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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

In defense of No Child Left Behind
Commentary, Baltimore Sun, September 4, 2013
Just weeks after the U.S. House Republicans made a purely symbolic move to dismantle No Child Left Behind, the law that forces schools to report standardized test scores, standardized testing season hit our household.

School-takeover law staggers as Cuccinelli bows out of fight
Watchdog.org, September 4, 2013
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s decision not to defend Virginia’s school-takeover law signals its imminent demise.

Why Obama should drop U.S. suit opposing school choice
Opinion, Washington Post, September 4, 2013
While President Obama was publicly celebrating the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech last week, his administration took action behind the scenes in Louisiana that was a complete rejection of King’s dream.

STATE COVERAGE

ALABAMA

Most Alabama Accountability Act transfers in-district
Dothan Eagle, September 4, 2013
Numbers released by the Alabama Department of Education show 789 students statewide are taking advantage of the Alabama Accountability Act to transfer out of failing schools, but only a handful of students choosing to leave public schools for private school.

ARIZONA

Legacy superintendent says school will be more careful about attendance
Arizona Daily Star, September 5, 2013
The superintendent of a statewide charter school district said he has taken measures to ensure students are not falsely reported missing.

CALIFORNIA

California accelerates shift in student testing
Los Angeles Times, September 5, 2013
The plan to hasten use of computerized exams would upend LAUSD effort to use scores to evaluate teachers.

Denair schools prep for possible state takeover
Modesto Bee, September 4, 2013
Denair Unified trustees will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Friday to receive a formal notice that moves the district one step closer to a state takeover.

Home-school charter offers alternative for families
Agoura Hills Acorn, September 5, 2013
At the end of every summer, Emily Wells spends several hours reviewing the state education standards and planning her curriculum for the coming school year.

COLORADO

$950 million Colorado school finance measure officially on ballot
Denver Post, September 4, 2013
It’s official: The proposed school finance restructuring known as Initiative 22 will appear on the November ballot, now under the title Amendment 66.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Eight D.C. schools receive planning grants to establish career academies
Washington Post, September 5, 2013
The District has allocated $2.8 million to help city high schools plan for nine new “career academies” meant to help students gain the skills they will need to enter the workforce after graduation, Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced Wednesday.

FLORIDA

Teachers air merit-pay concerns
Column, Florida Today, September 5, 2013
When the Brevard Federation of Teachers surveyed some of its members to get their input on the state merit pay plan, it found that most teachers support merit pay in theory. However, the majority has serious concerns with the current plan.

INDIANA

‘Achievement gap’ shown for at-risk students
Kokomo Tribune, September 5, 2013
More Indiana third-graders are passing the state’s reading proficiency test, but students who live in poverty or don’t speak English as their native language are failing the test at a higher rate than their counterparts.

LOUISIANA

Public school principals, counselors are evaluated in new grading system
Times-Picayune, September 4, 2013
Just as Louisiana public school teachers are being evaluated in a new way, so, too, are principals and school counselors. New data from the state Department of Education show that principals’ scores largely mirror those of teachers, but counselors’ results were more varied.

MAINE

LePage emphasizes Maine education autonomy
Morning Sentinel, September 4, 2013
The governor says there will be no federal overreach into Common Core State Standards.

MICHIGAN

Michigan recovery school district opens 2nd year in Detroit
Detroit News, September 5, 2013
Students in Michigan’s statewide turnaround school district returned to classes Wednesday at 15 buildings across Detroit.

State earning A in education reform
Opinion, Lansing State Journal, September 5, 2013
The truth is, as we head into a brand new school year, Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers in the House and Senate deserve a great deal of praise for getting so much right in the last year.

MISSOURI

Auditor bothered by social promotion in St. Louis schools
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 5, 2013
A state audit of St. Louis Public Schools says the district is violating the law by promoting thousands of students who cannot adequately read to the next grade level.

NEW JERSEY

School vouchers not dead yet, at least in Governor Christie’s eyes
New Jersey Spotlight, September 5, 2013
Teacher evaluation framework for tenure reform hardly a surprise as second priority for education agenda.

NEW MEXICO

Effort, not sour grapes, would advance APS
Editorial, Albuquerque Journal, September 3, 2013
When New Mexico lost out on a share of $133 million in 2012 federal Race to the Top education dollars, nobody in the education establishment cried foul, claimed the fix had been in for the nine winners or wasted time with a round of “poor me.”

NEW YORK

Bronx charter school named in whistleblower suit
New York Daily News, September 4, 2013
Alexis Riley, formerly a project manager at South Bronx Classical Charter, said she was fired for reporting financial and academic improprieties.

Catholic schools provide an outlet for city district
Opinion, Buffalo News, September 4, 2013
No other options seem to exist for these 2,200 children, 90 percent of whom can’t go anywhere this year to escape a failing school despite their parents’ expression of a need for choice.

Charter school probed over special-ed kids who might not exist
New York Post, September 4, 2013
Schools investigators are probing a Bronx charter school for allegedly billing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars for nonexistent special-education kids, The Post has learned.

Educators stunned by Cuomo’s school ‘death penalty’
Newsday, September 4, 2013
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s recent suggestion that failing schools on Long Island and elsewhere should face a swift operational “death penalty” if they don’t shape up has stunned local educators, who say meaningful reforms generally take years to achieve.

NORTH CAROLINA

Low-income parents can apply for private school vouchers next year
Fayetteville Observer, September 5, 2013
Beginning next year, low-income parents can apply for a voucher program that provides state dollars to cover private school costs.

McCrory asks for bonus pay for more master’s-seeking teachers
News & Observer, September 4, 2013
Gov. Pat McCrory asked his state Board of Education Wednesday to guarantee extra pay for all teachers now enrolled in master’s degree programs, something the board chairman said it could not do.

OHIO

Schiavoni wants to tighten charter school rules
Salem News, September 5, 2013
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni plans to introduce legislation to increase greater oversight of Ohio’s charter schools equivalent to what is found in traditional public districts.

PENNSYLVANIA

Can for-profit education rescue Camden’s kids?
Philadelphia Daily News, September 5, 2013
So Morales sees hope when he looks across narrow Pearl Street at the new Camden Community Charter School, its red buildings surrounded by freshly poured white sidewalks and black faux-iron fences. It used to be a vacant lot.

PFT releases new ads, poll on education issues
Philadelphia Daily News, September 4, 2013
THE PHILADELPHIA Federation of Teachers hasn’t just been busy at the negotiating table lately – today, the union is expected to release two new ads, one of which attacks Mayor Nutter and Gov. Corbett because they “failed to lead” in the school-funding crisis.

Schools chief opposes charter school for autistic children
Reading Eagle, September 5, 2013
A Lehigh County group outlined a plan to put a charter school for children with autism in the former Longswamp Elementary School at a recent public hearing in Brandywine Heights High School.

RHODE ISLAND

Please support new charter school
Letter, Valley Breeze, September 4, 2013
As a lifelong Valley Falls community member and the proud parent of one scholar (soon to be two) at Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP) Mayoral Academy, I am writing to support the approval of building a permanent home for BVP’s second elementary school at 52 Broad St., right here in our community.

UTAH

Utah charter schools grades no better than traditional schools
Deseret News, September 4, 2013
Charter schools fared about the same as traditional schools under Utah’s controversial new public school grading system.

Utah’s school grades are opportunity for real reform
Opinion, Deseret News, September 5, 2013
Some schools received F’s, a lot were deemed mediocre, and many children in low-income areas performed poorly.

VIRGINIA

Bedford County School Board to take up school takeover legislation
Roanoke News & Advance, September 5, 2013
The Bedford County School Board is considering giving its support to an effort to oppose new legislation enabling a state entity to take over academically failing schools.

McDonnell says he will vigorously defend school takeover law
Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 5, 2013
Gov. Bob McDonnell said Wednesday that he’s disappointed that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will not defend the statewide school division that McDonnell championed, but that he will vigorously defend the law.

WISCONSIN

Choice a positive in teacher evaluations
Editorial, Sheboygan Press, September 4, 2013
A new state law says school districts must evaluate the effectiveness of teachers and other educators, beginning in the 2014-15 school year. Most districts, however, will conduct pilot runs this year using one of two evaluation models.

Green Bay-area schools adjust to handful of voucher students
Green Bay Press Gazette, September 4, 2013
Most of the 41 students coming into the Green Bay Area Catholic Education system using private school vouchers already are part of the parochial school system.

ONLINE LEARNING

Evaluate virtual schools, don’t shut them down
Opinion, Daily Caller, September 4, 2013
The Kammann family received the letter in June. Just weeks after their daughter Sophia completed her first year in Virginia Virtual Academy as a sixth grader, Carroll County Public School District suddenly announced they would not be continuing their partnership with the online charter.

Fox Chapel Area expands into full-time cyber school
Pittsburgh Tribune-REview, September 4, 2013
Fox Chapel Area School District is putting muscle behind its motto of “anytime, anyplace learning.”

Online charter school helps my child achieve
Column, Orange County Register, September 4, 2013
When my daughter was in third grade, her math grades started to decline. An incredibly bright young lady, she was struggling in subjects she had previously excelled at, and my husband and I grew concerned.

‘Uncertainty’ hangs over virtual school contract delay
The Recorder, September 4, 2013
The Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School is operating without a signed contract with curriculum provider K12 because state officials have not yet approved it — a delay the school’s officials call problematic.

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

Justice Department vouchers suit could threaten state’s school choice report card rank
Times Picayune, September 3, 2013
A national report continues to praise Louisiana’s school choice programs but warns the state’s fourth-in-the-nation ranking — and parents’ power in their children’s education — could be in jeopardy because of a federal lawsuit that could halt vouchers in districts under desegregation orders.

Holder in the schoolhouse door
Op-Ed, New York Post, September 4, 2013
Eric Holder is nothing if not creative. His Justice Department is asking a federal court to block a portion of a Louisiana voucher program that gives poor children a way out of failing public schools.

Michigan ranks 11th in education reform group’s list of ‘parent power’ state
Grand Rapids Press, September 3, 2013
Michigan placed just outside the top 10 on a national education reform group’s annual rankings of “parent power” for making educational choices.

School grading systems: a hot topic around the nation
Deseret News, September 4, 2013
Proponents say that giving public schools A to F grades makes them more accountable and gives parents clear choices. Detractors say the grades tell more about the prosperity of school neighborhoods than the quality of their instruction.

Using bad science to punish teachers
Opinion, Daily Progress, September 4, 2013
The new requirements for No Child Left Behind waivers from the Department of Education have some bad news for America’s teachers. The Obama administration wants states to use standardized tests to not only judge students and schools but now teachers as well lest we lose ground to China. Coincidentally, China this week banned standardized testing in early grades and reduced it thereafter. China, it seems, wants to be more like us.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

More school districts in L.A. County taking less punitive approach to truancy
Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2013
A growing number of school districts and public agencies in Los Angeles County have joined a campaign to take a less punitive and more holistic approach to truancy — and education officials insist it’s paying off.

FLORIDA

Gov. Scott Keeps Tripping Over Florida’s Teachers
Op-Ed, The Ledger, September 4, 2013
The last few weeks have been a debacle for Gov. Rick Scott, who has made winning over Florida’s teachers and parents an important component of his 2014 re-election strategy.

State tax credits helping more families pay for private schools
Daytona Beach News Journal, September 3, 2013
Private schools once were reserved mostly for the privileged few, but not anymore. About half of the students in Flagler County’s private schools use the state’s tax-credit scholarship to pay their tuition.

GEORGIA

Faison blasts DCSS officials over charter denial
Albany Herald, September 3, 2013
Late last month, the Dougherty County School Board voted 3-3 along racial lines to not support the creation of the proposed River School for Children STEM Academy (RSCSA).

School board fights against proposed charter school
WFXL FOX 31, September 3, 2013
A proposal for a locally-run charter school failed to get enough support in a 3-3 vote by the Dougherty County School Board in late August and those involved say they don’t feel like it was the right decision.

INDIANA

Catholic schools get boost from Indiana voucher, but critics remain
WBEZ, September 3, 2013

LOUISIANA

32 percent of teachers ‘highly effective’
The Advocate, September 4, 2013
Nearly one in three public school teachers got the top rating in the first year of Louisiana’s new job evaluations, while 4 percent were labeled as ineffective, officials said Tuesday.

Bossier tops state with 59 percent of its teachers ranking ‘highly effective’
Shreveport Times, September 4, 2014
Bossier Parish teachers are the highest performing in the state, according to data released Tuesday by the Louisiana Department of Education.

New questions raised about charter schools
The Advertiser, September 3, 2013
A Lafayette Parish School Board member is asking for more information about a state partnership involving charter schools.

Tie vote stops minority/majority schools transfers
Avoyelles Today, September 4, 2013
It was great news when the state announced no schools in the Avoyelles Parish system had earned an “F” School Performance Score based on the most recent test scores and none would have to offer the option of school choice.

MARYLAND

Charter school makes changes to lottery process
Maryland Gazette, September 4, 2013
Montgomery County’s only charter school began its second school year last week with new student lottery rules and continued efforts to close its funding gap.

MASSACHUSETTS

Same old charter wars
Editorial, Boston Herald, September 4, 2013
The good news? There are fewer children languishing on waiting lists for a spot at a charter public school in Massachusetts than previously believed.

NEW YORK

Bill de Blasio’s war on good schools
Op-Ed, New York Post, September 4, 2013
Bill de Blasio’s campaign theme is a “Tale of Two Cities.” Yet his pronouncements suggest that, as mayor, he’d create his own tale of two cities: one for families who made the same choice as he did for his child, a district-run public school, whom he’ll support; and another, for families who made a different choice, charter schools, whom he’ll undermine.

Cuomo signs alternative education school bill
The Register Star, September 4, 2013
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill approving the creation of the Columbia-Greene Leadership Academy, the alternative learning program also known as the Bridge.

Mayor Announces Opening Of Truancy Center In Harlem
NY1, September 3, 2013
Instead of focusing on punishing the students for skipping school, the new center will focus on getting kids back on track.

Success Academy attempts to move into IS 59 in southeast Queens
New York Daily News, September 3, 2013
Top-performing charter school chain founded by Eva Moskowitz wants to have 100 schools in the city; Success Academy accused of pushing out poor-performing and special needs students

PENNSYLVANIA

Shaler parents scramble to find child care
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 4, 2013
The Northern Area Boys and Girls Club in Millvale expects to be filled today with students who were displaced from their schools because of the Shaler Area teachers strike.

TENNESSEE

Education funds not being spent wisely
Opinion, The Tennessean, September 4, 2013
These days, virtually every discussion about public education in Tennessee fixates on issues of funding. Tennesseans are continuously told that their schools are among the worst funded in the country and that all that is necessary to fix failing schools is to pour more money into them.

UTAH

Will Utah’s school grading system erode support for public schools?
Salt Lake Tribune, September 4, 2013
Opponents of letter grades for public schools fear privatization; supporters hail new transparency.

VIRGINIA

Cuccinelli declines to defend failing schools law
Washington Times, September 3, 2013
Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II has declined to defend one of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s signature education reform laws in court, saying he agrees with critics that it is unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON

Seattle schools start Wednesday as teachers approve contract
Seattle Times, September 3, 2013
Seattle teachers approved a new two-year contract Tuesday, ending contentious contract negotiations that raised the possibility of the first teachers strike in the city in decades.

ONLINE LEARNING

70 Online offers learning options for all students
Pueblo Chieftain, September 4, 2013
Pueblo School District 70 students have another option for schooling if they’re looking for an alternative.

Indictment should be start of cyber school reform
Letter, Daily Review, September 4, 2013
When a federal grand jury issued an indictment last week against the founder of Pennsylvania’s largest publicly funded charter school, it also, in effect, indicted the Pennsylvania Legislature for ignoring charter school funding reform for years.

Pasco School Board targets cheating in online classes
Tampa Bay Times, September 3, 2013
Florida law now requires students to earn at least one credit online in order to receive a diploma. And Wiregrass Ranch, like most Pasco high schools, has set up a computer lab staffed with aides specifically for students to take virtual courses during the school day.

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

Education solutions from abraod for chronic U.S. school problems
Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 2012
From teach-to-test straitjacket to school disparity, chronic school problems that American schools face are being solved in different ways around the world.

Justice Department bids to trap poor, black children in ineffective schools
Editorial, Washington Post, September 1, 2013
NINE OF 10 Louisiana children who receive vouchers to attend private schools are black. All are poor and, if not for the state assistance, would be consigned to low-performing or failing schools with little chance of learning the skills they will need to succeed as adults.

Justice overreaches
Editorial, Boston Herald, August 31, 2013
Behold the presidential administration of Barack Obama, which can talk out of both sides of its mouth at the same time. In Washington, D.C., it spouts soaring rhetoric in celebration of a transformational moment 50 years ago in the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans; in New Orleans, it asks a federal judge to force black children to stay in failing schools.

Parents make better teachers
Opinion, Press of Atlantic City, September 3, 2013
A recent New York Times story described how some charter schools are now exclusively hiring teachers and principals in their early 20s who work for just two to three years before leaving education. Instead of deploring this trend, charter programs have embraced a pool of eager, young and idealistic college graduates who are willing to work long, grueling hours for low pay and with no promise of a sustained career path.

PAUL: It’s time to extend MLS’s dream to school schoice aspirants and nonviolent offenders
Commentary, Washington Times, August 30, 2013
This week, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.King’s speech ranks alongside the Declaration of Independence and Emancipation Proclamation as one of the most important expressions of American values and aspirations in our history.

Public Education Gets a Revamp
Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2013
Millions of students heading back to school are finding significant changes in the curriculum and battles over how teachers are evaluated, as the biggest revamps of U.S. public education in a decade work their way into classrooms.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Charter schools, traditional public schools should be cooperating
Editorial, San Jose Mercury News, August 31, 2013
From the beginning, the charter school movement was touted as a proving ground for innovations that could eventually improve traditional public schools. But friction between the two types of schools in California has largely prevented that from happening.

Parents key partners at Hope Academy Charter School in Palm Desert
Desert Sun, September 2, 2013
Hope Academy Charter School has operated its main campus in Yucca Valley for three years, but it will now open new campuses in Beaumont, Bloomington and Palm Desert. The latter campus is at the former site of the St. Margaret’s Episcopal School along Highway 74.

School support staff must back charter under bill
San Mateo Daily Journal, August 31, 2013
Legislation that cleared the state Assembly on Friday could make it harder to create charter schools in California by requiring supporters to seek consent from at least some lower-level unionized school employees.

COLORADO

Greeley’s charter schools: Are they reall better for our kids?
Greeley Tribune, September 1, 2013
Which does a better job educating Greeley’s children: charter schools or traditional schools?

FLORIDA

Hillsborough officials say charter schools walk fine line between fees and donations
Tampa Bay Times, August 31, 2013
When it came time for the Hillsborough County School District to renew its charter for Trinity School for Children, officials did so with a list of recommendations.

Principal fulfills dream by starting Emma Jewel Charter Academy
Florida Today, September 2, 2013
Thomas Cole is the first person to greet students when their parents drop them off at school. He is there to initiate a new beginning with each one that attends the new charter school in the most economically depressed area of Cocoa.

GEORGIA

Who’s running Coastal Empire Montessori Charter School?
Savannah Morning News, August 31, 2013
Despite controversy, zealous supporters of the Montessori teaching method helped hasten the opening of the Coastal Empire Montessori Charter School in 2008. Six years later, controversy and impassioned parents are about the only things that have remained constant.

ILLINOIS

Controversy puts charter schools at crossroads
Chicago Sun Times, September 1, 2013
Students at the 21st Century Charter School and Gary Middle College begin the school year Tuesday, a little later than their peers but they’ll return to a freshly built $6.5 million 50,000-square-foot building. It will serve middle and high school students during the day and adults in the evening.

CPS ushering in new performance policy for schools
Chicago Tribune, August 30, 2013
After a dizzying and tumultuous year at Chicago Public Schools, a new performance policy intended to get more help for struggling schools could be the last major change for a while, district CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett assured her troops last week.

INDIANA

Indiana forgives charter school loans
NW Times, August 31, 2013
Many local educators and politicians are calling outrageous a recent law forgiving $91.2 million in loans to charter schools, in light of tight finances faced by public schools across the region and districts that have had to raise taxes to maintain programs and quality teachers. Moreover, they say, they must pay back any loans provided by the state’s Common School Fund.

KENTUCKY

Bill puts charter schools back in spotlight in Ky.
Cincinnati Enquirer, August 31, 2013
The controversial charter school discussion has boomeranged back to center stage in Kentucky.

LOUISIANA

Dyslexia focus of Louisiana Key Academy
The Advocate, September 2, 2013
Just a few steps away from a Piccadilly restaurant, Sarah Reling is working with her second-graders in a new kind of public school.

MAINE

Maine charter schools break new ground
Kennebec Journal, September 3, 2013
The state will have five of the schools when three more open this week, overcoming some continued opposition.

MICHIGAN

Michigan’s new school year brings changes for students, districts
Detroit News, September 2, 2013
More technology and security greet some returning kids; dozens of districts begin with budget deficits

Schools of choice: More than 2,000 Kent County students on the move again
Grand Rapids Press, September 2, 2013
More than 2,000 Kent County students – and the state aid money that follows them – are attending classes outside their home school district this year, according to schools of choice data from the Kent Intermediate School District.

MISSISSIPPI

Reeves nominates 3 for charter school board
Clarion Ledger, August 31, 2013
The final three members have been submitted to Mississippi’s new charter school board.

MISSOURI

Listen to what transferring students and parents say about the schools
Letter, St. Louis post-Dispatch, September 2, 2013
St. Louis has a big opportunity to change its future for the better in the next few months. Imagine what our future could be if there were excellent public schools throughout the metropolitan area — not just in a few St. Louis suburbs. Let’s not let this opportunity pass.

NEW YORK

Expecting the Best Yields Results in Massachusetts
New York Times, September 3, 2013
Conventional wisdom and popular perception hold that American students are falling further and further behind in science and math achievement. The statistics from this state tell a different story.

NORTH CAROLINA

NC teachers might get extension on master’s pay
News & Observer, August 31, 2013
Two Mecklenburg lawmakers say there’s a move afoot to give teachers more time to finish master’s degrees and get the 10 percent pay hike they expected when they enrolled in graduate school.

Voucher game plan
Opinion, News Observer, September 2, 2013
Darrell Allison is a true believer in Opportunity Scholarships, also more properly known as public vouchers for private schools. This is not now and never will be a good idea, and it will harm public education, which is the path the overwhelming majority of parents choose for their children.

OHIO

Charter school once run by Cleveland City Councilman T.J. Dow has court force city to let it stay open
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 31, 2013
The charter school founded and once run by City Councilman T.J. Dow needed court intervention Friday to be able to open for school Tuesday after a permit dispute with the city.

Charter schools’ failed promise
Columbus Dispatch, September 1, 2013
Fed up with persistently poor student results in Ohio’s eight largest urban school districts, Republican state legislators enacted a law in 1997 allowing charter schools to locate exclusively within the boundaries of the “Big 8” systems.

I CAN charter schools directors work to show their model can turn out college-ready kids
Akron Beacon Journal, September 3, 2013
Entering the local arena of public education this fall is Cleveland-based I CAN SCHOOLS, a nonprofit charter school operator that manages five schools in Cleveland and has opened new ones in Canton and at the former Goodyear headquarters in East Akron.

New report card gets ‘F’ for clarity
Mansfield News Journal, September 1, 2013
Charter school critics and supporters alike agree the tough new Ohio report cards are a step in the right direction to raise the bar on charter school quality in the state.

Some inferior charter schools use loopholes to stay open
Columbus Dispatch, September 1, 2013
There is a rule about bad charter schools in Ohio: They can’t stay open if they don’t improve.

OREGON

More days for Oregon students, more pay for Oregon teachers: Agenda 2013
Editorial, The Oregonian, August 31, 2013
It’s not your imagination. Oregon students really do have a longer summer break, and more time off during the school year, than students in most other states.

PENNSYLVANIA

After crisis, Philly students head back to school
Associated Press, September 2, 2013
Such is life in the beleaguered Philadelphia School District, where the severity of layoffs and school closings have made this latest financial crunch unlike any other in recent memory as students get ready to go back to school.

Old Forge teachers strike today
Scranton Times-Tribune, September 3, 2013
Old Forge students’ summer vacation will last at least a day longer, with the Old Forge Education Association to start striking this morning.

Smucker sets sights on charter school reform
York Dispatch, August 31, 2013
State Sen. Lloyd Smucker will take another crack at reforming the charter school system in Pennsylvania – a task that has proven difficult in past years.

With contract expired, teachers’ union will continue talks
Philadelphia Daily News, September 3, 2013
LAST NIGHT’S meeting of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was originally scheduled as a contract-ratification meeting.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Good plan for teacher merit pay
Editorial, Post & Courier, September 2, 2013
Most Charleston County teachers still get raises based on how long they’ve been teaching and whether or not they have advanced degrees.

More than one tax benefit for S.C.’s school-choice credit
Enquirer Herald, September 2, 2013
A new South Carolina tax credit created exclusively to give private-school grants to children with disabilities has another benefit for taxpayers.

Zais will run again, not yet ready to campaign
Morning News, September 2, 2013
Carolina Education Superintendent Dr. Mick Zais announced earlier this summer that he’ll run for re-election next year, but said on a trip to Florence this week that he’s not ready for a switch into candidate mode yet.

TENNESSEE

Gail Kerr: Charter schools need conversations, not conflict
Column, The Tennessean, September 2, 2013
It’s easy, if you’re like me and don’t have kids in Metro public schools, to cover your ears and close your eyes and ignore the tedious ongoing battle between charter school fans and foes.

TEXAS

Smaller districts in Texas counting on flexibility to make school reform succeed
Dallas Morning News, September 1, 2013
Smaller school districts in Texas have long lived by doing more with less, particularly in rural areas.

WASHINGTON

Extra state aid for kindergarten mixed blessing for districts
Seattle Times, September 2, 2013
State-funding for all-day kindergartens may have doubled this year, but finding space for the additional classes is proving a challenge for some districts.

WISCONSIN

State school districts piloting programs to assess teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom
Leader Telegram, September 2, 2013
School districts in Wisconsin, faced with a new mandate to evaluate the effectiveness of teachers and other educators, must make a choice.

ONLINE LEARNING

Cerf’s decision is a setback for virtual schools
Commentary, Courier Post, August 30, 2013
Throughout my years of helping desperate families who have retreated from Camden’s failing schools, where the dropout rate is close to 7 out of every 10 children, I have learned how vital it is for parents to have choices.

Clairton family’s struggle to stay in school
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 2, 2013
James, a high school junior, and Rebecca, an eighth-grader, initially started at Clairton’s cyber school largely because of the 2-mile distance between their residence and the Clairton Education Center.

Cyber school enrollment on rise in Schuylkill County
Republican Herald, September 3, 2013
While most Schuylkill County students went back to school last week, Danielle Sterner can’t wait to start another year of cyber school today.

Detroit area districts plug into digital era with iPads, laptops
Detroit News, September 3, 2013
She’s a student at the Michigan Technical Academy, whose message reverberates in Metro Detroit schools that are easing away from textbooks: There’s an app for that.

Donations from ex-cyber school raise concerns
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 1, 2013
Elected officials who received political contributions from former associates of cyber school pioneer Nick Trombetta — checks referenced in an indictment issued late last month — said last week that they hadn’t known the donations might not be legal.

Funding diverted to online schools
Arizona Republic, September 2, 2013
Less than 4 percent of Arizona students took an online class in the 2011-12 school year, but it’s enough for some school districts to lose millions of dollars in state funding.

In school iPad project, L.A. might need to tap funding for keyboards
Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2013
School district’s $1-billion tablet-for-every-student project could need a further outlay for keyboards.

More online schools on way
Boston Herald, September 2, 2013
Massachusetts is poised to open two more cyber public schools by this time next year, and districts statewide are clamoring to establish their own virtual academies — despite the failing test scores at the one online school we already have.

Some cyber school applicants more of a threat to Greenfield
The Recorder, September 2, 2013
Six groups, including two from western Massachusetts, met a state deadline earlier this month to seek permission to open virtual schools that could compete with Greenfield’s pioneering virtual school.

Teacher earns accolades for role in digital classroom
Desert Valley Times, September 1, 2013
Named the American Board Utah Teacher of the Year, Sara Layton is no stranger to the classroom, but she currently spends her days taking a different approach to teaching.

Tennessee Virtual Academy online school company failing students
Editorial, Knoxville News Sentinel, September 3, 2013
Tennessee’s experiment with online-only learning for grades K-12 is shaping up to be an abject failure.

‘Virtual school’ colud be education’s salvation
Opinion, Ocala Star Banner, September 1, 2013
The Marion County Virtual School is a modern technology the school system could use to introduce efficiency into the system and thus increase productivity.

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

Charter School Results Set High Bar for Public Schools
Huffington Post, August 29, 2013
KIPP Empower Academy hasn’t been around for very long but it has already made a name for itself.

Crushing school choice
Editorial, Washington Times, August 28, 2013
The White House has taken Louisiana’s poorest schoolchildren and crushed their hopes for a better future. Citing rules meant to end racism, the Justice Department last week asked a federal judge in New Orleans to slam shut the door on minority kids, ensuring they remain trapped in failing schools.

Education reform is strengthened at home
Column, Washington Post, August 29, 2013
Call me an ingrate. I complained last week that promotional materials for Saturday’s commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington didn’t mention education. At the event, a few individuals — the National Urban League’s Marc Morial and the American Federation of Teachers’ Randi Weingarten — did call attention to the need for quality schools. I remain unsatisfied. No one set a course that would lead the masses to that expressed goal.

Teacher-Training Schools Face Tougher Accreditation Standards
Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2013
Teacher preparation programs will have to raise admission standards and ensure graduates are boosting the achievement levels of elementary and high-school students to earn national accreditation, according to a revamp of the process adopted Thursday.

The High Turnover at Charter Schools
Letters, New York Times, August 30, 2013
Re “At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice” (front page, Aug. 27): Thank you for shedding light on the appalling turnover rate for teachers at many charter schools.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Academic performance drops statewide, but L.A. Unified Improves
Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2013
L.A. Unified posts the second-highest gain in academic performance among California’s 10 largest school districts.

API scores: Only about half of LA Unified charters meeting state performance goals
California Public Radio, August 29, 2013
For decades, charter schools have been held out as one of the great hopes of public education — private institutions funded with taxpayer dollars, but free from some of the strictures that saddle traditional public schools.

STREAM Charter School, OCESD prepare for next steps
Mercury-Register, August 30, 2013
It was a long night Wednesday for the Oroville City Elementary School District board and dozens of citizens focused on a proposed new charter school, but in the end the school prevailed.

FLORIDA

Education reform at a crossroads in Florida
Editorial, Brandenton Herald, August 30, 2013
This week’s education summit should compel Gov. Rick Scott to provide resolute leadership on reforms else he fail the test that he himself wrote in asking dozens of legislators, superintendents, parents and business leaders to come up with recommendations.

Lawmaker files bill to stop Common Core
Herald Tribune, August 29, 2013
In the wake of conservative complaints that the nationwide “common core” standards could be the first step toward a federal takeover of schools, a Republican lawmaker has filed a bill meant to stop the initiative in Florida.

Manatee superintendent backs Rowlett charter plan
Herald Tribune, August 29, 2013
School Superintendent Rick Mills plans to recommend to the School Board an approval of the magnet school’s application to become a charter operation.

HAWAII

Kihei Charter rated low; student proficiency high
Maui Weekly, August 29, 2013
The Maui News – Although its students achieved high reading, math and science proficiency scores, Kihei Charter School’s low, 51 percent on-time graduation rate dropped it to the bottom 5 percent of schools statewide under the public schools’ new Strive HI Performance System.

INDIANA

Indiana leaders create panel to review school assessments following grade-changing scandal
Associated Press, August 29, 2013
A panel of teachers, principals and superintendents will be tasked with rewriting Indiana’s school grading system in the wake of a grade-changing scandal that benefited a Republican donor’s school, state leaders announced Thursday.

LOUISIANA

School voucher program in trouble again
Editorial, The Advertiser, August 30, 2013
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the school voucher program beginning in the 2014-2015 school year in parishes under desegregation orders. The movement of students can — and has, in some instances — upset the racial balance in schools, making them noncompliant with desegregation plans.

MICHIGAN

Bay City Academy charter school enrolls 470 students, opents new Farragut campus
Bay City Times, August 29, 2013
For 11-year-old Mackenna Rau, Bay City Academy is the right school. And she’s not alone.

Some schools sell themselves in silly, superficial ways
Column, Bridge Magazine, August 29, 2013
Back to school shopping in Michigan takes on a whole new meaning in this era of free market school choice.

MISSISSIPPI

Same on officials who won’t get in trenches, fight Common Core
Opinion, Clarion Ledger, August 30, 2013
In a recent Clarion-Ledger report on education, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves questioned the timing of the inquiry into Common Core standards by myself and my colleagues in the Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition.

NEW JERSEY

Choice Schools
Editorial, The Record, August 30, 2013
GENERATIONS OF New Jersey children grew up attending the public school nearest their home. That’s just the way things were.

NEW YORK

Charter schools dreams undaunted
Queens Chronicle, August 29, 2013
With two applications rejected in recent years, one could forgive Carl Clay for being apprehensive about asking the state for a charter school that would be run by his Black Spectrum Theatre Company.

Common Core’s welcome wakeup call
Opinion, New York Daily News, August 30, 2013
This week, the plummeting test scores New York announced earlier in the month became real for thousands of families — including mine — when we received our children’s individual results online. In April, New York became the second state to test students according to the new, more rigorous Common Core standards that have been adopted by 45 states.

Pinnacle’s reopening as district school raises issue of whether students will be better off
Buffalo News, August 29, 2013
Pinnacle Charter School, shut down by the state last week, will reopen as a Buffalo public school, with district staff members who have been laid off getting the first chance at any jobs at the reconstituted school.

Protest over no busing as private schools open
Newsday, August 29, 2013
Many Long Island parents whose children enter private and parochial schools next week are protesting a lack of public-funded busing during the first days of class.

Success Academy parent’s secret tapes reveal attempt to push out special student
New York Daily News, August 30, 2013
The Upper West Side Success Academy charter school has touted itself for not trying to push out kids with special needs or behavior problems, but a parent has audio to the contrary.

NORTH CAROLINA

Graduation rates paint pictures of successes and struggles
WRAL, August 29, 2013
Seven years ago, fewer than half of the students enrolled in Lexington City Schools graduated within four years.

Stalled charter school losing students
WECT, August 29, 2013
Just days before classes are set to start, SEGS Academy, a new charter school in Columbus County, still doesn’t have the permits required to hold classes.

OHIO

The lack of overall grades in new state report cards poses a new challenge for high-performing charter schools and Cleveland’s Transformation Alliance
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 29, 2013
A stack of signs advertising the Entrepeneurship Preparatory School (E-Prep) as “Rated Excellent!” sits in the school’s office. Once destined to be posted on lawns to attract potential students, they’re now destined for the trash.

PENNSYLVANIA

C’mon teachers. There’s some room to give
Column, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 30, 2013
SOME PEOPLE might stop speaking to me after this column appears. One of them may be my sister.

TENNESSEE

Dickson County Schools look to close gaps in minority education
The Tennessean, August 29, 2013
Director of Schools Dr. Danny Weeks reported at the school board’s monthly meeting last week that the Dickson County school system was one of 96 school districts out of 136 in the state that fell within the “In Need of Subgroup Improvement” status.

Supporters protest ‘hostility’ toward charter schools
The Tennessean, August 29, 2013
Nashville charter school supporters called in reinforcements from Washington, D.C., Thursday to help protest the hostility they claim Metro officials show toward charters.

TEXAS

State may revoke charter of closed Houston school
Houston Chronicle, August 30, 2013
After a series of financial problems, a small north Houston charter school shut down just before students were scheduled to return this month.

WISCONSIN

Local Democrats want voucher accountability
WXOW, August 30, 2013
La Crosse’s State Senator is one of the Democrat voices calling for more accountability to the newly extended voucher program.

WEST VIRGINIA

Helping Children At Risk of Failure
Editorial, Wheeling Intelligencer, August 30, 2013
Apparently the absence of some useless federal regulations makes some hearts grow fonder of them. No one should lament the demise of “No Child Left Behind,” the decade-old federal school improvement law, however.

ONLINE LEARNING

Baldwin County will expand Digital Renaissance to kindergarten
The Hunstville Times, August 30, 2013
The Baldwin County school board voted Thursday night to expand its Digital Renaissance program all the way down to kindergarten.

Michigan students to have many options for online learning this school year
Detroit Free Press, August 30, 2013
The school year that begins Tuesday for an estimated 1.5 million Michigan public school children will represent the most substantial expansion of online education in Michigan, giving students more choices than ever in deciding how they want to take their classes.

Virtual high school coming to CMS soon
Charlotte Observer, August 29, 2013
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will roll out a virtual high school as early as this year, Superintendent Heath Morrison told the school board this week.

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

50 Years After King’s Dream — Time to Wake Up
Column by Kevin P. Chavous
Huffington Post, August 28, 2013
As our nation steps back to reflect upon the March on Washington and famous speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we all must challenges ourselves to question our nation’s progress.

Do Teachers Need to Have Experience?
Opinion, New York Times, August 28, 2013
The conventional wisdom has always been that schools and students need experienced teachers committed to a career in education. But many charter networks are depending on young, inexperienced teachers who quit after only two to five years.

The NYT Is Asking the Wrong Question About Rapid Turnover at Charter Schools
The Slate Blog, August 28, 2013
Motoko Rich has a very interesting piece in the New York Times about the rapid turnover at charter schools compared with traditional public schools, where the average teacher has about 14 years of experience as opposed to the two to five years you’ll find at charter schools.

ALABAMA

Accountability Act draws lawsuit
Montgomery Advertiser, August 29, 2013
A state senator, a county schools superintendent and the president of the Alabama Education Association have filed a state lawsuit seeking to have the controversial Alabama Accountability Act derailed and ruled unconstitutional.

CALIFORNIA

Making room for charter students
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2013
When voters passed Proposition 39 in 2000, they surely had no idea of the headaches it would cause Los Angeles schools. Most Californians probably never even noticed the wording about providing space for charter schools, and if they did, they had little idea of what a charter school was.

OCESD approves STREAM charter
Mercury-Register, August 29, 2013
After more than three and a half hours of public input and attorney advice, the Oroville City Elementary School District trustees had still not decided whether to approve or deny a petition for a new charter school.

COLORADO

School district’s voucher program parallels national effort
Our Colorado News, August 28, 2013
Douglas County Schools’ effort to overhaul the district is in sync with proposals put forth by a conservative, national political organization that many believe advances an education-privatization agenda.

INDIANA

MCS buildings could be sold for $1
Star Press, August 29, 2013
If Muncie Community Schools decides to close a million-dollar school building it could be sold to a charter school for $1. Yes, you read that correctly.

ILLINOIS

Chicago school board approves budget
Chicago Tribune, August 28, 2013
Teachers union, parents criticize $6.6 billion spending plan; district officials blame cuts on lack of pension reform

LOUISIANA

Education activists remain unresigned to post-Katrina changes
Times-Picayune, August 28, 2013
On a significant date in New Orleans education and civil rights history, about 40 people gathered to reaffirm their opposition to the post-Hurricane Katrina education revolution that fired all the city’s teachers, swept most of the schools into the state Recovery School District and turned all but a handful into largely independent charter schools.

Louisiana’s first charter school closes, files for liquidation
Times-Picayune, August 28, 2013
Louisiana’s first charter school, which closed at the end of the 2012-13 academic year, is now coming apart in court. Jefferson Community School’s board of directors voted in December to close the school, and earlier this month its organizers, the Jefferson Coalition for Alternative Schools, officially filed for dissolution and liquidation in the 24th Judicial District Court.

MAINE

Portland charter school gets permit, will open on time
Portland Press Herald, August 28, 2013
After two failures, Baxter Academy passes its third inspection, meaning it will open with 135 students next week.

MARYLAND

New charter school touts successful first week
Frederick News Post, August 29, 2013
Frederick Classical Charter School opened its doors to students for the first time Aug. 19, a long-awaited accomplishment for the county’s school choice advocates.

MICHIGAN

Teachers’ window for leaving union is closing
Editorial, Detroit News, August 29, 2013
The month of August is coming to an end, and that means Michigan teachers who have decided to bow out of their union need to do so ASAP. Under the state’s new right-to-work law, teachers now have this option. Certainly their unions won’t remind them of that.

MINNESOTA

Minnesota School of Science families scramble to find schools
Twin City Daily Planet, August 28, 2013
A week before the school year kicked off at many metro locations, leaders of the recently evicted Minnesota School of Science officially announced that they would not reopen in a new location. The phone call to families last week was another pothole for the parents of more than 300 North Minneapolis students, some of whom had hoped to continue at the charter this fall.

MISSISSIPPI

Charter schools hold potential for students
Opinion, Hattiesburg American, August 29, 2013
As a strong supporter of charter schools, the Black Alliance of Educational Options takes issue with those who suggest charter schools are schemes and that they can become segregated institutions.

MISSOURI

Bill Threaten’s Teachers’ Jobs
The Missourian, August 28, 2013
Teachers across Missouri have spoken out against House Bill 253 after the Missouri National Education Association, AFT-Missouri and the Missouri State Teachers Association released an analysis showing that House Bill 253 would jeopardize the jobs of thousands of Missouri teachers in public schools throughout the state.

Schools struggle with state standards
St. Louis American, August 29, 2013
Several St. Louis school districts struggled with the state’s new accreditation standards, according to the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) 5 results released Friday.

NEVADA

Charter school brings private education feel to tough neighborhood
KTNV Las Vegas, August 28, 2013
This school year, one of the most desirable schools in the Valley is located in one of the least desirable neighborhoods — a neighborhood struggling with drugs, prostitution, and homelessness. But Innovations International Charter School is settling in to zip code 89104.

NEW JERSEY

Paterson superintendent wants to give parents choice in elementary schools
The Record, August 29, 2013
Paterson Superintendent Donnie W. Evans said he wants to give parents citywide more say in which elementary schools their children attend, starting in September 2014.

Pooling schools
Editorial, The Record, August 29, 2013
NEW JERSEY, which already has 603 school districts — it has only 566 municipalities — should be trying to bring more districts together, not break them apart.

NEW YORK

Red tape, remodeling delays at new school for at-risk kids
WNYT, August 29, 2013
State legislation authorizing a new academy for at-risk kids is not scheduled to reach the governor’s desk until the day before the school year begins, while the building itself will not be remodeled in time for the start of classes, NewsChannel 13 has learned.

NORTH CAROLINA

NC teachers: Low pay forces some from profession, state
WRAL, August 29, 2013
More than 1.5 million students returned to school across North Carolina this week, but not all teachers decided to come back as well.

OHIO

Cleveland’s Early College high school is highest-scoring in region on state report cards
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 28, 2013
The highest-scoring school in Northeast Ohio on state tests isn’t in Solon or Beachwood or some other well-off suburb. It’s in the Cleveland school district.

State’s school-choice chief married to Kasich’s chief of staff
Columbus Dispatch, August 29, 2013
The Department of Education has hired the husband of Gov. John Kasich’s chief of staff to a new position that will oversee the expansion of school choice in Ohio.

OKLAHOMA

Large gap between Oklahamo’s education goals and current academic reality
Editorial, The Oklahoman, August 29, 2013
LAST week’s Greater Oklahoma City Chamber “State of the Schools” luncheon highlighted the vast gap between Oklahoma’s education aspirations and current academic reality.

PENNSYLVANIA

Charter school parents protest bus stop action
Pittsburgh Tribune Review, August 29, 2013
Clairton City school board on Wednesday approved a transportation plan that reduces the number of city bus stops for charter school students from three to one, despite the protests of parents.

It’s do or die for York City schools
Editorial, York Dispatch, August 28, 2013
This is a do-or-die school year for the district, which just six months ago faced the very real possibility of becoming a charter school system — the very thing that helped contribute to the financial crisis now facing the district.

Let’s put students’ needs ahead of teachers’ seniority and dollar desires
Opinion, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 29, 2013
EXCEPTIONALLY devoted teachers should be celebrated. Instead, many of them are shoved out the door based upon a belief in the Philadelphia public-school system that seniority should always trump job performance.

Mayor, school district say union call to forgo raises falls short
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 29, 2013
The Philadelphia teachers’ union on Wednesday said it would recommend that its members take a one-year pay freeze and make cost-saving changes in health benefits – a proposal that was quickly condemned by both the school district and Mayor Nutter as vague and woefully inadequate.

New Upland charter set to open doors
Delaware County Times, August 28, 2013
Wilson moved to Upland at the beginning of the summer, but the charter’s expansion to the borough made it an easy decision for her to keep Zykel Buckley-Bolds enrolled at Community Charter for fifth grade.

Nutter offers ‘streamlined’ plan to sell 31 buildings
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 29, 2013
The Nutter administration on Wednesday announced a detailed, multifaceted plan to sell or find new uses for 31 of the School District of Philadelphia’s closed school buildings.

Tracking our school-tax dollars
Editorial, The Tribune-Democrat, August 29, 2013
It’s unfortunate that state legislation apparently is needed to assure that taxpayers are being kept abreast of where their school-tax dollars are being spent.

Urban Pathways appeal could impact statewide charter school funding
Pittsburgh Business Times, August 28, 2013
Four appeals filed by Urban Pathways Charter School with the Pennsylvania Department of Education against Pittsburgh Public Schools could impact how charter schools are funded throughout the state.

TENNESSEE

Charter schools fight grows uglier
Column, The Tennessean, August 29, 2013
Last week the street fight between the education reform crowd in Nashville and the Metro Nashville Public Schools bureaucracy went nuclear, when Schools Director Jesse Register announced that, to wit:

TEXAS

House Bill 5: Changes for Texas High Schools
KGNS, August 28, 2013
The state is making some changes to our high school educational system particularly with a new bill that goes into effect this year. Valerie Gonzalez explains what changes students and parents can expect in the classroom.

WASHINGTON

Seattle teachers step up push for settlement of contract talks
Seattle Times, August 28, 2013
With their contract set to expire Saturday, Seattle teachers remained at odds with the school district over a number of key issues.\

WISCONSIN

Argument for vouchers is weak here
Editorial, Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, August 28, 2013
Wisconsin’s controversial school voucher program is being rolled out, and in the last week or so we have had our first look at the numbers of students applying from local schools.

ONLINE LEARNING

Education quality
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 29, 2013
Regarding the Aug. 27 editorial “Virtual Indictment: How Pa. Regulates Charter Schools Is on Trial, Too”: The recent allegations against Nicholas Trombetta and Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School expose the urgent need to pass a comprehensive reform of Pennsylvania’s public charter schools.

Going to school, from the privacy of your home
The Daily Mining Gazette, August 28, 2013
Public education in the 21st century involves an expanding use of technology, and that includes an increase in online learning.

Imagine School gives students laptops
Herald Tribune, August 28, 2013
Tuesday evening was one of the rare occasions when students wanted to be at school after hours.
Imagine School, located off of Toledo Blade Boulevard, began handing out laptops to its high school students.

Mt. Morris, Atherton schools open new alternative academy in former Van Y Elementary School in Burton
Flint Journal, August 28, 2013
A re-purposed Burton elementary school will now house a virtual academy for at-risk students through a partnership between the Atherton and Mt. Morris school districts.

Virtual school lets school offer more honors classes
Mt. Airy News, August 29, 2013
Students remember concentrating on staying in the lines while coloring. Mount Airy High School is thinking outside of the lines in collaboration with the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics to provide a variety of advanced classes normally out of reach for a small school.

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

Legal challenge from Obama contends Louisiana vouchers collide with integration efforts
The Advocate, August 27, 2013
For decades, education activists have argued that giving families a choice about where they send their children to school will improve public education for minority and low-income students. Now that idea is colliding with an even older strategy for improving education among the historically underserved: racial integration.

School vouchers give power to parents and kids, not the system: James Varney
Opinion, Times-Picayune, August 27, 2013
If Howard Fuller is on the scene, it’s a reasonably solid bet that it is ground zero in the fight for choice in public education. Tuesday found Fuller in Amite City.

Some school districts quit healthier lunch program
Associated Press, August 27, 2013
After just one year, some schools around the country are dropping out of the healthier new federal lunch program, complaining that so many students turned up their noses at meals packed with whole grains, fruits and vegetables that the cafeterias were losing money.

STATE COVERAGE

ALABAMA

Alabama working to avoid NCLB waiver pitfalls
Dothan Eagle, August 27, 2013
Alabama education officials are working to ensure the state’s schools don’t hit the same speed bumps other states have hit on developing their alternatives to the No Child Left Behind Act’s accountability measures.

ARIZONA

Imagine sees enrollment hike after ALA decision
TriValley Central, August 28, 2013
After the American Leadership Academy, a newly constructed charter school located in Florence-Anthem, was denied their appeal to open its K-6 charter school as an alternative in Florence, parents and their students were left to pick up the pieces and find another school in a short period of time.

CALIFORNIA

Release of L.A. teachers’ performance ratings delayed by judge
Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2013
After earlier ruling that performance ratings of L.A. teachers must be made public, judge agrees to delay during district appeal.

CONNECTICUT

Hartford Board OKs 2nd Achievement First Charter School
Hartford Courant, August 28, 2013
After hours of debate, the city school board voted Tuesday night to allow the Achievement First charter organization to open a second elementary school in Hartford.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

McDonnell: School takeover law is constitutional, to be vigorously defended
Washington Post, August 27, 2013
Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday that the state Supreme Court may have to decide whether the state can take over poorly performing schools, but he’s confident a key part of his education reform package would be upheld.

FLORIDA

Stalemate means 12,000 Orange teachers must wait for raises
Orlando Sentinel, August 28, 2013
Millions of dollars in teacher raises are on the line in Orange County as tensions flare between two key players — school district negotiator Scott Howat and teachers union president Diana Moore.

IDAHO

Otter: Restore $82.5 million for schools
Idaho Statesman, August 28, 2013
Idaho’s governor sets a five-year goal for implementing an education task force’s proposals.

ILLINOIS

CPS to vote on budget amid rally, boycott of schools
Chicago Tribune, August 28, 2013
Just past the heightened scrutiny over security and school consolidations brought on by the first day of school, Chicago school officials will vote Wednesday on a $5.58 billion budget that promises teacher and program cuts and has generated additional criticism.

INDIANA

New Indianapolis school embracing immigrant families
Fox 58, August 27, 2013
Just like our country can be a melting pot of different cultures, a new Indianapolis charter school is embracing kids from all over the world.

School voucher doesn’t guarantee quality
Northwest Times, August 28, 2013
Parents who use school vouchers must do what’s right for their children, but don’t automatically assume a private school is better without doing your homework.

MICHIGAN

Teacher evaluations can’t be an unfunded mandate
Opinion, Detroit News, August 28, 2013
Professional educators know all too well the shortcomings of the current process of evaluating their work. It is a system frequently lacking in consistency. While in some districts it’s done well, in others it’s not.

NEW JERSEY

Jersey City charter school has room to grow in new Heights location
Buffalo News, August 27, 2013
The METS Charter School opened a new chapter in its short history yesterday morning when officials cut the ribbon on a new home in the Jersey City Heights.

Newark Teachers Get $1.3 Million in Performance-Based Bonus Checks
WNYC, August 27, 2013
More than $1.3 million in performance-based bonus checks are being issued to 190 teachers in Newark, N.J.

NEW YORK

Pinnacle Charter School hoping court order will allow on-time-opening
Buffalo News, August 27, 2013
Supporters of Buffalo’s Pinnacle Charter School have vowed to continue fighting to keep the beleaguered school open.

Success Academy school chain comes under fire as parents fight ‘zero tolerance’ disciplinary policy
New York Daily News, August 28, 2013
The charter school chain Success Academy is being criticized for its high suspension rate, as parents complain that special-needs kids are pushed out and students are being denied due process.

Teacher Tenure Rate Dips Slightly
WNYC, August 27, 2013
Three years after the city made it harder for teachers to get tenure, just over half the number of teachers who were eligible in the 2012-2013 school year received the job protections. Just three percent of teachers were denied tenure outright, while the rest will stay on probation until another tenure review next year.

NORTH CAROLINA

First day of school for new charter high school
WBTW, August 28, 2013
Horry County’s first state-funded charter high school was scheduled to start back Monday but a faulty fire alarm panel pushed that to Wednesday.

Traditional and charter schools compete in Columbus
WECT, August 27, 2013
Two charter schools opening next week in Columbus County are appealing to different ages and types of students, but they have at least one thing in common – they’re impacting traditional public schools.

OKLAHOMA

Janet Barresi: Let’s give every teacher a $2,000 raise
Opinion, Tulsa World, August 28, 2013
When I decided to run for this office, I did it because I believe we can improve Oklahoma’s schools and give Oklahoma children a better start in life. The evidence shows we’re steadily advancing that goal: Our schools are getting better, and our students are achieving more.

PENNSYLVANIA

Phila. School District, teachers union still at odds
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 28, 2013
With two important deadlines looming, the Philadelphia School District on Tuesday reported little progress in getting $103 million in concessions from the teachers’ union – givebacks it says are key to shoring up a financial bailout plan that includes money from the state.

UTAH

Greene looking to alter election of school board candidates
Daily Herald, August 27, 2013
Rep. Brian Greene is looking to up the level of participation the general public has in the election of the state school board.

WASHINGTON

Seattle Public Schools warns parents to prepare for possible teacher strike
Seattle Times, August 27, 2013
School district officials emailed and called parents Tuesday, saying that the district and teachers still have not reached an agreement on a new teachers contract. In a vote Monday, teachers rejected the district’s latest contract offer.

WISCONSIN

State moves to bar 4 schools from voucher program, remove another
Journal Sentinel, August 27, 2013
Four new private schools trying to receive taxpayer dollars through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program this fall have been barred from participating because the state considers them financially insolvent, according to preliminary orders issued this week.

ONLINE LEARNING

Enrollment in Hernando eSchool likely to double this year
Tampa Bay Times, August 27, 2013
Thirteen-year-old Jenny Marty spent six years in the Hernando County School District’s brick-and-mortar classrooms before leaving for the virtual ones.

LAUSD launches its drive to equip every student with iPads
Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2013
Two elementary schools — Broadacres in Carson and Cimarron in Hawthorne — roll out the tablet computers. Some question if they will help learning.

Rainier charter school set to offer online courses
Longview Daily News, August 27, 2013
Rainier’s North Columbia Academy charter school is going digital this fall. The Rainier School District set aside $13,000 of the charter school’s funds to start the online school, which is open statewide to students from seventh to 12th grade starting Sept. 4.

St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland embraces digital learning by providing students with computers
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 27, 2013
When St. Joseph Academy’s school year begins Sept. 3, all 675 students will have their own laptop computers to use in class, to take tests, and to study at home.

State oversight lacking
Letter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 28, 2013
The allegations against Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School founder Nick Trombetta (“Feds charge Pa. cyber school founder with 11 counts of fraud, conspiracy,” Aug. 24 and TribLIVE.com) can best be described as disgraceful.

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

Biggest Changes in a Decade Greet Students
Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2013
Millions of students heading back to school are finding significant changes in the curriculum and battles over how teachers are evaluated, as the biggest revamps of U.S. public education in a decade work their way into classrooms.

Federal lawsuit over voucher program perplexing
Editorial, American Press, August 27, 2013
The federal government’s decision to sue the state of Louisiana over its implementation of its school voucher program befuddles.

Holder vs. Martin Luther King Jr.
Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2013
Give Eric Holder credit for cognitive racial dissonance. On nearly the same day the Attorney General spoke in Washington to honor the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, his Justice Department sued to block the educational dreams of minority children in Louisiana.

Study: waivers leave behind at-risk students
Associated Press, August 27, 2013
Millions of at-risk students could fall through the cracks as the Education Department gives states permission to ignore parts of No Child Left Behind, according to a study education advocates released Tuesday.

U.S. Dept. of Justice Moves to Halt Vouchers in Some La. Districts
Education Week Blog, August 26, 2013
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed papers in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans to prevent the state of Louisiana from providing school vouchers in districts operating under desegregation orders.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Millenium Charter opens after much anticipation
Monterey County Herald, August 26, 2013
Among the crowd of students who looked ill at ease as they waited for the new school to open, a small group stood out. They chatted like old friends, cracking jokes and hugging late arrivals.

COLORADO

James Irwin among 15 new charter schools statewide
Colorado Springs Gazette, August 26, 2013
Demand was high enough – with some 200 on the waiting list at one point at James Irwin Charter Elementary School at 5525 Astrozon Blvd. – for organizers to form a second K-5 school.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

At Cardozo school, high hopes for a cultural transformation to match physical one
Washington Post, DC, August 26, 2013
Headlines have carried bad news about the District’s Cardozo Senior High for decades, directing attention to its low graduation rates, fistfights and shootings. But this year, as it opened Monday as the renamed Cardozo Education Campus, school officials are determined to reinvent the school.

Gray, chancellor help ring in school year
Washington Times, August 26, 2013
More than 80,000 students headed back to school in the District on Monday, but it was a bumpy start for a few of them after two early morning school bus accidents.

FLORIDA

Duval school district looking to meet class size across schools
Florida Times Union, August 27, 2013
After paying the highest penalty in Florida for not meeting class-size requirements last year, Duval County Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says his new plan means the school district won’t pay nearly as much this year.

LOUISIANA

2 EBR schools may face state takeover
The Advocate, August 26, 2013
Two Baton Rouge public schools are moving closer to possible state takeover this fall, and the East Baton Rouge Parish school system may go to court to stop that from happening.

For some New Orleans students, school choice means pre-dawn bus pickups
Times-Picayune, August 26, 2013
When Jenny Joseph brings her two boys to their bus stop in eastern New Orleans at 5:50 a.m., it is still dark outside — but she says the hour-and-a-half bus ride to school is well worth it.

Volunteers drive charter schools’ success
Letter, Times-Picayune, August 26, 2013
Re: “State cites New Beginnings for violating open-meetings law, ” Metro, Aug. 21. As a community, we should applaud those who volunteer to serve on public charter school boards. These individuals give time away from their professions and families in an effort to improve our education system.

MAINE

Maine schools putting their heads together to improve
Portland Press Herald, August 27, 2013
State education experts are highlighting promising practices to use as models for other schools.

MASSACHUSETTS

Chicago opens new school year: Will it be less testy than the last?
Christian Science Monitor, August 26, 2013
With 48 schools closed (and two more set to close), some 12,000 students had to find their way to new schools, sometimes through dangerous neighborhoods. Budget cuts and controversy over teacher evaluations loom, but the top concern is safety of students in transit.

MICHIGAN

Inkster students shop for new schools after district’s demise
Detroit News, August 27, 2013
That’s because more than 900 Inkster children were displaced after state education officials dissolved the insolvent Inkster Public Schools in July.

NEVADA

Silver State Charter School back with renewed focus on academics
Nevada Appeal, August 26, 2013
Superintendent Steve Knight said students come to the school for an array of reasons, from failing out of traditional schools to excelling beyond the typical pace.

NEW JERSEY

Legislation revived to ban fees for school extracurriculars
Press of Atlantic City, August 26, 2013
A state assemblyman plans to reintroduce a bill that would prohibit school districts from charging students to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities.

NEW MEXICO

Charter schools a good option
Opinion, Albuquerque Journal, August 27, 2013
With a new school year beginning, it is a good time to review information about public charter schools in New Mexico.

NEW YORK

At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice
New York Times, August 27, 2013
Tyler Dowdy just started his third year of teaching at YES Prep West, a charter school here. He figures now is a good time to explore his next step, including applying for a supervisory position at the school.

Days before classes start is too late for state to close Pinnacle Charter
Opinion, August 27, 2013
It seems the State Education Department could learn a little about careful management, too. Acting swiftly after court decisions in its favor, the state is moving to close Pinnacle Charter School in Buffalo. Classes were to begin a week from Wednesday. School officials got their notice only last Friday.

Test Scores Hit Home for Parents, Kids
Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2013
Michael Reilly would tell parents who cornered him on the streets of Staten Island, on the YMCA ball field or at the local Costco not to worry, to take their children’s latest state test scores with a grain of salt. The bar was raised, and students wouldn’t do as well this year by design, he told them.

NORTH CAROLINA

Charter school enrollment up as school year begins
WECT, August 26, 2013
It’s back to school for thousands of children in our area. This is the first year we’re starting to see the results of the state’s move to allow more charter schools. There are dozens of new charters across the state, including 5 in our area.

OHIO

New charter school targets dropouts
WKBN, August 26, 2013
The latest charter school looking to open in Youngstown is taking a different approach by focusing on young people who have dropped out and now want to go back and get their diploma.

Some local charter schools are among state’s best charters, according to state report cards
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 26, 2013
Northeast Ohio has some of the state’s charter school stars, according to the new state report cards.

OKLAHOMA

School execs frown on Barresi’s call for pay raises
Muskogee Phoenix, August 27, 2013
Area school administrators say they would have to pay the bill for State Superintendent Janet Barresi’s call for a $2,000 teacher pay raise.

PENNSYLVANIA

2 school plans, 2 gambles
Philadelphia Daily News, August 27, 2013
TWO WEEKS ago, Mayor Nutter and City Council President Darrell Clarke promised to get the school district $50 million in new money – the bare minimum to ensure schools will open on Sept. 9.

A ‘D’ in civics
Philadelphia Daily News, August 27, 2013
AMERICAN Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has entered the Philadelphia fray over the school budget crisis.

Fickle funding formula
Editorial, The Intelligencer, August 27, 2013
Charter schools are playing an increasingly critical role in the education of Pennsylvania students K-12. In fact, some 6 percent of students statewide — about 119,000 overall — now attend publicly funded charter schools. And another 44,000 are on waiting lists.

Pa. education secretary ousted over allegation
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 27, 2013
Acting Pennsylvania Education Secretary William Harner resigned Monday at the request of Gov. Corbett, after a background check unearthed a past allegation of “inappropriate conduct.” In a terse statement, Corbett said he asked for and received Harner’s resignation. The governor did not give a reason.

TENNESSEE

Harwell seeks AG opinion on charter school law funding issue
The Tennessean, August 27, 2013
Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell says she’s seeking the opinion of the state’s attorney general on questions posed by a Metro Nashville Public Schools attorney on the constitutionality of the state’s charter school law.

TEXAS

AISD’s first homegrown charter school promises real life lessons
KVUE, August 26, 2013
The students and staff are the same at Travis Heights elementary this year, but the first homegrown in-district charter school has undergone several changes before welcoming students back to class.

Charter schools need right niche, better to oversight
Editorial, Beaumont Enterprise, August 27, 2013
State investigators said that a Houston charter school spent money on Broadway shows, cruises and other questionable items. The Texas Education Agency investigated the Varnett School in 2011, but didn’t release the results until last week. The school’s founder also employs family members who sit on its board too.

WASHINGTON

Helping school dropouts find way back to diploma
Editorial, August 27, 2013
A high school diploma means a lot, but most students don’t realize that until after they’ve dropped out of school.

Test scores flatline as Common Core looms
News Tribune August 27, 2013
Test scores for Washington students may have reached a plateau, state education officials said Monday. And pushing through to the next level — as well as helping students meet higher standards coming soon — will require a greater public investment, according to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn.

WISCONSIN

Wausau Will Stop Using Seniority, Education As Basis For Teacher Raises
Wisconsin Public Radio, August 26, 2013
The Wausau School District is moving away from using seniority and education as the basis for salary increases for its teachers.

ONLINE LEARNING

Miami-Dade Online Academy Lets Students Take Classes on Their Own Time
NBC 6 South Florida, August 26, 2013
The online academy allows students to literally be at school wherever they can take their laptops. It also lets them go at their own pace, which is often accelerated.

Virtual indictment: How Pa. regulates charter schools is on trial, too
Editorial, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 27, 2013
But it is not too early to see that the policies governing charter schools in Pennsylvania created a climate where it became too difficult to figure out who was paying whom, and for what.

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NATIONAL COVERAGE

Alabama Accountability Act’s parental choice is an extension of the civil rights movement
Opinion, The Huntsville Times, August 25, 2013
In 1965 I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma. Forty five years later I marched with almost 6,000 low income parents in Tallahassee. How are these events related?

America’s kids need a better education law
Commentary, Washington Post, August 25, 2013
The nation’s most sweeping education law — the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, better known as No Child Left Behind — is outmoded and broken. Congress has gone home for its summer recess without passing a responsible replacement.

DIGITS: 8 in 10 rate their child’s teachers highly
Las Vegas Sun, August 25, 2013
Parents across the United States have a lot of love for their children’s teachers. So says a new survey of parents whose children completed kindergarten through 12th grade in the past school year.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Even odds (4 part series)
San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2013
African American boys in Oakland are more likely to miss school, be suspended, not graduate on time or be incarcerated than any other students.

When given choice, new trumps old
The Desert Sun, August 24, 2013
At neighboring schools, such as Cathedral City, the opening of Rancho Mirage High School has been met with apprehension. That’s in part because of the CIF’s “school of choice” policy, which creates situations comparable to opening Pandora’s Box.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

DC charter school officials consider ranking preschools based on kids’ test scores
Washington Post, August 25, 2013
Charter school officials in the District of Columbia are proposing to rank preschools based largely on reading and math test scores for children as young as 3.

FLORIDA

Charter schools a growing trend
Herald Tribune, August 26, 2013
With charter school enrollment booming across Florida, nine groups are seeking to capitalize on the trend by opening new charters in Southwest Florida.

ILLINOIS

Rewarding success at CPS
Editorial, Chicago Tribune, August 26, 2013
Monday, the first day of classes, marks the close of an agonizing, frustrating summer for Chicago Public Schools. It has been a summer dominated by often-harsh clashes over spending cuts and closing schools. So it’s probably no surprise that something very good, very positive, didn’t get a lot of attention last week.

Some Rockford-area private schools buck fewer-students trend
Rockford Register Star, August 26, 2013
The largest private schools in the Rockford area lost about 850 students since 2008 and only a handful are seeing enrollment rebound in recent years.

INDIANA

Charters face same challenges traditional schools do
Opinion, Indianapolis Star, August 24, 2013
I would like to correct assertions made in Patrick J. Wiltshire’s letter about unfair advantages given to charter schools.

KENTUCKY

JCPS task force to tackle creation of Louisville’s 1st public boarding school
The Courier-Journal, August 25, 2013
Jefferson County Public Schools is embarking on what could be its most ambitious proposal yet for raising the academic levels of the district’s most disadvantaged students — the possibility of opening public boarding schools.

LOUISIANA

Parents not deterred by school’s F
The Advocate, August 25, 2013
Two weeks ago, parents at Career Academy in Baton Rouge received a three-page letter in the mail alerting them that their children were attending an F school, and consequently, would have the option of going elsewhere.

U.S. government sues to block vouchers in some Louisiana school systems
Times-Picayune, August 25, 2013
The U.S. Justice Department is suing Louisiana in New Orleans federal court to block 2014-15 vouchers for students in public school systems that are under federal desegregation orders. The first year of private school vouchers “impeded the desegregation process,” the federal government says.

MAINE

Percentage of students tested key to grades
Portland Press Herald, August 26, 2013
The state’s new A-F report card for schools gives undue weight to test participation, some educators say.

MASSACHUSETTS

The next step in education reform
Editorial, Swampscott Reporter, August 24, 2013
Massachusetts now leads the nation in public K-12 education, but there is more to be done, especially for the state’s neediest students in its toughest neighborhoods. By building on what we’ve already learned about turning around failing schools, we can bring quality public schools to every corner of the commonwealth.

NEVADA

Power of school choice
Opinion, Las Vegas Sun, August 26, 2013
With students across Nevada returning to school this month, it’s important to make sure that they are getting the best education possible, tailored to their needs and interests.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

It’s not a voucher program, but if offers NH parents real choice
Opinion, Nashua Telegraph, August 26, 2013
Advocates for putting the interests of the public school establishment ahead of the broader public goal of ensuring an educated populace continue to employ the tactics of propagandists. Case in point: Bill Duncan crows that “Lack of interest from public school families and from business results in a small voucher program.”

Scrap NH’s school vouchers
Opinion, Nashua Telegraph, August 26, 2013
How is it that New Hampshire’s voucher tax credit program can find only 15 public school students who want vouchers? And is giving them $164,000 – $11,000 apiece – to leave their public schools and go to private schools.

NEW JERSEY

Newark’s Merit-Pay Plan Begins
Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2013
Newark, in a first for a large New Jersey public-school system, has given out bonuses of up to $12,500 to its highest-rated teachers, inaugurating a controversial merit-pay program being watched across the nation.

NEW MEXICO

Plugging a knowledge gap
Albuquerque Journal, August 25, 2013
The report also shows that New Mexico high schools vary widely in the percentage of graduates who enroll in remedial classes.

NEW YORK

State to close Pinnacle Charter School less than two weeks before classes start
Buffalo News, August 25, 2013
Parents of 560 students in kindergarten through eighth grade are in the dark about where their children will attend school this fall after the state Education Department announced plans to close Buffalo’s Pinnacle Charter School less than two weeks before classes were scheduled to start.

Teachers, students, parents excited about charter school
Utica Observer Dispatch, August 25, 2013
Longer hours, a smaller salary and a six-day workweek. That might not seem like a dream job for some, but the 12 teachers hired for the Utica Academy of Science Charter School can’t wait to start.

OHIO

Charter schools’ state report cards: Failing
Canton Repository, August 24, 2013
Of the 40 letter grades awarded to local charter schools on the new state report cards, more than half were F’s.

New crop of charter schools opens doors
Columbus Dispatch, August 26, 2013
About a third of the new charter schools set to open this fall in Ohio are opening in Columbus.

OKLAHOMA

Debate over school standards gets serious
Norman Transcripts, August 26, 2013
Efforts are building to block tougher, nationally uniform academic standards from taking effect next year in Oklahoma’s public schools.

PENNSYLVANIA

$5M in tax credits to help fund York charter school expansion
York Dispatch, August 23, 2013
An award of $5 million in new market tax credits will help the York Academy Regional Charter School expand to educate students through eighth grade.

Bill would boost transparency for school labor contracts
The Tribune-Democrat, August 24, 2013
State Rep. Fred Keller, R-Union, is looking for support for a bill that would require school boards to be more open with the public about the terms of proposed union contracts before the labor agreements are finalized.

Crisis requires union action
Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 25, 2013
Other than the children, there are no innocents in this city’s inability to avert a funding disaster in its public schools.

Nicholas Trombetta’s unique charter school saved town of Midland
Pittsburgh POst-Gazette, August 24, 2013
Nicholas Trombetta’s frustration over having to bus high school students from Midland, Beaver County, to East Liverpool, Ohio, prompted the former Midland superintendent to create a cyber charter school.

School Lane questions charter school funding formulas
PhillyBurbs, August 26, 2013
As Gov. Tom Corbett renews his push for comprehensive charter school reform, charter school operators across the state are pursuing millions of federal dollars they say they should have been paid under state law.

RHODE ISLAND

R.I. school official: NECAP results won’t be used in grading teachers this year
Providence Journal, August 25, 2013
The state Department of Education has temporarily suspended the use of student progress on the NECAP test as part of its teacher evaluations, an education official confirmed Sunday.

TENNESSEE

MNPS attorney: Tennessee’s charter school law is unconstitutional
The Tennessean, August 24, 2013
An attorney for Metro Nashville Public Schools says the decade-old state law that allows charter schools to operate in Tennessee is unconstitutional, perhaps giving local school districts a basis for a major legal fight.

VIRGINIA

Held back: VA charter schools lag as other states move ahead
Watchdog.org, August 22, 2013
Republicans support them. Democrats like them. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all embrace them. So why does Virginia keep getting F’s on charter schools?

WASHINGTON

Commission OKs rules on charter schools
The Olympian, August 26, 2013
Washington officials are preparing to solicit applications for the state’s first charter schools, issuing guidance this week on how schools will be authorized and evaluated.

WISCONSIN

Argument for vouchers is weak here
Editorial, Wausau Daily Herald, August 25, 2013
Wisconsin’s controversial school voucher program is being rolled out, and in the last week or so we have had our first look at the numbers of students applying from local schools.

Changes on horizon as Waupun charter school enters 2nd term
Font du Lac Reporter, August 24, 2013
With a year under their belt, Waupun school officials are hoping to build on the success of the state’s first agriculture/environmental-themed charter school.

ONLINE LEARNING

Cyberschools Grow, Fueling New Concerns
New York Times, August 25, 2013
The number of full-time cyberschools serving Texas public school students will double in the coming school year despite a history of lackluster performance and a new law limiting the number of online courses that public school students are allowed to take at the state’s expense.

(Cyber) school is in session Florida Virtual School, other online options benefit self-motivated students
Highlands Today, August 25, 2013
Online options for education are becoming more and more well-known in the digital age. While most higher learning institutions offer online classes and even fully online degrees, there are options for the K-12 segment as well.

Fed, state probes target largest charter schools
Philadelphia Inquirer blog, August 25, 2013
The founder of Pennsylvania’s largest cyber charter school was arrested by federal authorities for allegedly funneling millions through front companies into his personal bank account.

Few high school juniors on course to meet state mandates
News Press, August 26, 2013
Not enough juniors in Lee County public schools have completed an online course they need to graduate, which could create a bottleneck for the state-mandated courses.

Online Classes Begin for Hayfield Tomorrow
KAAL-TV, August 25, 2013
While many kids in the area are preparing for their first day of school tomorrow, a young Hayfield boy is preparing for a different type of school, and has an organization in his hands.

TN virtual school hits bottom, gets reprieve
WBIR-TV, August 25, 2013
Students at the Tennessee Virtual Academy, an online school run for profit, learned less than their peers anywhere else in Tennessee last year, data released by the state last week show, but efforts to crack down on the school have been delayed by heavy lobbying on its behalf.