EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT OPPORTUNITY’S OPPONENT….but were afraid to ask. The NAACP’s report on charters has set off a firestorm of criticism from charter leaders across the country. CER directors Donald Hense and David Hardy released as statement decrying the association’s conclusions, saying it put the association “…sadly, and uncharacteristically, on the wrong side of history.” They weren’t alone in their criticism. See what others had to say here:
CHARTERS HELP DC STUDENTS SUCCEED. D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools has added its voice to the choir of organizations speaking out against the NAACP’s recent report painting charter schools as inappropriate academic options for minority students. As they point out, prior to the establishment of the charter school movement in the 1990’s, only 50% of African American students graduated from high school on schedule. Today, 73% of African American students attending charter schools graduate on time versus 62% in traditional public schools.
OPPONENTS OF OPPORTUNITY TARGET ARIZONA. Save Our Schools Arizona now has 100,000 signatures of registered voters exceeding the 75,321 needed to stop the expansion of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Program. The expansion which would enable 30,000 of Arizona’s 1.1 million public school students to join the program by 2022 is scheduled to take effect on Wednesday August 9. Save Our Schools may be saving “schools”, but in doing so, they are limiting Arizona children’s opportunities to attend the schools which best meet their individual needs.
SAY CHEESE! School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) and Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty have released a new study which shows that schools participating in Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) have improved their accountability as it relates to academic performance, fiscal management and school safety. Consequently, more parents are gravitating to the schools with most solid and most transparent accountability measures.
AND, ON THE LEFT COAST, PERSONALIZED LEARNING IS THE NEW FEATURE IN TEACHER TRAINING Northern California based Summit Learning has launched the first teacher-in-residence program dedicated to personalized learning. The teaching residents will spend four days a week working alongside a teacher in Summit’s eight middle and high schools located in Sunnyvale, Redwood City, El Cerrito/Richmond, San Jose, and Daly City.