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
Advanced Placement classes grow in popularity
Associated Press, February 11, 2014
Columbus McKinney is taking his fifth Advancement Placement course at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, undeterred even though he didn’t score high enough to get college credit on two of the AP classes he took previously.
Snow days don’t hurt student achievement, study says
Washington Post Blog, DC, February 10, 2014
The messy winter weather in many parts of the country have forced schools to close over and over, forcing school districts around the country to alter their schedule for the year to find time to make up for lost instructional time. But is that really necessary? How much do kids lose when school is closed because of bad weather?
Will a partisan divide derail universal pre-K?
CBS News, February 10, 2014
A robust partisan divide in Washington over the role of the federal government in education reform is keeping recent proposals to tweak the American education system on the sidelines, raising the question: will Congress take action or just perpetuate a never-ending debate on the issue?
STATE COVERAGE
ARIZONA
Charter-school push suspicious
Opinion, Arizona Republic, AZ, February 10, 2014
The recently proposed further proliferation of “non-profit” charter schools makes me question just how really non-profit they are.
Expanding state aid to private and parochial schools on track
Arizona Daily Star, AZ, February 11, 2014
A House panel agreed Monday to allow hundreds of thousands of children to attend private and parochial schools at public expense — a vote one legislator said is part of a radical agenda to destroy public schools.
CALIFORNIA
The Two Faces of LA’s School Superintendent
City Watch, CA, February 11, 2014
Despite its supporters’ protests to the contrary, Vergara is widely seen as a frontal attack against statutory guarantees of due process and seniority rights for state teachers. The suit is the brainchild of Students Matter, a Bay Area nonprofit created by wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch and partly financed by LA billionaire Eli Broad.
COLORADO
Colorado’s slow rollout of teacher evaluations could hold advantages
Denver Post, CO, February 10, 2014
Colorado ranked among national leaders in adopting a new teacher evaluation system but has lagged in implementing it, according to experts who also note that such a strategy could prove beneficial.
FLORIDA
School choice
Editorial, Tallahassee Democrat, FL, February 11, 2014
The concept of a neighborhood school is time-tested. Schools play a key factor in where parents make their homes, and the neighborhood often is critical to a child’s assimilation with others.
GEORGIA
Reese Road Leadership Academy’s charter school renewal application runs into tough questioning
Ledger Enquirer, GA, February 10, 2014
The application to renew Reese Road Leadership Academy’s five-year charter ran into tough questioning during Monday evening’s Muscogee County School Board work session.
MINNESOTA
Hold charter schools fully accountable
Editorial, Star Tribune, MN, February 10, 2014
Just over 20 years ago, the charter school movement started in Minnesota and gave birth to alternatives to traditional public schools. The idea was that charters, with independence from state education rules, would have more freedom to try new ideas to improve student learning.
MISSOURI
Missouri School Board debates the scope of its role in failing schools
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, February 11, 2014
They sat down to find consensus in areas that could potentially define a bold new approach toward failing schools. But the members of the Missouri State Board of Education on Monday couldn’t escape a crisis that’s unlike any the state has faced in public education.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Pay to ride? Request from school choice family prompts review of Easthampton school busing policy
New Hampshire Gazette, NH, February 10, 2014
Angelica Trenholm and her daughter Casey can see the Easthampton school bus from their living room window as it stops on Division Street West to take students to White Brook Middle School, where Casey is an eighth grader.
NEW JERSEY
N.J. education chief Chris Cerf stepping down
The Record, NJ, February 11, 2014
New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, who helped broker a landmark tenure law with the state’s large and powerful teachers union, is stepping down to rejoin the private sector.
NEW MEXICO
Educators slow to respond to statewide survey
Albuquerque Journal, NM, February 11, 2014
The response by New Mexico teachers to an anonymous survey – designed as a vehicle to express their opinions about teaching conditions – has been dismally low and a big disappointment for education leaders across the state.
NEW YORK
Cuomo rips Regents for watering down Common Core
New York Post, NY, February 11, 2014
Gov. Cuomo excoriated the state Board of Regents Monday after it proposed watering down Common Core standards to accommodate ineffective teachers and principals.
Cuomo Says Education Board’s Plan Dilutes
New York Times, NY, February 11, 2014
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo attacked state education officials on Monday for what he saw as an attempt to water down a new teacher evaluation system that was one of his earliest legislative triumphs.
Education bloat exists in middle
Commentary, Albany Times Union, NY, February 10, 2014
Once again the controversial issue of high-salaried district superintendents has made its way to the forefront of discussion regarding school budgets. Television news reports, chatter among community members, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s criticisms and newspaper articles intensified the argument that the salaries of school superintendents are much too high.
Geoffrey Canada resigns as Harlem Children’s Zone leader after two decades of service
New York Daily News, NY, February 11, 2014
A prominent Harlem charter school advocate who gained national fame in a documentary that examined the country’s educational system is stepping down from his top post.
Study: Charging Rent Would Lead to Charter-School Decline
National Review Online, February 10, 2014
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is no fan of charter schools, having threatened to charge the schools rent and create stricter regulations for co-location — the practice whereby charter schools occupy underused space in traditional district public schools.
NORTH CAROLINA
McCrory: Increase teachers’ base pay $4,200 over two years
News & Observer, NC, February 10, 2014
The proposal Gov. Pat McCrory announced Monday to raise the base pay for early-career teachers was met with praise and immediate questions about raises for those with more experience.
State official: Check criminal records of NC charter applicants
Charlotte Observer, NC, February 10, 2014
N.C. Board of Education member John Tate called Monday for criminal record checks on charter-school applicants after reading an Observer article Sunday about problems at a recently authorized charter school.
Update: N.C. leaders don’t budge on changing tenure
Greensboro News & Record, NC, February 10, 2014
State lawmakers are promising to raise teacher pay, but they aren’t backing down on controversial changes to tenure.
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City school’s a model for success
The Oklahoman, OK, February 11, 2014
Teachers that helped turn around academics at U.S. Grant High School credit professional learning communities, training planned for 18 other underperforming schools in the Oklahoma City district.
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia School Chief Faces Down Budget Cuts and Crises
New York Times, NY, February 11, 2014
William R. Hite Jr., superintendent of schools here in one of the nation’s poorest cities, is known as a man who prefers collaboration to confrontation, but he has spent the academic year taking no prisoners. He laid off almost 4,000 workers to close a $304 million budget gap and threatened to keep school doors locked until officials found stopgap money to ensure what he considered a basic level of security for students. He says he was just warming up.
Reform of Pa. charter schools long overdue
The Mercury PA, February 11, 2014
Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly are charged with being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. It is our responsibility to treat this money as an investment by doing all we can to ensure the highest possible “return.” One of the greatest investments we make is in education.
York City school officials unimpressed by charter application
York Dispatch, PA, February 11, 2014
Dozens of people, most of them in matching red T-shirts, crowded into the York City School District’s administration building Monday evening.
TENNESSEE
Local politics may sway school vouchers debate
The Tennessean, TN, February 11, 2014
National groups may be pouring money into the fight over school vouchers, but don’t overlook the impact local groups can have on the debate. More specifically, those in three key Senate districts.
TEXAS
Six open-enrollment schools to lose charter
KXAN, TX, February 10, 2014
The Texas Education Agency will continue to revoke the charters of six open-enrollment charter schools.
WISCONSIN
Pro-school choice town hall meeting: Voucher advocates find not all agree
Leader-Telegram, WI, February 11, 2014
Parents are best equipped to decide what type of education their children receive. That was the core message school choice advocates repeated Monday night at a town hall meeting in Eau Claire to explain why they support expansion of the state’s private school voucher program.
ONLINE LEARNING
Online hockey schools prompt hard questions
Star Tribune, MN,m February 10, 2014
Minnesota’s first-ever online high school set up to provide intensive hockey training has produced a girls’ team that is charging toward next week’s state tournament.
Spotsy students flip over digital tools
Free Lance-Star, VA, February 10, 2014
Grant Hobbs rarely talks around others, but was the first student to raise his hand during a recent class discussion in Kelly Creed’s sixth-grade science class.
YUHSD board to discuss online school expansion
Yuma Sun, AZ, February 10, 2014
The expansion of Yuma Union High School District’s online school will be on the agenda at a Yuma Union High School District board meeting Wednesday.