June 2013 - The Center for Education Reform

Achievement Gap Narrows on Long-Term NAEP

June 28, 2013 By Ted Allen

by Erik W. Robelen
Education Week
June 27, 2013

Achievement gaps for black and Hispanic youths have declined by substantial margins in reading and math since the early 1970s, according to new federal data issued Thursday. The gaps with their white peers, while still in evidence, have narrowed across all three age levels tested as part of a national assessment of long-term trends that offers a look at test data spanning some 40 years.

Overall, the nation’s 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds are better off academically today than they were in 1971 in reading, and in 1973 in math, the years when the long-term assessment was first administered, the results suggest. But for 17-year-olds, the average achievement levels are about the same when comparing 2012 data with results for the early 1970s in both subjects.

Read the rest of the Education Week article.

Filed Under: Standards & Testing

Ohio Continues Legacy of Real Education Reform

June 28, 2013 By Ted Allen

CER Press Release
Washington, DC
June 28, 2013

In a state that has been a leader in creating more and better opportunities for students and parents, Gov. Kasich is now expected to approve a budget that builds on Ohio’s legacy of meaningful education reform.

Currently ranked number 4 on the Parent Power Index©, these changes are likely to put Ohio in the top three of states providing more control for parents over the education of their children.

The budget, to be signed by Kasich in the coming days, allows for the parent trigger pilot program in Columbus to be expanded statewide, a clear victory for parents seeking to improve their local school.

The state voucher program will expand during the first year to include up to 2,000 kindergartners whose family income does not exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty level, in the hopes of widening the program to include all K-12 income eligible students.

“These budgetary provisions add to Ohio’s proportionately high number of quality schooling opportunities in comparison to other states,” Jeanne Allen, President of The Center for Education Reform, said in a statement. “In a time when parents in Ohio and nationwide are clamoring for more choices, there is no shortage of reforms that can be implemented.”

The state budget passed the House and Senate on Thursday, and now goes to the governor’s desk, where Kasich is expected to sign it into law.

Filed Under: Press Releases

Daily Headlines for June 28, 2013

June 28, 2013 By The Center for Education Reform

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.

NATIONAL COVERAGE

On standardized tests, 17-year-old students are doing no better than they did decades ago
Washington Post, June 27, 2013
Students preparing to leave high school are faring no better in reading or math than their peers four decades ago, the government said Thursday. Officials attributed the bleak finding on more lower-performing students staying in school rather than dropping out.

U.S. education gap narrows between whites and minorities: report
Reuters, June 27, 2013
The achievement gap between white and minority children has narrowed considerably in recent decades, as black and Hispanic students have posted strong gains on math and reading tests, according to a new report out Thursday.

Inequality and Education and the Need for Community
Opinion
Huffington Post, June 27, 2013
As we Race to the Top and offer states “flexibility” on NCLB, evidence continues to mount that our efforts to improve educational outcomes are focused on the wrong problem.

FROM THE STATES

CALIFORNIA

Popularity of charter schools keeps waitlists long
Long Beach Press-Telegram, June 27, 2013
There are 6,000 charter schools nationwide, more than 1,000 in California and upwards of 250 in Los Angeles. It turns out, that’s not enough.

Antonio Villaraigosa leaves his mark on L.A. schools
Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2013
The mayor vowed to turn the district into an incubator of education reform. In his two terms, during which his nonprofit took over more than a dozen campuses, he’s had mixed results.

COLORADO

Teacher turnover down from 2012
Our Colorado News, June 27, 2013
A total of 380 teachers, or about 11.7 percent, of Douglas County teachers are leaving the school district this year. That figure is down from the 2012 turnover rate of 13.26 percent recorded by the Colorado Department of Education.

CONNECTICUT

State Board of Education votes to increase available charter seats by 567
Connecticut Ed News, June 27, 2013
Almost 600 more seats in Connecticut charter schools have been made available for the next school year, after the State Board of Education granted charter operators requests during a Wednesday special meeting.

DELAWARE

Delaware’s low-income private school students get chance at scholarships
News Journal, June 28, 2013
A former charter school leader is raising money for scholarships to pay private school tuition for low-income students.

FLORIDA

Scott to teachers: Pressure is going to get worse
Florida Current, June 28, 2013
Gov. Rick Scott and Education Commissioner Tony Bennett engaged Florida’s teachers of the year Thursday in a roundtable discussion of education philosophies. Most of the talk focused on the transition to Common Core standards and the assessments that will be used to measure student and teacher performance.

‘Devastating’ dual enrollment change could cost $60M
Bradenton Herald, June 28, 2013
While the Manatee County school district struggles to reorganize its finances, new state legislation could cost the district as much as $500,000 to keep its popular dual enrollment program afloat.

IDAHO

Rely on insta-teachers? Idahoans say no thanks
Opinion
Coeur d’Alene Press, June 28, 2013
The Idaho State Board of Education continues to make decisions toward privatizing Idaho’s public schools. In a move by the board on June 20, the Teach For America (TFA) program was, according to their Facebook post, “approved as a state sanctioned vehicle for the preparation of teachers in Idaho.”

MASSACHUSETTS

Charters on edge of ed reform
Opinion
News Telegram, June 28, 2013
When Massachusetts’ landmark Education Reform Act was signed into law 20 years ago, attention was mainly focused on the massive commitment of state resources and the tough new accountability measures. The creation of charter public schools might have seemed almost an afterthought.

Boston’s education mayor?
Opinion
Boston Globe, June 28, 2013
Education may emerge as the central issue in the Boston mayor’s race, and not simply because the school system is one of a handful of big-city districts across the country under mayoral control.

MICHIGAN

More public-private partnerships are needed in Michigan schools
Opinion
Detroit News, June 27, 2013
The use of public-private partnerships for the cost-effective delivery of public goods and services is not new in Michigan. Michigan uses private entities to provide services for prisons, food service, road maintenance, health care and education. As government seeks to deliver services in a more efficient and cost-effective manner, we will see a growing use of private management with a public payer system.

MISSOURI

Missouri charter schools outperform national average
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 28, 2013
A national study of charter school performance shows that reading growth at Missouri’s charter schools has slid since 2009, but the schools’ academic performance overall is outpacing the national average.

NEVADA

Delta Academy’s charter school status renewed
Las Vegas Review- Journal, June 28, 2013
Delta Academy, a Las Vegas charter school for students with behavioral, emotional and social challenges, will remain open for at least six more years despite posting poor student performance.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NCLB waived Now about that innovation
Editorial
Union Leader, June 27, 2013
New Hampshire finally has a federal waiver that allows the state to wriggle out from under the regulations of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Now that state officials have seen how constricting and counter-productive inflexible, bureaucratic dictates can be, New Hampshire’s approach to education reform should be clear.

Board of Education debates salaries for school leaders
Nashua Telegraph, June 28, 2013
What started with a group of motions to hire new school administrators turned into a long debate among Board of Education members Wednesday over the rate of pay the district offers its school leaders.

NEW YORK

Pro-Charter Group Gets New Chief
Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2013
StudentsFirstNY, a pro-charter school organization that launched with a bang a year ago and then stalled, has signaled it is ready to jump back into New York City politics, hiring the top lieutenant of a polarizing charter chain.

Hyde Leadership Charter School
MYFOXNY, June 27, 2013
On Saturday, the school will graduate its first class and 94 percent of the seniors here will be getting their diplomas.

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma Board of Education identifies bottom schools
The Oklahoman, June 28, 2013
Oklahoma education officials announced the worst schools in the state during a state Board of Education meeting Thursday. The schools are identified for a long-term partnership with the state Education Department to help turn things around.

PENNSYLVANIA

SRC prepares for new school year amid uncertainty
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 2013
Still facing uncertainty about whether Harrisburg will help the Philadelphia School District fill a $304 million shortfall by July 1, the School Reform Commission took steps Thursday morning to get ready for the new fiscal year.

Pocono Mountain Charter School is coming around, says custodian
Pocono Record, June 28, 2013
Pocono Mountain Charter School students and teachers are thriving despite controversies, according to former East Stroudsburg Area School District Superintendent Kenneth Koberlein.

SOUTH CAROLINA

SC governor’s veto pen has hit education hardest
The State, June 28, 2013
Of the nearly 200 budget vetoes Gov. Nikki Haley has issued during her three years as governor, no government service has been struck more than public education.

TENNESSEE

TCAP scores rise once again, with poor students closing the gap
The Tennessean, June 28, 2013
More than half of Tennessee’s third- through eighth-grade students are performing on grade level for the first time since 2010, state officials said Thursday, and low-income students are closing the gap with their more affluent peers.

UTAH

Utah’s teachers do have a choice
Deseret News, June 28, 2013
This week has been dubbed National Employee Freedom Week, a critical national effort to inform employees of the freedom they have regarding opting out of union membership and making the decision about whether union membership is right for them.

VIRGINIA

Another charter
Editorial
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 28, 2013
As the Patrick Henry School for Science and the Arts moves beyond its initial growing pains to its adolescence, another charter school has moved from conception to gestation. A group called the Richmond Urban Collective has proposed a college-prep academy, preferably for the city’s East End.

WISCONSIN

Veto hiding voucher school records
Opinion
Superior Telegram, June 28, 2013
So much bad was packed into the 2013-15 budget headed to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk that we should start over. From under-funding public schools to expanding the use of taxpayer dollars to fund unaccountable and underperforming private schools, the budget is just full of ideologically driven legislation that is, fiscally irresponsible and educationally unproven.

ONLINE LEARNING

Catching on at last
The Economist
June 28, 2013
The director of North Kenwood-Oakland school says this sort of teaching, blending software with human intervention, helps her pupils learn faster.

Cyber charter school expands into Schuylkill County
Republican Herald, June 28, 2013
A cyber charter school is expanding into eastern Schuylkill County with the purchase of a $1 million facility in West Penn Township.

Scott signs digital learning bill
Florida Current, June 27, 2013
Gov. Rick Scott Thursday signed into a law a bill opening the Florida market of on-line classes to out-of-state digital learning companies. Supporters brushed aside arguments in debate that HB 7029 would cost Florida teaching jobs and focused on the increased accountability provisions in the proposal.

Former Creswell returns as virtual high school in fall
The Advocate, June 27, 2013
Continual low test scores led to the closure of Creswell Elementary last month; however, the school will reopen in August as the site of a virtual high school and a second-chance program for over-aged fifth-graders.

Arizona Virtual Academy: Tuition-free, online public school serving K through 12
ABC15, June 27, 2013
When Amy Rodabaugh’s youngest son, Evan, was in kindergarten and started having severe allergy problems at school, Amy knew something needed to be done. His allergies were so severe, in fact, Evan would often experience nose bleeds and difficulty breathing. After extensive testing, doctors found Evan was allergic to a bacterium prevalent in most brick and mortar schools.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

SB 337 Imperils NC Charter Schools

June 27, 2013 By Ted Allen

Legislation is making its way through the NC General Assembly that would, despite good intentions, set North Carolina’s already battered charter school movement back significantly. The Senate-passed bill that is now in the House is SB 337 and while it is intended to address some of the problems charter schools face, it instead adds more layers of troublesome bureaucracy, threatening charter autonomy, the potential for additional authorizers and any real effort to ensure objective oversight and accountability.

Supporters do not understand the implications of this legislation. One only has to look to other states where such policies are in place to see the negative effects on growth and quality. We’ve outlined our concerns with SB 337 below and a more full discussion can be found on the NC page of our website.

We have issues with national organizations that wish to impose their ideas on states for the purposes of working in that state. The Center for Education Reform is focused on North Carolina for two simple reasons – the first is that we helped advocate for and ensured the adoption of the initial law, and thus got to know the first charter leaders. We saw the important role they played in changing the landscape for education for so many children. And we still communicate with many of them. The second is the basis for why CER exists – we know that good policies result in strong charter schools and more opportunities for parents, and we’ve studied them – for nearly two decades. We also have seen bad policies enacted that sounded good on paper to start and were quickly manipulated by people not supportive of education reforms that put decision making closest to children.

As one colleague in your state shared with his colleagues today, “I know that many of us are reluctant to heed the advice of those from ‘outside’ individuals and groups, fearing that their motivation is to take credit for our hard work or capitalize (literally) on our efforts. The Center for Education Reform is not that kind of group. Rather, they have been a dependable source of information, counsel, and encouragement for school reformers and lowly policy analysts across North Carolina.”

SB 337 is one of those bad policy cases that is written to ensure that charters are protected but actually instead ensures that charters will be more highly regulated from the state and its leadership. The most fundamental rule of good policy making is that the laws must work no matter who is in power. Laws that are based on a particularl party being in power never work.

We want to see the NC charter law be supportive of all charters and work to create new ones. We believe that changes are in order and that your leaders have some good ideas on ways to make the environment more robust. But until your lawmakers are well educated about the various impacts of policy as it exists in dozens of other states and understand how the current law functions or fails, mistakes will be made.

The best and most important addition right now to your state’s charter environment is the ability for universities to create charter authorizing agencies to which applicants can choose to apply AS AN ALTERNATIVE to the State Board, not as a replacement. The enormously successful charter environment that exists as a result of such policies is evident in Michigan, in New York, in Indiana, in Missouri and elsewhere.

Having multiple authorizers that include universities does not mean that another level of bureaucracy is needed to “authorize” the authorizers. The universities are already publicly accountable for funding to the legislature and to their constituents.

Providing for universities is currently an option in the original NC charter law. There is no reason to strike it from the law as SB 337 does. There is also no reason to turn the Advisory Committee for charters – an optional board made permissible by law – into a permanent body. Doing so ensures that for years to come, charter schools will be accountable first to the state education department that is governed by an elected superintendent who controls most of the money flow at the Department of Public Instruction.

Besides striking university potential from the law, SB 337:

• Requires charter applicants to “have the ability” to run a charter school, subjecting applicants to arbitrary measures of “proof” regarding their ability to run a school. Was KIPP Founder Mike Feinberg subjected to such “ability” requirements of law when he first started? Were you? This kind of language gives license to regulators to create new definitions of “ability”

• Defines who charters can enroll and who they can exclude, potentially threatening a charter’s ability to receive federal funds

• Clarifies local funding distribution while putting more control in education department to rectify funding disputes

We urge you to take a step back if you are pushing this proposal. If you are unaware of this proposal it’s time to weigh in with your school leadership, your association, and your legislature.

Please take time to read the detailed information we have created for you about charter school laws, their effectiveness, the purpose and practice of multiple authorizing and how NC fares when it comes to these important policies for children.

Filed Under: Opinions

Daily Headlines for June 27, 2013

June 27, 2013 By The Center for Education Reform

NATIONAL COVERAGE

Kids need alternatives
Editorial
Winona Daily News, June 27, 2013
A Stanford study released Wednesday on student achievement at charter schools found little to no difference between charters and public schools. As usual, scientists completely missed the point.

Why it’s time for a reset of education reform
Washington Post Blog, June 27, 2013
The end of another school year is leaving a bad taste in many people’s mouths. A steady diet of government austerity and top-down “accountability” mandates have left numerous communities across the country with a severe case of sour stomachs over how their schools are being governed.

U.S. teachers woefully unprepared after college
Opinion
Salt Lake Tribune, June 27, 2013
Here are the most alarming tidbits from NCTQ’s report, which makes clear why so many of our public schools are failing. According to its survey of 2,420 teacher preparation programs at the 1,130 institutions that prepare 99 percent of the nation’s traditionally trained new teachers, it is far too easy to get into a teacher preparation program.

FROM THE STATES

ALABAMA

Future ‘failing-schools’ lists could exclude improving schools, state board member says
The Birmingham News, June 26, 2013
State school board member Mary Scott Hunter said today she regrets that the state’s new list of so-called “failing schools” identified under the Alabama Accountability Act includes those that have made significant improvement in recent years.

ARIZONA

Tucson K-2 charter to stress bilingual ed
Arizona Daily Star, June 27, 2013
A Nogales-based charter school focusing on bilingual education will make its debut in Tucson in August.

COLORADO

St. Vrain charter schools moving to three-year contracts
Longmont Times-Call, June 26, 2013
Most of the charter schools in the St. Vrain Valley School District now have three-year contracts instead of one-year agreements.

FLORIDA

Lake charter will still get money despite $986,378 attendance dispute
Orlando Sentinel, June 26, 2013
A state audit revealed the school couldn’t prove its 283 students attended classes during two head counts throughout the 2011-2012 school year – a mistake which could cost the district and charter up to $986,378 in student funding.

GEORGIA

300 accepted into choice programs next year
Rockdale Citizen, June 26, 2013
More than 300 students will be accepted into new school choice programs next year in Rockdale County Public Schools.

ILLINOIS

CPS cuts trigger heated debate
ABC7Chicago, June 26, 2013
Deep budget cuts triggered another heated debate at Wednesday’s Chicago Public School board meeting as parents and students from schools throughout the city expressed their frustration.

MAINE

Maine bill eases rule on school windfalls
Portland Press Herald, June 27, 2013
Schools might be allowed – just this once – to bypass voter approval to spend unexpected state funds.

MISSOURI

Gordon Parks school will graduate fifth-graders and continue its fight for survival
Olathe News, June 27, 2013
At least one truth can be agreed upon between the people who want to save Gordon Parks Elementary School and the Missouri officials who determined it should be closed:

Charter school brings back principal on interim basis
St, Louis Post-Dispatch, June 26, 2013
Lynne Glickert, the principal whose firing on May 31 created controversy at Grand Center Arts Academy, will come back as interim principal at the charter school.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

No Child Left Behind waiver gives schools flexibility
New Hampshire Union Leader, June 27, 2013
New Hampshire’s Department of Education can proceed with statewide education reforms geared to the specific learning, teaching and administrative needs of its schools since it got a waiver from many of the federal No Child Left Behind Act requirements Wednesday.

NEW JERSEY

Camden charter grads look ahead – and back
Courier-Post, June 27, 2013
At LEAP Academy University Charter School in Camden, planning for college begins in preschool.

Teachers Union Head Reaffirms Controversial Stance on Charter School Parents
Hoboken Patch, June 27, 2013
The real reason local parents opt for charter schools, according to the longtime high school music teacher and marching band director, is to avoid having their kids mix with kids from public housing.

NEW MEXICO

APS to submit new evaluation plan
Albuquerque Journal, June 27, 2013
The Albuquerque Public Schools board voted Wednesday night to submit a teacher evaluation plan to the state Public Education Department, which it does not expect will be approved. One such plan has already been denied.

NEW YORK

South Bronx prep school has a 95% graduation rate
New York Daily News, June 27, 2013
The only prep school in the South Bronx has graduated its first class of college-bound seniors — and it put rest of the city to shame.

Graduation rates show Buffalo remains in crisis
Opinion
Buffalo News, June 26, 2013
If it wasn’t apparent yet, the latest graduation rate report should drive home the point that Buffalo’s public schools are in a state of crisis. As the state reported, graduation rates in Buffalo plummeted, falling from 54 percent in 2011 to 47 percent in 2012. The crisis in Buffalo is real, and the district needs to act with urgency.

NORTH CAROLINA

For teacher pay, it’s a race to the bottom
Editorial
Fay Observer, June 27, 2013
We’re facing a teacher shortage. And the source of it is clear: North Carolina teacher pay stinks. We don’t have the lowest cost of living here, but teacher pay is near the bottom – 46th in the nation. A teacher could get a raise by moving to any one of our surrounding states.

Ruling may ease Wake’s path to income-based school assignments
News & Observer, June 27, 2013
Federal officials have opened the door for Wake County to reintroduce students’ family income as a basis for school assignments.

Bill loosens reins on charters
News & Observer, June 26, 2013
A state Senate committee approved a charter school bill that would free them from going to the State Board of Education for permission to add grades, and would allow the charters to give enrollment preference to siblings of school alumni.

OHIO

Hearing draws a few foes of Columbus levy shared by district, charters
Columbus Dispatch, June 27, 2013
Only six people took the time yesterday to speak at a public hearing about a proposed property-tax levy on the November ballot that would share Columbus City Schools dollars with charter schools.

More Ohio cash not enough for some school districts
Cincinnati Enquirer, June 27, 2013
In the next two years, Ohio may send $94 million more to Greater Cincinnati school districts than it currently sends in state aid.

OREGON

League of Oregon Charter Schools to hold convention at Portland Village School
The Oregonian, June 26, 2013
Charter school advocates will gather at the Portland Village School in August for their annual convention.

VIRGINIA

CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Norfolk Schools Take Lead This Fall
New Journal and Guide, June 26, 2013
A proposal by Norfolk Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Samuel T. King to create public charter schools appears to be met with “cautious optimism” by some observers. King’s plan will convert 10 Norfolk underachieving schools to public charter schools this fall in an effort to improve the quality of education for the students who will attend them.

WISCONSIN

Governor should veto attempt to take cap off private voucher schools
Opinion
Capital Times, June 26, 2013
Senators had debated budget passage for nearly eight nonstop hours. In a little over six hours the two-year state budget would be headed to the governor.

ONLINE LEARNING

Pittsburgh Public Schools board approves new vendor for online academy
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 26, 2013
The Pittsburgh Public Schools board voted tonight to change vendors for its Pittsburgh Online Academy from Waterfront Learning, operated through the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, to VLN Partners, located on the South Side.

New Florida Charter School To Offer Blended Learning Program
The Journal, June 26, 2013
A new charter school, opening this fall for students in grades 6-12 living in Broward County, will feature a blended learning program. Pivot Charter School, a full-time public school in the Fort Lauderdale area, will offer a learning center — for on-site tutoring and instruction — as well as a complete online curriculum which complies with “Florida Sunshine standards and the Common Core standards,” according to a statement released Tuesday to the media.

Opponents of state virtual charter ban urge legislature not to limit digital learning
Beacon News, June 26, 2013
As the state’s charter school commission gears up to prepare a comprehensive report for the General Assembly on virtual schooling, those who opposed a one-year ban on new virtual charter schools are hoping the commission won’t recommend policies that restrict virtual schooling and charter growth.

A review of the iPad in the classroom
Editorial
Marysville Globe, June 26, 2013
Last September we took a look at Marysville’s 10th Street School’s plan to convert to iPads as the central learning device. Every student would have one. Most parents equipped their kids with the devices and school fundraisers covered costs for the rest. It was a local experiment being played out in a scatter of schools across the map.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

Study: Charter schools are improving, but performance still close to public schools

June 27, 2013 By Ted Allen

by Jeanette Rundquist
The Star-Ledger
June 26, 2013

Students in charter schools fared better than those in traditional public schools in some states — including New Jersey — but a majority of charters across the United States still deliver no better education than traditional public schools in reading, and 40 percent are about the same in math, according to a new study released Tuesday by researchers at Stanford University.

The study, which updates a 2009 report and which Stanford researchers described as the largest study of charter school performance in the United States, looked at test scores from 1.5 million charter school students in 27 states or districts, including New Jersey, and compared them with their “virtual twin” students attending traditional public schools.

The study determined that about a quarter of charter schools performed better than regular public schools — specifically, 25 percent did better in reading and 29 percent better in math.

The original study, which looked at charter schools in 16 states, showed only 17 percent of charter schools outperformed traditional public schools in math, and 37 percent fared worse.

“The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average and that charter schools are benefiting low-income, disadvantaged and special education students,” said Margaret Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes at Stanford.

New Jersey is one of 11 states or districts where charter school students’ performance outpaced traditional public schools in both subjects in the new study. The state was not included in the original research.

“It’s not saying 100 percent of New Jersey charter schools are hitting it out of the park,” said Dev Davis, research manager at CREDO. “Overall, they’re doing better than the national picture.”

New Jersey has about 84 charter schools, educating about 23,000 students.

Nationally, there are about 2.3 million students in privately run, publicly funded charter schools, or about 4 percent of the total public school population, according to the study.

Some in education were quick to criticize the study.

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform took issue with the findings, calling the study “extremely weak in its methodology and alarming in its conclusions.”

“No matter how well-intentioned, the CREDO research is not charter school performance gospel,” said Jeanne Allen, president of the center. She said the CREDO study “is based on stacking mounds of state education department data into an analytical process that is decidedly lacking in rigor.”

New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf applauded the findings of the study, which used the same data as a report released on the state’s charter schools in the fall.

“The Center for Research on Education Outcomes’ rigorous, independent analysis of the achievement results of charter schools in New Jersey shows that the results are clear – on the whole, New Jersey charter school students make larger learning gains in both reading and math than their traditional public school peers,” Cerf said in a statement.

Filed Under: CER in the News Tagged With: Charter Schools, CREDO

Daily Headlines for June 26, 2013

June 26, 2013 By The Center for Education Reform

NATIONAL COVERAGE

Judge Considers Tossing School-Cheating Charges
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2013
A conspiracy case stemming from one of the largest school-cheating scandals in U.S. history could be scuttled or drastically diminished if a judge rules that investigators coerced some educators into talking.

Education study gets low marks for poor research
Editorial
The Olympian, June 26, 2013
At the end of the school day, it may not matter so much how a teacher was trained or what university they attended that will make the difference in a student’s life. It’s whether that teacher had the inherent personal qualities to inspire a thirst for learning in young people bombarded with so many enticing distractions. And that’s a subjective quality so hard to measure by a black and white data point.

FROM THE STATES

CALIFORNIA

No reprieve for Oakland Indian charter schools
San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2013
Three controversial Oakland charter schools facing closure this summer failed to win a reprieve from the Alameda County Board of Education on Tuesday night.

DELAWARE

Charter school measure heads to governor’s desk
News Journal, June 26, 2013
A bill aimed at tightening safeguards on charter schools while also giving them more access to state money passed the Senate on Tuesday. Gov. Jack Markell is scheduled to sign the measure today.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Teacher observations can give best insight into effectiveness
Letter
Washington Post, June 25, 2013
Teacher observations are the best way to determine what is happening in a classroom. Principals who routinely observe teachers have a much stronger feel for which teachers are excellent and which ones need support.

David Catania, Marion Barry want to spend extra D.C. revenue on schools
Washington Post, June 25, 2013
D.C. Council members David A. Catania and Marion Barry are pushing to spend more than $40 million of the city’s projected — and unexpected — additional revenue on public education, funds that would be distributed to schools as extra dollars for poor children.

GEORGIA

School board: No to charter school
Brunswick News, June 26, 2013
The Glynn County School Board voted down a start-up charter school petition submitted recently for Valloita Preparatory Academy during its meeting Tuesday.

IDAHO

Meridian School Board votes to revoke North Star’s charter
Idaho Statesman, June 25, 2013
School official said they had agreements to temporarily give North Star Charter School a financial break on its large construction debt while it worked out a long-term plan to meet its obligations.

Teach for America is a step toward privatizing public schools
Opinion
Boise Weekly, June 26, 2013
The Idaho State Board of Education continues to make decisions toward privatizing Idaho’s public schools. In a move by the board on June 20, the Teach For America program was, according to their Facebook post, “approved as a state sanctioned vehicle for the preparation of teachers in Idaho.”

LOUISIANA

Charter schools are giving children a better chance than the old system did
Letter
Times-Picayune, June 25, 2013
Robert Mann’s June 23 column, “Louisiana is walling off schoolchildren from each other,” uses a Frost poem to support his position that “gate-ification of schools” through school choice has done more harm than good. I would argue the true “gate-ification” has come through Louisiana’s failing school system, mired at the nation’s bottom ranks for decades, creating the greatest barrier for students and educators.

Louisiana’s public schools on a long road to improvement
Opinion
Alexandria Town Talk, June 26, 2013
Louisiana public school students made, in most instances, marginal improvement on several fronts in 2012.

MICHIGAN

Pontiac schools taking applications for charter high school board
Oakland Press, June 25, 2013
The Pontiac Board of Education is inviting members of the community to apply to serve on the Public School Academy Board that will provide oversight of Pontiac High School that is in the process of being authorized as a charter high school by the district.

MINNESOTA

State pumps money into early education to close achievement gap
Minnesota Public Radio, June 25, 2013
In a little over a year, many of Minnesota’s youngest students will be spending more time in the classroom.

MISSISSIPPI

Miss. charter school advocates form association
Hattiesburg American, June 25, 2013
Groups that pushed for the passage of Mississippi’s new charter school law have formed an association to promote the schools.

MISSOURI

Charter school closing, but its work will continue
St. Louis Beacon, June 26, 2013
Stephanie Krauss remembers clearly a moment when she saw that her vision for Shearwater, a charter school giving new chances to teens whose education had been interrupted by life, might not work.

Riverview parents demand information about school transfers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 26, 2013
Close to 150 parents and grandparents in the Riverview Gardens School District nearly filled a church sanctuary Tuesday with their hopes set on one goal: transferring their children to higher-performing public schools.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Charter funding: Some small but needed growth
Editorial
Union Leader, June 26, 2013
It is somewhat surprising that $3.4 million in funding for additional charter schools found its way into the new state budget. In the last legislative session there was a big fight over charter schools.

Proposed Nashua charter school up for authorization in July
Nashua Telegraph, June 26, 2013
It’s been more than a year in the making, but the founders of the proposed Gate City Charter School for the Arts will finally have their day in front of the state Board of Education.

NEW JERSEY

Christie says he’ll continue to push tax credit, vouchers not included in state budget
The Record Blog, June 25, 2013
Governor Christie said he expects to sign the Legislative-approved budget for the coming fiscal year in the coming days even though it doesn’t set aside funding for his tax credit or school voucher programs.

NEW YORK

New York City School Chiefs Get Informal Job Checks
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2013
Top administrators at the city’s Department of Education haven’t been subject to formal evaluations during the Bloomberg administration, a break from past practice and an unusual occurrence among school districts across the U.S.

CARES program helps struggling New York City students graduate from high school
New York Daily News, June 26, 2013
Harlem students Moet Fontanez and Terrance Russell were dangerously close to dropping out of school. St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital’s CARES program helped both of these talented teens find their voices—and earn their high school diplomas.

NORTH CAROLINA

Low pay may bring NC teacher shortage
Opinion
News & Observer, June 25, 2013
After flirting briefly with teacher salaries at the national average some years ago, North Carolina has been in a steady decline, to the point that currently the state is 46th in the nation in teacher pay. That’s disgraceful in a state that has long boasted of being more progressive than others in the Deep South and has advertised itself as a place that values education.

Controversial semi-autonomous charter board dropped
News & Observer, June 25, 2013
The main advocate for a semi-independent state board to govern charter schools has dropped the controversial idea in favor of setting up a new charter advisory council.

OHIO

Aurora man indicted on charge of giving kickbacks to charter school CEO
Aurora Record-Courier, June 26, 2013
An Aurora man is among 10 people and 13 firms indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on charges they laundered nearly $2 million from a Cleveland-based charter school.

School choice would get a boost
Cincinnati Enquirer, June 25, 2013
Legislators in conference committee Tuesday approved amendments to the budget proposal that change how schools would be funded over the next two years.

Kasich gets bill to have Columbus schools share tax money with charters
Columbus Dispatch, June 26, 2013
A bill that would allow Columbus schools to share local tax dollars with charter schools is on its way to Gov. John Kasich, who is expected to sign it.

OREGON

Portland Public Schools vs. charters: Agenda 2013
Editorial
The Oregonian, June 25, 2013
Public schools will walk away from this legislative session with a budget that’s either good or very good, but money isn’t everything. Education policy matters, too, and one piece of policy worth following is House Bill 2153, sought by Portland Public Schools. As approved by the House last week, it would allow a handful of school districts to serve as judge, jury and executioner for proposed charter schools.

PENNSYLVANIA

Confusion as state takes over Camden schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
On the day the state took over the Camden School District, teachers protested and board members were perplexed about their new role, while a new interim schools chief offered hopeful remarks.

Charter-school teachers try to unionize in N. Phila.
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
BROTHERS DEREK and Kyjuan Bolling no longer complain about going to Aspira Olney Charter School, and their great-grandmother Jean Bolling gives much of the credit to their teachers.

End teacher seniority rule
Opinion
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 2013
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has proposed ending teacher seniority as part of a set of concessions from the teachers’ union.

TENNESSEE

Metro school board approves four new charters for 2014-15 year
Nashville City Paper, June 26, 2013
The Metro school board spent Tuesday night trying to alter the narrative that the district is hostile to charter schools while easily approving four of six charter applications for the 2014-15 school year.

Memphis-Shelby board rejects charter school applications
Commercial Appeal, June 26, 2013
The unified Memphis and Shelby County school board, praising the work of staff members charged with vetting applications for new charter schools, rejected a long list of them Tuesday.

State’s treatment of teachers is a recipe for disaster
Opinion
The Tennessean, June 26, 2013
I am proud to stand with Tennessee’s teachers, who do fine work despite being some of the worst paid and working in the bottom 10 funded schools in the nation. It’s now time for this administration to stop its continued attack on teachers and restore some dignity to this time-honored profession.

UTAH

Study: Utah charter students learn less than traditional school students
Salt Lake Tribune, June 26, 2013
Utah charter school students learn less than traditional district students over the course of a school year, losing the equivalent of 43 days of math and seven days of reading, according to a new national study.

WISCONSIN

Voucher schools will not be held to same standards as public schools
Wisconsin State Journal, June 25, 2013
In Chris Rickert’s Sunday column, he states that Wisconsin’s 2013 legislative session created a myth that private school vouchers amount to an unaffordable second public school system. He then states that the voucher expansion funnels “state tax dollars into a parallel system of publicly supported private schools.” I believe the second of his statements is the myth.

ONLINE LEARNING

Virtual school gets final state approval
The Recorder, June 26, 2013
A state education board voted 9-1 Tuesday morning to allow Greenfield to run the state’s first Commonwealth of Massachusetts Virtual School for at least three years — officially ending six months of uncertainty about the town’s cyber school future.

Study: Pa. in bottom 3 for charter school scores
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 26, 2013
A national study on charter school performance shows that academic achievement is on the rise nationally among charter school students, but Pennsylvania is not sharing in that success, likely due to students in cyber charter schools.

Pasco pushes its own eSchool to retain student funding lost to Florida Virtual
Tampa Bay Times, June 25, 2013
Despite anticipated budget shortfalls, the Pasco School Board agreed to spend $896,400 this spring to establish a summer program for Pasco eSchool.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

Newswire: June 25, 2013

June 25, 2013 By Ted Allen

Vol. 15, No. 25
Special Charter Research Wars Edition

DON’T LET EM’ FOOL YOU. We’d like to caution Newswire’s readers this week about the release of another national report that uses statistical gymnastics to make spurious comparisons of student achievement in charter schools across state lines. At the stroke of midnight a report on charter school achievement started making headlines across the country. Some accounts were positive, some negative and others called it a “mixed bag.” Regardless, they are all simply wrong.

CREDO REDUX. Prior to its release of the National Charter School Study 2013, The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) produced a series of reports – one national, the others state-based – looking at student achievement in charter schools compared to traditional public schools. CREDO’s 2009 national report, Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States, is the basis for the statement often made across certain media, policy and education circles that only one out of five charter schools succeed.

The 2013 report is broken down into two separate analyses. First, it provides an update on the 2009 report, which reviewed charter school performance in 16 states yet made generalizations about charters nationwide. Second, it examines learning gains across states, schools and nationally using data from 27 total locations (New York City is included as separate data from New York state).

There’s a perception that this report was done based on absolute test scores using apples-to-apples comparisons. Highly criticized by leading researchers and economists for failing to use “gold standard” Randomized Control Trials (RCT) it also fails to address concerns raised by RCT standards.

THE FINE PRINT. Within this CREDO study it is said that, “not surprisingly, the performance of charter schools was found to vary significantly across states.” CREDO recognizes in fine print that there are wide variations in state tests and that they have somehow determined a way to align them for meaningful comparison. That of course begs the question – if it’s that easy to align state tests and results across state lines, why is there a national move for Common Core State Standards and aligned tests?

CREDO’s report also argues that it employs growth data for students to create a picture of student achievement gains – or losses – over time. It attributes the ability to do this with better and more consistent data collected by states. However, it’s not that simple. Page 24 of CREDO’s Supplementary Findings Report demonstrates the conundrum of analyzing groups of data and not individual student data consistently over varying periods of time. For example, CREDO acknowledges that their results include students who have only spent one or two years in charter schools, “not allowing much time for their cumulative impact to be seen.” Much more is of great concern and anyone using this report to make conclusions would be wise to read the fine print before doing so.

‘GOLD STANDARD’ IT’S NOT. CER has argued – echoing highly respected researchers — that the only studies that are valid for understanding and comparing charter school achievement are “gold standard” randomized control studies such as those done by Stanford Economist Dr. Caroline Hoxby, and University of Arkansas’ Dr. Patrick Wolf, to name just two among at least a dozen more. Such studies compare students who were chosen randomly from two pools – students who were chosen by lottery and attend the school of choice, and students who did not attend, but were also in the lottery.

The 2013 CREDO Study takes CER’s previous critiques to account in a side-by-side rebuttal, stating, “The lottery must be random. This is often not true in charter schools, as many schools permit preferences to siblings of current students, children of school founders or staff, or residential preferences for students who live near the school.” Once again we take issue with this statement.

CER has responded in a point-by-point counter response you can find here.

THE NEGATIVE ECHO. The echo from this report is damaging as the results do not accurately convey a national picture. CREDO’s policy prescriptions are even more troubling. Its plans to address what it concludes as uneven student achievement in charters is lacking in any experience in how state policies are written and how they impact actual schools and students. State-by-state and community-by-community analyses are the only true measures to date that offer validity for parents, policymakers and the media to report to make smart decisions about educational choices and outcomes for students. We still believe this is not the detailed study that the charter community needs to assess real progress or lack thereof. Check out CER’s full analysis for helpful talking points.

Filed Under: Newswire Weekly

Process to create charter schools in Maine weak, ineffective

June 25, 2013 By Ted Allen

by Jeanne Allen
Kennebec Journal
June 25, 2013

On Jan. 17, 2001, the Maine Association of Charter Schools met in Bangor to discuss the possibility of creating charter schools here.

It was another decade before the Maine Legislature passed a law to allow charter schools to serve students in need of more options. It soon became clear, however, that the law would not result in significantly more choices for students, but rather preserve the status quo.

Maine’s mechanism for setting up charter schools has proven to be weak and ineffective. This was most recently exhibited in January, when the state charter school commission rejected four out of five charter applicants.

Gov. Paul LePage rightly called the commission’s rejections “a dereliction of duty.”

He also said, “What we are talking about is a commission moving far too slowly and putting political favors ahead of the needs of our children.”

The commission’s parsimonious approval of new schools displayed why Maine epitomizes the wrong way to go about charter school authorization.

A May analysis from the Center for Education Reform, titled “Charter School Authorizers: The Truth About State Commissions,” explains how Maine’s charter school commission has offered no evidence of success.

“[C]harter school commissions, like those currently in place in states like Maine … offer no evidence of success, have been subject to more political oversight and bureaucratic interference than any other chartering institutions, and have shunned many charter applications, even by proven providers, because they employ external consultants who have varying degrees of expertise,” the report said.

What separates independent authorizers from state commissions is their freedom from public entities.

Though approved by the state, authorizers typically do not operate under boards of education and are free from existing bureaucratic frameworks. This means they are able to objectively review charter school applicants without political interference.

The commission in Maine is composed of state appointees with a propensity to establishment interests and no practical experience in actually setting up charter schools.

Since the 2011 charter law was enacted, only two small charter schools have opened their doors to students, with another three finally approved. With those kinds of numbers, it’s no wonder LePage told the commission that Maine needs people “with backbones.”

Although Maine is very homogeneous, most families’ median income is below the national average and 12 percent live in poverty.

While some 83 percent of students graduate on time, high school graduates make up only 34.4 percent of the population; 21.6 percent have some college, 10 percent have a two-year degree and 17.9 percent have a bachelor’s degree.

This is clearly not the picture of a state where education can be ignored, and many young adults lack what is necessary to raise the bar for themselves and their families. Only 32 percent of Maine’s fourth-graders can read at grade level, and only 45 percent are proficient in math.

Those numbers don’t get better for eighth-graders, with only 38 percent proficient in reading and 39 percent in math.

LePage’s bill, L.D. 1529, would have been a bold step in the right direction, by removing the limit on the number of charter schools approved to 10 within 10 years and allowing for multiple and independent charter school authorizers.

LePage is showing that he’s got the backbone to stand up for the students of Maine; it’s unfortunate legislators couldn’t do the same.

The public university in Michigan and the State University of New York network have designated authorizers and have a proven track record of approving quality charter schools.

University authorizers also tend to be more innovative with K-12 curriculums, and often have the necessary infrastructure to oversee successful charters.

In Michigan, this has led to public university authorizers being responsible for the vast majority of the state’s nearly 350 charter schools.

These university authorizers oversee all aspects of approved charter schools, monitoring their compliance with state laws as well as academic performance.

It’s time for Maine legislators to act on this potential, and produce a system that will foster the most amount of opportunity for students.

As far as LePage is concerned, they’re duty bound to do so.

Filed Under: Opinions

Daily Headlines for June 25, 2013

June 25, 2013 By The Center for Education Reform

NATIONAL COVERAGE

Charter schools offer scant edge over neighborhood schools: study (CER in the news)
Reuters, June 25, 2013
Charter schools across the United States have improved in recent years, but on average, they still offer little advantage over traditional public education, according to a new study released on Tuesday.

Charter Schools Receive a Passing Grade
Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2013
Students attending publicly funded, privately run charter schools posted slightly higher learning gains overall in reading than their peers in traditional public schools and about the same gains in math, but the results varied drastically by state, according to one of the most comprehensive studies of U.S. charter schools.

Charter Schools Are Improving, a Study Says
New York Times, June 25, 2013
An updated version of a widely cited study that found many students in charter schools were not performing as well as those in neighborhood public schools now shows that in a few states, charter schools are improving in some areas.

Charters not outperforming nation’s traditional public schools, report says
Washington Post, June 25, 2013
The nation’s public charter schools are growing more effective but most don’t produce better academic results when compared with traditional public schools, according to a report released Tuesday.

The solution to US public schools is not corporate America
Opinion
The Guardian, June 24, 2013
America’s K-12 schools are being hollowed out, dismantled and converted to private management. It’s the ultimate outsourcing of our children’s futures.

America’s mayors take lead on education reform
Politico, June 24, 2013
There’s been a sea change in the education landscape over the past two years, but you won’t see it if you’re looking toward D.C. Instead, look toward our nation’s mayors.

FROM THE STATES

CONNECTICUT

New legislation will put extra pressure on local school districts
West Hartford News, June 24, 2013
Local school districts have mixed reactions to new legislation that will affect how often they evaluate teachers and administrators.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C. school system reduces truancy rate
Washington Post, June 24, 2013
Fewer students were chronically truant this year from the District’s traditional public schools, but absenteeism is still a rampant problem at many high schools, Chancellor Kaya Henderson told the D.C. Council Monday.

Pr. George’s should approve new charter school
Letter
Washington Post, June 24, 2013
As a parent of an incoming sixth-grade student at the newly formed College Park Academy (CPA), I was distressed to read [“Vote on Pr. George’s charter is shelved,” Metro, June 20] that one of the first actions taken by the reconfigured Prince George’s County Board of Education was to table a contract agreement with the charter school, which has already gone through approval processes.

Classroom observations to rate teachers are shifting focus to students
Washington Post, June 24, 2013
The new mandate in Virginia to make student achievement a significant part of teacher evaluations is bringing more than an infusion of test scores. It’s also changing the way classroom observations are conducted.

INDIANA

Funding issues threaten Indianapolis, Gary takeover schools
Indianapolis Star, June 24, 2013
The charter school organization hired to run Indianapolis’ Arlington High School after it was taken over by the state for poor test scores said Monday it might not be able to continue operating the school unless it receives extra aid from federal grants.

LOUISIANA

Charter school academic gains in Louisiana outpace conventional public schools, study finds
Times-Picayune, June 25, 2013
Louisiana charter school students are improving academically at a faster rate than their peers in conventional public schools, according to a major study from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University.

Principals get more control over teacher evaluations
Editorial
The Advertiser, June 25, 2013
An announcement last week by Superintendent of Education John White that principals would be given more authority in evaluating teachers may be a step in the right direction.

Louisiana school to pay Arkansas school to take students
KNOE, June 24, 2013
Louisiana officials plan to pay an Arkansas school to continue accepting Louisiana students.

MAINE

Process to create charter schools in Maine weak, ineffective
Column by Jeanne Allen
Kennebec Journal, June 24, 2013
On Jan. 17, 2001, the Maine Association of Charter Schools met in Bangor to discuss the possibility of creating charter schools here. It was another decade before the Maine Legislature passed a law to allow charter schools to serve students in need of more options.

Local districts shouldn’t bear burden of funding charter schools
Letter
Bangor Daily News, June 24, 2013
Communities have faced funding challenges in recent years as costs rise and state support at all levels shrink. Our local communities have been forced to make hard decisions.

MASSACHUSETTS

target=”_blank”>Ease the charter school choke hold
Opinion
Daily Hampshire Gazette, June 24, 2013
The Amherst school district has had to close a budget gap of $1.6 million for the elementary and regional secondary schools next year. Northampton schools are looking at educational cuts of more than $700,000.

MICHIGAN

Only 20% of Mich. students ready for college
Detroit News, June 24, 2013
Michigan’s high school juniors continue to improve their scores on the ACT college entrance exam and the Michigan Merit Exam, though some MME scores declined from the previous year, state education officials said Monday.

WayPoint Academy school board to keep their school open
Muskegon Chronicle, June 25, 2013
Emotions spilled over at a WayPoint Academy board meeting Monday afternoon where dozens of parents and students expressed anger and sadness over the closure of their charter school.

NEVADA

Nevada students in charter schools shortchanged on learning time, study shows
Las Vegas Sun, June 25, 2013
Nevada’s charter school students lose between six and seven months of learning each year compared with their traditional public school counterparts, according to a Stanford University study released Tuesday.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Excluding religious schools narrows reach of education tax credit
Concord Monitor, June 25, 2013
About 70 percent of scholarship applicants under the education tax credit law sought money for religious schools, and only a small portion of applicants were public school students looking to transfer to private schools.

N.H. NCLB Waiver Passed Over By Feds; State Says Acceptance Is Imminent
New Hampshire Public Radio, June 24, 213
The US department of education announced another round of waivers from the controversial federal education policy, No Child Left Behind, and once again New Hampshire’s application for a waiver has been passed over.

NEW JERSEY

New Jersey budget / Voucher plan dies
Editorial
Press of Atlantic City, June 25, 2013
Democratic legislative leaders did score at least one small victory in their budget “negotiations” with Gov. Chris Christie. The $32.9 billion budget, which lawmakers approved Monday, did not include Christie’s pilot school-voucher program.

NEW MEXICO

Eubank Elementary to get an academic boost
Albuquerque Journal, June 25, 2013
It’s not every day that a principal asks for a turnaround initiative at her own school. But that’s what Christy Sigmon did. Sigmon, who just finished her second year at the helm of Eubank Elementary School, went to associate superintendent Diane Kerschen and said she needed a boost turning around the struggling school.

Establishing a charter school worth trouble
Column
Albuquerque Journal, June 25, 2013
I am often asked by parents and teachers, “How do we start a charter school”? Although I have never started a charter school myself, I have observed a number of folks who have and here is my perspective on what it takes to successfully bring a new charter school to life….

NORTH CAROLINA

NC schools chief warns of teacher losses
Asheville Citizen-Times, June 25, 2013
North Carolina is losing ground in teacher pay and losing teachers to other states, state Schools Superintendent June Atkinson said Monday.

Ensuring the Best Form of School Accountability
Opinion
Carolina Journal, June 25, 2013
Few pieces of education legislation filed this year have been subject to more debate than House Bill 944: Opportunity Scholarship Act. The bipartisan bill would award private school vouchers of $4,200 to a relatively small number of low-income children.

OHIO

Districts double up on superintendents
Columbus Dispatch, June 25, 2013
Five Franklin County districts are getting new superintendents. In three of them — Dublin, Hilliard and Upper Arlington — school boards are paying two leaders at the same time.

PENNSYLVANIA

Reduced busing radius for private, charter schools could save districts money, Parkland officials say
Lehigh Valley Express-Times, June 25, 2013
Pennsylvania school districts are required by state law to provide transportation for students who live within their boundaries, but attend private or charter schools up to 10 miles outside them.

Lakeside’s grads overcame problems to get where they were
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25, 2013
Lakeside is one of those alternative, last-chance schools. It opened in 1976 in Horsham Township at the request of the Montgomery County Juvenile Probation Department.

Poll: Voters would pay higher taxes to avert school cuts
Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25, 2013
Amid widespread concern over school-funding cuts, a majority of Pennsylvania voters would be willing to pay higher taxes to reverse them, a poll released Monday said.

TENNESSEE

More education in computer programming will put students on path to success, advocates say
The Tennessean, June 25, 2013
Children stare at computer screens, their faces tight with concentration, typing numbers, letters and symbols on their keyboards in a seemingly nonsensical pattern.

State board overhauls teacher pay
Murfreesboro Post, June 24, 2013
The Tennessee State Board of Education voted Friday to overhaul the state’s minimum payment requirements for public school teachers.

VIRGINIA

Moving quickly in Norfolk schools
Editorial
The Virginian-Pilot, June 25, 2013
Norfolk public schools’ need for drastic change has been clear for some time.

ONLINE LEARNING

Atlanta Public Schools Selects Blackboard as its First LMS
The Herald, June 24, 2013
Atlanta Public Schools has selected Blackboard Learn™ as its first district-wide learning management system (LMS) after a nine-month evaluation of leading commercial and open-source platforms. The district of 51,000 students will use Blackboard Learn to rapidly expand online classes offered to students and to align all class content with Common Core standards.

Oregon Connections Academy offers 10 tips for summer learning
Statesman Journal Blog, June 24, 2013
Oregon Connections Academy, a virtual school for students in grades K through 12, offered its list of the top 10 activities for exploring the arts this summer:

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

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