Daily Headlines for July 23, 2012
Improving Our Schools
New York Times, NY, July 23, 2012
The common core standards movement seems to be common sense: Our schools should have similar standards, what students should know at each grade.
Is Education on the Cusp of a Turnaround?
Huffington Post, July 22, 2012
Americans continue to lose faith in their public schools, a Gallup poll reported recently. Less than a third of Americans said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in schools.
There Is No Magic Bullet In School Reform
Sun Journal, ME, July 22, 2012
It isn’t being easy being a teacher these days. Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of public school teachers have lost their jobs nationally; the exact number is hard to pin down, but it’s large — and probably unprecedented since public school became compulsory.
Momentum Behind Ed Reform
Coeur d’Alene Press, ID, July 22, 2012
What do Oklahoma , South Dakota , North Carolina and Georgia all have in common? They’re all following Idaho ’s lead in education reform, as are a number of other states. But this specific sampling came forward during the recent meeting in Coeur d’Alene of state school superintendents to unite in their determination to ditch the status quo in public education and ring in a new era of learning.
FROM THE STATES
ARIZONA
Back To School: No Shortage Of School Type, Options In Arizona
East Valley Tribune, AZ, July 22, 2012
Parents will find few states that offer families as many schooling options as Arizona does. A longtime leader in the national school choice movement, Arizona has an education marketplace with a school for just about any income, interest or situation. And nowhere in the state do options abound like they do in the East Valley .
Education ‘Reprieve’ A Benefit For State, Area
Mohave Daily News, AZ, July 23, 2012
State officials say the decision by the U.S. Department of Education to let Arizona out of some federal No Child Left Behind requirements removes a heavy burden from state schools.
DELAWARE
Charter School Needs Better Steering
The News Journal, DE, July 21, 2012
A year after escaping a state order shutdown due to financial mismanagement, Pencader Charter Business and Finance High School remains in dire need of critical budgetary and administrative oversight.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
To Help Special-Ed Students, Improve Public Schools
Washington Examiner, DC, July 22, 2012
As The Examiner reported last week, parents of 1,100 special needs D.C. students enrolled in private schools are being pressed to return their children to their neighborhood public schools. Some are being informed that the District will no longer pay their tuition and transportation costs.
THE 3-MINUTE INTERVIEW: Robert Cane
Washington Examiner, DC, July 21, 2012
It’s the 20th anniversary of the nation’s first charter schools opening in Minnesota and the 16th anniversary of public charters setting up shop in the District of Columbia. Now, charters enroll 41 percent of the District’s public school students, for a rate second only to that of New Orleans . We caught up with Cane, the executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a charter advocacy group.
Politics Could Torpedo D.C. Schools’ Incipient Progress
Washington Post, DC, July 22, 2012
With the power back on, vacation coming and the Nationals in first place this summer, it is easy to forget our troubles — particularly something as removed from most of our lives as the perilous state of the D.C. schools.
FLORIDA
Charter-School Management Firm Will Pay Lee County School District After Audit Finds Errors
News-Press, FL, July 23, 2012
Accelerated Learning Services, the management company that owes the Lee County School District hundreds of thousands after an audit revealed errors, plans to repay the money.
Odyssey Battling Brevard Public Schools
Florida Today, FL, July 23, 2012
The courts may soon decide whether Odyssey Charter School in Palm Bay can replicate its popular “green school” program.
ILLINOIS
CPS Finds Few Wins After School Reform Legislation
Chicago Tribune, IL, July 23, 2012
Law’s new limits on teachers union hasn’t aided contract talks or halted threat of strike
LOUISIANA
Tough Rules For Vouchers
The Advocate, LA, July 23, 2012
Do results matter? That’s the question that should be on the mind of Education Superintendent John White as the state sets accountability standards for tuition vouchers for private and parochial schools.
Louisiana Voucher Program A Challenge For Special-Needs Families
Alexandria Town Talk, LA, July 22, 2012
Louisiana’s new statewide school voucher program promises parental choice in education, but parents of children with special needs likely will have to give up some services if they accept publicly funded vouchers to attend most participating private and parochial schools.
MAINE
Charter School Plan For Hinckley Gets Good Grade
Kennebec Journal, ME, July 22, 2012
Public schools should try to serve every student, but everyone knows that’s not always possible. Maine’s dropout rate alone shows that no matter how hard teachers try, some students fall through the cracks.
Grass Roots Effort To Lead Cornville Charter School
Portland Press Tribune, ME, July 23, 2012
The board of directors of what will be Maine’s first elementary charter school are regular people with regular jobs.
MASSACHUSETTS
A Blueprint For Change For Troubled School Systems
Boston Globe, MA, July 23, 2012
There’s a coherent plan in place to improve the Lawrence public school system, which was plunged into state receivership last fall after many years of deep dysfunction.
MICHIGAN
Senate Candidate Clark Durant Paid More Than $500,000 By Cornerstone Schools
Detroit Free Press, MI, July 23, 2012
If Clark Durant is successful in his race for the U.S. Senate, he’ll have to take a huge pay cut.
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Makes Careful Progress On Charter Schools
Star-Ledger, NJ, July 22, 2012
It’s good news for the charter school movement that acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf has taken a smart, careful approach to expansion.
Fine Print: Charter School Performance Framework
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, July 23, 2012
The state Department of Education last week released a 23-page checklist for all new charter covering academic, financial and other operations. The framework sets standards on everything from how well students must fare on state tests to financial data on how much debt a school is carrying.
NEW MEXICO
Teachers Want Real Reform, Not Slogans
Albuquerque Journal, NM, July 23, 2012
As a union of professional educators, we have been accused of protecting the status quo. We have been accused of resisting reform.
NEW YORK
The Numbers Show Our Kids Can Thrive
New York Daily News, NY, July 23, 2012
When looking at the statistics for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund and Success Academy Charter Schools, two public education efforts in New York City — one a supplement to the system, the other a constellation of charter schools — we see how well things can be done by leaders and teachers who make themselves indispensable to their young charges.
Mayor Bloomberg: Stop Closing Schools, There’s A Better Way
New York Daily News, NY, July 22, 2012
While the fight over closing schools may be hotter than the weather this summer, the evidence shows that this is not a strategy that works to help all New York City kids get the education they deserve. Yet Mayor Bloomberg has adopted it with a single-mindedness that makes no sense. He has closed more than 140 schools since he took control of the city’s school system in 2002.
Charter-School Envy
New York Post, NY, July 23, 2012
The Success Academy Charter Schools, which I run, are criticized for taking advantage of Mayor Bloomberg’s policy allowing us to use excess space available in the buildings of district-run schools.
More Teacher Evaluation Plans Filed With State
Newsday, NY, July 22, 2012
Teacher and principal evaluation plans are slowly trickling in to the state education department as the summer wanes. Five more Hudson Valley school districts have submitted teacher and prinicipal evaluation plans to the state, for a grand total of 31 of 94 districts in the six-county region.
Syracuse’s Charter Schools Make Higher Marks Than City’s Public Schools
Post-Standard, NY, July 23, 2012
The Southside Academy Charter School in Syracuse didn’t take any chances with the state’s standardized tests this past year.
OHIO
Cleveland’s Education-Reform Plan
National Review Online, July 23, 2012
Twenty twelve has not been a banner year for teachers’ unions. From California to Illinois to New Jersey , unions across the country have been threatening strikes, combatting legislation, and kindling protests in response to attempts by governors to reform their states’ public-education systems.
2.8 Million School Absences Erased
Columbus Dispatch, OH, July 22, 2012
Columbus City Schools officials wiped 2.8 million student absence days off the district’s computers during the past 51/2 school years, with some key officials responsible for tens of thousands of deletions.
OREGON
State, Schools Must Make Good On Waiver
Statesman Journal, OR, July 22, 2012
A dramatic change is under way in Oregon’s public schools. They have gained the federal government’s blessing to run education the Oregon way instead of following the one-size-fits-all edicts of the old No Child Left Behind Act.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter Gamble Is No Sure Bet
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, July 22, 2012
The School Reform Commission may be taking too big a gamble by investing $139 million in charter-school expansions when there is evidence that many charters perform no better than traditional schools academically, and the lack of adequate regulation has birthed charters that misspend taxpayer dollars.
State Should Fix Charter Funding
Scranton Times-Tribune, PA, July 23, 2012
Federal investigators said last week that raids by the FBI, IRS and the Department of Education at Beaver County offices of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and several related entities were not aimed at the school itself.
Philadelphia Schools Plan To Spend Big On A Reform Fantasy
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, July 23, 2012
Philadelphia has its own far-fetched story line this summer. It’s about a school district that, even though it’s so cash-strapped it can’t afford summer school, decides to spend $139 million over the next five years for an education reform strategy that won’t improve student achievement. And $38 million of that is to be spent this year.
New Pennsylvania Teacher Evaluation Process Coming In 2013
Times Herald, PA, July 22, 2012
When Pennsylvania’s state budget was approved on the last day of June, an additional bill was signed into law that will, for the first time in more than 40 years, dramatically alter the methods for evaluating teachers.
Parents Worry About Future at New Hope
York Daily Record, PA, July 22, 2012
Cynthia Murray’s son, Brandon, will start his senior year at New Hope Academy Charter School this fall. She’s a little afraid that he’ll get started and then have the rug yanked out from under him at some point in the school year.
Charter Schools Seek Revisions To State Funding Forms
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, July 21, 2012
With charter schools already costing Pittsburgh Public Schools more than $47 million a year, school officials are concerned about a charter school challenge that, if successful, could cost the district more than $2 million a year.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Will New Teacher Evaluations Help Teachers And Students Measure Up?
Argus Leader, SD, July 22, 2012
Whether the state’s voters and teachers like it or not, South Dakota is preparing to make student test scores a big part of teacher evaluation.
TENNESSEE
Blount Group Withdraws Public Charter School Bid
Knoxville News Sentinel, TN, July 21, 2012
A group trying to bring the public HOPE Academy charter school to Blount County says it is giving up its effort for the 2013-14 school year, and instead says it will push for a private STEM-focused school.
Report Aims To Bring Fairness To Teacher Evaluations
The Tennessean, TN, July 22, 2012
It’s not that Tennessee public school teachers don’t want to be evaluated. They do. But they want the evaluations to be fair.
Feedback And Flexibility Can Help Boost Schools
Knoxville News Sentinel, TN, July 22, 2012
The Tennessee Department of Education has proposed common-sense changes to the state’s teacher evaluation system that should make the scoring fairer for the teachers and improve the quality of the annual reviews.
WASHINGTON
Charter Schools: Can They Send More Kids To College?
Seattle Post Intelligencer. WA, July 20, 2012
Voters will again decide this year whether they think charter schools can improve high-school education in Washington state.
Can We Ever Turn Talk Into Action?
Daily Herald, WA, July 23, 2012
Does anyone seriously believe that we have the ability to make a significant change in the way we fund, organize and operate the K-12 educational system in this state? It would be nice not to be so pessimistic here, but realistically we have political, organizational and operational factions that have not and will not come together to seriously straighten out this mess.
WISCONSIN
Raising the Bar Right Approach
The Northwestern, WI, July 22, 2012
If there was any hesitation, a moment of doubt, about the wisdom of adopting tougher standards for Wisconsin schools, the answer came through loud and clear from students themselves: Challenge us.
ONLINE SCHOOLS
Partnership Encourages Districts To Launch Their Own Cyber Schools
Tribune Democrat, PA, July 22, 2012
In an effort to help school districts recoup money and keep students in the district, two local parties have recently teamed up to offer districts the ability to launch their own cyber schools.
Report Criticizes Online Schools’ Student Outcomes
Winston-Salem Journal, NC, July 23, 2012
A report released last week shows that students enrolled at K12 Inc., an online school company linked to a nonprofit group in Cabarrus County, are falling behind in reading and math scores compared with students in traditional brick-and-mortar schools.
New Utah Arts Charter School Will Offer Mix Of Class Time, Online Study
Salt Lake Tribune, UT, July 23, 2012
Most charters strive to offer an experience that differs from traditional schools.