Daily Headlines for June 20, 2011
NCLB Law Lacks Fairness To Immigrants
Democrat and Chronicle, NY, June 20, 2011
When the federal No Child Left Behind law was adopted in 2001, one of its key components was to use standardized tests scores as a basis for judging whether a school was successful.
Congress Shouldn’t Delay No Child Left Behind Changes
The Oklahoman, OK, June 19, 2011
WHERE is it we’ve heard this story before? Congress has known for months if not years that there’s a problem brewing. And yet no solution is imminent
Schools Will Never Fix Inequality: Diane Ravitch vs. Arne Duncan Fight Misses Point On Poverty
New York Daily News, NY, June 19, 2011
It is not every day that the U.S. secretary of education charges a professor with “insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country.” But in the cutthroat world of education reform, the daggers have come out.
Let Us Choose Good Schools
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, June 19, 2011
In standard school districts, children are enrolled in a school based on their home address. Getting out of that school requires their family to move to another district, make enough money to send them to a private school or alternative public school (if allowed), or have enough free time and ability to homeschool them. Poor families are severely limited, if not hopeless, on all three counts.
FROM THE STATES
ARIZONA
Arizona Strains to Keep Tally of K-12 Students
Arizona Republic, AZ, June 18, 2011
An outdated and overburdened computer system has Arizona struggling to track its approximately 1 million K-12 students, state officials say, a troubling predicament because school funding, grants and required federal reporting all hinge on an accurate accounting.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. Schools Aim For Selectivity By Requiring Teaching Candidates To Give Tryout Lessons
Washington Post, DC, June 18, 2011
Tereasa Sowers, a middle school math teacher for six years, knew the lesson cold. She’d walked hundreds of students through solving systems of linear equations. It was the 360-degree digital camera planted at the front of the classroom that she wasn’t sure about.
FLORIDA
Charter System to Handle Funds
News Chief, FL, June 18, 2011
Local charter schools have officially moved another step toward financial independence. On Thursday, the Lake Wales Charter Schools Inc. Board of Trustees approved a resolution to become their own local education agency.
GEORGIA
Dawson County Schools Given Charter Status
Gainesville Times, GA, June 20, 2011
The Dawson County school system has joined the ranks of 13 others in Georgia that have received greater flexibility to govern local education.
Charter Schools Group Says Gwinnett Funding Offer Violates State Law
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GA, June 17, 2011
Gwinnett County Schools did not follow state charter law with its offer to fund Ivy Preparatory Academy, officials with the Georgia Charter Schools Association charged Friday.
Georgia Plays Host To Charter School Forum
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GA, June 17, 2011
This week, Atlanta will host the national conference for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, bringing together an expected 4,000 people at the Georgia World Congress Center to promote this alternative classroom concept and further explain it.
Charter School in Gwinnett Rejects Local Funding Offer
The Times-Herald, GA, June 18, 2011
As Coweta Charter Academy parents await the Coweta County Board of Education’s decision regarding their school’s fate with “a mixture of nervousness and optimism,” according to one parent, charter school parents in other parts of the state have been on emotional roller coaster rides of their own.
INDIANA
State to Help Families Pay For Private School
WSBT, IN, June 19, 2011
If you’re a low- to moderate-income family interested in transferring your child or children from a public to a private school, financial assistance will soon be available.
MICHIGAN
DPS Reform Will Target Bad Schools
Detroit News, MI, June 20, 2011
Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Public Schools’ Emergency Manager Roy Roberts will announce a major reform plan today involving Detroit’s failing schools.
NEVADA
Union Death Grip On Public Education
Las Vegas Review-Journal , NV, June 19, 2011
From the “Better Than Nothing” file come four pieces of Nevada legislation touted as public education “reform.” Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Assembly Bills 225 and 229 and Senate Bills 197 and 212 into law last week, calling the measures “groundbreaking” and “historic.”
New Law Gives Governor More Control Over Schools
Las Vegas Sun, NV, June 18, 2011
The most significant potential change to Nevada’s education system passed by the Legislature has nothing to do with teacher tenure or seniority.
NEW JERSEY
Fight Ensues Over Facebook Money for N.J. Schools
NPR, June 20, 2011
Nine months ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a $100 million gift to improve public schools in Newark, N.J. The plan to spend the money is now taking shape, and a new superintendent is coming on board to lead the effort.
NEW YORK
Private School Tuition Bill Tops $40,000
Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2011
Other Schools Will Soon Join Riverdale Country in Crashing Through Key Barrier; Demand for Slots Remains Brisk
NORTH CAROLINA
Rich Schools, Poor Schools: N.C.’S Gap May Be Growing
Charlotte Observer, NC, June 20, 2011
As state keeps slashing money for education, cuts fall to counties. Rural areas fare worst.
OHIO
Schools Study Merit-Pay Options
Columbus Dispatch, OH, June 19, 2011
Some local school districts are already creating merit-pay plans as state lawmakers debate how to link teachers’ compensation to student performance.
Improve Charter Regulations
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, June 20, 2011
Before Ohio gives a lot more public money to privately run charter schools, it has to do a better job of putting the bad ones out of business.
House-Senate Budget Committee Faces Major Questions On Charter Schools
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, June 20, 2011
David Brennan has cast a long shadow over this year’s state budget.
Taxpayers Should Have Voucher Choice
Columbus Dispatch, OH, June 18, 2011
Ohio House Bill 136 aims to establish the Parental Choice and Taxpayer Savings Scholarship Program. PACT would expand EdChoice, the voucher program that gives public students in failing schools access to alternatives in the private sector.
OREGON
Package of Education Reform Proposals Gains Momentum
The Register-Guard, OR, June 18, 2011
After weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, lawmakers in the Joint Ways and Means Committee, the Legislature’s chief budget-crafting committee, sent a total of 14 different education bills to the House and Senate floors for votes.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter Schools Are All About Accountability
Republican Herald, PA, June 19, 2011
A national experiment in education started in 1991 is coming to Schuylkill County. While the more than 5,000 charter schools established across the United States have had varying degrees of success, the challenge for Gillingham Charter School of Pottsville will be to prove their education plan will work.
Stanford Report Finds Good And Bad In Pennsylvania Charter Schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, June 20, 2011
Pennsylvania has a larger percentage of high-performing charter schools than the national average, but it also has more underperforming ones.
Two GOP House Members To Introduce Voucher Legislation
Tribune Review, PA, June 20, 2011
Two Republican House members from opposite ends of the state this week will announce separate tuition voucher bills that would allow parents to choose schools for their children.
VIRGINIA
Clifton Elementary Closing, Fairfax Parents Organize Bid For New Charter School
Washington Post, DC, June 19, 2011
With the clock ticking down to the last last day of school at Clifton Elementary on Tuesday, a group of community leaders is drawing up plans for what would be Fairfax County’s first charter school.
Petersburg Charter School Application Filed
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, June 20, 2011
Exodus Institute is moving forward with its plan to open a charter school in Petersburg.
WISCONSIN
Hardship Puts Formidable Hurdles On The Path To Scholastic Achievement
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, June 18, 2011
Howard Fuller: Former Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent. Leading advocate for Milwaukee’s private school voucher program. Local and national leader in charter school issues. Howard Fuller: Hands-on chair of the board of a small high school where test scores for 10th-graders last fall were awful and where the record of success has been plainly disappointing.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION
Charters Get These Kids So Totally Wired
New York Post, NY, June 18, 2011
A newly approved Bronx charter school will offer students more than a good education — it’s giving them each a computer and e-reader to use at home.
Cyber Cost Equity
Daily American, PA, June 20, 2011
State Rep. James Roebuck has an idea that will greatly help school districts’ financial situations.
27 from County Graduate from Cyber School
Intelligencer Journal, PA, June 19, 2011
Most high school seniors don’t own their own businesses. Andy Radvansky is not like most high school seniors.
Franklin County School Districts Create Franklin Virtual Academy
Record Herald, PA, June 18, 2011
Online school has become very popular in recent years, and Greencastle-Antrim School District along with other Franklin County school districts are moving forward by creating the cyber school Franklin Virtual Academy.
New High School Exists Only Online
Post and Courier, SC, June 19, 2011
That’s because SC Whitmore School doesn’t have doors or windows or any part of a building, other than its two-person office in Chapin. The public charter high school is completely online, and it’s enrolling now.
Online Courses Change Face Of Summer School
Cincinnati Enquirer, OH, June 20, 2011
Alex Ward usually plays computer games a couple hours a day, but since summer school began the Reading High junior has doubled his time on the computer – at school.
Virtual Way Of Learning Sees Success
Port Huron Times Herald, MI, June 19, 2011
Aaron Kaczmarczyk isn’t sure where he’d be today without the Virtual Learning Academy of St. Clair County. He does know he wouldn’t have his high school diploma, nor would he be on the path to fulfill his dream of becoming an auto mechanic.
Online Technology Gives Options And Enhances Student Learning
St. George Daily Spectrum, UT, June 19, 2011
One of the challenges we all have is to keep up with rapidly advancing technology. We struggle with this in our homes, and in our businesses, and we are certainly struggling to keep our public school students on the cutting edge of technology. Hardware and software is expensive. On the other hand, technology opens new possibilities for each of us, and for society.