NEWSWIRE IS BACK! Click here for the latest weekly report on education news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else, spiced with a dash of irreverence, from the nation’s leading voice in school reform.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
Judge Considers Tossing School-Cheating Charges
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2013
A conspiracy case stemming from one of the largest school-cheating scandals in U.S. history could be scuttled or drastically diminished if a judge rules that investigators coerced some educators into talking.
Education study gets low marks for poor research
Editorial
The Olympian, June 26, 2013
At the end of the school day, it may not matter so much how a teacher was trained or what university they attended that will make the difference in a student’s life. It’s whether that teacher had the inherent personal qualities to inspire a thirst for learning in young people bombarded with so many enticing distractions. And that’s a subjective quality so hard to measure by a black and white data point.
FROM THE STATES
CALIFORNIA
No reprieve for Oakland Indian charter schools
San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2013
Three controversial Oakland charter schools facing closure this summer failed to win a reprieve from the Alameda County Board of Education on Tuesday night.
DELAWARE
Charter school measure heads to governor’s desk
News Journal, June 26, 2013
A bill aimed at tightening safeguards on charter schools while also giving them more access to state money passed the Senate on Tuesday. Gov. Jack Markell is scheduled to sign the measure today.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Teacher observations can give best insight into effectiveness
Letter
Washington Post, June 25, 2013
Teacher observations are the best way to determine what is happening in a classroom. Principals who routinely observe teachers have a much stronger feel for which teachers are excellent and which ones need support.
David Catania, Marion Barry want to spend extra D.C. revenue on schools
Washington Post, June 25, 2013
D.C. Council members David A. Catania and Marion Barry are pushing to spend more than $40 million of the city’s projected — and unexpected — additional revenue on public education, funds that would be distributed to schools as extra dollars for poor children.
GEORGIA
School board: No to charter school
Brunswick News, June 26, 2013
The Glynn County School Board voted down a start-up charter school petition submitted recently for Valloita Preparatory Academy during its meeting Tuesday.
IDAHO
Meridian School Board votes to revoke North Star’s charter
Idaho Statesman, June 25, 2013
School official said they had agreements to temporarily give North Star Charter School a financial break on its large construction debt while it worked out a long-term plan to meet its obligations.
Teach for America is a step toward privatizing public schools
Opinion
Boise Weekly, June 26, 2013
The Idaho State Board of Education continues to make decisions toward privatizing Idaho’s public schools. In a move by the board on June 20, the Teach For America program was, according to their Facebook post, “approved as a state sanctioned vehicle for the preparation of teachers in Idaho.”
LOUISIANA
Charter schools are giving children a better chance than the old system did
Letter
Times-Picayune, June 25, 2013
Robert Mann’s June 23 column, “Louisiana is walling off schoolchildren from each other,” uses a Frost poem to support his position that “gate-ification of schools” through school choice has done more harm than good. I would argue the true “gate-ification” has come through Louisiana’s failing school system, mired at the nation’s bottom ranks for decades, creating the greatest barrier for students and educators.
Louisiana’s public schools on a long road to improvement
Opinion
Alexandria Town Talk, June 26, 2013
Louisiana public school students made, in most instances, marginal improvement on several fronts in 2012.
MICHIGAN
Pontiac schools taking applications for charter high school board
Oakland Press, June 25, 2013
The Pontiac Board of Education is inviting members of the community to apply to serve on the Public School Academy Board that will provide oversight of Pontiac High School that is in the process of being authorized as a charter high school by the district.
MINNESOTA
State pumps money into early education to close achievement gap
Minnesota Public Radio, June 25, 2013
In a little over a year, many of Minnesota’s youngest students will be spending more time in the classroom.
MISSISSIPPI
Miss. charter school advocates form association
Hattiesburg American, June 25, 2013
Groups that pushed for the passage of Mississippi’s new charter school law have formed an association to promote the schools.
MISSOURI
Charter school closing, but its work will continue
St. Louis Beacon, June 26, 2013
Stephanie Krauss remembers clearly a moment when she saw that her vision for Shearwater, a charter school giving new chances to teens whose education had been interrupted by life, might not work.
Riverview parents demand information about school transfers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 26, 2013
Close to 150 parents and grandparents in the Riverview Gardens School District nearly filled a church sanctuary Tuesday with their hopes set on one goal: transferring their children to higher-performing public schools.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Charter funding: Some small but needed growth
Editorial
Union Leader, June 26, 2013
It is somewhat surprising that $3.4 million in funding for additional charter schools found its way into the new state budget. In the last legislative session there was a big fight over charter schools.
Proposed Nashua charter school up for authorization in July
Nashua Telegraph, June 26, 2013
It’s been more than a year in the making, but the founders of the proposed Gate City Charter School for the Arts will finally have their day in front of the state Board of Education.
NEW JERSEY
Christie says he’ll continue to push tax credit, vouchers not included in state budget
The Record Blog, June 25, 2013
Governor Christie said he expects to sign the Legislative-approved budget for the coming fiscal year in the coming days even though it doesn’t set aside funding for his tax credit or school voucher programs.
NEW YORK
New York City School Chiefs Get Informal Job Checks
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2013
Top administrators at the city’s Department of Education haven’t been subject to formal evaluations during the Bloomberg administration, a break from past practice and an unusual occurrence among school districts across the U.S.
CARES program helps struggling New York City students graduate from high school
New York Daily News, June 26, 2013
Harlem students Moet Fontanez and Terrance Russell were dangerously close to dropping out of school. St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital’s CARES program helped both of these talented teens find their voices—and earn their high school diplomas.
NORTH CAROLINA
Low pay may bring NC teacher shortage
Opinion
News & Observer, June 25, 2013
After flirting briefly with teacher salaries at the national average some years ago, North Carolina has been in a steady decline, to the point that currently the state is 46th in the nation in teacher pay. That’s disgraceful in a state that has long boasted of being more progressive than others in the Deep South and has advertised itself as a place that values education.
Controversial semi-autonomous charter board dropped
News & Observer, June 25, 2013
The main advocate for a semi-independent state board to govern charter schools has dropped the controversial idea in favor of setting up a new charter advisory council.
OHIO
Aurora man indicted on charge of giving kickbacks to charter school CEO
Aurora Record-Courier, June 26, 2013
An Aurora man is among 10 people and 13 firms indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on charges they laundered nearly $2 million from a Cleveland-based charter school.
School choice would get a boost
Cincinnati Enquirer, June 25, 2013
Legislators in conference committee Tuesday approved amendments to the budget proposal that change how schools would be funded over the next two years.
Kasich gets bill to have Columbus schools share tax money with charters
Columbus Dispatch, June 26, 2013
A bill that would allow Columbus schools to share local tax dollars with charter schools is on its way to Gov. John Kasich, who is expected to sign it.
OREGON
Portland Public Schools vs. charters: Agenda 2013
Editorial
The Oregonian, June 25, 2013
Public schools will walk away from this legislative session with a budget that’s either good or very good, but money isn’t everything. Education policy matters, too, and one piece of policy worth following is House Bill 2153, sought by Portland Public Schools. As approved by the House last week, it would allow a handful of school districts to serve as judge, jury and executioner for proposed charter schools.
PENNSYLVANIA
Confusion as state takes over Camden schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
On the day the state took over the Camden School District, teachers protested and board members were perplexed about their new role, while a new interim schools chief offered hopeful remarks.
Charter-school teachers try to unionize in N. Phila.
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
BROTHERS DEREK and Kyjuan Bolling no longer complain about going to Aspira Olney Charter School, and their great-grandmother Jean Bolling gives much of the credit to their teachers.
End teacher seniority rule
Opinion
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has proposed ending teacher seniority as part of a set of concessions from the teachers’ union.
TENNESSEE
Metro school board approves four new charters for 2014-15 year
Nashville City Paper, June 26, 2013
The Metro school board spent Tuesday night trying to alter the narrative that the district is hostile to charter schools while easily approving four of six charter applications for the 2014-15 school year.
Memphis-Shelby board rejects charter school applications
Commercial Appeal, June 26, 2013
The unified Memphis and Shelby County school board, praising the work of staff members charged with vetting applications for new charter schools, rejected a long list of them Tuesday.
State’s treatment of teachers is a recipe for disaster
Opinion
The Tennessean, June 26, 2013
I am proud to stand with Tennessee’s teachers, who do fine work despite being some of the worst paid and working in the bottom 10 funded schools in the nation. It’s now time for this administration to stop its continued attack on teachers and restore some dignity to this time-honored profession.
UTAH
Study: Utah charter students learn less than traditional school students
Salt Lake Tribune, June 26, 2013
Utah charter school students learn less than traditional district students over the course of a school year, losing the equivalent of 43 days of math and seven days of reading, according to a new national study.
WISCONSIN
Voucher schools will not be held to same standards as public schools
Wisconsin State Journal, June 25, 2013
In Chris Rickert’s Sunday column, he states that Wisconsin’s 2013 legislative session created a myth that private school vouchers amount to an unaffordable second public school system. He then states that the voucher expansion funnels “state tax dollars into a parallel system of publicly supported private schools.” I believe the second of his statements is the myth.
ONLINE LEARNING
Virtual school gets final state approval
The Recorder, June 26, 2013
A state education board voted 9-1 Tuesday morning to allow Greenfield to run the state’s first Commonwealth of Massachusetts Virtual School for at least three years — officially ending six months of uncertainty about the town’s cyber school future.
Study: Pa. in bottom 3 for charter school scores
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 26, 2013
A national study on charter school performance shows that academic achievement is on the rise nationally among charter school students, but Pennsylvania is not sharing in that success, likely due to students in cyber charter schools.
Pasco pushes its own eSchool to retain student funding lost to Florida Virtual
Tampa Bay Times, June 25, 2013
Despite anticipated budget shortfalls, the Pasco School Board agreed to spend $896,400 this spring to establish a summer program for Pasco eSchool.