Daily Headlines for August 8, 2011
After School Reform March, Teachers Question What’s Next
CNN, August 5, 2011
From Race to the Top to “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” Americans have been talking about public education reform — and arguing about how to do it.
Overriding a Key Education Law
New York Times, NY, August 8, 2011
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override the centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law, that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
NCLB Waiver Should Be Granted, Goals Made More Realistic
Knoxville News-Sentinel, TN, August 8, 2011
Tennessee might be the first state to seek a waiver from the performance standards of the No Child Left Behind Act, but it likely won’t be the only state to do so.
Nation Needs To Change The Way Student Achievement Is Tracked, Measured
Las Vegas Sun, NV, August 8, 2011
The Clark County School District last week was placed on a watch list of districts that have failed to achieve standards set under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The New Teachers
Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2011
When teachers unions make it next to impossible to fire bad instructors or close the worst-performing schools, it’s obvious students aren’t their primary concern. Now a new study suggests unions are opposing education reforms that an increasing number of their members support.
FROM THE STATES
ARIZONA
Success of BASIS Charters Brings National Attention
East Valley Tribune, AZ, August 6, 2011
When Olga and Michael Block established the first BASIS charter school in Tucson in 1998, they did so with the intention to expect more from students than what was being asked of them.
CALIFORNIA
Peace Pact Emerges In War Over California’s Charter Schools
Sacramento Bee, CA, August 7, 2011
When the 2011 legislative session began, it was assumed that many of the Capitol’s long-running interest group conflicts would resume – and they did.
Jerry Brown’s Charter Schools in Oakland Reap Big Donations
Los Angeles Times, CA, August 8, 2011
Energy companies, telecommunication interests and Indian tribes are lining up to write checks, as are unions and Sacramento lobbyists. ‘This is definitely the new fad in influence peddling,’ one watchdog says.
Trend Toward Charters Makes For Competitive School Market
Auburn Journal, CA, August 8, 2011
Although charter schools provide competition to traditional public schools, some parents say they enjoy the flexibility these schools offer their children.
Charter Schools Gaining Momentum In Valley, Statewide
Desert Sun, CA, August 7, 2011
A new school designed for abused or abandoned children is the latest among a growing number of charter schools that have opened or plan to open in the Coachella Valley.
COLORADO
School Choice Is The ‘Civil Rights’ Issue Of The 21st Century
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO, August 5, 2011
It is often difficult to feel optimistic about the future of liberty. Those of us who value individual liberty and free markets look only at the encroachment of government in our lives. We often overlook the victories that should give us hope for the future of liberty. The school choice movement is one of the most important fights in the future of liberty, and one that we are starting to win.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Huge Achievement Gaps Persist in D.C. Schools
Washington Post, DC, August 6, 2011
The gulf in academic achievement separating public schools in the District’s poorest neighborhoods from those in its most affluent has narrowed slightly in some instances but remains vast, an analysis of 2011 test score data show.
FLORIDA
Jacksonville Charter School Options Expand, Offer Specialized Focus
Florida Times-Union, FL, August 7, 2011
Duval County is adding five more charter schools this year, giving parents more options throughout the county, from Baymeadows to the Westside to Arlington.
Public Education Losing out to Vouchers
St. Augustine Record, FL, August 8, 2011
Get accustomed to the increasing use of vouchers to hasten privatization. Evidence that conservatives aim to destroy public schools and, eventually, privatize all public services is abundant and accumulating.
GEORGIA
Given CHOICE, Most Choose Not To
Walton Tribune, GA, August 7, 2011
More than 50 people filed into the auditorium at Monroe Area High School on Thursday night to decide if they would send their children to the school or not. After the high school failed to make adequate yearly progress on math scores, the second year in a row for the beleaguered institution, parents were informed they would be given the option to send their children to other area high schools if they so chose.
Atlanta School Year Begins Amid a Testing Scandal
New York Times, NY, August 8, 2011
One month after Atlanta was rocked by revelations of a widespread school cheating scandal – nearly 200 teachers and principals admitted to tampering with standardized tests to raise students’ scores – Ms. Alford and her Toomer colleagues are bracing for some much more difficult questions from students this year, and a test of their own.
HAWAII
Laupahoehoe Will Become a Conversion Charter School
KHON 2, HI, August 7, 2011
A rural Big Island school frequently eyed for closure will become a public charter school.
INDIANA
Hearing On Indiana Voucher Suit Set For This Week
WFLP, IN, August 8, 2011
A judge in Indianapolis is scheduled to hear arguments this week in a lawsuit challenging the state’s school voucher program, created this year by the General Assembly.
LOUISIANA
New Orleans Public School Achievement Gap Is Narrowing
Times Picayune, LA, August 7, 2011
For as long as records have been kept, black students in New Orleans’ public schools have lagged far behind the city’s white students on the annual exams that Louisiana uses to track student achievement, reflecting wide income disparities and other factors.
MARYLAND
In Pr. George’s, a Quiet Increase in Teacher Firings
Washington Post, DC, August 7, 2011
The Prince George’s County’s school system has quietly but steadily increased the number of teacher firings in recent years, as officials push for tougher performance standards.
MICHIGAN
DPS Right to Tackle Costs
Detroit News, MI, August 7, 2011
Staff and administration must work as a team before the district can start emerging from financial and academic failure. If it does, then paychecks can also bounce back.
MINNESOTA
Put a New Focus on Achievement Gap
Star Tribune, MN, August 7, 2011
State financial aid for school integration survived the 2011 legislative session despite strong efforts to kill it. During the current 2011-13 budget cycle, $109 million in integration aid will continue to flow to about 125 Minnesota school districts.
NEVADA
Children Left Behind
Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV, August 7, 2011
Nearly two-thirds of Clark County schools failed to make the grade in the 2010-11 academic year under standards established by the federal No Child Left Behind education reform law, local officials announced Wednesday.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Charter School Process to Begin in Nashua
Nashua Telegraph, NH, August 7, 2011
The Board of Education will be asked this week to approve the mission for a district-sponsored charter school, as well as the appointment of a working group that will spend the next year drafting the charter.
NEW YORK
Educrats Win Race to the Top
New York Post, NY, August 8, 2011
The city’s plan for more than $255 million in federal Race to the Top funds has something for everyone — especially educrats, data analysts and consultants, a Post review has found.
OHIO
Old Elementary Returns To Life As A Charter
Columbus Dispatch, OH, August 8, 2011
At the former Main Street Elementary building, there will be children playing on the playground again. Buses rumbling up the street. School bells ringing.
Teachers Sue Union, Saying Fee Is Political
Columbus Dispatch, OH, August 6, 2011
Some public-school teachers say the Ohio Education Association is unlawfully forcing them to help finance the union’s political activity.
OREGON
A New Kind of School
Albany Democrat Herald, OR, August 7, 2011
Three Lebanon-area educators applying to start a new charter high school have ties to the school district’s current charter school, but say a new approach is needed for older students.
SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina Needs a Personalized Education for Every Student
Charleston Post and Courier, SC, August 8, 2011
A personalized, customized education for every student is the future of education. A student-centered approach will transform education from a system that treats students as identical units, teachers as assembly line workers, and administrators as managers who work to meet production quotas of dubious quality.
TENNESSEE
Starting a Charter School in TN Proving to be Tough
WBIR, TN, August 5, 2011
The Hope Academy Charter School effort is not the first one in East Tennessee to hit some road blocks.
WASHINGTON
Gates Foundation Pours Funds into Education Advocacy Groups
Seattle Times, WA, August 6, 2011
In Washington state as well as across the nation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is an influential, controversial and sometimes unnamed player in education policy debates.
WISCONSIN
Charter School Growth Faces Uncertain Future
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, August 6, 2011
At the start of this year, John Gee, executive director of the Wisconsin Charter Schools Association, was predicting that the state soon would have one of the best laws in the nation for improving the number and quality of charter schools.
WYOMING
State Law Hindering Charters
Wyoming Tribune Eagle, WY, August 7, 2011
Well, it’s about time. At least some members of the State Board of Education finally are recognizing that Laramie County School District 1’s attitude on charter schools is: Seek first to turn them down.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION
Summer School Sessions Offering Online Classes
Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY, August 7, 2011
For the first time, local school officials are offering some summer school courses online as another option for students to make up work and get credit for a course they struggled with during the regular school year.
District Plugs in with Cyber Academy
Courier Times, PA, August 8, 2011
Someday soon, students might graduate from Bensalem High School without ever stepping foot into the building. The Bensalem school board on Wednesday approved a contract with VLN Partners, a Pittsburgh-based cyber academy that promised to design “online courses to match those offered by the high school.”
Virtual Schools Offer an Alternative
The Daily Advertiser, LA, August 7, 2011
I’m not even sure what I was searching around for on the Internet when I saw a tiny ad pop up that said something along the lines of, “Virtual School in Louisiana?” I thought, “Yea, right, there’s no virtual school in Louisiana.”
Virtual Schooling: Separating Fact From Fiction
Hillsboro Argus, OR, August 7, 2011
Every principal looks forward to the first day of school when students return with fresh minds eager to learn. But as students prepare to hit the books in the next couple of weeks, some of them won’t have to take the bus or wander the halls looking for their classroom.
Online Charter Schools Offer The Flexibility That Many Want
Desert Sun, CA, August 7, 2011
Indio eighth-grader Wade Davis may spend an hour gardening or walking his dog in the middle of his school day.The flexibility of the online school he joined last year also gave him the time to delve into a research project for hours or move on quickly from a topic he easily understands.