Daily Headlines for August 14, 2013
NEWSWIRE IS BACK! Click here for the latest weekly report on education news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else, spiced with a dash of irreverence, from the nation’s leading voice in school reform.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
National teachers union leader points to St. Louis as model
St Louis Post-Dispatch, August 14, 2013
The head of the nation’s second-largest teachers union said Tuesday that school districts and unions should aim to solve problems rather than win arguments, and she pointed to St. Louis as a model.
STATE COVERAGE
ARIZONA
FHUSD, Charter School get ‘A’ grades
Fountain Hills Times, August 14, 2013
The Department of Education released annual grades for individual sites and districts last week, giving Arizona schools and families a gauge by which to determine what kind of progress is being made.
CALIFORNIA
BCS lockout: This mess needs our help
Editorial, Los Altos Town Crier, August 14, 2013
What a mess. How else can you describe the terrible situation with the boards of Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District?
Charter partnership gives L.A. Unified school new name and outlook
Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2013
Parents, under 2010 trigger law, force change at 24th Street Elementary, which suffered from persistently low test scores.
Los Angeles ‘Parent Trigger’ School Sets Precedent With Public-Charter Hyrbid
US News & World Report, August 13, 2013
When students arrived for the first day of classes on Tuesday at 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, they returned to a school almost nothing like the one they left last year. The school was transformed with amenities that would be considered standard at many other schools: water fountains and bathrooms that work, a clean campus and teachers and staff eager to advance their education.
Place for both traditional & charter schools?
Manteca Bulletin, August 14, 2013
Even as students attending traditional public schools are moving in droves to public charter schools, some education leaders are not convinced this is the wave of the future.
FLORIDA
Applicants Pitch Charter Proposals to Polk County School Board
The Ledger, August 13, 2013
Applicants from four proposed charter schools seeking to open in Polk County made presentations to the School Board on Tuesday and faced tough questions.
Florida school districts pass on Scott’s teacher debit cards
Miami Herald, August 13, 2013
Gov. Rick Scott pitched the idea from the Panhandle to Miami: a state-funded debit card worth $250 for every teacher to spend on classroom supplies.
GEORGIA
Druid Hills Charter Cluster gets an overwhelming approval vote
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 14, 2013
The petition for a charter school cluster centered on Druid Hills High School passed by a huge margin Tuesday.
ILLINOIS
Despite closing and budget cuts, CPS calls for new charter schools
Chicago Sun Times, August 13, 2013
As Chicago Public Schools officials finish shuttering a record number of schools and leave many neighborhood schools to open their doors in two weeks with diminished budgets, the district has quietly issued a call for new charter schools.
LOUISIANA
EBR charter schools win approval
The Advocate, August 14, 2013
A committee of Louisiana’s top school board Tuesday authorized up to 10 new charter schools for East Baton Rouge Parish during the next two years amid continuing debate about their value.
National charter school group challenges Louisiana education department
Times-Picayune, August 13, 2013
The organization that helped turn New Orleans into the country’s most charter-school-saturated city is challenging the state Department of Education’s characterization of its work and says education department staff occasionally pressured the group to change its recommendations. The National Association of Charter School Authorizers screened applicants from 2005 to 2012.
MARYLAND
School system, county raise questions charter school’s fundraising
Maryland Gazette, August 14, 2013
As Community Montessori Charter School heads into its second school year, some county and school system officials are concerned about fundraising efforts to complement Montgomery County Public School funds in the school’s budget.
MICHIGAN
DPS’s door-to-door campaign aims to tout individual schools to win back students
Detroit Free Press, August 14, 2013
As Detroit Public Schools pushes a new back-to-school marketing plan to try to reverse its enrollment and budget decline, the district must try to draw back kids from dozens of districts and nearly every charter school in the tri-county region.
Michigan House panel hold third hearing on Common Core standards blocked by Republicans
The Oakland Press, August 14, 2013
Michigan lawmakers are continuing to take a closer look at whether the state should implement stricter benchmarks in reading and math.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Education tax credit will aid few public school students
Concord Monitor, August 14, 2013
In the quickly approaching school year, about 100 students statewide will receive scholarships under the state’s new education tax credit law. But the majority of those scholarships will go to home-schoolers or students already attending private schools rather than to public school students seeking alternative options.
NEW YORK
Mount Vernon Charter School Winds Unprecedented Court Battle
Mount Vernon Daily Voice, August 14, 2013
After years of battling in the courtroom, the Amani Public Charter School received its first settlement payment from the Mount Vernon Board of Education.
New York Issuing Scorecards on Teacher Colleges
New York Times, August 14, 2013
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has used data to rate restaurants, track the repair of potholes and close lackluster schools in New York City. Now he is bringing his results-oriented approach to an area far outside his usual purview: teacher colleges.
NORTH CAROLINA
Atkinson stands up for public schools
Opinion, News & Observer, August 13, 2013
June Atkinson, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, told a group of editors and reporters Monday that if vouchers are to promote competition between private and public schools, then private and public schools should be subject to the same testing so parents can make a fair comparison.
OHIO
Legislators say the Cleveland Transformation Alliance should have had more say on new charter schools
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 13, 2013
Mayor Frank Jackson’s not alone in feeling like his new Transformation Alliance was unfairly shut out this summer from reviewing new charter schools in the city.
PENNSYLVANIA
Foundation to assess city schools’ summer academy
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 14, 2013
As part of a $50 million investment in summer K-12 programs including one in Pittsburgh, the Wallace Foundation is taking a close look at whether those programs work.
No solution yet as Philly schools deadline looms
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 14, 2013
ANOTHER DAY, another news conference, and still no solution in sight for finding the $50 million the school district says it needs to open schools Sept. 9.
Stay granted; classes go on at Pocono Mountain Charter School
Pocono Record, August 14, 2013
The Pocono Mountain Charter School will be able to open its doors for the first day school Sept. 5. A Commonwealth Court judge granted a stay of the revocation of the school’s charter Tuesday afternoon after hearing arguments from attorneys for the charter school and Pocono Mountain School District Monday.
Teachers shouldn’t get lifetime appointments
Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 14, 2013
New Jersey public school teachers may face the biggest test of their careers this year. A new law that takes effect next month changes an antiquated tenure system that has hampered education reform and made it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Improve SC school accountability
Opinion, Greenville News, August 13, 2013
If one thing is clear about the way that South Carolina holds public schools accountable it is that nothing is clear about it at all. Having two separate grading scales for public schools that parse the same data but sometime come to different conclusions is confusing for parents and could hinder efforts to make this state’s public schools even better.
New charter school to open in Charleston County this fall, two more coming August 2014
Charleston Post Courier, August 14, 2013
Low country parents who are dissatisfied with existing public school options are fueling the growth of local charter schools.
TENNESSEE
Metro school officials fear ‘tipping point’ coming with charter costs
The Tennessean, August 14, 2013
Just one month into the current fiscal year, Metro officials are already looking ahead to 2014-15 as they forecast strains that would require more than $38 million in additional funding, with the cost of charter schools topping concerns.
UTAH
Sleep patterns
Opinion, Salt Lake Tribune, August 13, 2013
That expectation has been borne out in some of the more successful charter schools, and one of the best innovations has been restructured school-day schedules that take into account the biological differences in sleep needs of adolescents.
VIRGINIA
Virginia candidates for governor try to turn campaign tide
Washington Times, August 13, 2013
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II on Tuesday rolled out a proposal that would overhaul Virginia’s K-12 education system as he and Democrat Terry McAuliffe try to debunk charges that the year’s marquee political race has devolved into little more than a mudslinging fusillade of negative attacks.
ONLINE LEARNING
District 97 considers $1 million iPad purchase
Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2013
Every student in Oak Park School District 97 may have an iPad to use in the classroom within three years, according to district officials.
Online Charter Case Back In Court
WUNC, August 14, 2013
The North Carolina Court of Appeals will hear arguments today in a case that pits a for-profit education company against the State Board of Education. At issue is how the board considered an online charter school application.
Parents complain Course Choice killed virtual schoolThe Advertiser, August 14, 2013
Parents whose children successfully completed courses under the Louisiana Virtual School, a state-run program in effect for more than a decade, complained Tuesday that Superintendent of Education John White killed it in favor of privatization.
Virtual schools gaining in popularity
WMBF, August 13, 2013
We aren’t at the point where teaching inside traditional brick and mortar classrooms are a thing of the past, but the future in learning is certainly changing.