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Daily Headlines for June 10, 2013

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

Exploring Charter Schools
WVTF, June 10, 2013
Not all minds learn the same way. However, when it comes to education, millions of children across the U.S. are swept into the same system of state and federal mandates—with expectations of positive academic results and developing a sense of individuality.

Teachers’ teachers face test as scrutiny of education rises
Hechinger Report, June 9, 2013
When Candice McQueen learned last fall that a controversial statistical analysis had declared her teacher-training program relatively weak in the area of social studies, she wasn’t surprised.

Under siege—and in bid to stay relevant—teacher unions evolve
Hechinger Report, June 9, 2013
he Hawaii State Teachers Association’s weekly briefing meeting had turned into a battle-planning session; the conference room became a war room. It was late November. Officials were digging in for a protracted fight with the state over teacher evaluations and compensation.

STATE COVERAGE

ARIZONA

Gilbert school board member accuses Arizona board of bias
Arizona Republic, June 8, 2013
A Gilbert Public Schools governing board member wants the district to pull out of the Arizona School Boards Association, claiming the organization is politically biased and at odds with her positions on key issues.

CALIFORNIA

West Sac Prep’s first graduating class has stellar goals
Modesto Bee, June 10, 2013
How many high schools can boast that its entire graduating class will go to college, a vocational school or the military after commencement?

Inglewood schools’ slide steepens despite state takeover
Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2012
Inglewood Unified’s finances worsen despite a state takeover and an infusion of cash; there is even talk of dissolution.

COLORADO

‘Providing choice for kids’: Any student can go to innovation schools
The Pueblo Chieftain, June 9, 2013
Pueblo City Schools’ (D60) decision to turn three academically struggling middle schools into innovation schools is bringing more choices in education.

New Denver Public Schools remedial classes aimed at college success
Denver Post, June 10, 2013
KayLynn McAbee is one of thousands of high school graduates across the state slated to take costly remedial courses that do not count toward her college degree.

CONNECTICUT
Dunbar to be run by charter school company
CT Post, June 8, 2013
Dunbar School was ushered into the state’s Commissioner’s Network last week, a designation that will mean a new approach to learning and quite possibly new teachers.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Backed by Marriott and Hilton, Hospitality High School moves to a permanent location
Washington Post, June 9, 2013
Since its opening in 1999, more than 2,000 students have graduated from Hospitality High School, the first industry-specific public charter school to open in the District.

FLORIDA

Large charter school businesses draw criticism
St. Augustine Record, June 9, 2013
He was at the April 1 meeting in support of a bill that would create a slate of accountability measures charter schools would have to follow. The former education commissioner and state senator from Clay County now lobbies for a host of charter school companies and organizations.

ILLINOIS

Suburban group takes aim at state charter school commission
Daily Herald, June 9, 2013
A suburban group wants to get rid of the Illinois State Charter School Commission, which they argue shouldn’t be able to overturn decisions made by local school districts.

INDIANA

What consequences?
Editorial, Fort Wayne Journal- Gazette, June 10, 2013
The ISTEP+ fiasco last month makes this year’s test scores unreliable. As a result, poor-performing charter and voucher schools are given a reprieve under the flawed system that was supposed to hold all schools accountable. In 2014, however, taxpayers and voters can hold accountable the elected officials who promised better schools and delivered only poor choices.

Merit pay doesn’t come easily, or soon
Journal and Courier, June 9, 2013
It is common knowledge that teachers are under scrutiny now more than ever, thanks to annual, more intensive evaluations required beginning this year

Cap on funds for dropout schools could slow growth
News Sentinel, June 9, 2013
Supporters of charter schools that have helped hundreds of Indiana high school dropouts earn their diplomas are questioning state lawmakers’ decision to cap funding for the ventures.

LOUISIANA

Education overhaul slows in 2013 session
The Advocate, June 9, 2013
With two notable exceptions, the 2013 Legislature was marked by the death of a wide range of public school bills, including a push to delay the key impact of Louisiana’s new teacher evaluations.

MAINE

Charter school commission wise to move slowly
Editorial, Portland Press Herald, June 7, 2013
Making hasty choices now could waste taxpayers’ money and students’ precious time.

MICHIGAN

Detroit finds new uses for old buildings
Associated Press, June 10, 2013
When it was a high school, the auditorium and gymnasium at the Burton International School thrummed with the sounds of students gathering for assemblies or bouncing balls. These days, film dialogue and soundtracks fill the nearly 100-year-old building, which has found new life as a movie theater.

MISSOURI

Flare-up raises questions about charter school governance
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 10, 2013
Dianne Gray and other parents felt powerless last week when the governing board of Grand Center Arts Academy fired their beloved principal and replaced her with an administrator with allegations of scandal in her past.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

House, Senate budgets differ on Medicaid, personnel, charter schools
Editorial, Nashua Telegraph, June 9, 2013
The budgets passed by the New Hampshire House and Senate have much in common: They both increase funding for higher education. They both support an increase in the cigarette tax. They both support more spending for the mentally ill. They both count on millions from moving Medicaid to a managed care system. They both increase overall state spending by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

NEW JERSEY

Charter Tech high school / Filling a need
Editorial, Press of Atlantic City, June 10, 2013
We have never been wholehearted supporters of charter schools. By design, they siphon funds from public schools and undermine an educational system that a democracy should want to nurture.

New Charter School Bill Previews Before Committee
New Jersey Spotlight, June 10, 2013
Almost two decades since New Jersey’s first charter school law was enacted, the Legislature’s latest stab at a law for the state’s growing charter movement will get its first public airing today. But it is far from a done deal and — and even if it’s embraced by the panel — skirts two of the most contentious charter school issues.

Hard-Fought Election Raises Hopes for Jersey City Public Schools
Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2013
A bitterly fought mayoral election has helped renew attention on the troubled public-school system here, an institution that has tempered this city’s surging growth over the past decade.

NEW YORK

Who’s Minding the Schools?
Opinion, New York Times, June 9, 2013
IN April, some 1.2 million New York students took their first Common Core State Standards tests, which are supposed to assess their knowledge and thinking on topics such as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and a single matrix equation in a vector variable.

NORTH CAROLINA

Randolph County’s first charter to open in August
Winston Salem Journal, June 10, 2013
Randolph County’s first charter school will open in the fall under the guidance of two area high school teachers.

Blacks split on school choice
Commentary, Fayetteville Observer, June 10, 2013
School choice has become the new dirty word. In the minds of some, school choice will promote resegregation, race wars, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

OHIO

Charter aims to fill Mary Immaculate’s role
Toledo Blade, June 10, 2013
Public school in Toledo looks to serve special-needs students as Catholic K-8 closes

PENNSYLVANIA

Avon Grove Charter School graduates grateful for unique education
Avon Grove Sun, June 7, 2013
Members of Avon Grove Charter School’s Class of 2013 made their way through monsoon conditions into the International Cultural Center Auditorium at The Lincoln University on Friday night to celebrate their graduation.

School districts have more freedom to cut teachers
Morning Call, June 10, 2013
When Superintendent Susan McGinley was asked last spring to explain Easton Area School District’s plan for eliminating 49 teachers, she picked up a stack of paper and started reading.

More than 3,700 school employees are being laid off
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 7, 2013
Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. announced Friday that the School District had begun mailing layoff notices to 3,783 employees, informing them they will lose their jobs July 1 because of the district’s financial crisis.

Magnet schools in Pittsburgh lose their racial balance
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 9, 2013
While magnet schools in Pittsburgh Public Schools historically ensured racial balance, city magnet schools now operate as schools of choice without any guarantees or deliberate measures racially balancing them.

TENNESSEE

Charter school vote scheduled
The Daily News Journal, June 9, 2013
The Rutherford County Board of Education will vote on its first charter school application this week.

TEXAS

Transformative Charter Academy gives out 40 diplomas to students
Killeen Daily Herald, June 9, 2013
People told Jonathan Kitchens he would be in jail by the time he was a high school senior. Despite negative comments and criticism, Kitchens walked across the stage at Pershing Park Baptist Church on Saturday and graduated with about 40 other students from Transformative Charter Academy.

WASHINGTON

Senate proposes votes on budget, school policy shifts
Seattle Times, June 9, 2013
One proposal would give principals the option of rejecting teachers who are appointed to their schools. Another would place limits on the rate of growth for non-education spending in the state budget

WISCONSIN

Wauwatosa school officials protest budget measure on charter schools
Journal Sentinel, WI
June 9, 2013
They say new authority for UWM to operate independent public schools encroaches on their turf

Most charter schools escape DPI evaluation
Wausau Daily Herald, June 9, 2013
Most of north central Wisconsin’s charter schools are not evaluated under the state’s new accountability system, so people have to dig to find out how they are performing.

Vouchers, GOP share supporters
Herald Times Reporter, June 9, 2013
Gov. Scott Walker and Republican legislators are using research paid for by the same special interest groups that support many GOP candidates to push for a statewide expansion of the school voucher program, campaign finance reports show.

Voucher opposition all about the money
Letter, Capital Times, June 9, 2013
Dear Editor: I had heard for years that the resistance to the school voucher system was all about the money. The current spate of articles and letters condemning this plan proves it. Each student is seen as X amount of state dollars; therefore the voucher program is perceived as robbing the public school system of X dollars for each student who does not attend public schools.

ONLINE LEARNING

To grow online learning, reform the rules
Column, Daily Progress, June 9, 2013
In late April, the Carroll County School Board voted to close Virginia’s largest full-time statewide virtual school, leaving only a small school of 130 students in King and Queen County offering full-time online options to the state’s 1.2 million public school students.

Teacher, students come together in new ways in online program
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 9, 2013
Bryce Lyle is the kind of high school teacher most kids will never see. A nine-year veteran of Chesterfield County Public Schools, he does his thing, the students do theirs and they come together only when assignments are due and exams are given.

New eAcademy in Redlands will offer online schooling
San Bernardino Sun, June 8, 2013
In a medium-sized classroom behind Orangewood High School, seven teachers were discussing how to promote the recently launched Redlands eAcademy.