Daily Headlines for October 13, 2011
Fight Proposed Ban On Single-Sex Schools
USA Today, October 12, 2011
Eight activist academics have just published an article in Science arguing that it should be banned. Claiming that there is “no well-designed research” proving that single-sex schools improve academic performance, they have urged the Department of Education to “heed the evidence” and prohibit “sex-segregated classrooms” in public schools. Single-sex education, they say, “increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism.” Let’s hope the Department of Education seeks a second opinion.
Education Policy Is A Local Issue
The Hill, DC, October 12, 2011
In an apparent attempt to roll back federal mandates included in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, the Obama administration recently announced that it will issue waivers to states to shield them from proficiency requirements included in the law and provide them with the authority to set their own achievement standards.
Spellings Warns Against Dismantling ‘No Child’ Law
The Tennessean, TN, October 13, 2011
Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a leading enforcer of the federal No Child Left Behind law, says she worries a proposal to dismantle that system would be a step backward for the nation’s 50 million students.
U.S. Education Secretary Sticks By Charter Schools, Measuring Teachers By Student Results
The Oregonian, OR, October 12, 2011
Speaking in a Portland school gym packed with teachers who disagree with him, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan reavowed his support Wednesday for charter schools and for judging schools and teachers by the results they get with students.
FROM THE STATES
Charter School Seeks To Expand
Salem News, MA, October 13, 2011
In some respects, Salem Academy Charter School has done everything right.
State Senate Committee Approves Plan For ‘Parent Trigger’ To Convert Failing Schools To Charters
Grand Rapids Press, MI, October 12, 2011
Families with children in failing schools would be “empowered” to convert their traditional public school into a charter school under a bill that cleared a state Senate committee Wednesday, though critics say the conversion doesn’t promise academic improvement.
Charter School Proposal Sparks Protest, Debate
The Brown Daily Herald, RI, October 12, 2011
After an application to open a school in Cranston was rejected in early September, the nonprofit Achievement First initiated the application process for a charter school in Providence. Last Friday, more than a hundred people attended a rally organized by the Providence Student Labor Action Project to protest the application.
State Puts Pressure on City Schools Over English Language Learners
New York Times, NY, October 13, 2011
New York City schools are broadly failing to meet the needs of many of their thousands of students who are still learning English, and they must improve or they may face sanctions, state education officials announced Wednesday.
Create Local Boards
Philadelphia Daily News, PA, October 13, 2011
THE Daily News People’s Editorial Board just weighed in on the issue of school governance. I’m a member of the board, but I have to dissent from its solution, which is to change – well, nothing really. Keep the School Reform Commission and the entire top-down, one-size-fits-all system by which public education is dispensed in this city. Leave it all to the “experts” who have presided over the decline and fall of public education, here and elsewhere, for 50 years now.
Andrews Charter School Uses Community Approach To Unite On-, Off-Base Students
Washington Post, DC, October 12, 2011
On Oct. 6, school and base officials celebrated the grand opening of the charter school, touting its focus on helping students deal with frequent moves and parents who might be deployed to war zones, as well as the school’s ability to connect with the community at large.
Howard Co. Lawmaker Drops Hybrid School Board Plan
The Baltimore Sun, MD, October 12, 2011
A state lawmaker from Howard County killed a proposal to restructure the local school board Wednesday, amid strong opposition from residents, parent-teacher groups and sitting members of the education panel.
First Punishments To Be Handed Down In APS Cheating Scandal
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA, October 12, 2011
A group of Atlanta educators implicated in a districtwide cheating scandal will find out Thursday whether the state will yank their teaching certificates. Those in charge will likely face the stiffest penalties.
Loopholes In Florida Law Mean Little Oversight of Charter Business Deals
StateImpact NPR, FL, October 12, 2011
People who want to start up their own charter school must go through a rigorous application process. But after that initial hurdle, the school founders get a lot of freedom over how to run their publicly-funded schools and who to hire. And because of loopholes in Florida statues, a lot of taxpayer dollars can end up in the hands of one person.
School Leaders Had Bingo Problems
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 13, 2011
The founders of a Newark charter school that specializes in serving special-needs students were accepted into a diversion program yesterday after admitting to illegally paying workers at bingo fundraisers for the school.
Local Touch To School Laws
Journal Gazette, IN, October 13, 2011
Now that performance pay, teacher evaluation tied to test scores and school letter grades are the law, Indiana educators must ensure that the way they meet the new requirements best serves students.
CPS To Roll Out High School-College Hybrid
Chicago Tribune, IL, October 12, 2011
A new type of school will enter Chicago’s crowded public education system next fall, a kind of high school-community college hybrid that, if successful, could one day become a model for preparing students for professional careers without a university diploma.
Jefferson School System Receives Applications For 13 Charter Schools
Times Picayune, LA, October 12, 2011
Ten nonprofits have applied to open more than a dozen charter schools in Jefferson Parish, moving Jefferson school officials one step closer in their plans to turn the struggling system around.
Education: Too Much Testing?
Los Angeles Times, CA, October 13, 2011
Gov. Jerry Brown was wrong to veto SB 547, but he made important points about the love of learning.
Charter Schools: Getting Your Child on the List
LA Weekly, CA, October 13, 2011
On a weekday evening in early spring, about 40 parents crammed into a classroom at Larchmont Charter elementary school. They perched on kindergarten chairs, or sat on the floor, or stood in the hallway, craning their necks.
Should Alaska Allow Parents ‘Educational Choice’ In Where Kids Go To School?
Alaska Dispatch, AK, October 12, 2011
This fall, more than 132,000 children headed back to Alaska’s public schools, but some parents are not happy. They want greater choice in their child’s education and yet the prospect of paying tuition outside the free public school system is an economic impossibility for most.
Charters Continue to Stir Up Controversy — in Senate, Court, and Home Districts
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 13, 2011
In a rare election-season session, the Senate education committee has scheduled for today a hearing on a series of contentious bills that would place new limits and rules on charter schools in the state.
It’s Time to Repair New Jersey’s Broken Charter School Law
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 12, 2011
New Jersey communities are being torn apart by our broken charter school law, with charter schools and traditional public schools suing each other and with charter school parents pitted against those whose children attend traditional public schools.
State School Boards Association Issues Reform Recommendation
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, October 12, 2011
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association today issued its recommendation for improving low-performing schools, and it’s not the voucher program the governor proposed Tuesday.
Obstacles in Path of Corbett’s New School Voucher Plan for Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 13, 2011
The votes are there. The support is strong in both chambers. That was probably the message Gov. Corbett wanted to send Tuesday when he stepped to the microphone – a dozen legislators on bleachers behind him – to present his plan for education reform at a charter school in York.
Superintendents Say Vouchers Penalize Effective Schools
Daily Item, PA, October 13, 2011
Lumping Valley schools into the same group as under-performing urban schools doesn’t serve — and isn’t fair to — students in the Valley who are unlikely to benefit from Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed education reform, area superintendents said Wednesday.
Voucher Plan Panned Locally
Standard Speaker, PA, October 13, 2011
There are too many unexamined details and too many unanswered questions for the state to move forward quickly with Gov. Tom Corbett’s public education reform proposal, a top Hazleton Area administrator said Wednesday.
Schism In Denver School-Board Course Chalks Up Hefty Election Donations
Denver Post, CO, October 13, 2011
The fight between the teachers union and education-reform interests for control of Denver schools is leading to one of the most expensive campaigns in district history, with more than $600,000 already donated in school-board races.
VIRTUAL LEARNING
Glen Ridge Students Participating In Online School
Glen Ridge Voice, NJ, October 13, 2011
For one group of students at Glen Ridge High School , the classroom isn’t just in the brick-and-mortar school building, and some of their new classmates may be on the other side of the country – or the world.
Selling Classes Online
News Record, NC, October 13, 2011
Thousands of public school students in the state already are taking classes online. And the state Board of Education is considering marketing its highly successful Virtual Public School program as an option for students learning at home and in private schools. But it would come at a price.
Volusia Board Rejects Online Charter School Bid
Daytona Beach News Journal, FL, October 13, 2011
Citing shortcomings in six areas, the Volusia County School Board on Wednesday turned down an application for a virtual charter school whose organizers want to serve up to 500 students starting next summer.
Enrollment Drops by 65 at TR Schools
Herald Times Reporter, WI, October 12, 2011
The most notable change in this year’s enrollment is the increase in Two Rivers students attending virtual schools through open enrollment, Fredrikson said. That number increased from 26 in 2010-11 to 31 this year, a 19 percent increase.