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
Duncan says Mass. can’t be complacent about education
Column, Boston Globe, MA, March 14, 2014
SECRETARY OF Education Arne Duncan has a message for Massachusetts: Yes, education reform has been a success here, but we still have a long way to go.
Study: Later school starts improve student grades
Denver Post, CO, March 13, 2014
A new study found that when high schools switch to a later start time, there is an improvement in student grades, attendance and overall student health. The three-year study by the University of Minnesota examined data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Parents seek support for opening KIPP and Rocketship charter schools in Redwood City
Mercury News, CA, March 14, 2014
When Redwood City parent Maritza Leal tried five years ago to find a public school that would academically challenge her 7-year-old daughter, she wasn’t satisfied with the school district’s options.
COLORADO
Parent receives wait list letter from every school
KBTV, CO, March 13, 2014
Marie Heaton just wants to get her son into a middle school in the Montbello area. But, after going through the Denver Public Schools’ SchoolChoice process, she received a letter with unexpected news.
CONNECTICUT
Charter school plan a call for open minds
Column, Stamford Advocate, CT, March 14, 2014
As a long-ago member of the Board of Education, Michael Guroian was intrigued to learn about a proposal to open a charter elementary school in Stamford.
New Haven charter school proposal draws support from parents
New Haven Register, CT, March 13, 2014
Before having children, Veronica Douglas-Givan traveled the state, witnessed the anxiety parents faced over education in the areas of the “have-nots,” and said that would never be her.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. schools see progress under Mayor Gray, but questions linger
Washington Post, DC, March 13, 2014
The day after Vincent C. Gray defeated Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in 2010, then-Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee warned that the election results would be “devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, D.C.”
INDIANA
IPS ‘charter school’ bill heads to governor
Indianapolis Star, IN, March 13, 2014
Legislation that would allow Indianapolis Public Schools to hire charter companies or independent management teams to run low-performing schools in the district is headed to Gov. Mike Pence for consideration.
IOWA
High school graduation rate climbs across state
Des Moines Register, IA, March 14, 2014
Iowa’s high school graduation rate inched upward, a sign that efforts to identify struggling students and keep them in school is paying off, officials said.
FLORIDA
Duval school board divided over open enrollment
Florida Times-Union, FL, March 13, 2014
The Duval school board is divided over a plan to allow parents to enroll students in schools outside their neighborhoods.
Editorial: Voucher expansion wrong-headed
St. Augustine Record, FL, March 14, 2014
One of the first, and most curious, “big bills” churning through Florida’s Legislature is one that would allow massive expansion of school vouchers in Florida. And it’s being thrashed out along typical party lines. The Republicans are pushing the bill, Democrats are resisting.
Gov. Scott targeted by Common Core foes
Bradenton Herald, FL, March 14, 2014
With their bill to suspend Florida’s new education benchmarks stalled in the Legislature, opponents of the Common Core State Standards are pursuing a new strategy. They are turning the heat up on Gov. Rick Scott.
MASSACHUSETTS
Freedom now
Editorial, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, MA, March 14, 2014
The growth of charter schools has been the most promising and liberating development in public education in recent decades, and has been embraced with fervor by urban and minority families for whom charters have offered a pathway out of the sometimes hopeless public schools that have trapped generations.
Winning the ed lottery
Editorial, Boston Herald, MA, March 14, 2014
Charter schools throughout the state held their annual lotteries Wednesday afternoon — randomly selecting students for the limited number of slots in their starting grades.
LOUISIANA
In move toward cooperation, New Orleans’ two school systems consider agreement with millions for troubled youth
Times-Picayune, LA, March 13, 2014
New Orleans’ two school systems could be on the verge of an unprecedented collaboration to benefit the city’s neediest children. The Orleans Parish School Board’s legal committee approved a cooperative agreement Thursday with the state Recovery School District that would help students with severe disabilities, persistent school absences, prison histories and other issues.
MARYLAND
Accord reached on county school board bill
Baltimore Sun, MD, March 13, 2014
Parents who have fought for years to get an elected school board in Baltimore County have won key support for a compromise measure that is given a good chance of passage in the General Assembly.
MICHIGAN
Schools should stop blocking reform
Editorial, Detroit News, MI, March 14, 2014
Michigan lawmakers passed several laws in 2011 directed at improving the quality of teaching in public schools. Supporters of education reform saw these measures as a significant victory and one that would impact how students learn in this state. But it turns out many districts are ignoring the reforms.
MINNESOTA
Eliminate antiquated teacher-tenure provisions
Editorial, Star Tribune, MN, March 13, 2014
Losing great educators because of union contracts is not in the best educational interests of Minnesota kids and families. Quality of instruction is the most important in-school factor in student achievement, and Minnesota needs the best and brightest in its classrooms. To that end, a handful of proposed legislative measures that would give school districts more staffing flexibility during layoffs deserve hearings.
MISSISSIPPI
Concordia school board files against charter school
Natchez Democrat, MS, March 14, 2014
The Concordia Parish School Board authorized its attorney to notify the federal courts that Delta Charter School is out of compliance with the district’s desegregation order.
MISSOURI
St. Louis schools plan includes nonprofit takeover of failing schools
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, March 14, 2014
City schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams proposed a move Thursday that could involve handing the reins of some of the city’s most chronically troubled schools to outside groups — taking a lead from urban school systems in cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and New York.
NEW YORK
Charter schools are here to stay: Cuomo
New York Post, NY, March 13, 2014
The war over charter schools shifted from City Hall to Albany Thursday as Gov. Cuomo pledged to protect the besieged schools and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver blasted charters as tools of “Wall Street billionaires.”
Charter schools break the education monopoly
Opinion, Queens Chronicle, NY, March 13, 2014
I am a retired educator with 38 years of experience in the New York City public school system. I write the following in support of charter schools and in opposition to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to close them.
Judge rules that state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli cannot audit charter schools
New York Daily News, NY, March 14, 2014
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin ruled DiNapoli did not have authority to audit any New York charter school.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor
Editorial, New York Post, NY, March 14, 2014
New York owes Bill de Blasio a thank you. In trying to squash charter schools, he might just have made them stronger. That will certainly be the case should a bill that emerged in the Senate Thursday become state law.
The Wisdom in the Middle
New York Times, NY, March 13, 2014
In recent days, as the debate over education has produced so many glowering expressions on so many faces all over the city, I have heard people say, in a spirit of both bafflement and confession, that they “don’t know what to think about charters.”
Tricks of a phony parent advocate
Opinion, New York Post, NY, March 13, 2014
Ansari was on NY1 this week in an effort to prop up Mayor de Blasio’s rescinding of previously approved co-locations for three Success Academy charter schools.
PENNSYLVANIA
Act now on city schools
Opinion, Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, March 14, 2014
Putting Philadelphia public schools on par with their suburban counterparts is a huge task, but dramatic improvements can be made almost immediately if City Council acts and the School Reform Commission and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers compromise.
Charter lawsuit challenges SRC suspension of School Code
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, March 14, 2014
A charter school is taking aim at the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s efforts to rein in soaring charter costs.
TENNESSEE
Common Core dealt a blow
Jackson Sun, TN, March 14, 2014
Tennessee lawmakers voted to delay the Common Core education program for two years, as opponents staged an ambush Thursday morning on the floor of the state House.
VIRGINIA
Editorial: Another Tool
Leesburg Today, VA, March 13, 2014
The landmark vote by the Loudoun County School Board to permit the century old Middleburg Elementary School to continue its educational mission as the region’s first public charter school should be applauded. The action should not, however, be viewed as a singular model for serving students in rural Loudoun.
WASHINGTON
Teacher evaluation change to keep No Child waiver dies in Legislature
Bellingham Herald, WA, March 13, 2014
Washington lawmakers adjourned Thursday without changing the state’s teacher evaluation system, which probably means Washington will lose its waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, education leaders said.
WISCONSIN
Assembly Republicans make final push for broad school accountability reform
Wisconsin State Journal, WI, March 14, 2014
Assembly Republicans are making a last-ditch effort to reshape the state’s school accountability system after the Senate passed a stripped-down bill that pushes more sweeping changes into the future.
Major political proposals in limbo: Common Core, voucher school bills likely to die
Appleton Post-Crescent, WI, March 13, 2014
Proposals to rewrite Common Core academic standards, increase reporting of private schools in the voucher program and limit regulations on sand mining in Wisconsin appear unlikely to pass as the Legislature nears the end of its session.
ONLINE LEARNING
Online education company bringing 300 jobs to Blount Co.
WBIR, TN, March 13, 2014
More money and more jobs are soon coming to Blount County. An education technology company announced it is opening a new facility in Alcoa which will initially create 300 jobs.
Parents explain why they’ve spent countless hours to bring a controversial virtual charter school to Maine
Bangor Daily News, ME, March 13, 2014
The push to bring a virtual charter school to Maine has been rife with tension. Opponents of the movement say virtual charter schools will siphon money away from already struggling public schools into the hands of out-of-state, for-profit corporations and contribute to declining student enrollments at brick-and-mortar schools across Maine.
Schools want to do online end-run around old man winter
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, March 14, 2014
State meets with district officials talk about ways students and teachers might work from home via Internet to make up snow days