NCLB Gets A Passing Grade
USA Today, June 25, 2008
There’s only one problem with all this criticism: The standards-and-accountability movement appears to be working. A new, 50-state report on the law’s impact by the Center on Education Policy…

Holding Back Young Students: Is Program a Gift or a Stigma?
New York Times, NY, June 25, 2008
With the increasing emphasis on standardized testing over the past decade, large urban school systems have famously declared an end to so-called social promotion among youngsters lacking basic skills.

New Programs for Training Charter Leaders Scrutinized
Education Week, MD, June 24, 2008
An emerging crop of programs tailored to preparing charter school principals shows promise when compared with traditional leadership-training programs, but those programs “miss or treat too lightly” certain issues that many leaders of such schools struggle with most, says a new report.

Strickland Ignores Successful School Choice Program
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, June 25, 2008
The June 19 article "Strickland school summit tries to ID what works" discusses Gov. Ted Strickland’s desire to help Ohio’s children get a good education. Yet, Strickland remains hostile to one of the highest-performing programs: school choice.

Bad Teachers
Charleston Gazette, SC, June 25, 2008
UNIONIZED public school teachers have strong political clout. Legislators usually give them what they seek - including job-protection laws making it extremely difficult to remove the incompetent or unfit…But the teachers union in Toledo, Ohio, does something to fix the problem.

Students, School Making The Grade
Star-Ledger, NJ, June 24, 2008
After years of struggling, the 8-year-old school has seen across- the-board gains in test scores. In 2004, only 8 percent of students at Greater Newark passed the state’s Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment math exam. Last year that number jumped to 77 percent.

Charter School Test Scores Top PS Kids – Again
New York Daily News, NY, June 25, 2008
It was a great day to celebrate for charter school supporters - and also to score political points.

Senator Smith Is Known as a Booster of Charter Schools
New York Sun, NY, June 25, 2008
The increasing likelihood that the next majority leader of the Senate will be the Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith, a founder of two charter schools whose pastor and political mentor is a vocal school voucher supporter, is exciting school choice advocates across the state.

True North Preparatory School, a Rochester Charter, Shows The Way
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, June 25, 2008
The number that bursts out of the mix is the 98 percent passing mark for sixth-graders at True North Preparatory School, a city charter. That’s the best score in the county, beating the champions in Pittsford and Brighton.

Delaware House Approves Charter School Moratorium
D.C. Examiner, D.C., June 25, 2008
The state House on Tuesday approved and sent to the Senate a resolution establishing a moratorium on new charter school applications in Delaware, although questions remain about its scope and effect.

Teachers Union’s Sneaky Tactics Are Exposed
News Journal, DE , June 25, 2008
The very people who pledged to educate Delaware’s children appear to be searching for ways to become deadly adversaries of charter school success.