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Education News for Thursday, June 15

School-choice group issues report on problems in Camden – Excellent Education for Everyone, a Newark-based organization that supports school choice, renewed its call today for tax credits to support private-school scholarships by issuing a "white paper" that cataloged controversies plaguing the Camden district. (more)

Gap grows in how schools graded – For the first time since the state and federal grading systems began clashing four years ago, Gov. Jeb Bush said Florida’s system is a better gauge than the one that anchors the education agenda of his brother, President Bush. (more)

School Reform Alone Can Never Fully Close Achievement Gaps, Says WestEd Policy Perspectives Paper – News release: School reforms to close the academic achievement gap among our nation’s children cannot fully succeed unless supplemented by reform in the social and economic institutions that affect children’s ability to learn, according to a WestEd Policy Perspectives paper by Richard Rothstein, Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute. (more)

Board Approves Alliance Of Public, Charter School – The D.C. Board of Education approved a collaboration yesterday between an underenrolled public elementary school and a charter middle school that supporters praised as an innovative — and unprecedented — approach involving the nationally acclaimed KIPP organization. (more)

School choice a key issue in superintendent’s race – The stage is set for another referendum on vouchers, tax credits and expanded school choice in South Carolina. (more)

Beleaguered school panel wants stronger ethics rules – After revelations on a number of questionable moves by Philadelphia School District officials, the School Reform Commission yesterday asked for tougher policies on ethics. (more)

Advocates demand Abbott school reform – As New Jersey’s investment in its neediest schools comes under rising scrutiny, several children’s and community advocates yesterday demanded the state do a bet ter job of making sure the money is spent wisely. (more)

Racial balancing helps attain equal education – Opinion: The U.S. Supreme Court is on shaky ground after taking a couple of cases that deal with race and public schools — a subject around which the justices should tread lightly. (more)

Program provides cash for teachers, staff – The Blue Valley School District of Overland, Kansas approved a school-based award pilot program for the 2006-07 school year. The program awards compensation to classified and certified staff in participating schools that reach their goals. (more)

Teachers union settles with Spitzer – The New York State United Teachers yesterday agreed to adopt a series of reforms and pay $100,000 to cover the costs of the investigation by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into the practice of cajoling members into ING retirement plans. (Free registration required) (more)

Check back later for more education news.   

UPDATE:

Primaries set up fall contests over schools – SEN. TOMMY MOORE drew a clear line toward the fall election Tuesday night when he declared that “I haven’t turned my back on public education; I’m not trying to dismantle public education.” (more)

There’s a parallel to 1998 governor’s race, but it’s not what … – LEARNED IN 1998 that I couldn’t predict what South Carolina voters are going to do. So I’m not going to repeat my mistake of saying there’s no way a little-known, uncharismatic state legislator can unseat the sitting Republican governor this fall. (more)

Booker Has Unity in Newark; Trick Now Is to Keep It –  Cory Booker finally has what he wants. He will take over for Mayor Sharpe James on July 1 with a landslide victory behind him and — thanks to Tuesday’s runoff — unanimous support on the Municipal Council. (more)

Justices stuck in the past over "racial balancing" plans –  The Supreme Court is on shaky ground after taking a couple of cases that deal with race and public schools — a subject around which the justices should tread lightly. (more)

By choice, GR schools a bigger draw than ever – Grand Rapids slowly is becoming a destination district for students using the county’s school choice plan. (more)

Report Calls for Changes in No Child Left Behind Act to Help … –  A new report from The Century Foundation proposes that the federal No Child Left Behind Act should be revised to enable more low-income students to attend good middle-class public schools – a strategy that has already been successful in raising achievement in a number of local school districts.(more)

School Reopened as Charter Under NCLB Winds Up Year 1 – On a recent sunny morning here, a student rings a brass bell he carries around the front courtyard of Gompers Charter Middle School. But the sound doesn’t just signal that it’s time to start school, explains director Vincent M. Riveroll, who greets students as they file in for the day. (more)

Teachers union contract in jeopardy -With a little more than two weeks left on its contract with the United Teachers of New Orleans and no negotiations under way, the Orleans Parish School Board refused Wednesday to extend the current contract, suggesting collective bargaining might soon disappear at the only four public schools in the city where it is in effect. (more)