NATIONAL

Data-Driven Schools See Rising Scores
Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2009
Montgomery, a suburb of Washington, D.C., spends $47 million a year on technology like Edline. It is at the vanguard of what is known as the “data-driven” movement in U.S. education — an approach that builds on the heavy testing of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law.

Obama’s Charter Stimulus
Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2009
The Obama Administration’s $100 billion in “stimulus” for schools has mostly been a free lunch — the cash dispensed by formula in return for vague promises of reform. So we were glad to hear that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is now planning to spend some of that money to press states on charter schools.

Time for a test
Economist, June 11, 2009
Since Minnesota started the experiment in 1991, most states have introduced independent, or charter, schools in some form. Evaluations have been broadly positive, but their enemies, including the politically powerful teachers’ unions, can fairly claim that more research is needed.

FROM THE STATES

CALIFORNIA

School District Studies Charter School Options
Alameda Sun, CA, June 11, 2009
The Alameda Unified School District is studying the idea of converting some, or perhaps all, the district’s schools into charter schools.

WASHINGTON, DC

‘So Far . . . From Being Done’
Editorial, Washington Post, June 12, 2009
YOU CAN list Michelle A. Rhee’s accomplishments since becoming D.C. schools chancellor two years ago today, and they run more than 10 pages: boosting math and reading test scores; putting art, music and physical education classes in every school; streamlining the central office; closing 23 schools; recruiting new principals.

MASSACHUSETTS

New momentum for charter schools
Editorial, Boston Globe, MA, June 12, 2009
TALK ABOUT barriers lifting and paradigms shifting. Suddenly, support for charter schools, once the lonely province of public-policy entrepreneurs and intrepid, union-defying pols, has become positively mainstream.

MICHIGAN

Michigan Senate bills look at education reform
Detroit News, MI, June 12, 2009
Poor-performing public schools could be converted to independent schools with teachers who get merit pay under a package of education reform bills introduced in the Senate Thursday.

VIRGINIA

Unchartered
Editorial, Richmond Times Dispatch, VA, June 12, 2009
The Obama administration has a message for Virginia: If you want to be eligible for certain stimulus money, embrace charter schools

WISCONSIN

Democrats vote for student cap in Milwaukee’s school-choice program
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, June 11, 2009
Democrats who control the state Assembly voted Thursday to cap participation in Milwaukee’s parental choice program at 19,500 students for the next two years - about the same number of students who now attend private schools at state expense.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Who do charters educate?
Opinion, Los Angels Times, CA, June 12, 2009
When, in the early 1990s, the California Legislature enacted the bill to create charter schools and fund them with state education dollars, those advocating the bill’s adoption insisted that charters would benefit all students.