Daily Headlines for January 15, 2014
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
Scoring School Reform by State
Wall Street Journal Video, January 14, 2014
Students First CEO Michelle Rhee on which states elevate the teaching profession, empower parents and spend public education monies wisely.
The Common Coring of Private Schools
National Review Online, January 15, 2014
That’s the central question the Thomas B. Fordham Institute seeks to answer in the report it released Tuesday. The institute proposes that state governments should require private schools to administer state tests to all students participating in school-choice programs, and that the results should be publicized.
STATE COVERAGE
ALABAMA
Birmingham school board will seek waiver that would grant sweeping hiring power to five principals in the Woodlawn Innovation Zone
The Birmingham News Bog, AL, January 14, 2014
The Birmingham Board of Education this afternoon will discuss a waiver it plans to submit to the state that would allow five schools to operate more like charter schools than traditional public schools, including the flexibility to make teachers reapply for their jobs if they want to stay at those schools.
Charter schools by another name? Birmingham BOE says waiver will allow flexibility, innovation; opposers worry they’re charters
The Birmingham News Bog, AL, January 14, 2014
The Birmingham Board of Education will submit a waiver request to the statethat would allow five Woodlawn-area schools to operate more like charters than traditional public schools.
ARIZONA
Greg Miller: The Truth about Vail District’s charter school conversions
Column, Arizona Daily Star, AZ, January 15, 2014
Everyone knows that anyone can make his or her case or agenda using statistics, which is what I believe Vail’s Superintendent Baker did in his Arizona Star guest opinion (12/18/13), about the very complicated financial systems that support our children’s education.
CALIFORNIA
3 Curious Reasons a Charter School Was Shot Down
Opinion, Voice of San Diego, CA, January 14, 2014
Nicole Tempel Assisi, founder and CEO of a proposed charter school called Thrive, showed up Jan. 7 at the San Diego Unified school board meeting expecting good news.
L.A. Unified needs enough iPads for the tests
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, CA, January 14, 2014
The school board should approve the purchase of more of the devices so that students can take the new Common Core exams on them this spring.
COLORADO
Student enrollment up in Colorado; DPS now largest school district
The Denver Post, CO, January 15, 2014
Enrollment in Colorado schools grew for the 24th year in a row, to nearly 877,000 students, a statewide increase of more than 40 percent over the past two decades.
CONNECTICUT
Administrators report smooth transition to teacher evaluations
Greenwich Times, CT, January 14, 2014
The transition to a new state-mandated teacher evaluation system has been generally successful so far, school administrators told parents during a workshop on the subject Tuesday.
FLORIDA
Beach school can’t take out-of-zone sixth graders
New Herald, FL, January 14, 2014
There will be one less School Choice option for fifth graders on the beach next school year. “Our capacity is just such that we have to be careful that we have room enough for the students that actually live in that zone,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt.
Western Academy Charter School expansion planned
Sun-Sentinel, FL, January 15, 2014
Western Academy Charter School in Royal Palm Beach is yet again undergoing an expansion and this time it is coming with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) Academy, which will bring two new sixth-grade classrooms in August.
GEORGIA
Education rankings show Georgia doing better, not good enough
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, GA, January 14, 2014
The good news is Georgia now ranks 14th in the country in a new report by a group that advocates education reforms. The bad news is took only a C-minus to earn that spot.
Don’t lower standards for teacher training
Opinion, Indianapolis Star, IN, January 13, 2014
The last year saw much controversy over emails obtained by The Associated Press in which (then-)Gov. Mitch Daniels and his advisers condemned the use of Howard Zinn’s historical writings at a 2010 Indiana University summer institute for teachers.
ILLINOIS
Geneva Schools Asked to Support Bill to Eliminate Illinois Charter Commission
Geneva Patch, IL, January 14, 2014
The Geneva School Board hears a pitch to support an Illinois House bill that would put the decision-making for charter schools back into the hands of the Illinois State Board of Education.
LOUISIANA
Policy wonks love, hate Louisiana’s school reforms
Times-Picayune, LA, January 14, 2014
The choice-and-charters education revolution has transformed New Orleans’ public schools and spread across Louisiana and the country.
MICHIGAN
Grand Rapids schools gauging community opinion in focus groups on school choices
The Grand Rapids Press, MI, January 14, 2014
Grand Rapids schools administrators are inviting parents and other community members to participate in focus group discussions about new and expanded school choices.
MISSISSIPPI
Group focuses on recruiting teachers
Clarion Ledger, MS, January 15, 2014
Mississippi wants to recruit more students into the teaching profession to curb a shortage in critical needs areas, including English and mathematics, but the Legislature probably won’t provide any additional teacher scholarships to accomplish the goal.
MISSOURI
All-Girls STEM Charter Could Open In 2015
St. Louis Public Radio, MO, January 15, 2014
Tisch is the founder of the Young Women’s Leadership Network, which operates a network of all-girls public schools and boasts a 93 percent graduation rate at its flagship institution in East Harlem.
School choice would solve MO’s actual problems, analyst says
Missouri Watchdog, MO, January 15, 2014
Missouri lawmakers are looking at legislation to fix the issue of students attending schools in failing districts.
State senator calls for education commissioner’s resignation
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, January 15, 2014
Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, says she has grown weary of what she considers state Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro’s deception — and now she’s calling for the commissioner’s resignation or termination.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Education tax credit program should be repealed
Editorial, Concord Monitor, NH, January 15, 2014
It’s not every day that the attorney general and the governor find themselves publicly at odds over important state policy, but it happened this week – and thank goodness.
Gov. Hassan takes both sides of school choice debate
Column, Union Leader, NH, January 15, 2014
Gov. Maggie Hassan would like to spend state revenues directly for scholarships to be used at any approved school, public or private in the state. At the same time, in the same term, she is arguing that legislation that does the same thing is an unconstitutional breach that must be stopped. Rarely has any leader been so directly and perfectly contradictory.
NEW JERSEY
Chris Christie’s State of the State: Longer school day needed, but how do we pay?
Editorial, Star-Ledger, NJ, January 15, 2014
It’s not likely to distract anybody from Bridgegate. But Gov. Chris Christie’s broad-stroke idea to extend our school year and school days, announced this afternoon, is worth its own moment in the sun.
Newark parents rip city’s school reorganization plan
Star-Ledger, NJ, January 15, 2014
The changes at Bragaw are part of Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson’s controversial One Newark plan that was unveiled last month. The plan features joint enrollment between district schools and the city’s charter schools, moves some schools to new locations and shifts the mission of others.
What Christie failed to mention in State of State speech about his education record
Washington Post Blog, DC, January 14, 2014
A big part of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s State of the State speech Tuesday was devoted to his record on school reform and his plans for moving forward — and it is worth noting the big difference between what Christie (R) says about his record on public education and what he actually did with public education during his first term in office.
NEW YORK
DiNapoli: Schools squeezed by flat revenue
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, January 14, 2014
School districts in New York have struggled with fluctuating revenue over the past decade, including increases that averaged 1.3 percent over the last three years, according to a report today by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Free rent is over for NYC charter schools as de Blasio plans to make them pay
New York Daily News, NY, January 15, 2013
It’s a radically different political climate now for New York City charter school advocates. Unlike Michael Bloomberg, Mayor de Blasio is no friend of charters and has vowed make schools that can afford it pay for space. ‘It’s the norm around much of the country to charge appropriate rent,’ he said.
Gov panel slaps Bill de Blasio agenda with pre-K charters
New York Post, NY, January 15, 2014
Mayor de Blasio’s plan to impose limits on charter schools hit a brick wall Tuesday when a state commission recommended expanding the privately run schools by allowing them to add pre-K classes.
Now’s the time to even the field between New York City’s charter, public schools
Opinion, New York Daily News, NY, January 15, 2013
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew says New York City charter schools should take four steps to mend relations with public school parents and students: Serve the neediest children; be good neighbors; open their business books; and stop treating kids as profit centers.
Success Academy charter schools in New York City garner praise, scorn
New York Daily News, NY, January 15, 2013
For eight years, ex-New York City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz has been the lightning rod of the charter movement, raising millions from hedge funders and foundations as she aggressively worked her close connections to the Bloomberg administration to take over space in public schools.
The ABC’s of charter schools
Rochester City Newspaper, NY, January 15, 2014
You could call 2013 the year of the charter school in Rochester. Charters have been operating in the city for years, of course, but attention intensified last year and charter chatter was everywhere.
NORTH CAROLINA
New N.C. reading push brings expenses, opportunities and lots of testing
Charlotte Observer, NC, January 14, 2014
Lots more reading tests for third-graders, summer reading camps for up to 5,000 children and the need to restructure third- and fourth-grade classrooms next year are on the horizon as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools works with the state’s new “ Read to Achieve” mandate.
OHIO
Citywide school choice campaign starts to take shape for the Cleveland Transformation Alliance
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, January 14, 2014
The Cleveland Transformation Alliance’s school choice awareness campaign for this year will start next month with the launch of the panel’s website, ClevelandTA.org.
Failure to launch
Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, OH, January 15, 2014
The Dispatch long has argued that Ohio needs to clean up the legal relationship between charter schools and their sponsors and operators, and that some up-front quality controls are needed to ensure that new charter schools have a reasonable chance of succeeding.
Graham school fight continues
Springfield News Sun, OH, January 14, 2014
Public district, charter disagree over sponsorship. Academy serves 280 students whose fate hangs in balance.
PENNSYLVANIA
Process Questions: Why are some city charter schools approved over others?
Pittsburgh City Paper, PA, January 15, 2014
But getting approval for a charter school — a school run by an outside group that nevertheless gets public money from the district itself — can be difficult. Between 2008 and 2012, the district has approved only two charter schools out of 15 proposed.
TENNESSEE
Expert: State Charter Authorizer Would Need To Have Its Own Vetting Process
WPLN blog, TN, January 14, 2014
If the Tennessee State Board of Education is going to get into the business of opening charter schools, a national expert says state officials will need to do their homework.
Metro magnet school lottery leaves parents looking around
WSMV-TV, TN, January 14, 2014
Hundreds of parents in Metro Nashville Public Schools got some disappointing news this weekend. They were hoping their child would land a spot in one of Metro’s top schools, but instead they got wait listed.
Plan to expand pre-K in Nashville earns high marks at school board meeting
The Tennessean, TN, January 15, 2014
A plan for prekindergarten expansion in Nashville that hinges on a system of new pre-K hubs received glowing early reviews Tuesday night from the board that would need to approve it.
WASHINGTON
State eyes adding standardized testing to teacher ratings
News Tribune, WA, January 15, 2014
For the fourth time in as many years, the Washington Legislature is taking a look at teacher and principal evaluations, responding to pressure from the federal government to force school districts to judge performance partly on student test scores.
WISCONSIN
Charter schools are public schools
Editorial, Wisconsin State Journal, WI, January 15, 2014
Wisconsin has 243 charter schools. Every one of them is a public school. So don’t buy the “privatization” scare tactics surrounding legislation to expand chartering options across the state. Charter schools aren’t privatizing public education. They’re invigorating public education by trying new approaches to learning.
Reject independent charter schools
Editorial, Appleton Post-Crescent, WI, January 14, 2014
The latest attempt to privatize public education in Wisconsin comes in the form of independent charter schools — charter schools that operate outside the authority of public school districts.
ONLINE LEARNING
Forest Grove School District’s transfer analysis shows some students left for online programs
The Oregonian, OR, January 14, 2014
Months ago the Forest Grove School District began to compile data from inter-district transfer forms, with the goal of learning more about where students are going and why. Based on demographic study, the district has lost about 247 students since October 2009.
Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton teachers flip their classrooms
Janesville Argus, MN, January 14, 2014
Envision a classroom where the students are on their iPhones with headphones in their ears. In some schools, this would be a problem. However, this is a regular occurrence in Mike Skinner and Ryan Luedtke’s math classes.
Lawrence School District to manage virtual high school program
KCTV5, MO, January 14, 2014
School districts starting virtual online schools is a trend that’s growing nationwide. The districts say it helps students living in more rural areas get a quality education.