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
Military bases open their doors to home-schoolers
Associated Press, October 28, 2013
A growing number of military parents want to end the age-old tradition of switching schools for their kids.
Obama, at Brooklyn School, Pushes Education Agenda
New York Times, NY, October 26, 2013
President Obama on Friday visited the innovative Brooklyn high school he praised in his State of the Union address this year, to deliver a message about the urgency of education reform in the global economy.
Preparing Teachers for the Classroom
Letter, New York Times, NY, October 28, 2013
Although I disagree with much of Bill Keller’s Oct. 21 column, “ ‘An Industry of Mediocrity,’ ” he raises critical issues about the preparation of teachers.
Surprising split in school reformer monolith
Washington Post Column, DC, October 27, 2013
Critics of current trends in education reform, such as historian Diane Ravitch, often complain that they are up against a phalanx of business executives and rich investors more interested in making money than improving schools.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Best classroom gizmo? A great teacher
Commentary, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 25, 2013
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s plan to supply every student with an iPad is, to be charitable, not going well. Before any more school districts decide to spend millions on high-tech gadgets, let me offer a few words of caution. Why me? Because I was there in 1986 when Apple computers were first lugged into elementary classrooms.
Parents move to bring Waldorf education to Modesto
Merced Sun Star, CA, October 27, 2013
Parents and children gathered Sunday in Modesto’s Freedom Park for fun classes based on an influential form of alternative education.
COLORADO
Community collaboration gets former dropouts back on track for graduation, jobs
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO, October 26, 2013
The mission is to encourage high school dropouts to return to school, recover required credits to graduate and learn social skills and a trade that will lead to employment.
FLORIDA
As student count shows charter growth swing, district-run schools try new marketing tact
Palm Beach Post, FL, October 27, 2013
At Christa McAuliffe Middle School this month, eighth-graders bounced up and down on their exercise balls while doing their online U.S. History lesson and the class pet bunny, Ihop, bounced around the room.
Law Provides School Districts a Class-Size Loophole
The Ledger, FL
October 28, 2013
A recent change to Florida law is doing something lawmakers say they never intended: allowing school districts to skirt the toughest rules of the state’s class-size amendment.
INDIANA
School choice deserves bipartisan support
Opinion, Indianapolis Star, IN, October 26, 2013
Today, across Indiana, the classroom door opens to more than 20,000 children to attend a school of their parents’ choice. This open door represents more than access to a new school: It is a symbol of hope, the vehicle to opportunity and it is the real life existence to the dream described by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. more than 50 years ago.
ILLINOIS
Ousting of Thornton Township school board president adds to district upset
Chicago Tribune, IL, October 27, 2013
Frustrated by years of tumult and alleged mismanagement, the teachers union president ticked off a series of complaints at a recent south suburban school district board meeting.
UNO under the microscope
Editorial, Chicago Tribune, IL, October 28, 2013
The United Neighborhood Organization operates an excellent Chicago charter school network with a predominantly Hispanic student population. For the past year, however, the politically connected group has grabbed headlines for another reason: a growing scandal over how it doled out millions of dollars in a state grant to build schools.
IOWA
School choice is education reform that will help kids
Opinion, Des Moines Register, IA, October 27, 2013
Iowa’s reputation as a national leader in education quality has eroded in the past three decades. The home of the well-regarded Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and ACT college exams has not improved on those measures, and more, for approximately three decades.
LOUISIANA
Drop in high school grades sparks dispute
The Advocate, LA, October 27, 2013
Local and state school leaders disagree on whether changes in Louisiana’s rating system caused a dip in some high school letter grades.
John McDonogh High School continues to struggle under charter operator
The Advocate, LA, October 27, 2013
If the charter school movement in New Orleans brings to mind smiling children and leaping test scores, there is also a brutal Darwinism to it: Fail to raise those test scores fast enough, and you lose your school.
Transforming New Orleans schools
Editorial, Times-Picayune, LA, October 27, 2013
To fully appreciate the dramatic change in New Orleans public schools reflected in the state’s latest performance scores, you need to think back to before Hurricane Katrina. In those days — eight, nine, 10 years ago — it would have been unfathomable that city schools could move up so far, so quickly.
MARYLAND
City’s charter schools call new policy ‘discouraging’
Baltimore Sun Blog, MD, October 25, 2013
The Baltimore school board will no longer back loans for charter school facilities, a move that the city’s coalition of charter operators calls “short-sighted” and said could deter those looking to open the in-demand schools.
MASSACHUSETTS
Humility could save school
Column, Worcester Telegram, MA, October 28, 2013
The school could perhaps save itself if it acknowledges that it is not offering its students an education that is superior to what is being offered in the Worcester public schools, and that being a charter school does not make it immune to the challenges of inner-city schools. That way it could perhaps detect and fix its faults.
MICHIGAN
Detroiters on hook for millions used to renovate schools now empty or demolished
Detroit Free Press, October 27, 2013
Over the next 27 years, Detroit property owners will be on the hook to pay more than $437.8 million for renovations made to schools that now sit unused, trashed or demolished, a boon to scrappers and home to vagrants and feral cats.
Michigan considers grading schools from A to F
Detroit News, MI, October 27, 2013
Michigan’s new color-coded school accountability system already could be up for an overhaul just two months after its debut. Some lawmakers say schools should get A-F grades just like students do, so parents and others can easily understand performance.
NEW JERSEY
Christie or Bouno: will the real ‘education governor’ please stand up?
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 28, 2013
Governor and challenger are fiercely committed to education, without agreeing on any of a myriad of details
Dr. Bonilla: ‘In Camden Charter School achieving 100% graduation rates’
The Trentonian, NJ, October 27, 2013
Another approach Camden education officials and experts have welcomed are alternative routes to public education such as charter schools. Charter schools receive public funding but operate independently of local school districts.
NEW MEXICO
Grandstanding doesn’t serve NM’s students
Editorial, Albuquerque Journal, NM, October 27, 2013
New Mexico’s K-12 public education system has serious challenges at hand – its fourth-graders are dead last in the nation when it comes to vocabulary skills, just around half of its students can read and do math at grade level, three out of every 10 students don’t graduate high school in four years, and around 10,000 drop out each year.
NEW YORK
A better city for kids
Opinion, New York Daily News, NY, October 27, 2013
Bill de Blasio has courted opponents of charter schools, school performance accountability and other actions identified with Mayor Bloomberg. In last week’s debate, in fact, de Blasio said his greatest regret was putting too much faith in mayoral control of schools under this mayor.
Ed commissioner tells superintendents NY will cut back on tests
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, October 26, 2013
Amid criticism over increased student testing, the state Education Department will look to limit some exams and offer additional grants to schools, state Commissioner John King said in a letter to superintendents.
The charter school that turned my life around
Opinion, New York Post, NY, October 27, 2013
I’m in my first semester of college. For millions of American teenagers, that’s a fairly common event. For me, however, it represents an unlikely dream for an African-American man from Bed-Stuy.
Top 16 NYC charater school executives earn more than Chancellor Dennis Walcott
New York Daily News, NY, October 27, 2013
Big paychecks are called ‘outrageous’ as New York City charter schools claim their students would face cuts if the schools are charged rent under a new mayor.
NORTH CAROLINA
Charging that charter schools ‘undermine’ Wake County’s magnet school program
New & Observer, NC, October 25, 2013
Are charter schools undermining programs such as the Wake County school system’s magnet school program?
Policy on tenure not meant to protect bad teachers from being fired
Star News, NC, October 26, 2013
A group of North Carolina teachers has wisely dropped plans for a one-day walkout to protest policies that threaten to undermine a public education system that has made broad gains over the past several decades.
Scott Mooneyham: Going to court over tenure
Column, Salisbury Post, NC, October 28, 2013
From Senate leader Phil Berger’s vantage point, the likelihood of a lawsuit probably comes as no surprise. Berger has been the primary force behind an effort at the North Carolina General Assembly to get rid of teacher tenure in the state.
OKLAHOMA
Public release of school grade cards delayed
Tulsa World, OK, October 26, 2013
The Oklahoma State Department of Education is delaying the public release of new school grade cards until early November “to ensure complete accuracy.”
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter school reform seems to be anything but
Editorial, Chambersburg Public Opinion, PA, October 28, 2013
The campaign for unfettered expansion of charter schools in Pennsylvania has greatly intensified given a bill pending in the state Senate that would give life to a large number of deeply ill-advised proposals.
RHODE ISLAND
Nowell Leadership Academy serves at-risk high school students
Providence Journal, RI, October 28, 2013
The Sheila C. “Skip” Nowell Leadership Academy is a new Rhode Island charter school that aims to provide a specific blend of support to at-risk high school students — especially teenagers who are young mothers and fathers.
Turning around a school
Editorial, Providence Journal, RI, October 27, 2013
Central Falls High School still has a way to go, three years after Rhode Island called for dramatic reform. But there are promising signs that School Supt. Fran Gallo, teachers and students are making progress.
TENNESSEE
Metro Schools must embrace change to reach lofty goals
Column, The Tennessean, TN, October 27, 2013
The first step MNPS should take in executing its strategic plan is to change its rhetoric and figure in how charter schools will be used to achieve its plan, instead of seeing them like a chancre that must be treated with strong medicine.
Teach For America wants to make Memphis a destination, not a stopover
Commercial Appeal, TN, October 27, 2013
Ashley Foxx was in graduate school at Columbia and on the path to a career as a college professor — or so she thought — when she met a former teacher with Teach for America.
WASHINGTON
Teachers jump-start turnaround at White Center Heights Elementary
Seattle Times, WA, October 26, 2013
For years, students at White Center Heights Elementary logged some of the lowest test scores in King County. Then teachers tried something new, and the numbers soared by double-digits after just one year. So what happened, and could it be replicated elsewhere?
WISCONSIN
Growth spurt
Sheboygan Press, WI, October 26, 2013
Since its modest start in 2001 with an enrollment of only 15 students, Lake Country Academy has seen tremendous growth.
Students first, then school — Some criticize rules allowing voucher schools to accept students before budgeting, planning
Journal Times, WI, October 26, 2013
If you want to open a brand-new voucher school in Racine, one of the first things you can do is begin accepting students.
WYOMING
40 percent of Wyoming schools not meeting expectations
Casper Star-Tribune, WY, October 26, 2013
The Wyoming Department of Education released its pilot report on school performance Friday, announcing that about 54 percent of Wyoming schools were meeting or exceeding expectations in the 2012-13 school year.
ONLINE LEARNING
Half of virtual charter schools judged in new report cards miss mark
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, October 27, 2013
Virtual charter schools are on the rise in Wisconsin, but so far new accountability standards that hold them to the same expectations as regular public schools do not paint a flattering picture.
Indiana students benefitting from online schooling
Journal and Courier, IN, October 27, 2013
Opened in 2012, Indiana Cyber Charter School is a statewide online learning program for students in kindergarten through grade 12. InCyber is authorized by Education One LLC, the charter school authorizing body of Trine University.