NEWSWIRE IS BACK! Click here for 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.
CER IN THE NEWS
McDonnell leads education summit in Fairfax
Washington Post, August 6, 2013
Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) met with state education leaders on Monday in Fairfax for a summit on public schools, discussing student loan debt, teacher compensation and low-performing schools.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
Tax Dollars for Private School Tuition Gain in States
Stateline, August 6, 2013
Thirteen states created or expanded tuition tax credits, private school scholarships or traditional vouchers in 2013, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight states did so in 2012 and seven states in 2011, according to the group.
Choice, change drive education in the 21st century
Opinion
Detroit News, August 6, 2013
Today and tomorrow, education will be defined by change and by choice. For many of us who came along at the end of the Baby Boomer generation it would have been impossible for us to imagine how technology and other innovations would shape our lives.
An Aha! Moment: Charters = Vouchers
Opinion
City Watch, August 6, 2013
“Charter Schools” is an emotional term that invokes a sort of shimmering gateway of hope. It sends a siren’s signal offering educational panacea and the false solution to every parent’s nightmare: uncertainty about the future.
School Grading Scandal Only Hurts Students
Opinion
US News & World Report, August 5, 2013
Florida State Education Commissioner Tony Bennett resigned from his post last week because back when he was superintendent of education in Indiana, he changed the grade of one of Indiana’s finest charter schools under Indiana’s accountability system from a C to an A.
Don’t try to fix ‘No Child Left Behind,’ just end it
Opinion
San Antonio Express, August 6, 2013
Children are taught the value of perseverance. It’s a virtue, they are told, to keep working until the job gets done. But sometimes the opposite is needed: The candor to reassess and recognize when it’s time to throw in the towel.
At the core of controversy
Opinion
Coeur d’Alene Press, August 6, 2013
Despite the fact that it’s a done deal, local angst persists over the Common Core Standards (CCS) to improve and clarify K-12 goals in math and English. An opt-in choice, Idaho and nearly all U.S. states and territories have adopted them. Six have yet to sign on: Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Virginia and Puerto Rico.
FROM THE STATES
ALABAMA
Montgomery Catholic, St. Jude to participate in Alabama Accountability Act program
Montgomery Advertiser, August 5, 2013
Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School and St. Jude Educational Institute will accept Montgomery students seeking transfers under the state’s Accountability Act, according to a list released by the Alabama Department of Revenue on Monday.
ARIZONA
Arizona’s school-labeling strategy threatens programs like Edge High
Column
Arizona Daily Star, August 6, 2013
Far too many students are either failing or not thriving in Arizona’s public school system. Unfortunately, that was also true in 1995 when Edge High School was founded. It was Pima County’s first charter school. Before that, it had been a grants-funded high school credit-recovery program.
COLORADO
Colorado school finance reformers deliver double required signatures
Denver Post, August 6, 2013
Proponents of a $950 million initiative to revamp the state’s school finance system, and raise the state income tax in the process, delivered more than 160,000 signatures Monday morning to the Secretary of State’s office in an effort to put the measure on the November ballot.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Courage to Lead
Column by Kevin P. Chavous
Huffington Post, August 5, 2013
I shared with those Black Caucus members the D.C. experience and how charter schools along with the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) have given thousands of D.C. kids a quality education while D.C. Public Schools struggle with internal reform efforts.
HAWAII
DOE cuts HAAS bus service, three days before school
Big Island Video News, August 5, 2013
Its back to school time for Hawaii’s students… but if they plan to attend the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science charter school in Puna, they wont have a bus ride.
INDIANA
Make sure A-F grading system doesn’t flunk
Editorial
NW Times, August 6, 2013
The Tony Bennett grade-changing scandal has the nation’s education community talking excitedly about how Indiana’s former superintendent of public instruction handled school accountability.
School choice helps Hoosier families
Opinion
Journal and Courier, August 5, 2013
As the start of the 2013-14 school year rapidly approaches, Hoosier families have more K-12 educational options available to them than at any other time in our state’s history.
Reforms focus on teachers’ results, not their credentials
Column
News Sentinel, August 6, 2013
Over the past two years, Indiana changed both licensing and compensation rules for public school teachers. The rules replaced a de facto requirement that teachers and principals get their degrees exclusively from teachers colleges.
IOWA
State launches new education jobs website
Des Moines, August 6, 2013
A new website launched Monday will make it easier for educators to find and apply for positions in Iowa, state officials said.
LOUISIANA
School board to vote on charter schools
The Daily Advertiser, August 5, 2013
The Lafayette Parish School Board will be asked to approve a total of four charter schools for the parish at its Wednesday meeting.
BESE member takes on new state-level responsibilities at Teach for America
Times Picayune, August 5, 2013
Kira Orange Jones’ job at Teach for America is expanding. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member will officially remain executive director for greater New Orleans.
Education head John White says diploma system needs re-evaluation
The Advocate, August 5, 2013
Louisiana needs to overhaul the way it prepares public high school students for careers since four out of five students opt not to pursue a four-year college degree, state Superintendent of Education John White said Monday.
MAINE
Education chief’s defense of friend imperils credibility
Editorial
Kennebec Journal, August 6, 2013
Bowen’s support for a colleague may be admirable, but Bennett’s credibility is in serious question and that reflects poorly on the credibility of his grading program that Maine has copied.
MASSACHUSETTS
Bottom Line
Patriot Ledger Blog, August 6, 2013
A week or so ago came the news that the Resiliency Foundation, the group behind the Fall River Innovation Academy, has applied to the DESE to go ahead with their plans for FRIA as a Charter School. In today’s Herald comes reaction from the Superintendent of Schools and some members of the School Committee. Lets have a look.
Support Innovation Academy Charter School
Editorial
Fall River Herald News, August 5, 2013
The new approach to getting the Fall River Innovation Academy off the ground in the form of the Innovation Academy Charter School is in the best interest of providing quality education to students without political interference.
Charter school pitched in Andover
Eagle Tribune, August 6, 2014
A group led by School Committee member David Birnbach is proposing opening a charter school focused on engineering, technology and the digital arts.
Daniel F. Conley, Martin J. Walsh clash in mini-debate
Boston Herald, August 6, 2013
Conley immediately ripped what he characterized as Walsh’s “squishy” support of lifting the charter school cap, adding that he’s more decisive than Walsh and, “with this issue either you’re for it or not.”
MISSISSIPPI
Gov. nominates 3 for charter schools panel
Clarion Ledger, August 6, 2013
Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday named his three appointments — one of his education policy advisers, a Clarksdale teacher, and a Laurel businessman — to a seven-member board that will approve and oversee charter schools in Mississippi.
MISSOURI
No shortage of legal advice for families denied school transfers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 6, 2013
As student transfer assignments for children from two school districts continued Monday, civil rights and school choice groups began to flex their legal muscles — questioning how the process has unfolded and whether hundreds of students can be denied their choice of schools.
NEW JERSEY
Charter schools get lesson in patience and red tape
Cherry Hill Courier Post, August 6, 2013
Opening a charter school in New Jersey is not for the faint of heart. Robin Ruiz, founder of Hope Community Charter School in Camden, said its initial application to the state was more than 100 pages long. The teacher, along with a founding team of about six people, submitted the paperwork for approval in September of 2010.
NEW MEXICO
NM Teacher Evaluation System Under Fire
KRWG, August 5, 2013
The head of the New Mexico chapter of the National Education Association says the new system will take the responsibility off principals to be instructional leaders and put teachers in the position of having to evaluate each other.
PENNSYLVANIA
‘Common core’ will aid schools
Opinion
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 6, 2013
“Pretty good.” Those two words describe Pennsylvania’s public schools. Compared with most other states, our students excel in a broad body of subjects.
Panel explains why it revoked school’s charter
Pocono Record, August 6, 2013
Citing significant entanglement of funds between the Pocono Mountain Charter School and Shawnee Tabernacle Church, the state’s Charter Appeal Board released a 30-page report outlining why the school’s charter was being revoked.
New Pittsburgh teacher ratings tougher than ones now
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 6, 2013
If a new teacher evaluation system had been in effect this past school year, more Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers would have received unsatisfactory ratings than actually received them.
House Education Committee hears case for standards changes
Meadville Tribune, August 65, 2013
State education officials told a House panel Monday that fears about changes to state educational standards are largely based on misconceptions about what the changes mean. Most lawmakers on the Education Committee seemed to buy the argument, but critics remain unconvinced.
SOUTH CAROLINA
12 SC private schools OK’d for ‘choice’ program
The State, August 5, 2013
Twelve S.C. private schools have been cleared to enroll special-needs students paying with tuition grants made possible through the state’s first school-choice program.
TENNESSEE
Knox school board discusses adding student input to teacher evaluations, 2014-15 calendar
Knoxville News Sentinel, August 6, 2013
Knox County students could soon have some input on how they believe their teachers are performing in the classroom.
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee teacher prep program opens K5 charter school as training lab
Journal Sentinel, August 5, 2013
For 17 years, the Milwaukee Teacher Education Center has helped new teachers get certified to teach in Milwaukee Public Schools and retrained other professionals working in urban education.
ONLINE LEARNING
Local students go online for PHS summer school credits
Princeton Packet, August 5, 2013
For years, summer school has meant students trudging off to classes while their friends went to the pool or basketball court. But for the past few years, Princeton High School has used an online summer school program, with students taking the self-guided courses they need to make up credit because they failed a class.
Atlanta turns to online classes to boost graduation rates
Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 5, 2013
With nearly half of its students failing to graduate on time, Atlanta’s school system turned to online education as one way to help.
Registration now open for St. Tammany ‘virtual classroom’ program for junior high students
Times-Picayune, August 6, 2013
Registration for St. Tammany Parish’s new virtual classroom program for middle school students is currently underway. The online learning program for 6th, 7th and 8th graders has spots for 200 students.
L.A. teachers give their new iPads a test drive
Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2013
LAUSD instructors gather at six schools this week to train on iPads, which 31,000 students and 1,500 teachers in 47 schools will begin using this year.