can’t micromanage education - NCLB still doesn’t get to the core of what’s wrong with education in the United States: a public education system that forces most children to go to a school of the government’s choice, not the parents’.

NCLB improving reservations, educating/empowering Utahns on vouchers, cyber schools booming in KS/PA, re-educating New Orleans, preventing dropouts, business leaders back charters …

Great Falls Tribune, MT: Reservation schools working hard and improving - Just four years ago, only nine of the reservations’ 60 schools managed to pass NCLB muster — called making "adequate yearly progress." Because of increased attention because of the failing status and hard work from faculties, the number has more than doubled to 20.

Deseret Morning News, UT: Public meets abound before voucher D-day - Stephenson, the public education appropriations co-chair, is holding meetings for the public to better educate them on vouchers. "I believe in families and parents and their right to choose how and where their children will be educated," he said. "To me, that’s the most fundamental element of private school vouchers."

Beaver County Courier Times, PA: Cyber charter officials say hearings boost business - “These hearings have driven more kids to cyber charter schools,” Trombetta, chief executive of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, said. “What you are doing is educating the public about alternatives and options.” Since lawmakers first introduced bills in spring 2006 to tighten the reins on cyber charter school finances, Trombetta said enrollment at his school has doubled to roughly 8,000 students.

Lawrence Journal, KS: Competition increasing in online education options - Every school district in the state could have a virtual school. Gary Lewis, principal of the Lawrence Virtual School, said virtual schooling is giving families in Kansas more options, and this competition will also improve quality.

USA Today: New Orleans school system re-educated - One goal of educators at New Orleans College Prep (NOCP), a new charter school in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood, is to inject a fresh zeal for learning that the system previously lacked. Another is to raise expectations and test scores far higher than before.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: JAG’s mission to keep teens learning - 90 Springdale students deemed at risk of dropping out are enrolled in the state’s Jobs for Arkansas’ Graduates program, known as JAG. High school juniors and seniors earn academic credit for working. They get job and life-skills training in the classroom, and then they’re monitored for one year after graduation to ensure they’re doing something productive.

Worcester Telegram, MA: Boosting charters - The Massachusetts Business Leaders for Charter Public Schools properly see charter schools as a vital part of the state’s public education system, which is responsible for supplying businesses the well-educated, well-skilled work force upon which Massachusetts’ knowledge-based economy is dependent. Members of the group are scheduled to testify today before the Legislature’s Education Committee, which is holding a hearing on all charter legislation. Two crucial proposals are before the committee. One would lift the cap on charter schools in communities that have large low-income and minority populations and schools termed underperforming by the state Department of Education.

Can Special Ed students reach grade-level standards?,  Ed Officials mandate school choice options distribution, utilizing web-tech for school choice …

Foster’s Daily Democrat, NH: Fairness of special ed testing debated - Federal testing guidelines unfairly hold special needs children to the same standards as students in regular education, educators say, leading to what one calls a "blame game." Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. said it would be a reversal of the belief that all students can reach appropriate standards when given the necessary tools to succeed.

Washington Times: School options urged for parents - Top federal education officials have released a new handbook urging state and local administrators to explain more effectively to parents that they can transfer their children among schools or access free tutoring services if their child’s school is consistently subpar. This guide provides school administrators with strategies and tips on how to ensure more eligible parents are aware of and participate in the options.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Use Web to help parents pick a school - While the Web has spawned an explosion of consumer-oriented information, public schools aren’t used to treating parents like customers with options. Parents are treated as a captive audience whose job is to comply with the rules a large bureaucracy sets up mostly for its own purposes. Most public school Web sites are set up to convey rules, or offer defensive, image-buffing PR. A customer focus is long absent in Philadelphia, where so many of the parents are working-class or poor. Middle-class parents, the folks with income to pursue options, have long voted with their feet, either leaving town or turning to the city’s rich network of private and religious schools.

Arkansas Catholic: Fort Smith principal analyzes school choice for doctoral thesis - Dr. Karen Hollenbeck, an Arkansas private school principal, chose to write her thesis on "Factors Affecting Non-Public School Choice by Parents in Arkansas." She sent out questionnaires to parents in all elementary schools accredited by the Arkansas Non-Public School Accrediting Association asking them whether they had attended non-public schools, their income level, religion and other demographic questions. She then asked them to look at the most reported reasons for choosing non-public schools and rate their importance. By correlating parental priorities with demographic information, she was able to determine why parents chose non-public schools, and whether those priorities were different for parents choosing Catholic, other religious or secular private schools.