Click here for Newswire, 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
As charter schools come of age, measuring their success is tricky
Hechinger Report, August 22, 2013
When the Minnesota New Country School opened two decades ago in Le Sueur, a rural town 60 miles southwest of Minneapolis, co-founder Dee Thomas and her teachers hoped to do education differently.
No Child Left Behind leaves behind independent tutors
Everett Daily Herald, August 22, 2013
To help pay his graduate school expenses, a friend of mine accepted a job as a tutor to a student who was struggling with an introductory course in economics. It paid well and didn’t sound too difficult, except for one thing: His pupil was the starting quarterback on the football team that was making a run at the national championship.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Lennox Middle School opens on hopeful note
Los Angeles times, August 23, 2013
Lennox Middle School parents used the prospect of the trigger law to work with administrators for sweeping changes at the low-performing campus.
LAUSD charged with violating union contract in teacher evaluation
Los Angeles Daily News, August 22, 2013
Los Angeles Unified’s teachers union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school district, saying administrators failed to negotiate key changes to a controversial performance evaluation system now being used to review educators.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. Charter schools to give standardized tests to young children
Washington Post Blog, August 22, 2013
The use of standardized tests to measure very young students keeps expanding. Now public charter schools in Washington D.C. will soon be giving new standardized tests to very young children — aged 3, 4 and 5 — for the purposes of assessing their academic progress and ranking schools according to the results.
FLORIDA
Amid controversy, state education leaders to huddle
Miami Herald, August 22, 2013
Following a turbulent summer that saw the state education commissioner resign and angry parents call for a moratorium on school grades, Gov. Rick Scott will convene a group of educators, business leaders and lawmakers in Clearwater next week to hash out Florida’s education woes.
Flagler charter school bounces back from ‘F,’ leaders say
Daytona Beach News-Journal, August 22, 2013
A Palm Coast charter school that received an “F” grade from the state in 2012 is rebounding.
GEORGIA
Governor calls for review of Common Core
Gainesville Times, August 23, 2013
The Hall County school system will continue plans to review its social studies curriculum, in addition to Gov. Nathan Deal calling for social studies curriculum to be revised for the entire state.
IDAHO
North Star Charter School moves forward, keeps its charter
KIVI-TV, August 23, 2013
“Excited, thrilled, just really really happy.” Those are the relieved words of a parent – a parent who knows her daughter Marjorie will be able to put her books in her locker at North Star Charter School.
ILLINOIS
City commission to decide fate of shuttered public schools
Chicago Sun Times, August 23, 2013
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is appointing an advisory committee to decide what to do with nearly 50 shuttered Chicago Public Schools that residents fear could be turned into charter schools or sit vacant and become magnets for crime.
Math program helping bridge school’s achievement gap
WAND, August 23, 2013
It’s only been a week since students went back to class, but a Decatur high school is helping bridge the achievement gap in math class.
KENTUCKY
Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell Join Push for Kentucky Charter Schools
WFPL, August 23, 2013
A new push for Kentucky to have charter schools launched on Thursday with political leaders proclaiming their affinity for that particular type of school choice.
Kentucky Republicans seizing on charter school issue
The Courier-Journal, August 23, 2013
Republicans in Kentucky are pressing the state to allow charter schools, saying state policy on the issue could determine whether the next generation succeeds.
LOUISIANA
Charters still up for debate
The Advertiser, August 22, 2013
A marathon meeting of the Lafayette Parish School Board left unresolved a question many people thought would be answered this week: Will charter schools come to Lafayette Parish? Instead, following a board meeting that one state education leader called “embarrassing and frustrating,” a final decision remains weeks away.
Charter school organizations could get financial support
The Advocate, August 22, 2013
A recruiting and support group for new charter schools in Baton Rouge has identified six charter school organizations that it is likely to award millions of dollars to help offset startup and other costs.
MISSISSIPPI
New charter schools will offer hope to many students in Miss.
Column
Clarion Ledger, August 23, 2013
As a strong supporter of charter schools, the Black Alliance of Educational Options takes issue with Bill Minor’s opinion piece that suggests charter schools are schemes and that they can become segregated institutions.
MISSOURI
St. Louis schools fare poorly in first version of new education standards
St. Louis Beacon, August 23, 2013
Missouri educators were to use the first year of a new evaluation plan to classify school districts, St. Louis Public Schools would slide back into unaccredited territory, joining Normandy and Riverview Gardens, and other local districts would be downgraded to provisionally accredited.
Troubled school systems fall far from Missouri’s mark
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 23, 2013
When Superintendent Ty McNichols began leading the Normandy School District last month, he knew that regaining accreditation would be an uphill climb.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Next reform job: Teaching teachers
Opinion
Portsmouth Herald, August 23, 2013
The state Board of Education approved the application for a group that originally planned to open an arts-focused charter school in August 2014 on the Seacoast, but must locate in the Derry area.
NEW YORK
Next reform job: Teaching teachers
Opinion
New York Daily News, August 23, 2013
But there’s an equally important higher-education challenge that also demands our attention, because it directly affects the quality of education delivered in our K-12 public schools. Namely: the often abysmal state of the programs that prepare teachers for the classroom.
Public left in dark on school turnaround plans
Buffalo News, August 23, 2013
But there’s an equally important higher-education challenge that also demands our attention, because it directly affects the quality of education delivered in our K-12 public schools. Namely: the often abysmal state of the programs that prepare teachers for the classroom.
OHIO
Many central Ohio districts struggle with achievement gaps
Columbus Dispatch, August 23, 2013
No central Ohio school district earned all A’s or F’s on the revamped state report card this year. But many struggled in a grade that measures how well they are closing the achievement gaps among groups of children.
High-performing school districts face tough challenges on new state report cards
Akron Beacon Journal, August 22, 2013
The new state report cards on school district performance are out, and Barberton schools’ score for performance on standardized tests placed it lower than 89 percent of the public districts in Ohio.
OKLAHOMA
New Oklahoma City schools superintendent to oversee a complex district with diverse issues
The Oklahoman, August 23, 2013
Oklahoma City’s new school superintendent will oversee a diverse, complex school system that, in some ways, looks like several districts lumped together, the Oklahoma City School Board chairman said Thursday at the annual Greater Oklahoma City Chamber’s State of the Schools luncheon.
PENNSYLVANIA
Teachers union ads target Nutter
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 2013
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, asked to take a pay cut and accept other concessions to help solve the school funding crisis, launched a series of ads Wednesday targeting Mayor Nutter.
SRC approves agreements with five Renaissance charter schools
Philadelphia Daily Mail, August 23, 2013
THE SCHOOL REFORM Commission last night approved license agreements for five Renaissance charter schools, among other resolutions, during its last meeting before the school year begins.
Alternative schools are a good alternative for some kids
Courier Times, August 22, 2013
There are a number of non-traditional options available in Lower Bucks County for secondary students who struggle in traditional school settings, officials said.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Haley says state needs more “choice” in education
WHNS Greenville, August 22, 2013
Gov. Nikki Haley says it may be time to expand school choice. “We are going to continue to see more charter schools by the numbers that are trying to enroll, that want to come into the state,” says Haley.
TENNESSEE
Greater School Choice Means Greater Progress For More Tennessee Students
The Chattanoogan, August 22, 2013
A new school year is upon us – with new teachers, new textbooks, and, hopefully, many new educational opportunities, for more Tennessee families and students.
Should Jefferson-Houston Become a Charter School?
Virginia Connection Newspapers, August 21, 2013
Politicians love to talk about failing schools. As an abstract concept, they are an easy target. But when an actual school is identified as a failing school, the reality become a bit more complicated.
TEXAS
New charter school in Garland, Arlington says bienvenidos, huân yíng and welcome to families, teachers
Dallas Morning News, August 22, 2013
A new school year is upon us – with new teachers, new textbooks, and, hopefully, many new educational opportunities, for more Tennessee families and students.
WASHINGTON
Rules for charter schools approved
Everett Daily Herald, August 23, 2013
An independent panel Thursday approved the rules it will follow in authorizing Washington’s first charter schools early next year.
WISCONSIN
Shilling wants stricter standards for voucher schools
La Crosse Tribune, August 23, 2013
State legislators have started pitching ideas for holding Wisconsin’s voucher schools to higher standards now that they can receive public funds.
School voucher program will revolutionize our education system
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, August 22, 2013
The Wisconsin Parental Choice Program has taken its first tiny baby steps toward full implementation. Assumption Catholic Schools had 109 applicants and Immanuel Lutheran School had 40. Both are ranked in the top 25 schools and will be participating in the state choice program.
ONLINE LEARNING
Charter, cyber schools a hot topic at meeting
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, August 23, 2013
Charter and cyber schools topped a stream of topics on which area educational leaders quizzed Pennsylvania’s new acting secretary of education at town hall meeting on education Thursday at the Luzerne Intermediate Unit.
Digital Academy graded on different report card
Newark Advocate, August 22, 2013
After years of being evaluated by the same standards as a typical community school, the Newark Digital Academy received a different kind of state report card Thursday.
New Mexico Virtual Academy expansion tabled by Farmington school board
The Daily Times, August 22, 2013
Farmington Municipal Schools board of education on Thursday tabled a request from the New Mexico Virtual Academy to introduce two new grades and increase the school’s enrollment cap to handle an influx of new students.