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Click here for Newswire, 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

A Distraction from Real Education Reform
Opinion, US News & World Report, October 28, 2013
Discussions of the Common Core standards are actually sucking all of the air out of the room, distracting attention from any serious efforts to reform our schools.

Are Successful Charter Schools Just Teaching To The Test?
Column, Forbes, October 28, 2013
Education reform critics will sometimes argue that high-performing charters are only improving student test scores by teaching to the test.

Author Maya Angelou blasts Obama’s Race to the Top
Washington Post Blog, DC, October 29, 2013
Renowned author and poet Maya Angelou was one of more than 120 authors and illustrators who recently signed a letter to President Obama asking him to curb policies that promote excessive standardized testing because of the negative impact “on children’s love [of] reading and literature.”

Between the Extremes on Charter Schools
Huffington Post, October 28, 2013
To get beyond the rhetoric, it needs to be universally accepted that charters have a useful role in the school system. The innovation and the good things they do should be celebrated. However they cannot have carte blanche to get whatever they want out of the system.

STATE COVERAGE

ARIZONA

Gilbert neighborhood embraces plans for charter school
Arizona Republic, AZ, October 28, 2013
Great Hearts Academies, which operates more than a dozen schools across the Valley, plans to build a K-12 campus on a 9-acre lot at the southwestern corner of Baseline Road and Quinn Avenue.

Two AZ Dems leave Democrats for [Conservative] Education Reform
Opinion, Tucson Citizen, AZ, October 28, 2013
Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is basically a front group for the conservative “education reform” movement — i.e. privatization and corporate takeover of education.

CALIFORNIA

LAUSD needs Deasy
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 29, 2013
There are so many dramas and mini-disasters at the Los Angeles Unified School District, they have to take a number and line up for attention. First, a special meeting was called for Tuesday so that the board could set a broad vision from which future policies would flow.

Los Angeles Schools Leadership Questioned
Wall Street Journal, October 28, 2013
The Los Angeles Unified School District is slated to meet Tuesday to discuss whether to renew its superintendent’s contract—a decision that could change the leadership of the nation’s second-largest school system.

Students can’t wait for school reform
Opinion, Orange County Register, CA, October 28, 2013
Have you ever wanted to know if your child is attending a chronically underperforming school? Well, start spreading the word: the list is out. Due to a law I wrote while serving in the California Senate, the 2010 Open Enrollment Act identifies the 1,000 chronically underperforming schools in California and empowers parents of kids enrolled in these to be able to seek enrollment in any higher performing California public school.

COLORADO

Bloomberg, Gates each put $1 million behind pro-Amendment 66 campaign
Denver Post, CO, October 29, 2013
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates top the donor list to proponents of Amendment 66, the school finance measure that includes a $950 million tax hike.

Would Amendment 66 be a big win for charter schools?
Durango Herald, CO, October 29, 2013
Advertisements for Amendment 66 say the proposed tax increase will help fund art, music and physical education. But for Animas High School Executive Director Michael Ackerman, the only subject that matters is math.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C. kicks off school boundary overhaul
Washington Post, DC, October 28, 2013
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s administration kicked off an effort Monday to overhaul school boundaries and feeder patterns for the first time in decades, a politically charged and long-delayed process that could limit access to some of the city’s most sought-after schools.

FLORIDA

Ben Gamla charter schools take in millions in public funds as founder lives half a world away
Miami Herald, FL, October 28, 2013
Peter Deutsch, the driving force behind South Florida’s controversial Ben Gamla charter schools, is a six-term former Democratic congressman with a unique status: He lives more than 6,000 miles away in Israel as an expatriate.

Classical curriculum sets school apart
Florida Today, FL, October 29, 2013
Kindergartners will learn Latin, students will read classical literature and every morning will start with the Pledge of Allegiance around the school’s flagpole.

Teachers Learn Best Practices From McKeel Academy Workshop
The Ledger, FL, October 28, 2013
The two attended the first of a series of free seminars McKeel Academy of Technology is sponsoring, thanks to a $250,000 grant that will allow the passing on of best practices to teachers and school administrators.

LOUISIANA

New state program offers nontraditional classes
The Advocate, LA, October 28, 2013
Under a new state program, Destin Valega spends half of his school day outside the classroom learning to be an electrician, which could easily pay him $42,000 per year for starters.

MARYLAND

Incentives for what?
Editorial, Baltimore Sun, MD, October 28, 2013
Giving school staffers ‘retention stipends’ to keep them on the job sounds like paying them extra to do what they’re supposed to be doing anyway

MICHIGAN

MEA should learn from its teachers
Editorial, Detroit Free Press, MI, October 29, 2013
But not everyone is on board with efforts to prevent bullying. While parents, teachers and administrators are fighting hard every day to put an end to it, the Michigan Education Association, our state’s dominant teachers’ union, remains sadly stuck in the past.

Wasted school bonds reflect Detroit’s bedrock troubles
Editorial, Detroit Free Press, MI, October 28, 2013
There may be no better example of the tragic failure to manage Detroit’s long decline than the 110 vacant or torn down Detroit Public Schools buildings. It’s a sign of Detroit’s bedrock problems: The precipitous population decline, destabilizing neighborhoods and devastating the tax base, has been led by families with children, and the city’s inability to attract or retain families remains one of the city’s most significant challenges.

MISSOURI

Focus on parents who kept their children in Normandy schools
Letter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, October 29, 2013
It is interesting that the Post-Dispatch chose to include the relieved comment of school choice advocate Kate Casas in the article about the Normandy School Board’s vote to refrain from paying its transfer bills rather than the comments of parents who chose to keep their children in the Normandy Public Schools.

Who’s running the show?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, October 29, 2013
I was a member of the Missouri Senate 20 years ago when the General Assembly passed SB 380. I voted against the bill because it raised taxes without a vote of the people. At the same time I applauded the provision in the bill establishing a statewide test to measure the outcomes produced by those, now better-funded, school districts.

NEW JERSEY

School Choice openings capped
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ, October 29, 2013
The New Jersey Department of Education will limit the number of students it funds through the School Choice program next school year.

Students, staff pan Camden schools in survey
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ, October 29, 2013
Students and staff members in the Camden City School District reported their schools are unsafe, unsanitary and ill-equipped, according to a survey released Tuesday.

NEW MEXICO

Senate panel plans vote on education secretary
Santa Fe New Mexican, NM, October 28, 2013
The Senate may finally move to confirm Hanna Skandera, the governor’s designee as New Mexico’s top education official, in the upcoming legislative session in January — nearly three years after she was appointed to the post.

NEW YORK

16,000 students could suffer from De Blasio’s charter pledge
New York Post, NY, October 29, 2013
Bill de Blasio’s vow to impose a moratorium on opening new charter schools inside public-school buildings could freeze out nearly 16,000 students from the charter system, according to a new study.

A Bold Bid for Better Schools
Op-Ed, New York Times, NY, October 29, 2013
The state is on the precipice of something big. On Election Day next Tuesday, Coloradans will decide whether to ratify an ambitious statewide education overhaul that the Legislature already passed and that Gov. John Hickenlooper signed but that voters must now approve, because Colorado law gives them that right in regard to tax increases, which the overhaul entails.

Bronx parents win co-location battle at Public School 1
New York Daily News, NY, October 28, 2013
City decides struggling school is ‘making strides’ to improve. Most co-locations sail through the public review process.

Charter school backers seek long-term goals for Finn Academy
Elmira Star-Gazette, NY, October 28, 2013
The people behind a plan to bring Elmira its first charter school said they were stumped last summer when a state education official asked them where they see the school in 20 years.

NORTH CAROLINA

School board tackles ‘hot mess’ of teacher tenure
Times-News, NC, October 28, 2013
The transition away from teacher tenure in public schools is raising a lot of questions. Some questions are which teachers will be offered special contracts, who is going to pay for it and will the Alamance-Burlington School System be sued over it?

PENNSYLVANIA

Charter school reform appears to be anything but
Opinion, The Reporter, PA, October 28, 2013
THECAMPAIGN for unfettered expansion of charter schools in Pennsylvania has greatly intensified given a bill pending in the state Senate that would give life to a large number of deeply ill-advised proposals.

City charters without signed agreements get revocation threat
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 29, 2013
In the midst of its continuing financial crisis, the School District of Philadelphia has lowered the boom on charter schools in the city.

Lehigh Valley superintendents tell feds they need fewer mandates, more money
Lehigh Valley Express-Times, PA, October 28, 2013
The competition between Pennsylvania’s traditional public schools and cyber and charter schools was also a huge focus of the discussion. Ritsch listened intently but also told officials they needed to be talking to Harrisburg, not D.C., on the issue.

Pittsburgh city schools’ enrollment still falling
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, October 29, 2013
If the projections of Pittsburgh Public Schools had been right, the district this fall would have turned the corner on declining K-12 enrollment and would have seen the growth of 100 students.

Scores of Philadelphia teachers reassigned
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 28, 2013
The fallout from the Philadelphia School District’s budget crisis continues: As of Monday, 139 teachers had been moved to new schools – seven weeks into the term, and shortly before students’ first report card grades are due.

RHODE ISLAND

Principals’ ratings of R.I. teachers weren’t too generous
Opinion, Providence Journal, RI, October 29, 2013
The Oct. 12 story “High marks for state teachers come with a caveat” offers the troubling suggestion that the implementation of the educator evaluation system in Rhode Island was compromised by the overly generous favorable ratings that principals gave their teachers. Perhaps more disconcerting to those in the field is the assumption that districts employ much higher numbers of developing or ineffective teachers.

TENNESSEE

Herenton closing 2 Memphis charters for kids in custody of court
Memphis Commercial Appeal, TN, October 29, 2013
The two charter schools that former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton opened inside Northside High for juvenile delinquents will close Friday because of low enrollment.

Pinkston to Metro: Don’t Forget to Audit Charters
Nashville Scene Blog, TN, October 28, 2013
Claims charter schools boot struggling students shortly before state exams and take in few kids with disabilities should be included in Metro’s audit of the city school system, says one school board member.

School voucher campaign kicks off
WBIR-TV, TN, October 28, 2013
School Choice NOW is urging Tennessee lawmakers to approve legislation that would help provide scholarships to parents of disadvantaged children in public schools.

ONLINE LEARNING

The Cleveland schools have to hire more teachers ASAP
Editorial, Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, October 28, 2013
Before the Cleveland school district’s teacher shortage leaves a lasting sour taste in the mouths of voters who’ll be asked to renew a hefty school levy in less than four years, CEO Eric Gordon needs to quicken the pace of hiring qualified teachers.

Click here for Newswire, 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

Military bases open their doors to home-schoolers
Associated Press, October 28, 2013
A growing number of military parents want to end the age-old tradition of switching schools for their kids.

Obama, at Brooklyn School, Pushes Education Agenda
New York Times, NY, October 26, 2013
President Obama on Friday visited the innovative Brooklyn high school he praised in his State of the Union address this year, to deliver a message about the urgency of education reform in the global economy.

Preparing Teachers for the Classroom
Letter, New York Times, NY, October 28, 2013
Although I disagree with much of Bill Keller’s Oct. 21 column, “ ‘An Industry of Mediocrity,’ ” he raises critical issues about the preparation of teachers.

Surprising split in school reformer monolith
Washington Post Column, DC, October 27, 2013
Critics of current trends in education reform, such as historian Diane Ravitch, often complain that they are up against a phalanx of business executives and rich investors more interested in making money than improving schools.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Best classroom gizmo? A great teacher
Commentary, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 25, 2013
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s plan to supply every student with an iPad is, to be charitable, not going well. Before any more school districts decide to spend millions on high-tech gadgets, let me offer a few words of caution. Why me? Because I was there in 1986 when Apple computers were first lugged into elementary classrooms.

Parents move to bring Waldorf education to Modesto
Merced Sun Star, CA, October 27, 2013
Parents and children gathered Sunday in Modesto’s Freedom Park for fun classes based on an influential form of alternative education.

COLORADO

Community collaboration gets former dropouts back on track for graduation, jobs
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO, October 26, 2013
The mission is to encourage high school dropouts to return to school, recover required credits to graduate and learn social skills and a trade that will lead to employment.

FLORIDA

As student count shows charter growth swing, district-run schools try new marketing tact
Palm Beach Post, FL, October 27, 2013
At Christa McAuliffe Middle School this month, eighth-graders bounced up and down on their exercise balls while doing their online U.S. History lesson and the class pet bunny, Ihop, bounced around the room.

Law Provides School Districts a Class-Size Loophole
The Ledger, FL
October 28, 2013
A recent change to Florida law is doing something lawmakers say they never intended: allowing school districts to skirt the toughest rules of the state’s class-size amend­ment.

INDIANA

School choice deserves bipartisan support
Opinion, Indianapolis Star, IN, October 26, 2013
Today, across Indiana, the classroom door opens to more than 20,000 children to attend a school of their parents’ choice. This open door represents more than access to a new school: It is a symbol of hope, the vehicle to opportunity and it is the real life existence to the dream described by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. more than 50 years ago.

ILLINOIS

Ousting of Thornton Township school board president adds to district upset
Chicago Tribune, IL, October 27, 2013
Frustrated by years of tumult and alleged mismanagement, the teachers union president ticked off a series of complaints at a recent south suburban school district board meeting.

UNO under the microscope
Editorial, Chicago Tribune, IL, October 28, 2013
The United Neighborhood Organization operates an excellent Chicago charter school network with a predominantly Hispanic student population. For the past year, however, the politically connected group has grabbed headlines for another reason: a growing scandal over how it doled out millions of dollars in a state grant to build schools.

IOWA

School choice is education reform that will help kids
Opinion, Des Moines Register, IA, October 27, 2013
Iowa’s reputation as a national leader in education quality has eroded in the past three decades. The home of the well-regarded Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and ACT college exams has not improved on those measures, and more, for approximately three decades.

LOUISIANA

Drop in high school grades sparks dispute
The Advocate, LA, October 27, 2013
Local and state school leaders disagree on whether changes in Louisiana’s rating system caused a dip in some high school letter grades.

John McDonogh High School continues to struggle under charter operator
The Advocate, LA, October 27, 2013
If the charter school movement in New Orleans brings to mind smiling children and leaping test scores, there is also a brutal Darwinism to it: Fail to raise those test scores fast enough, and you lose your school.

Transforming New Orleans schools
Editorial, Times-Picayune, LA, October 27, 2013
To fully appreciate the dramatic change in New Orleans public schools reflected in the state’s latest performance scores, you need to think back to before Hurricane Katrina. In those days — eight, nine, 10 years ago — it would have been unfathomable that city schools could move up so far, so quickly.

MARYLAND

City’s charter schools call new policy ‘discouraging’
Baltimore Sun Blog, MD, October 25, 2013
The Baltimore school board will no longer back loans for charter school facilities, a move that the city’s coalition of charter operators calls “short-sighted” and said could deter those looking to open the in-demand schools.

MASSACHUSETTS

Humility could save school
Column, Worcester Telegram, MA, October 28, 2013
The school could perhaps save itself if it acknowledges that it is not offering its students an education that is superior to what is being offered in the Worcester public schools, and that being a charter school does not make it immune to the challenges of inner-city schools. That way it could perhaps detect and fix its faults.

MICHIGAN

Detroiters on hook for millions used to renovate schools now empty or demolished
Detroit Free Press, October 27, 2013
Over the next 27 years, Detroit property owners will be on the hook to pay more than $437.8 million for renovations made to schools that now sit unused, trashed or demolished, a boon to scrappers and home to vagrants and feral cats.

Michigan considers grading schools from A to F
Detroit News, MI, October 27, 2013
Michigan’s new color-coded school accountability system already could be up for an overhaul just two months after its debut. Some lawmakers say schools should get A-F grades just like students do, so parents and others can easily understand performance.

NEW JERSEY

Christie or Bouno: will the real ‘education governor’ please stand up?
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 28, 2013
Governor and challenger are fiercely committed to education, without agreeing on any of a myriad of details

Dr. Bonilla: ‘In Camden Charter School achieving 100% graduation rates’
The Trentonian, NJ, October 27, 2013
Another approach Camden education officials and experts have welcomed are alternative routes to public education such as charter schools. Charter schools receive public funding but operate independently of local school districts.

NEW MEXICO

Grandstanding doesn’t serve NM’s students
Editorial, Albuquerque Journal, NM, October 27, 2013
New Mexico’s K-12 public education system has serious challenges at hand – its fourth-graders are dead last in the nation when it comes to vocabulary skills, just around half of its students can read and do math at grade level, three out of every 10 students don’t graduate high school in four years, and around 10,000 drop out each year.

NEW YORK

A better city for kids
Opinion, New York Daily News, NY, October 27, 2013
Bill de Blasio has courted opponents of charter schools, school performance accountability and other actions identified with Mayor Bloomberg. In last week’s debate, in fact, de Blasio said his greatest regret was putting too much faith in mayoral control of schools under this mayor.

Ed commissioner tells superintendents NY will cut back on tests
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, October 26, 2013
Amid criticism over increased student testing, the state Education Department will look to limit some exams and offer additional grants to schools, state Commissioner John King said in a letter to superintendents.

The charter school that turned my life around
Opinion, New York Post, NY, October 27, 2013
I’m in my first semester of college. For millions of American teenagers, that’s a fairly common event. For me, however, it represents an unlikely dream for an African-American man from Bed-Stuy.

Top 16 NYC charater school executives earn more than Chancellor Dennis Walcott
New York Daily News, NY, October 27, 2013
Big paychecks are called ‘outrageous’ as New York City charter schools claim their students would face cuts if the schools are charged rent under a new mayor.

NORTH CAROLINA

Charging that charter schools ‘undermine’ Wake County’s magnet school program
New & Observer, NC, October 25, 2013
Are charter schools undermining programs such as the Wake County school system’s magnet school program?

Policy on tenure not meant to protect bad teachers from being fired
Star News, NC, October 26, 2013
A group of North Carolina teachers has wisely dropped plans for a one-day walkout to protest policies that threaten to undermine a public education system that has made broad gains over the past several decades.

Scott Mooneyham: Going to court over tenure
Column, Salisbury Post, NC, October 28, 2013
From Senate leader Phil Berger’s vantage point, the likelihood of a lawsuit probably comes as no surprise. Berger has been the primary force behind an effort at the North Carolina General Assembly to get rid of teacher tenure in the state.

OKLAHOMA

Public release of school grade cards delayed
Tulsa World, OK, October 26, 2013
The Oklahoma State Department of Education is delaying the public release of new school grade cards until early November “to ensure complete accuracy.”

PENNSYLVANIA

Charter school reform seems to be anything but
Editorial, Chambersburg Public Opinion, PA, October 28, 2013
The campaign for unfettered expansion of charter schools in Pennsylvania has greatly intensified given a bill pending in the state Senate that would give life to a large number of deeply ill-advised proposals.

RHODE ISLAND

Nowell Leadership Academy serves at-risk high school students
Providence Journal, RI, October 28, 2013
The Sheila C. “Skip” Nowell Leadership Academy is a new Rhode Island charter school that aims to provide a specific blend of support to at-risk high school students — especially teenagers who are young mothers and fathers.

Turning around a school
Editorial, Providence Journal, RI, October 27, 2013
Central Falls High School still has a way to go, three years after Rhode Island called for dramatic reform. But there are promising signs that School Supt. Fran Gallo, teachers and students are making progress.

TENNESSEE

Metro Schools must embrace change to reach lofty goals
Column, The Tennessean, TN, October 27, 2013
The first step MNPS should take in executing its strategic plan is to change its rhetoric and figure in how charter schools will be used to achieve its plan, instead of seeing them like a chancre that must be treated with strong medicine.

Teach For America wants to make Memphis a destination, not a stopover
Commercial Appeal, TN, October 27, 2013
Ashley Foxx was in graduate school at Columbia and on the path to a career as a college professor — or so she thought — when she met a former teacher with Teach for America.

WASHINGTON

Teachers jump-start turnaround at White Center Heights Elementary

Seattle Times, WA, October 26, 2013
For years, students at White Center Heights Elementary logged some of the lowest test scores in King County. Then teachers tried something new, and the numbers soared by double-digits after just one year. So what happened, and could it be replicated elsewhere?

WISCONSIN

Growth spurt
Sheboygan Press, WI, October 26, 2013
Since its modest start in 2001 with an enrollment of only 15 students, Lake Country Academy has seen tremendous growth.

Students first, then school — Some criticize rules allowing voucher schools to accept students before budgeting, planning
Journal Times, WI, October 26, 2013
If you want to open a brand-new voucher school in Racine, one of the first things you can do is begin accepting students.

WYOMING

40 percent of Wyoming schools not meeting expectations
Casper Star-Tribune, WY, October 26, 2013
The Wyoming Department of Education released its pilot report on school performance Friday, announcing that about 54 percent of Wyoming schools were meeting or exceeding expectations in the 2012-13 school year.

ONLINE LEARNING

Half of virtual charter schools judged in new report cards miss mark
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, October 27, 2013
Virtual charter schools are on the rise in Wisconsin, but so far new accountability standards that hold them to the same expectations as regular public schools do not paint a flattering picture.

Indiana students benefitting from online schooling
Journal and Courier, IN, October 27, 2013
Opened in 2012, Indiana Cyber Charter School is a statewide online learning program for students in kindergarten through grade 12. InCyber is authorized by Education One LLC, the charter school authorizing body of Trine University.

Click here for Newswire, 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

Vitter asks Holder to justify voucher challenge in N.O.
The Advocate, LA, October 24, 2013
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., led a group of 30 GOP senators expressing outrage over the Department of Justice seeking to temporarily stall the state’s school voucher program because of existing desegregation orders.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Another fight brewing for parent trigger
Editorial, Los Angeles Daily News, CA, October 24, 2013
Opponents of a law that empowers parents with children in failing schools want to rewrite the rules — and they are on the hunt for an ally in Sacramento.

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy may leave in coming months
Los Angeles Times, CA, October 25, 2013
Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy has told some district officials that he may leave but has not submitted his resignation.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C. charter school teacher Kena Allison surprised with $25,000 award
Washington Post, DC, October 24, 2013
The students of Anacostia’s Thurgood Marshall Academy filed into the school gym Thursday morning for a pep rally to celebrate their academic accomplishments over the past year.

Why did some charters opt out of D.C.’s enrollment lottery?
Washington Post Blog, DC, October 24, 2013
All DCPS schools and most charter schools have agreed to a common enrollment lottery that will take effect for school year 2014-15. The new process will cut down on duplicate applications and student reshuffling at the beginning of the year. Why, then, have some charters opted not to participate?

FLORIDA

Pinellas schools look to close racial achievement gap
St. Petersburg Times, FL, October 24, 2013
For years, Pinellas County Schools officials have struggled with the black students’ low achievement numbers; but, for the first time, administrators are now looking to the students themselves for help in overcoming the racial divide.

GEORGIA

School choice advocates bring in cash to Atlanta school election
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA, October 24, 2013
Wealthy backers of Atlanta charter schools and school choice are pouring money into the city’s Nov. 5 Board of Education elections in an effort to put their slate of candidates in power.

IDAHO

Fulcher, Otter offer similar views on education
Idaho Press Tribune, ID, October 25, 2013
State Sen. Russell Fulcher is positioning for a run for governor, and he has been outspoken about the state’s controversial health insurance exchange. He calls it Gov. Butch Otter’s “regrettable decision to voluntarily thrust Idaho into Obamacare.”

INDIANA

John Mutz sees challenges ahead for charter schools
Opinion, Indianapolis Star, IN, October 24, 2013
Chairman of Indianapolis’ charter school board, Mutz has watched the General Assembly expand charter school options, reduce the influence of teacher unions and approve vouchers for private schools for low-income families.

LOUISIANA

New Orleans schools see major gains in 2013 letter grades
Times-Picayune, LA, October 24, 2013
The New Orleans education establishment celebrated news Thursday that its schools are better than they’ve been since the state started keeping track. From next to last in the state in the months before Hurricane Katrina transformed the New Orleans school system, the city is now right in the middle of the state rankings.

MASSACHUSETTS

State Education Commissioner points to takeover at Parker
South Coast Today, October 24, 2013
Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, saying he is “alarmed” by a lack of clear progress at the John Avery Parker School, said Thursday that Parker is a likely candidate for state takeover.

MICHIGAN

Lawmaker questions school chief’s move to resume Common Core
Detroit News, MI, October 24, 2013
State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan ordered the Michigan Department of Education to resume implementation of the state’s Common Core State Standards after the Michigan Senate adopted a resolution Thursday to restart funding.

MISSISSIPPI

Justices: Leflore schools can’t obstruct takeover
Clarion Ledger, MS, October 25, 2013
In an order issued Thursday, the state Supreme Court said the school system has no legal right to appeal an emergency takeover order from the governor. The ruling sets a precedent to block future challenges from other districts.

MISSOURI

Normandy school board votes against paying bill for transfers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, October 25, 2013
The Normandy School Board on Thursday night voted not to pay the bill for its students who have transferred into higher performing schools.

NEW MEXICO

Fliers criticize old teacher evaluation
Albuquerque Journal, NM, October 25, 2013
A nonprofit group has caused a stir by sending out mailers that criticize the old teacher evaluation system used by Albuquerque Public Schools, while touting a new model being enacted by the state’s Public Education Department.

NEW YORK

Charter March Missed Mark
Huffington Post, October 24, 2013
Locating charter schools in public buildings is a big issue in New York City’s mayoral election. While of little consequence compared to other challenges facing the new mayor, so-called charter co-location is a litmus test for many voters.

NORTH CAROLINA

Eliminating teacher tenure
Opinion, The Daily Reflector, NC, October 24, 2013
Berger has been the primary force behind an effort at the North Carolina General Assembly to get rid of teacher tenure in the state. After two years of talk, the Republican-led legislature approved a measure that drops tenure and its extensive job protections in favor of employment contracts.

OKLAHOMA

TPS’ Keith Ballard pulls no punches on A-F in letter to parents
Tulsa World, OK, October 25, 2013
Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard sent a letter home to parents Thursday blasting the Oklahoma State Department of Education for “dysfunction and ineptitude” in the calculation of school report cards due out next week.

OREGON

Hillsboro school district may consider charter proposals
Hillsboro Tribune, OR, October 25, 2013
Public awareness of charter schools is a subject the Hillsboro School Board has wrestled with since the beginning of the school year, with board members voicing philosophical differences on whether the school district should actively seek charter school proposals.

PENNSYLVANIA

Educators lukewarm over a new system
Pocono Record, PA, October 24, 2013
The Pocono Mountain Charter School is an example of a school where student demographics may have played a role in the grade, said Kenneth Koberlein, former superintendent of the East Stroudsburg School District, who now works as a part-time consultant for the charter school’s education program.

Horrible New Bill Will Somehow Make PA Charter School Policy Even Worse
Keystone Politics, PA, October 24, 2013
Cash-strapped school districts and tapped out home and business owners have been begging the PA legislature to reform its broken charter school funding law.

School rallies expected this morning to protest loss of teachers
Philadelphia Daily News, PA, October 25, 2013
TWO PHILADELPHIA schools, facing the loss of teachers and the possibility of combined grades in one classroom, are expected to protest the district’s decision at separate rallies this morning.

SOUTH CAROLINA

SC school-choice advocates share options with families
The State, SC, October 24, 2013
About 25,000 S.C. families soon will get a catalog in the mail with information about the various public and private-school choice options available to them.

VIRGINIA

Virginia gubernatorial candidates take different approaches to education
Washington Post, DC, October 24, 2013
Charter school advocates regularly spotlight Virginia as having one of the nation’s unfriendliest charter school laws, largely because local school districts have sole discretion to approve or deny charter applications.

WISCONSIN

Reject any move toward independent charter schools
Opinion, Sheboygan Press, WI, October 25, 2013
It’s legislation that might look fairly harmless, but it poses yet another threat to public education in Wisconsin.

ONLINE LEARNING

Catoosa County: Online academy pilot program tests for success
Walker Messenger, GA, October 24, 2013
Midterms tests are often cause to shudder. Yet students taking midterms with the Catoosa County school system’s new online academy were smiling Thursday afternoon, Oct. 17.

Hands-on outing connects kids from virtual school
U-T San Diego, CA, October 24, 2013
On Oct. 15, Bates Nut Farm hosted more than 25 students, ranging from kindergartners to fifth-graders, from Capistrano Connections Academy, a K-12 virtual public school. Students on the field trip included residents of San Marcos and Oceanside.

In The Best Interest Of Students: Blended Learning In Newark Charter Schools
Forbes, October 24, 2013
For a number of years, educators in both district and charter settings around the country have been leveraging advances in online-learning technologies to move toward blended-learning environments in their brick-and-mortar classrooms and schools to improve the educational opportunities for all children.

Parnell announces digital learning initiative aimed at rural students
Anchorage Daily News, AK, October 24, 2013
Gov. Sean Parnell on Thursday announced a digital learning initiative aimed at ensuring students have access to the best teachers available.

Should Michigan parents consider online charter schools?
Michigan Public Radio, MI, October 24, 2013
To parents who are seeking the best education for their children, it’s a whole new world out there and it can be a confusing one. No longer is it an automatic choice to send your child to the public school in your neighborhood.

Click here for Newswire, 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

Better News in New Study That Assesses U.S. Students
New York Times, October 24, 2013
Amid growing alarm over the slipping international competitiveness of American students, a report comparing math and science test scores of eighth graders in individual states to those in other countries has found that a majority outperformed the international average.

Seven States Agree to Pilot Teacher-Prep Changes
Education Week Blog, October 23, 2013
Seven states will overhaul their teacher-preparation and -licensing systems under a two-year pilot program created by Council of Chief State School Officers, the group announced today.

Teachers’ unions fight bill that would bar sex offenders from schools
FOX News, October 23, 2013
A bipartisan bill that would stop convicted sex offenders from working in schools has been passed by the House but is running into a foe as it heads to the Senate: major teachers’ unions like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Why Teacher Colleges Get a Flunking Grade
Opinion, Wall Street Journal
Let’s give up on education majors. Too much theory, not enough practical learning about teaching.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

Segregating English learners in schools
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 23, 2013
The Los Angeles Unified School District has little choice in the matter. Yet there is reason for concern.

COLORADO

Language-centric Fort Collins charter school working to find permanent home
Coloradoan, CO, OCtober 23, 2013
“It’s not ideal,” Spicer said, but it’s what the new, state-approved language-immersion charter school has to work with until it finds a permanent home in Fort Collins.

Rocky Mountain High Taxes
Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2013
Colorado has veered to the political left in recent years, and on November 5 it may take another leap toward California. The Democrats and unions who now run state government are promoting a ballot initiative that would raise taxes and unleash a brave new era of liberal governance.

Star Academy likely to get second chance
Colorado Springs Gazette, CO, October 24, 2013
Colorado Springs School District 11’s Space, Technology and Arts (STAR) Academy is likely to be granted a reprieve.

FLORIDA

Pasco district changes procedures for reviewing charter schools
Tampa Bay Times Blog, FL, October 23, 2013
Pasco County school district officials found several deficiencies in the Pepin Academies application to open a charter school in the county. In the past, that would have been enough for a quick denial, no questions asked.

INDIANA

Education strife reaches new low
Editorial, Journal Sentinel, IN, October 24, 2013
In terms of education policy, the battle should have ended last November, when Democrat Glenda Ritz soundly defeated incumbent Republican Tony Bennett to become superintendent of public instruction

ILLINOIS

Mayor Rahm has successfully pitted charters against public schools
Chicago Reader, IL
October 23, 2013
As you might imagine, I’ve been getting my fair share of abuse from charter school lovers who feel that last week’s post was unfair to their beloved movement.

LOUISIANA

Jindal alleges Obama ‘trying to muzzle parents’ in school voucher suit
Times-Picayune, LA
October 23, 2013
Gov. Bobby Jindal blasted the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday for opposing the request of four families to join the state as defendants in a federal lawsuit over school vouchers and desegregation.

Public school letter grades undergoing changes
The Advocate, October 23, 2013
While public schools will get two letter grades Thursday, this year’s rating system is aimed at being simpler than in the past, state Superintendent of Education John White said Wednesday.

MASSACHUSETTS

Education Reform Group Launches TV Ad For Connolly
WBUR, MA, October 23, 2013
An education reform group has bought time for a television advertisement supporting City Councilor At-Large John Connolly in the Boston mayoral race.

Spirit of accountability
Worcester Telegram, October 24, 2013
Worcester’s youngest public charter school, Spirit of Knowledge, hasn’t yet called it quits, but all signs point toward a very clouded future for the school.

Technology bill holds help for education
Editorial, Sea Coast Today, MA, October 24, 2013
High tech is coming into schools, but not fast enough. The national Common Core will use Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, exams to measure student achievement and teacher success in Massachusetts schools beginning this spring.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lawmakers plan to introduce legislation aimed at Common Core
Concord Monitor, NH, October 24, 2013
More than half a dozen Common Core-related bills will come before the Legislature next spring, nearly all of them coming from Republican lawmakers who are skeptical of the education standards and aim to limit their reach.

NEW JERSEY

In ‘very strange’ twist, Jersey City school board slate ‘Children First,’ endorses teachers union (not the other way around)
Jersey Journal, NJ, October 24, 2013
Political observers watching the Jersey City school board race have been wondering: Will the local teachers union, which is negotiating a new contract with the school district, endorse anyone before the Nov. 5 election?

Newark needs next mayor to back charter schools
Opinion, Star-Ledger, NJ, October 24, 2013
Last week, Newark Mayor Cory Booker won the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s passing in June. Booker’s replacement in City Hall faces significant challenges on a number of issues, but the people of Newark have made one thing clear: They overwhelmingly support expanding the public charter school sector.

NEW YORK

Charter schools should pay rent
Letter, Newsday, NY, October 23, 2013
Profit-making groups have always paid the city for use of public school space [“De Blasio chides Lhota’s ‘Republican playbook,’ ” News, Oct. 16]. Most charter schools are extremely lucrative operations.

School Choice Has Limits
WNYC, NY, October 24, 2013
A key element of education reform in New York City over the past decade has been the expansion of school choice at all grade levels – and it’s been successful at shifting many students to better-performing schools. But an education marketplace isn’t without consequences, as five education experts explore in the second EdForum online debate.

Smaller is ‘better’ for NYC high schools
New York Post, October 24, 2013
Smaller is better — at least when it comes to New York City high schools.

NORTH CAROLINA

How ‘choice’ and vouchers mean condemning NC public schools
Opinion, News & Observer, NC, October 23, 2013
Since the passage of the Opportunity Scholarship Act in May, conversations have focused on the separation of church and state, costs of education and parental choice without any mention of the not-so-far-off history of school vouchers in North Carolina. Without incorporating our history into the debate, we lose out on important lessons from the past.

New teacher tenure law poses ‘tough’ task for county school board
Richmond County Daily Journal, NC, October 24, 2013
Members of the Sampson County Board of Education learned more about the recent changes to teacher tenure and the decisions the new law requires members to make concerning local teachers’ contracts during a Tuesday morning work session.

OHIO

Public-school task force examines open enrollment
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 24, 2013
Nearly 4 percent of public-school students in Ohio opt out of their neighborhood schools to enroll in other districts free of charge.

PENNSYLVANIA

Penn Hills charter school deals with administrative carousel
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, October 23, 2013
Students at the Imagine Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship soon will meet their fourth principal in less than a year.

RHODE ISLAND

Flynn should forget charter schools, fix town legal department spending
Letter, Valley Breeze, RI, October 23, 2013
Why in heaven’s name is the Democratic Minority Leader of the Lincoln Town Council, Mr. John Flynn, attacking the charter schools which by all accounts was and is a win-win situation for parents and students who have opted out of the public schools of our town?

SOUTH CAROLINA

Public opposition to S.C. private-school choice flares
The State, SC, October 24, 2013
Suspicion that private school choice would dismantle public education and revive a segregation-era expansion of private schools fueled criticism Wednesday of a state Senate bill that would expand the state’s first private school choice program.

TEXAS

False crisis designed to destroy public schools
Commentary, San Antonio Express News, TX, October 23, 2013
In the context of the Texas Legislature failing to treat public education as a priority when the majority of Texas students are Latinos and African-Americans, we need to be leery when people associate efforts to divert public education funding to charter and for-profit schools as “the civil rights issue of our time.”

WASHINGTON

BCS in favor of bond benefiting all schools
Letter, Los Altos Town Crier, October 23, 2012
In our discussions, the district has proposed a bond where more than half of its value would be dedicated to Bullis Charter School. Implicit in this proposal is the unfortunate position that charter school students would never be provided a fair share of public school resources unless and until such a bond measure is passed and new campuses are built.

WISCONSIN

Number of students choosing to leave OASD slows
Oshkosh Northwestern, WI, October 23, 2013
The drain of students from Oshkosh public schools through school choice programs has slowed for the first time in seven years, according to district records.

Reject move toward independent charter schools
Editorial, Appelton Post Crescent, WI, October 24, 2013
It’s legislation that might look fairly harmless, but it poses yet another threat to public education in Wisconsin.

ONLINE LEARNING

Are Virtual Schools Just Cyber Pie In The Sky?
Huffington Post, October 23, 2013
Sandy Hellebrand was concerned. She needed to find a school that could educate her son Gabriel, who has autism and was about to enter high school.

‘E-learning’ gives some students a lift
Daytona Beach News Journal, FL, October 24, 2013
Tristan Evans dreams of landing a college scholarship in the highly competitive world of women’s gymnastics almost as much as she works on landing back handsprings on the balance beam.

Grant could help Amherst take step toward blending learning
Lorain County Community Newspapers, OH, October 23, 2012
A revolutionary way of teaching may be in the works for Amherst school district if it receives a state grant, dubbed the Straight-A Fund.

IPS Board of Education approves virtual school agreement
Sun Sentinel, FL, October 23, 2013
Martha Guernsey was recognized as a community partner with Ionia Public Schools during the Ionia Public Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday.