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
Are charter schools really better?
Opinion, The Daily Advertiser, LA, January 24, 2014
The debate continues over charter schools, which are privately owned schools funded with taxpayer money.
Could Common Core kill school choice?
Daily Caller, DC, January 26, 2014
While choice supporters should rightfully cheer their accomplishments this week, they should not ignore the looming cloud Common Core has cast on the school choice movement. With the new national standards kicking into effect for many states this year, soon no American child will be out of Common Core’s reach.
National Catholic Schools Week celebration emphasizes school choice
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, January 27, 2014
For 40 years, Catholic schools have been celebrating National Catholic Schools Week, for many years starting the last Sunday in January.
We Need School Choice Now
Opinion, National Review Online, January 27, 2014
How is it that parents have a say over every aspect of their children’s lives, yet often must delegate the critical decision of where they go to school to political boards and government bureaucracies? This has created an education monopoly that spurns accountability, views innovation as a threat, and prioritizes the job security of employees over the learning of children.
CALIFORNIA
Lawsuit takes on California teachers’ job protections
Los Angeles Times, CA, January 26, 2014
It contends that California laws on the tenure, seniority and dismissal of teachers violate the Constitution because they don’t ensure all students have access to an adequate education.
Protect good teachers, fire bad ones
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, CA, January 27, 2014
State laws that make it nearly impossible to fire even the worst teachers make for poor educational policy. The same is true of laws that require teacher layoffs to be decided on the basis of seniority, and that give principals only a year and a half to decide whether a new teacher deserves the extraordinary protections of tenure.
COLORADO
School choices abound for parents
Pueblo Chieftan, CO, January 27, 2014
When it comes to choices in kindergarten through 12th-grade education, local parents have a selection of programs.
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut study aims to track ‘invisible’ alternative schools
New Haven Register, CT, January 25, 2014
Valle is one of an unknown number of alternative education students in the state. The state Department of Education doesn’t have hard numbers on how many alternative education schools and programs exist across Connecticut, or how many students they serve, something recent legislation seeks to correct.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
How D.C. schools can ward off the ‘Big Flip’
Opinion, Washington Post, DC, January 24, 2014
If you believe that the overall value of a community is enhanced when it can support high-quality, integrated schools, these shifts mark a significant development for the city.
Students won’t learn? Go visit their parents.
Column, Washington Post, DC, January 26, 2014
Caleb Rossiter once told his math students at H.D. Woodson High School in the District that they would not be allowed into his classroom without their homework. It didn’t work.
FLORIDA
Florida teacher certification exams getting tougher
Miami Herald, FL, January 24, 2014
A push to improve the quality of rookie teachers in Florida’s classrooms may benefit students but leave thousands of prospective educators with a far tougher path into the profession.
Rep with charter school ties oversees school bill
Herald Tribune, FL, January 26, 2014
A Florida state representative with ties to the charter school industry has been tapped to oversee a bill revising charter school contracts across the state.
GEORGIA
School choice week kicks off, public school choices may be limited
WRDW, GA, January 27, 2014
Private schools, homeschooling and magnet schools–they’re all options parents have both in Georgia and South Carolina when it comes to school choice.
INDIANA
Lawmakers’ funding concerns could hamper dropout recovery schools for adults
Indianapolis Star, IN, January 26, 2014
That commercial was for the Excel Center, a new breed of charter schools for high school dropouts to earn the diploma they gave up on. Since 2010, 11 of these schools have been established in the state with more than 3,100 students enrolled currently.
MASSACHUSETTS
Frustrating, in any language
Column, Boston Globe, MA, January 27, 2014
Well, not fired, exactly, but likely to lose their current jobs. Because their “turnaround school” has not turned around quickly enough to satisfy state regulators, the staff has been informed that they will have to reapply for their jobs, or for other jobs in the system.
MICHIGAN
Grade Michigan teachers with care
Editorial, Detroit News, MI, January 26, 2014
Lawmakers should act on legislation that would create a model teacher evaluation, but they must be fair.
Charting charter schools
Herald Palladium, MI, January 26, 2014
Twenty years ago this month, education in Michigan underwent a massive change as legislation went into effect allowing the establishment of charter schools.
MINNESOTA
Investing in preschool narrows achievement gap
Editorial, Post-Bulletin, MN, January 25, 2014
Hardly anyone disputes that poor kids often are so far behind academically when they enter kindergarten that they rarely catch up.
MISSOURI
School districts step up efforts to track last year’s graduates
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. MO, January 27, 2014
Tracking down graduates to find this information has become more important to schools in recent years. That’s because Missouri’s rating system for public schools requires districts to find out and verify where their graduates are six months after they leave high school.
NEW JERSEY
Montague school plan goes before voters Tuesday
New Jersey Herald, NJ, January 25, 2014
If supporters of Tuesday’s $13 million school expansion referendum are right about the projected savings on out-of-district tuition payments that will accrue from no longer having to pay for Montague students to attend other schools, the annual cost of servicing the debt will likely come to about $173 for the owner of a Montague home assessed at $100,000.
NEW MEXICO
NM lawmakers should expand school choices
Opinion, Albuquerque Journal, NM, January 26, 2014
As the New Mexico Legislature meets in Santa Fe to discuss the state’s struggling education system, we encourage parents, students and education leaders from throughout the Land of Enchantment to celebrate School Choice Week today through Saturday.
NEW YORK
Charter-school board members donating to Cuomo’s re-election
New York Post, NY, January 27, 2014
Supporters of a charter-school network in Mayor de Blasio’s cross hairs are pouring big bucks into the campaign coffers of Gov. Cuomo, a friend of charter schools.
Getting an Accurate Fix on Schools
Editorial, New York Times, NY, January 27, 2014
New York state test data to be released later this spring will include sobering news for Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña. The data show that only one in four New York City students who started high school in 2009 and graduated in 2013 performed well enough on the Regents exams to meet the state definition of college readiness.
Educational alternatives to the public school system
Editorial, New York Post, NY, January 26, 2014
This morning, visitors from Newark Prep Charter School will travel to the New York Stock Exchange. But this isn’t a class trip to learn about the market. These students and teachers will ring the opening bell in honor of National School Choice Week.
Stick with Core values
Editorial, New York Daily News, NY, January 27, 2014
Teachers are upset at changing how they do what they do, parents are upset at learning truths about their children’s school performance and kids are said to be getting upset stomachs.
Teachers’ union bails on King and Common Core
Capital New York, NY, January 26, 2014
The board of the state’s largest teachers’ union voted unanimously Saturday to denounce the controversial Common Core standards and call for the removal of New York education commissioner John King.
Union dues violate First Amendment rights
Editorial, New York Post, NY, January 26, 2014
The other day, these pages called for New York to stand up for teachers by letting them decide for themselves whether they are going to pay their union dues.
NORTH CAROLINA
Ads lure NC teachers to Virginia
WRAL, NC, January 26, 2014
Low morale and no pay increases within the past five years have contributed to an increase in teachers leaving North Carolina schools. But Virginia wants them.
Common Core
Editorial, Daily Reflector, NC, January 26, 2014
Some conservatives see the Common Core State Standards Initiative as a conspiracy to install a one-size-fits-all standard for language and math testing that will somehow change the face of American education and remove all flexibility.
Marc Whichard: Vouchers, opportunism
Opinion, Greenville Daily Reflector, NC, January 25, 2014
Section 8.29 of Senate Bill 402 established a school voucher program in North Carolina, referred to by its supporters as the Opportunity Scholarship Program. The Bill sets as the starting point the 2014-15 academic year. However, I believe this program is more about other types of opportunities, or shall we say, opportunists.
Stam shows rocky road ahead on teacher pay
Opinion, The Charlotte Observer, NC, January 26, 2014
Only days after Gov. Pat McCrory’s pledge to get N.C. teachers a needed pay increase, one Republican legislative leader was showing how difficult that might be to get through the state legislature.
Teachers group rallies against new tenure law
Fayetteville Observer, NC, January 27, 2014
A state teacher advocacy organization has launched a campaign to rally teachers against a new state law that phases out tenure.
Vouchers for private schools a devil’s bargain for the state
Opinion, Asheville Citizen-Times, NC, January 26, 2014
For 23 years of my 30-year professional career, I worked as a teacher educator. Teacher training, recruitment and retention were part of my job. I worked with young men and women who were not just interested in their subject and the children they taught, they were passionate about it.
Wake’s magnet and ‘choice’ schools bring opportunities, challenges
News & Observer, NC, January 26, 2014
Wake County families can begin applying Tuesday for seats next fall at more than 40 schools that offer a variety of courses and approaches that might not be available at their assigned schools.
PENNSYLVANIA
Dems spar on school vouchers, Social Security and abortion in 13th
Congressional District, Philadelphia Daily News, PA, January 27, 2014
THREE OF THE four Democrats seeking the 13th Congressional District seat in the May 20 primary mostly agreed on a wide range of political topics in their first candidate forum yesterday.
Union to hit Olney Charter with unfair labor practice charge
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, January 27, 2014
PHILADELPHIA A union that has been involved in organizing teachers at Olney Charter High School is set to file an unfair labor practice charge Monday over a new social-media policy the union said was an attempt to silence staff.
SOUTH CAROLINA
S.C. Bill Could Allow Parents To Take Control of School Board
WSAV-TV, SC, January 26, 2014
A bill in the state legislature could enable parents to take control of an entire school board, if the school district is deemed ‘at risk’ by the state.
TENNESSEE
Current path harms TN schools
Opinion, The Tennessean, TN, January 25, 2014
Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman continues a series of victory laps that began in the fall, when results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed improvement in reading and math scores for Tennessee’s fourth- and eighth-graders.
Gov. Bill Haslam’s limited approach to starting a school voucher plan is the best option.
Editorial, Memphis Commercial Appeal, TN, January 27, 2014
In the push to give low-income families increased opportunities and choices to get their children into a good school, we have supported a state-funded school voucher program.
Talking about race remains a minefield
Column, The Tennessean, TN, January 26, 2014
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted in response to the protests and marches during the previous year that forced America to reconcile its unequal treatment of African-Americans.
TEXAS
Thousands rally for school choice in Houston
Houston Chronicle, TX, January 25, 2014
Party lines intersected at Minute Maid Park Saturday as two top Texas politicians came together to promote school choice.
VIRGINIA
College-level tests show disparities in high schools
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, January 27, 2014
Local public high school students saved more than $9 million in college tuition last year by passing Advanced Placement exams before graduating, but the results were heavily influenced by students in a regional school for the academically gifted and in five largely affluent suburban schools.
The changing landscape in K-12 education
Column, Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, January 26, 2014
This week parents and students across the country gather for a whistle-stop tour dedicated to parental school choice in K-12 education. The tour is part of the annual National School Choice Week, which reminds Americans that parents, rather than a ZIP code, should have the primary role in choosing their children’s education venue.
WISCONSIN
Latest MPS school reform plan reveals deep needs, discontent
Journal Sentinel, WI, January 26, 2014
Class size: 49 students. Number of principals in six years: five. Percentage of student turnover in a school year: 55%. To the people who teach in them, those are some of the characteristics of “failing” public schools in Milwaukee, 48 in all. To the superintendent who oversees them, the latest potential solution is to turn some into charter schools.
MPS, Legislature on collision course over lowest performing schools
Opinion, Journal Sentinel, WI, January 25, 2014
For one, at Thursday night’s meeting of a Milwaukee School Board committee, Superintendent Gregory Thornton put forth a plan for dealing with 25 or so of the lowest performing schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system. One of the few details that was given was that this group of schools now would be known as “commitment schools.”
ONLINE LEARNING
‘Teachers ‘Flipping’ Classrooms With Homework at School and Lessons at Home
DNAinfo, NY, January 27, 2014
When Elinor Krichmar misses something during her algebra lesson, she can just hit “rewind” and play it again.
No more snow days in future? Pilot program = ‘Maybe’
Arkansas Catholic, AR, January 27, 2014
Catholic schools in Arkansas have been piloting a program that, if endorsed by its accrediting body, will dramatically change the way inclement weather days are handled in the future.