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
Common Core, uncommon solutions
Editorial, Portland Tribune, OR, October 31, 2013
Despite what you might read in the blogosphere, the latest movement in public education reform is not an example of big government run amok.
Obamacare prompts cutbacks for school part-timers
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, October 31, 2013
The health care reform law championed by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress is prompting Richmond-area school divisions to cut part-timers’ hours.
US threatens to take $3.52 billion from California schools in testing dispute
Daily Democrat, CA, October 31, 2013
Reinforcing its threat to punish California for dumping its old standardized state tests next spring, the U.S. Department of Education said that decision could cost the state at least $3.5 billion.
STATE COVERAGE
COLORADO
Denver Schools Seeing Growth, Achievement Challenges
CBS Denver, CO, October 30, 2013
Parents and students are taking a more active role in picking the school that’s right for them. The district has moved toward the portfolio schools movement, offering a variety of charter schools and charter-like schools as well as district-run schools.
GEORGIA
State Charter Commission Turns Down Large Number of Applicants
WABE-NPR, GA, October 30, 2013
A number of startup charter schools hoping to open their doors during the next school year are frustrated. That’s because the State Charter Schools Commission only approved one out of eight charter schools considered today. The commission was created earlier this year after the approval of a controversial amendment to the state’s constitution.
State commission nixes proposed Hephzibah charter school
Augusta Chronicle, GA, October 30, 2013
A charter school proposed mainly to serve children in Hephzibah was denied by the State Charter Schools Commission on Wednesday because of issues with the attendance zone.
FLORIDA
Nine apply to give new charter school local oversight
Tampa Bay Times Blog, FL, October 30, 2013
At its first meeting since May, University Prep’s governing board took steps Wednesday toward providing local oversight of the new St. Pete charter school
ILLINOIS
Illinois grade school test scores plunge — especially in poor communities
Chicago Tribune, IL, October 31, 2013
The push to toughen state exams for Illinois grade school students triggered widespread drops in 2013 scores, with hundreds of schools in some of the state’s poorest communities seeing performances plunge, test results show.
New charters added to warning list, many removed from last year’s list
Chicago Tribune, IL, October 30, 2013
Four privately run charter schools have been put on an academic warning list by Chicago Public Schools and a fifth was kept on the list for a second year, pushing it to the brink of being shut down.
LOUISIANA
EBR feeling competition pinch for students
The Advocate, LA, October 30, 2013
She briefly considered looking into private schools, then learned about the new Baton Rouge Charter Academy at Mid City. After doing some research and attending an informational meeting, she agreed to transfer Ednijaha Bindon, now 9, to the school.
White remains committed to Common Core
Alexandria Town Talk, LA, October 31, 2013
State Superintendent of Education John White remains firmly behind the plan to implement the Common Core standards in Louisiana, but he wants to reassure teachers about the evaluations that come with them.
In school voucher lawsuit, feds say state’s demands unduly heavy, ask for delay
Times Picayune, LA, October 30, 2013
The U.S. Justice Department says Louisiana has made unnecessary demands for documents in federal government’s school vouchers desegregation lawsuit, and is asking Judge Ivan Lemelle push back a document-filing deadline.
MASSACHUSETTS
State to take over 4 struggling schools, including 2 in Boston
Boston Globe, MA, October 30, 2013
Alarmed by chronically low MCAS scores, Massachusetts education officials announced Wednesday they will take over four schools, including two in Boston, in an attempt to rejuvenate academic programs and put students on a path to success.
MICHIGAN
Legislation would require third-graders to be held back if they can’t read
Port Huron Times Herald, MI, October 30, 2013
Lawmakers in the Michigan House are debating whether third-grade students should be “handled with kid gloves” or face “tough love” if they can’t pass a reading proficiency test.
MINNESOTA
Rybak’s next challenge: improving education
Star Tribune, MN, October 30, 2013
Long a champion of city schools but held back by competing demands as mayor, R.T. Rybak said Wednesday that he’ll become executive director of Generation Next, a year-old collaborative that aims to close the achievement gap between white and minority students.
NEW JERSEY
Pro-school reform group noticeably quiet in 2013 election campaign
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 30, 2013
Founded and funded by two hedge-fund giants, the Better Education for Kids (B4K) organization and all its offshoots appeared at their creation to be a pro-reform counterweight to the New Jersey Education Association.
NEW MEXICO
NM can’t regress to pre-reform school days
Albuquerque Journal, NM, October 31, 2013
AYP, aka Adequate Yearly Progress, was a key component of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, a landmark 2001 law that finally put the public schools system on record for how it educates all of its students: the poor, ethnic minorities, non-English speakers and disabled as well as the upper- and middle-class, the B students and high-achievers.
NEW YORK
Audit raises red flags about charter school
Albany Times Union, NY, October 30, 3014
A South End charter school could have saved as much as $2.3 million by buying its Krank Street building rather than leasing it from the nonprofit foundation that has played a significant role in each of the city’s 10 remaining charter schools, a state audit said.
Charter School Benefits Extend Beyond Classroom
Wall Street Journal Blog, October 30, 2013
The benefits of a charter school extend well beyond higher test scores and academic performance. Students at the Promise Academy in Harlem fared better than their peers in and outside the classroom, with lower rates of incarceration and teen pregnancy, new research shows.
Ed department to approve more than 20 new co-locations
Capital New York, NY, October 30, 2013
The city education department’s Panel for Educational Policy (P.E.P.) is expected to approve 22 co-location proposals tonight, including ten of charter schools with existing district schools.
Sorry, charter schools aren’t rich
Opinion, New York Post, NY, October 30, 2013
I started my career as a teacher, then worked as a principal at a school I founded — then worked to copy that successful model as we opened three more schools. I now lead a network of charter schools called Explore Schools, all located in central Brooklyn.
NORTH CAROLINA
Why punish students by sending them home?
Commentary, News & Observer, NC, October 31, 2013
Debbie Pittman, assistant superintendent of Durham Public Schools, said that school system is seeking alternatives to suspensions. “We want to teach, re-teach and get them back on track,” Pittman said of students engaged in inappropriate behavior. “We want them to be successful.”
OHIO
Ohio among the leaders in using student performance to evaluate teachers
Akron Beacon Journal, OH, October 30, 2013
Student test results increasingly are becoming the basis for grading teachers.
OREGON
Panel: Tie more incentives to teacher evaluations
Statesman Journal, OR, October 30, 2013
Oregon should create a more direct link between teacher evaluations and their pay, as well as license renewal and professional development, a national education advocacy group recommends.
PENNSYLVANIA
Grade Scale: PPS, union at odds over teacher-evaluation standards
Pittsburgh City Paper, PA, October 30, 2013
In early October, when Pittsburgh City Council called for a moratorium on school closings, councilors threw themselves into a nationwide controversy when they also decided to challenge Pittsburgh Public Schools’ new system of teacher evaluations.
Parent rally urges lobbying, march on York City school board
York Dispatch, PA, October 31, 2013
There was a mellow, almost somber, mood in the cafeteria of New Hope Academy Charter School until Yolanda Thomas took the mic.
TEXAS
Dallas’ Teachers Unions Are Ready for Combat over Merit Pay
Dallas Observer, TX, October 31, 2013
The real issue the teachers unions have with Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles is not Mike Miles. It’s merit pay. They don’t like it.
WISCONSIN
Legislature needs to fix glaring flaw on school vouchers
Editorial, Journal Times, WI, October 31, 2013
If you want to open a brand-new voucher school, you don’t need to have a budget and you don’t need a building. You can start accepting students and then figure out the rest later
Under-enrollment may bring $1.4 million loss for Rocketship Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel Blog, WI, October 30, 2013
California-based Rocketship Education’s first school in Milwaukee fell short of its enrollment projection of 485 students on the third Friday of September, which will likely lead to a $1.4 million shortfall for the school, according to new documents.
ONLINE LEARNING
Online classes in Monroe County schools’ future
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, October 30, 2013
Students at high schools across Monroe County may start attending class together starting next year through an online learning consortium now under development.
Teaching technology with students
Daily Freeman-Journal, IA, October 31, 2013
While most students dread giving a book report, Northeast Hamilton Elementary School third graders took it all in stride when their class gave an iPad presentation at the Iowa Technology and Education Connection conference on Oct. 14 in Des Moines before 30 Iowa educators.