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Daily Headlines for October 19, 2011

Education Makes A Political Comeback In Washington
Associated Press, October 19, 2011
After years on the political back burner, education is making a comeback in Washington , driven in large part by Democrats.

How Could A Rewrite Of NCLB Scrap Teacher Evaluations?
Washington Post, DC, October 19, 2011
POLITICS MAKES FOR strange bedfellows, but Senate Republicans doing the bidding of teachers’ unions is particularly unexpected. That, though, is what happened when an important provision on teacher evaluations was knocked out of a proposed rewrite of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Loosen Washington’s Grip On Schools
Orange County Register, CA, October 18, 2011
We have opposed the No Child Left Behind Act since it became law a decade ago. In the guise of improving K-12 school standards, it greatly expanded federal control over schools, usurping state and local authority. California, in particular, already had rigorous standards, which it effectively was enforcing.

FROM THE STATES

Charter School Petition Attracts Crowd
Press Enterprise, CA, October 18, 2011
Riverside Unified School District administrators are starting their review of a 300-plus page charter-school application for REACH Leadership Academy.

Bullis Charter, Los Altos School District Duke It Out In Court Again
Mercury News, CA, October 19, 2011
The clock started ticking Tuesday toward an state appellate court decision on whether the Los Altos School District has fulfilled its legal obligations to provide adequate facilities for Bullis Charter School.

Protesters Push for Changes at LAUSD
Contra Costa Times, CA, October 19, 2011
Facing a groundswell of anger and frustration, members of the Los Angeles Unified School board received an earful from two different groups Tuesday, one demanding a new contract for teachers and the other pushing the district to rehire laid-off employees.

DPS Teacher-Pay System Likely Boosting Student Achievement, Study Finds
Denver Post, CO, October 19, 2011
Researchers have completed a three-year study of Denver Public Schools’ pay-for-performance system, finding that at least two bonuses available to teachers correlate to improved student test scores.

Vote to Advance Reforms at DPS
Denver Post, CO, October 19, 2011
Denver school board candidates Haynes, Rowe and Draper Carson would build upon critical changes.

Raises For Principals, Zip For Assistant Principals, Other Staff
Washington Post Blog, DC, October 18, 2011
It was a jollier-than-usual bunch of DCPS principals who cheered Chancellor Kaya Henderson during their monthly “academy” at Eastern High School on Oct. 12. That’s because they’d recently learned about the hefty salary increases that will make them among the highest-paid school leaders in the region.

Decision Deferred on Palmetto Bay Charter School
Miami Herald, FL, October 18, 2011
The developer behind a proposed new charter school in Palmetto Bay asked for a two-month deferral before the council votes on the site plan.

KIPP Pledges Improvement
Florida Times Union, FL, October 19, 2011
KIPP Jacksonville’s chairman told the Duval County School Board Tuesday that KIPP would not open two new charter schools if its sole school in Florida fails to show improvement by December.

Five New Charter School Applications In Sarasota County
Herald-Tribune, FL, October 18, 2011
The growth in specialized charter schools will continue next year with as many as five new institutions in the county, including one that emphasizes social justice and peaceful conflict resolution and another that will teach Russian to kindergartners.

Orange Charter-School Growth Among Fastest In Nation
Orlando Sentinel, FL, October 18, 2011
Charter schools are booming in Orange County. And while the 175,000-student district still has fewer charters than Miami-Dade or Broward, they’re growing faster in Orange, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

State Officials Tour Local Charter Schools
Post-Tribune, IN, October 18, 2011
State officials toured a few local charter schools on Tuesday to get a feel of the charter landscape in Northwest Indiana.

Debate Intensifies Over Alleged Profit Motive in Public Education
Pelican Post, LA, October 18, 2011
Are business interests plotting to take over the public education system and turn a profit at the expense of the public? That is the charge leading figures within the Coalition for Public Education have aimed against Gov. Bobby Jindal and the candidates pursuing seats on Louisiana’s top school board who favor expanding the number of charter schools.

Education Races Start To Matter
Shreveport Times, LA, October 18, 2011
This is the year that changed. “BESE races are where it’s at,” said Timmy Teepell, the governor’s campaign manager, but also the prime mover behind the GOP Victory Fund, which is spending heavily in BESE campaigns.

Educators Push For Charter Changes
WWLP, MA, October 18, 2011
Describing the state’s system for approving charter schools as undemocratic and damaging to traditional public schools, local school officials from across Massachusetts urged lawmakers Tuesday to grant them greater control over charter school proposals marked for their communities.

Better Charter School Oversight Needed
Detroit News, MI, October 19, 2011
Michigan desperately needs to expand high quality educational opportunities for our children. Too many of our public schools are broken, and far too many young people graduate unprepared for college and a career — if they make it to graduation.

Public Schools’ Budget Crunch Present Challenge For Parochial Schools
Lansing State Journal, MI, October 19, 2011
At the end of each school day, kids from St. Joseph Catholic School and St. Peter Lutheran School pile onto St. Johns Public Schools buses for a ride home.

Schools Lobbyist Gets a Reprimand
Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2011
The top lobbyist for the New York City school system was reprimanded after an investigation found he improperly enlisted staffers to rally parents behind Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s aggressive effort to end teacher seniority rules.

Charter-School Operators’ Books Might Open
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 19, 2011
Taxpayers might soon be able to see how private management companies spend the millions they receive from the public to operate public charter schools and how much they profit.

Charter School in Butte Falls
KTVL, OR, October 18, 2011
The Butte Falls School District is now under the umbrella of a charter school.
The charter idea came about three years ago, but teachers and the district made it happen last year.

N.J. Announces Applications For 42 More Charter Schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 19, 2011
The desire to open charter schools in New Jersey appears to remain strong, as the state Tuesday announced a new crop of 42 charter applicants.

Private, Parochial Schools Exempt From Corbett Mandate
Standard Speaker, PA, October 19, 2011
While public school systems prepare for a statewide overhaul of the teacher evaluation process, educators in private and parochial schools remain unaffected by the same mandates that govern public education.

Sensible Reforms For The State’s Charters
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 19, 2011
Many state lawmakers have recognized a growing need for significant changes to Pennsylvania’s charter school laws. The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools supports the sensible charter school reforms outlined in Gov. Corbett’s education plan, which was unveiled last week.

More School Choices, Not Fewer
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 19, 2011
Thanks to a bill recently passed by the New Jersey Legislature, Catholic Partnership Schools can convert our schools in Camden into public charter schools. But why would we?

Officials Split Over Charter Schools
Commercial Appeal, TN, October 19, 2011
The issue of charter schools emerged Tuesday as one of the first philosophical differences between the merging city and county school systems, with one member of the new unified board suggesting a moratorium on charter schools.

Teachers Propose Charter School For At-Risk Students
Fairfax Times, VA, October 18, 2011
A longtime Fairfax County Public Schools teacher is leading an effort to establish a small charter school in the Falls Church area to bolster achievement among at-risk students.

Senate OKs Bill Limiting Voucher School Expansion
Journal Sentinel, WI, October 18, 2011
Wisconsin’s school voucher programs could not move beyond Milwaukee and eastern Racine County, under a bill the state Senate approved Tuesday.

VIRTUAL LEARNING

Gains in Online Learning
New York Times, NY, October 19, 2011
“Inflating the Software Report Card” (“Grading the Digital School ” series, front page, Oct. 9) questions whether online learning can deliver on its promise of improving student achievement. At Rocketship Education, a network of K-to-5 hybrid charter schools serving low-income students, we pioneered a model that leverages technology to close the achievement gap.

N.C. School System Offers Example Of Successful Digital Transformation
Washington Post, DC, October 18, 2011
In addition, the county is adding offerings to its online campus; Noonan expects that within two years, high school students will be able to earn diplomas entirely via virtual education.

Out With Textbooks, in With Laptops for an Indiana School District
New York Times, NY, October 19, 2011
Laura Norman used to ask her seventh-grade scientists to take out their textbooks and flip to Page Such-and-Such. Now, she tells them to take out their laptops.

Digital Schools Must Be In Our State’s Future
Bakersfield Californian, CA, October 18, 2011
For a state that has been at the innovative forefront of digital technology since the beginning, it’s alarming to note that California lags behind in the development and deployment of online learning in elementary and secondary educational settings.