Daily Headlines for September 27, 2013
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
This Is Only a Test
Book Review, New York Times, NY, September 26, 2013
Over the past 20 years, a rising tide of voices in the world of public policy has been telling us that public education has fallen into an abyss of mediocrity. Our schools are “broken,” the mantra goes. Principals and teachers — their lack of “rigor” and “low expectations” for their students — are the primary offenders. The problem can be “fixed” only if schools are held to strict accountability. “No excuses” are to be permitted.
U.S. parents have a role in lagging school results
Letter, Washington Post, DC, September 26, 2013
In his review of Amanda Ripley’s book on the education of children in other countries [“Are other countries’ kids really brighter?,” Outlook, Sept. 22], Jay Mathews made the following point: “The most consistent U.S. failing Ripley discovers is our way of selecting and training teachers. If we erected barriers to education careers as high as those for lawyering, we would be better off.”
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Low test scores place Ipakanni Charter School on shaky ground
Mercury-Register, CA, September 26, 2013
The future appears wobbly for Ipakanni Early College Charter School, which showed a drastic decline in student performance in the 2013 achievement tests.
Ipakanni Charter School opened in 2010 and is in its fourth year.
CONNECTICUT
Derby School Realignment Could Ease Widening Achievement Gap
Valley Independent Sentinel, CT, September 27, 2013
In Derby, kids from poorer minority families are clustered in Irving, while non-minority kids from families earning more money attend Bradley, just two miles away.
DELAWARE
Delaware charter school panel begins to delve into selective admissions
Delaware News Journal, DE, September 27, 2013
What impact do charter, vo-tech and magnet schools have on traditional schools in their areas? Are students from low-income families getting the same access to these schools as other kids?
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. education officials defend test-scoring decision
Washington Post, DC, September 26, 2013
District education officials defended their decision to score the city’s 2013 standardized tests in a way that yielded gains in both math and reading, arguing Thursday at a D.C. Council hearing that it was the best way to demonstrate student progress as compared with prior years.
FLORIDA
Lawmaker suggests pause before starting new school tests
Florida Current, FL, September 27, 2013
A teacher turned lawmaker has a solution to what she and others refers to as the “mess” which has become of Florida’s transition to Common Core State Standards. Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, D-Maitland, said Florida should just take a break for a year from standardized testing in public schools.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky’s high schools show biggest gains in statewide test scores
Lexington Herald-Leader, KY, September 26, 2013
Kentucky’s students are making incremental progress in basic subjects such as reading and math, with more students scoring in the highest categories of the state’s testing program, according to results released Friday.
LOUISIANA
Common Core rollout in Louisiana a ‘train wreck,’ state Democrats say
Times-Picayune, LA, September 26, 213
After a notable silence on Louisiana’s implementation of Common Core, the state Democratic Party has come out swinging, calling the rollout “a train wreck” and criticizing the state for not providing educators with the tools they need to be successful under the standards.
MICHIGAN
Michigan House passes Common Core funding
Detroit News, MI, September 26, 2013
The state House approved a concurrent resolution Thursday that would allow state education officials to resume implementation of Michigan’s Common Core Standards.
MINNESOTA
One heretic’s blasphemy: Public education works
Column, Stillwater Gazette, MN,, September 26, 2013
On Sept. 19, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten tweeted out a link to a good review of Ravitch’s latest book, “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.” Although Weingarten’s tweet was not directed at him, Rep. Polis responded, and he chose his words poorly.
MISSOURI
Conditions must be met when using public money for private schools
Letter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, September 27, 2013
According to the St. Louis Beacon, perennial political candidate Bill Haas “urged that money for schools be available for use in public, charter, private or parochial schools, to give students and their families the widest possible range of options.”
NEW MEXICO
PED must defend new plan
Albuquerque Journal, NM, September 26, 2013
A New Mexico district judge on Wednesday gave the state Public Education Department 15 days to respond to claims that its new teacher evaluation system violates the law.
NEW JERSEY
Graduation rates ticking up
Opinion, Herald News, NJ, September 27, 2013
IN OFT-TROUBLED urban public school districts such as Paterson’s, it is all too common to get caught up in generalities and failing numbers, and inmaking damning statements about the district as a whole. Indeed, it is easy enough to find fault in the district, whether it be with long-simmering concerns about test scores or aging building stock.
Trail-blazing deal promises new life for old, dilapidated public school in Newark
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, September 27, 2013
Sale to private charter network of closed former school draws both questions and praise
NEW YORK
City schools have thousands of overcrowded classes, students sitting on floors or standing in doorways: union officials
New York Daily News, NY, September 27, 2013
The teachers union says more than 6,000 classes are over the limit, and that the city is dragging its feet with reducing class sizes. School officials say that the union has the ‘wrong numbers,’ while Mayor Bloomberg said the overcrowding just shows that city schools are popular.
OHIO
State report cards show: Charter schools do better than big-city schools in another study
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, September 26, 2013
Charter schools matched up just fine on state report cards, thank you, to other big-city schools, the Ohio Alliance of Public Charter Schools reports.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter school reform bill advances to Senate
Beaver Times, PA, September 27, 2013
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives advanced legislation this week that would enact a wide range of charter school reforms, from increased oversight to decreased funding.
Rein in the charter schools
Editorial, Pocono Record, PA, September 27, 2013
Pennsylvania legislators are holding a welcome debate on school transparency that should shed a brighter light on problematic charter schools.
State test score release delayed
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, September 27, 2013
Pennsylvania’s new school accountability system has hit enough bumps that the state is delaying the public release of the first results.
West Mifflin Area files lawsuit
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, September 27, 2013
West Mifflin Area School District is preparing to file a lawsuit against the state Department of Education for what the school board deems unfair compensation for Duquesne students the district had to take on beginning in 2007 and inequality between the way public and charter schools receive funds.
RHODE ISLAND
Let teachers spend time teaching, not being evaluated
Letter, Providence Journal, RI, September 26, 2013
It is clear that the evaluation procedure requires a significant amount of time, effort and energy on the part of teachers. I can’t help but wonder if that time, effort, and energy might be better spent teaching.
SOUTH CAROLINA
School-choice experts give advice to S.C. lawmakers
The Herald, SC, September 26, 2013
As South Carolina tests its first private-school choice program for special-needs students, national experts give the state credit for some efforts to provide accountability; but they say lawmakers should take steps to ensure that the state saves money and that private schools deliver the quality education promised to the right students.
WASHINGTON
Charter School Application Process Could Get ‘Contentious,’ Says Commission Member
Seattle Weekly, WA, September 26, 2013
Last fall, as the debate over charter school Initiative 1240 was heating up, the Seattle School Board voted to oppose the measure. So when it passed, the district did not go for the status that would allow it to approve charter school applications. And it has no intention of seeking “authorizer” status for next year, says district spokesperson Patti Spencer. Districts that are interested need to alert the state by Oct. 1.
WISCONSIN
Finding Success at School
Peninsula Pulse, WI, September 27, 2013
Southern Door High School’s alternative education program gets students to graduation.
Lawmakers want to compel MPS to sell vacant school buildings
Journal Sentinel, WI, September 26, 2013
The City of Milwaukee would be compelled — again — to sell vacant and underused Milwaukee Public Schools buildings, under a bill proposed by two lawmakers that seeks to strengthen earlier legislation and give non-MPS school operators better access to the public facilities.
Missing the mark on charter schools
Opinion, Journal Sentinel, WI, September 26, 2013
The Sept. 23 Journal Sentinel article on independent charter schools in Milwaukee further confuses the already complicated picture of school performance in Milwaukee.
Schools chief takes on hot topics
Dubuque Telegraph Herald, WI, September 27, 2013
Private schools accepting students receiving taxpayer-subsidized vouchers can offer “no more excuses” for not being a part of accountability reports, Wisconsin Superintendent Tony Evers said Thursday during a speech that didn’t shy away from the hottest education topics in the state.
ONLINE LEARNING
North Middlesex seeks to open virtual school
Lowell Sun, MA, September 26, 2013
The North Middlesex Regional School District has submitted a letter of intent with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to open a virtual school within the district’s geography.
Revisions in Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School contract sought by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
The Republican, MA, September 26, 2013
Dissatisfied with the contract between the Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School and the K12 corporation, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has sent it back to the parties for revision.
The virtual school experience: Online option growing in popularity in Oregon
Statesman Journal, OR, September 27, 2013
Hundreds of students in the Salem-Keizer area have turned to virtual public charter schools as an alternative to brick-and-mortar schools. Although the percentage of students attending these schools statewide is small, student enrollment has steadily climbed since 2005.
Virtual School Students Meet For First Time
WILX-TV, MI, September 26, 2013
One of Michigan’s virtual schools has more than doubled in size since lawmakers removed the enrollment cap earlier this year.