Daily Headlines for July 31, 2013
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NATIONAL COVERAGE
Alternatives to Teach for America
Twin City Daily Planet, July 31, 2013
Teach for America, a nonprofit that recruits teachers from elite colleges to spend two years teaching in under-resourced schools, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months. Supporters claim that bringing the “best and brightest” into inner city schools is a way of increasing teacher quality.
Back to the blackboard
Editorial, Chicago Tribune, July 31, 2013
Even if you don’t follow education policy, you know these four words: No Child Left Behind. That’s the landmark 2002 law pushed by President George W. Bush to bring all students up to federal reading and math standards by 2014.
School districts invited to apply for Race to the Top funds
Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2013
The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday invited districts nationwide to begin applying for the latest batch of high-profile federal school-reform grants.
Teachers union touts skewed public school survey
One News Now, July 31, 2013
It’s all about phrasing the question. At its recent annual meeting, the American Federation of Teachers unveiled a poll showing most respondents oppose school choice. But that contradicts most other polls on the subject.
Cynthia Tucker: It’s time for a longer year
Opinion, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2013
The design of the school year is left over from a bygone era, when children were expected to help with the tasks of maintaining home, hearth, and farm. Summer is a time for harvesting the spring yield and planting the fall crops, and children used to help with the plowing, the planting, and the picking.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
$20-million Walton donation will boost Teach for America in L.A.
Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2013
The Arkansas-based Walton Family Foundation announced Wednesday that it is donating $20 million to a nonprofit that recruits talented college graduates to teach in public schools for two years. The largest number of instructors, more than 700, is slated for Los Angeles.
Adelanto school at center of parent trigger controversy
Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2013
Parents used the state law to transform a public elementary school into a charter campus, Desert Trails Preparatory Academy. By June, the director says, students should be a year ahead of their peers.
DELAWARE
Conservative groups bemoan lack of local education oversight
The News Journal, July 31, 2013
A growing national debate over the use of Common Core State Standards in schools was on display Tuesday night during a panel discussion by conservative activists who said the standards are taking decisions about education out of the hands of parents and local school boards.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
DC CAS Test Scores Turn Failing School Around
WUSA9, July 30, 2013
The school test culture changed in the District. In one school, the standardized test highlights a complete transformation.
Test score increases in D.C. are ‘very good news’
Washington Times, July 2013
Standardized test scores for D.C. public and charter schools are the highest they have been in six years, an accomplishment officials on Tuesday said should be applauded but also serve as motivation to continue to raise the bar.
The District’s public education is on a healthy trajectory
Washington Post, July 30, 2013
THE ANNOUNCEMENT of historic achievement levels by D.C. public school students on annual math and reading tests was accompanied by reams of numbers, bar charts and graphs. But the best encapsulation of the accomplishment was the fist-pump-punctuated “Yes!” from D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D).
FLORIDA
Bennett defends change of grade
Florida Today, July 31, 2013
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett defended himself Tuesday after reports that school grades in Indiana, where he previously worked, had been changed to benefit a political donor.
Gov. Scott silent regarding future of his education commissioner
Miami Herald, July 31, 2013
Nationally celebrated education reformer Tony Bennett was wooed to Florida in January to bring stability to the state education department.
Once-failing charter school turns around
Palm Coast Observer, July 31, 2013
A once-failing charter school has turned itself around, an analysis shows.
GEORGIA
$9.9 million in Race to the Top grant in jeopardy
WLTZ, July 30, 2013
U.S. Department of Education officials are warning that $9.9 million of Georgia’s Race to the Top grand funding is in jeopardy.
Peach BOE denies charter school petition
Macon Telegraph, July 30, 2013
The Peach County Board of Education denied Tuesday a petition to open a charter school in Byron. Now, the charter school members will await a vote from the state Board of Education, which can override the local school board and approve the charter high school.
INDIANA
Former schools’ chief gets an F for the effort
Editorial, Evansville Courier & Press, July 31, 2013
At one time or another in our academic careers, most of us wish we could have changed a grade.
But, whether it was for pride (feeling we unfairly were penalized) or angst (avoiding parental response to a bad report card), it never happened.
Making (up) the grade
Editorial, Journal Gazette, July 31, 2013
After Democrat Glenda Ritz defeated incumbent State Superintendent Tony Bennett last November, Gov. Mitch Daniels lashed out at public school teachers.
ILLINOIS
CPS starving its schools to justify privatization
Opinion, Chicago Sun Times, July 30, 2013
On Wednesday July 24, I was physically removed from a Chicago Board of Education meeting after I waited four hours to speak for two minutes. I timed it at two minutes and five seconds, but I was not allowed to finish. While board member Henry Bienen nodded off, I tried to say what I had to say:
LOUISIANA
Two Algiers schools see enrollment above projections
The Lens, July 31, 2013
The board of InspireNOLA approved a $1.5 billion budget for the 2013-2014 academic year, allocating $6.3 million for Alice M. Harte Charter School and $8.9 million for Edna Karr High School during the charter organization’s first year managing the schools under Orleans Parish School Board oversight.
MAINE
New Maine charter school forms have ‘substantive’ changes
Portland Press Herald, July 31, 2013
The next round of applications to open a charter school in Maine will be due Dec. 2. The Charter School Commission voted Tuesday to approve the deadline, the final language for applications for both regular charter schools and virtual charter schools, and a new scoring system for evaluating applications.
MARYLAND
Don’t link teacher pay with test scores
Baltimore Sun, July 30, 2013
Speaking as a retired educator with 35 years of service, I wish to say it was most disheartening to read the education article, “Amid test score drop, Lowery focuses on ushering in reforms” (July 26).
MINNESOTA
Kline’s education bill a throwback to the BAD old times
Twin City Daily Planet Blog, July 30, 2013
Federal involvement in educational policy began in 1965, under President Johnson, with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). PBS, in 2005, published a good historical snapshot of the federal government’s involvement in national education policy up to that time:
MISSISSIPPI
Bill pre-filed to end education nonprofit
Decatur Daily, July 31, 2013
An Alabama lawmaker said he aims to shut down a little-known education foundation that may have brought in less money than the state’s school system spent running it.
MISSOURI
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Cold shoulder for charter school in Easthampton
The Gazette, July 31, 2013
For nearly all of the 18 years the Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School has been around, school leaders have been on the hunt for more suitable quarters.
NEW YORK
Partnership for Student Advocacy aims to help students at closing Christopher Columbus High School
New York Daily News, July 31, 2013
Group is already providing SAT test prep courses; seeks to raise $10,000 to help cover cost of test fees, college visits.
NORTH CAROLINA
Without pay bumb, teachers getting masters’ worry about debt
WRAL, July 30, 2013
The state budget signed by Gov. Pat McCrory last week eliminates salary increases for teachers who get advanced degrees, which means teachers currently enrolled in master’s programs won’t get the benefit.
OHIO
Overdue homework
Columbus Dispatch, July 31, 2013
Ohio’s effort to adopt a better system of high-school exit tests is jammed up in confusion and controversy. The blame for that can be placed with any number of parties, but what’s needed right now to move the effort forward is a simple legislative fix to the launch date for the new tests.
PENNSYLVANIA
Right decision on charter school
Editorial, Pocono Record, July 31, 2013
A state appeals board has sensibly revoked the charter of the controversial Pocono Mountain Charter School. Charter officials say they will seek a stay in order to appeal the ruling. But the appeals board’s unanimous, 6-0 decision confirms the host school district’s and this newspaper’s long-held view that the charter school’s financial operations were improperly entangled with its sponsoring organization and landlord, the Shawnee Tabernacle Church.
State board revokes Pocono Mountain Charter School’s charter
Pocono Record, July 31, 2013
A state appeals board Tuesday voted unanimously to revoke the charter for the Pocono Mountain Charter School. The ruling caps what has been a years-long, expensive fight between the school and Pocono Mountain School District that centered on the charter school’s leadership, financial affairs and church sponsorship.
WISCONSIN
Vouchers draw strong interest
Beloit Daily News, July 30, 2013
Wisconsin parents interested in their child attending a private school using a voucher must apply through the Department of Instruction between Thursday, Aug. 1 and Friday, Aug. 9.
Vouchers pay for private school cast offs
Superior Telegram, July 30, 2013
Gov. Scott Walker suggests he won’t pursue expansion of the private school voucher program in future years unless it proves to be successful.
WYOMING
Laramie charter school gets building money
Billings Gazette, July 30, 2013
The state Building Commission voted Tuesday to spend up to $4 million to purchase a building in Laramie for a charter school despite strong opposition from state Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill.
WASHINGTON
6 compete for 2 open seats on Seattle’s School Board
Seattle Times, July 30, 2013
In the two contested races for Seattle School Board, the candidates include a writer and activist, a government-relations and public-affairs consultant, an educational consultant, a tutor, an unemployed parent and a fundraiser.
ONLINE LEARNING
Boulder Valley’s online learning director accused of stealing $6,000 from district
Daily Camera, July 30, 2013
Boulder Valley’s online learning director was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of theft for allegedly using nearly $6,000 in school district money to fund his own online learning start-up company.
Oakwood High School may go digital
Marietta Daily Journal, July 31, 2013
The Cobb School District is exploring formal conversion of Oakwood High School from an alternative education school to a support program called the Oakwood Digital Academy.