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Obama Rewrites ‘No Child’ Law
Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2011
President Barack Obama is set to replace key planks of former President George W. Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind education law, allowing many schools to escape looming punishment if their states adopt a new set of standards.

U.S. May Spare Schools From Harsh Penalties In Exchange For Reforms
Los Angeles Times, CA, September 23, 2011
The Obama administration plan would relieve school districts from requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act if they implement reforms such as linking teacher evaluations to student test scores.

Study: Single-Sex Education May Do More Harm Than Good
Washington Post, DC, September 22, 2011
The push for more single-sex instruction in public schools is based on weak, “misconstrued” scientific claims rather than solid research and may do more harm than good, according to a study published in the journal Science on Thursday.

FROM THE STATES

CALIFORNIA

Charter School Plans Move Forward In Banta
Tracy Press, CA, September 22, 2011
Plans to build a technology charter school in the Banta Elementary School District are moving forward, and on Tuesday night officials announced they hope to eventually expand it to include a four-year college.

 

COLORADO

DPS, Union To Seek Arbitrator’s Ruling On Teacher-Effectiveness Law
Denver Post, CO, September 22, 2011
Denver Public Schools and the teacher’s union have announced they will go to an arbitrator to get an outside opinion on how to implement Senate Bill 191 – last year’s teacher-effectiveness bill.

ILLINOIS

Chicago Mayor Celebrates Opening Of Health Sciences Charter School At New Southwest Side Site
Chicago Tribune, IL, September 23, 2011
Chicago’s first public charter school focusing on health sciences careers has embarked on its first year in a new $24 million building on the city’s Southwest Side.

Charter Schools Plan Rally At UIC
Chicago Tribune, IL, September 23, 2011
Chicago’s charter schools will host a rally Saturday that is expected to draw 5,000 charter parents, teachers and administrators to UIC Pavilion.

MASSACHUSETTS

In Tacoma, Teachers Needed To Strike Simply To Keep The Status Quo
Christian Science Monitor, MA, September 22, 2011
Teachers nationwide are fighting cuts and unwanted education reforms, but those in Tacoma, Wash., went further and went on strike. With the strike now over, what did that accomplish?

MISSOURI

Sponsor Threatens Six Imagine Charter Schools With Probation
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, September 23, 2011
A group of St. Louis charter schools has been handed a stern ultimatum following years of academic failure: Show progress by mid-November or be placed on probation.

NEW MEXICO

State OKs 2 New Charter Schools
Rio Grande Sun, NM, September 22, 2011
The state Public Education Commission last week approved two new charter schools in the Española area, clearing the way for over 700 students to receive a free public education in Rio Arriba County’s only state-chartered schools.

NEW YORK

Class-Size Rise Seen by City, Teachers
Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2011
Class sizes in New York City public schools are the most bloated they have been in a decade, as budget cuts have sliced teachers from the system, the teachers union said Thursday.

NORTH CAROLINA

School Seeks Charter Status
Charlotte Observer, NC, September 23, 2011
To make itself more accessible to area families, a Huntersville private school will seek charter-school status this fall.

Charter School Ruling Hits Close To Home: Appeals Court: Jefferson Classical Academy Owed $730K
The Shelby Star, NC, September 22, 2011
A North Carolina Court of Appeals opinion issued this week sets a precedent for how school system funds must be distributed to charter schools, including the charter school that could soon be coming to Cleveland County.

OHIO

Ohio Might Seek No Child Left Behind Waiver
Columbus Dispatch, OH, September 23, 2011
The federal government will offer states the chance to set aside major sections of the No Child Left Behind Act, including the requirement that all students become proficient in math and reading by 2014.

Worthy of Debate
Columbus Dispatch, OH, September 23, 2011
As charter schools become more popular, discussions of school funding often turn to the fairest way to distribute public resources to all students.

Ohio Bill Would Expand Voucher System
Newark Advocate, OH, September 23, 2011
A bill that would allow wider access to vouchers covering private school tuition is closer to becoming law, although many questions still need to be addressed, officials said.

PENNSYLVANIA

Education Chief: Variety Is Important
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, September 23, 2011
The competition that charter schools create for traditional public school systems is good and should help to improve educational quality, according to state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis.

Report: Charter-School Deal Straight out of ‘The Godfather’
Philadelphia Daily News, PA, September 23, 2011
ALTHOUGH John Porter may not have found a horse’s head in his bed, it was clear that former School Reform Commission Chairman Robert Archie and state Rep. Dwight Evans wanted his charter-school company to disappear, according to a long-awaited report released yesterday.

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In Phila. Talk, School Reformer Rhee Targets Seniority
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, September 23, 2011
Michelle Rhee, the former head of public schools in the District of Columbia, urged young teachers Thursday in Philadelphia to back legislation that would end layoffs based on seniority.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Magnet Appeal A Call For Choice
Post and Courier, SC, September 23, 2011
The S.C. Supreme Court soon will decide whether students must live in Charleston County in order to attend magnet schools here. State law allows non-residents who own property in a district to send their children to school there. But the Charleston County School District policy prohibits non-residents from attending magnet schools.

TEXAS

State Lawmakers Talk Education, Charter Schools In Mcallen
The Monitor, TX, September 22, 2011
Three state legislators talked education Thursday, answering a tough question about vouchers and the impact of charter schools in Texas.

UTAH

Another Voucher Plan
Salt Lake Tribune, UT, September 23, 2011
I hope Rolly’s column was meant as a satire, but it sounded as if he thought it was a good idea. I never thought of Rolly as such a supporter of school vouchers. For Dougall’s idea sounds voucher to me: it completely starves our school system for funds by opening the very meager school purse to every moneymaking program that wants to call itself a school.

WISCONSIN

Prep Academy Needs To Show Proof of Effectiveness of Single-Gender Education To Get Grant
Capital Times, WI, September 22, 2011
The state Department of Public Instruction is requiring backers of the proposed Madison Preparatory Academy to provide scientific research supporting the effectiveness of single-gender education to receive additional funding.

MPS ‘Voucher Tax’ Statement OK’d
Journal Sentinel, WI, September 22, 2011
A proposal to make more transparent the tax that citizens pay for private-school vouchers was approved Thursday night by the Milwaukee School Board.

Job Evaluation Reform Gains Traction
Wausau Daily Herald, WI, September 23, 2011
His experience underscores how local school districts are moving toward more sophisticated evaluation methods than the traditional classroom observations.

VIRTUAL EDUCATION

Conference: Blending Learning Advocates Tell of Their ‘Ichabod Crane Moment’
Grand Rapids Press, MI, September 22, 2011
Ogston then formed the Carpe Diem Collegiate High School in Yuma , Ariz. The charter school features a blended learning program that includes on-site teacher/coaches and computer assisted instruction.

Virtual Courses Fill The Gap For Students With Schedule Conflicts, Special Interests
Daily Press, VA, September 22, 2011
Megan Capriotti, 15, spent the majority of her summer break taking an online biology class because the traditional course didn’t fit her schedule at Kecoughtan High School.

Virtual School On Hold Here
Marshall County Tribune, TN, September 23, 2011
There are too many unknowns now for Marshall County to commit to starting a virtual school. This was the conclusion at the end of the school board’s curriculum committee’s two-hour meeting Sept. 12.

Online Learning More Popular In FF, Minnesota
Fergus Falls Journal, MN, September 22, 2011
More Minnesota students, including those in Otter Tail County, are taking advantage of the scheduling flexibility and growing online class choices. However, a state report released Monday found students taking the classes full-time often fell short of their peers in traditional schools.

Online School Approved, Sort Of
The Daily Times, NM, September 23, 2011
There’s a new school in town. The Farmington school board approved the application of a Farmington-based online charter school at a special board meeting Thursday, but not without a long list of conditions.

Virtual School Captures Students
Daily Astorian, OR, September 22, 2011
One of the interesting ironies of ongoing economic problems is that there continues to be a proliferation of public school options and enhancements driven by the Internet and computers.

Success Of Virtual Summer Sessions Prompts District To Consider More Online Course Options
Simi Valley Acorn, CA, September 23, 2011
Monte Vista School principal Elizabeth Brown presented a threeyear plan for implementing a virtual academy and home schooling program in SVUSD at the district’s school board meeting Sept. 13.