NATIONAL

Congress Can Store Bipartisan Success: School Reform
Dickenson Press, March 9, 2010
Congress has a chance - a narrowing one, given the calendar - to prove it can do something important on a bipartisan basis: recommit the country to school reform.

FROM THE STATES

District of Columbia

Independent Evaluation of School Reform Begins
Washington Post Blog, DC, March 8, 2010
The four principal figures in D.C. school reform were on their best behavior Monday when they visited with the National Research Council (NRC) committee that will conduct an independent evaluation of their efforts.

Illinois

On to College…
Chicago Tribune, IL, March 8, 2010
If nothing else made you feel good last week, you had to smile at the news out of Urban Prep Academy for Young Men, a charter school in Englewood.

Louisiana

Judge Rules D’Arbonne Woods Charter Was Properly Funded; Union Parish School Board Didn’t Prove Its Case
Monroe News Star, LA, March 8, 2010
Nineteenth District Judge Todd Hernandez ruled Monday that D’Arbonne Woods Charter School is properly funded and that Union Parish Schools failed to prove that the loss of funds to D’Arbonne Woods has hurt the district..

NO Mayor-Elect To Name Education Panel
WXVT, LA, March 9, 2010
New Orleans’ next mayor is about to name a team that will look into education issues in the city. Mitch Landrieu on Tuesday will name the members of his new education task force. Elected last month, Landrieu will be taking office at a time when New Orleans schools continue to be the focus of education experts nationwide.

Michigan

“Fighting for School Reforms” - Against Whom?
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, MI, March 8, 2010
The Michigan Education Association is taking heat even from some of its friends in the media because of the state’s failure to qualify for $400 million in competitive “Race to the Top” federal grants. To be eligible, Michigan had to enact a slate of education reforms including expanding the number of charter schools, creating a more rigorous “failed school” takeover process, establishing “merit pay,” increasing performance accountability for teachers, and more.

Minnesota

As the Teachers Union Digs In, It’s Students Who Suffer 
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN, March 8, 2010
Despite the crisis in our urban education system, Dooher publicly stated that he would rather lose hundreds of millions of dollars for our public schools than give up union positions on issues like performance pay and alternative teacher certification — strategies that President Obama supports for closing the achievement gap.

Pennsylvania

Effective Teachers Plan Gets Rolling In Pittsburgh School District
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, March 9, 2010
What makes an effective teacher? That is the question facing administrators in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers as they go about implementing a performance pay plan that is part of the $40 million grant that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the school district last year.

Virginia

House Approves McDonnell Plan on Virtual Classes
Richmond Times Dispatch, VA, March 9, 2010
The House of Delegates yesterday passed Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to create a framework for approving virtual classes for public school students and gave preliminary approval to a plan to create college partnership lab schools.

West Virginia

Public Schools Serve Children, Not Adults
Charleston Daily Mail, WV, March 8, 2010
Most recent case in point? Charter schools. For two years now, there’s been a legislative fight over whether, in an effort to help those children the system is failing, West Virginia should permit and fund schools that break the highly regulated mold for public education.