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Daily Headlines for July 24, 2013

July 24, 2013 By

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

Black families support parental choice, charter schools and transformational education reform
Marketwire, July 23, 2013
The Black Alliance for Education Options (BAEO) released today the findings of a multi-state survey of Black adults concerning parental choice and education reform.

Education Overhaul Faces a Test of Partisanship
New York Times, July 23, 2013
The House passed a bill aimed at amending No Child Left Behind. But no Democrat voted for the bill, and the Obama administration has threatened to veto it.

Opinion: Fund Charter Schools
National Review Online, July 24, 2013
Federal lawmakers should ensure more funding and less regulation that impedes innovation.

Teachers Hit the Books to Master New Education Standards
National Public Radio, July 23, 2013
Almost all the states and Washington, DC are grappling with a big challenge as the new school year nears: getting teachers up to speed on the Common Core.

STATE COVERAGE

ARIZONA

Chandler groups get supplies to kids
Arizona Republic, July 23, 2013
Thousands of Chandler students started school Monday with new backpacks, shoes and other supplies, beneficiaries of the city’s first wide-scale drive that united organizations.

More than half of school district charter applications were submitted in June
AZ Daily Star, July 23, 2013
Last month, school districts submitted applications to convert about 60 traditional schools into district-run charter schools.

COLORADO

Democrats for Education Reform hires new Colorado director
Denver Post, July 22, 2013
Democrats for Education Reform announced today its new state director is Jennifer Walmer.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Defeated DC teachers union chief seeks new election
Washington Post, July 23, 2013
Nathan Saunders, the Washington Teachers’ Union president who just lost his reelection bid early this month, is seeking to invalidate that result and force a new round of voting.

GEORGIA

Blog: Now that Georgia has dumped the test, should we drop the Common Core Standards, too?
Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 23, 2013
Yesterday’s Department of Education announcement that Georgia was pulling out of a 22 state consortium developing tests aligned with the Common Core state standards has sparked commentary nationwide.

ILLINOIS

Protesters plan to be hear on CPS finances
Chicago Tribune, July 23, 2013
Staff, budget cuts top list for teachers, parents, students.

MARYLAND

State test scores drop as Maryland prepares for Common Core
Washington Post, July 23, 2013
Reading and math scores on Maryland’s standardized tests for elementary and middle school students dropped statewide in 2013, a decline educators blame on the transition to new national academic standards that they say do not align with the old exams.

MICHIGAN

Opinion: Michigan on the right track with the master teachers’ program, but the criteria is flawed
MNLive.com, July 23, 2013
The Michigan DOE has devised a new teacher credential called the Advanced Professional Education Certificate. Its criteria…are intended to create a pathway for high-performing teachers to move into teacher leadership positions.

State gets teacher review proposal
Detroit News, July 24, 2013
Evaluations would be standardized; student growth a component.

MINNESOTA

Blog: Minneapolis charter school’s end run in lease disputed blunted
Minneapolis Star, July 23, 2013
The Minnesota School of Science has tried to muster the Minnesota Department of Education’s muscle behind in its landlord-tenant tussle for control of Minneapolis schools but to little avail.

NEVADA

Blog: Stampede for School Choice
Las Vegas Review Journal, July 21, 2013
Demand for public school alternatives to typical neighborhood campuses is so great, the state is years away from being able to meet it.

NEW MEXICO

NM’s early learners slated to get $12.5M
Albuquerque Journal, July 24, 2013
New Mexico will receive a $12.5 million federal grant for its smallest learners, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Tuesday.

NEW YORK

Preparations for Utica charter school’s opening
Utica Observer Dispatch, July 24, 2013
Administrators from the Utica Academy of Science Charter School and Utica City School District are making progress.

NORTH CAROLINA

State education budget gets glum reception from CMS leaders, public school advocates
Charlotte Observer, July 23, 2013
The state education budget, expected to get final approval on Wednesday, got a glum reception from leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and other public school advocates.

NC House, Senate give budget preliminary OK
News & Observer, July 23, 2013
New education laws in the $20.6 billion budget caused an uproad among Republican House members.

OHIO

Changes in state=set student tests hit snag in legislature
Columbus Dispatch, July 24, 2013
Ohio’s long-anticipated plan to dump the high school graduation test and replace it with tougher college and career readiness exam and series of end of course tests appears to be in limbo.

Education Insider: Columbus schools’ interim chief jumps right in
Columbus Dispatch, July 24, 2013
Columbus City Schools interim Superintendent Dan Good is under a one-year contract…but he plans to put that year to good use.

Voters can expect big push for Columbus school levy
Columbus Dispatch, July 24, 2013
Columbus City Schools will ask district residents in November whether they should fundamentally transform the district into a partner with high-performing charters, and whether to create a watchdog.

PENNSYLVANIA

Forum looks at funding, needs of Pa. Schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 2013
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Tuesday he believes Pennsylvania must devise a funding formula that distributes state aid fairly.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Blog: South Carolina Tries School Choice
Heartland Institute, July 24, 2013
South Carolina has a new, temporary school choice law tucked within its recently passed state budget.

TENNESSEE

Blount County school board passes $81 million balanced budget
Knoxville News Sentinel, July 23, 2013
Director says balanced plan ‘a step back’.

Valor charter school wins $100,000 grant
The Tennessean, July 23, 2013
Valor Collegiate Academies, a Nashville charter school with plans to open in August 2014, has been awarded a $100,000 grant.

TEXAS

Grand Prairie district’s first charter school to focus on engineering, medicine
Dallas Morning News, July 23, 2013
Jeffrey Miller wants to create a school where students graduate not only well educated but uniquely prepared for the unexpected challenges of higher education.

VIRGINIA

Va. Teachers union blasts Jackson proposal for home schoolers as $100M tax hike
Washington Post, July 23, 2013
Virginia’s largest teachers union on Tuesday condemned GOP lieutenant gubernatorial candidate EW Jackson’s promise to work for equal funding for home schooled children.

WASHINGTON

Will election be a solution to Seattle School Board turmoil?
Seattle Times, July 22, 2013
The Seattle School Board, by its own admission, has relationship issues.

ONLINE LEARNING

Milford schools anticipate online learning with new policy
New Haven Daily Register, July 21, 2013
Anticipating a growth in online course offerings, the Board of Education passed its first policy governing such classes.

Opinion: Rebooting Online Education
Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2013
San Jose State’s experience shows that even well-intentioned programs shouldn’t be rushed.

“Virtual academy brings class to kids’ fingertips
Santa Fe New Mexican, July 23, 2013
New Mexico’s Connections Academy, the state’s second virtual-learning charter school, is opening next month and already about 300 students from around the state have enrolled.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines, Uncategorized

Daily Headlines for July 23, 2013

July 23, 2013 By

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

Some states see costs spike with Common Core tests
The Politico, July 22, 2013
About half the states in one testing group using controversial Common Core standards will spend more than they already do on their current exams, new figures released Monday show.

Teachers chief: Bad teachers should find new jobs
Associated Press, July 22, 2013
Teachers who aren’t up to snuff shouldn’t be in classrooms and should find new professions, the head of the 1.5 million member American Federation of Teachers head said Monday.

FROM THE STATES

ARIZONA

Tucson-area districts increasingly move to convert schools to charters
Arizona Daily Star, July 22, 2013
Arizona has seen an unprecedented surge in school districts wanting to convert some of their schools to charters.

CALIFORNIA

Closure of seven Sacramento schools upheld
Sacramento Bee, July 23, 2013
A federal judge on Monday denied a bid by parents seeking to prevent Sacramento City Unified from closing seven elementary campuses.

FLORIDA

School grade ‘safety net’ opens new rifts
Miami Herald, July 22, 2013
The state Board of Education’s decision last week to inflate school grades for a second year was widely praised by parents and educators, but it also exposed a hard-to-miss rift between the closest allies of former Gov. Jeb Bush and those who back Gov. Rick Scott.

No ‘new zero’ grading system at Orange high schools raises questions
Orlando Sentinel, July 21, 2013
Starting this fall, high-school teachers in Orange County will be more forgiving when they grade struggling students.

Republican-backed bill to change No Child Left Behind panned by education leaders
Orlando Sentinel, July 22, 2013
ESEA renewal panned by Sec. Arne Duncan.

GEORGIA

Georgia decides against Common Core test
Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 22, 2013
Georgia leaders announced today that the state will not offer a new and expensive standardized test tied to the controversial set of national standards known as Common Core.

Blog: Federal funds no panacea for struggling schools
Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 22, 2013
Many people believe that more money is not an assurance that schools will improve.

KENTUCKY

Proposed academy won’t open in 2014
Lexington Dispatch, July 23, 2013
Charter school proponents say they’ll try again.

LOUISIANA

5th Circuit Dismisses part of state’s appeal in voucher suit
The Advocate, July 23, 2013
The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday partially dismissed the state Department of Education’s appeal of a November injunction that halted the state’s voucher program in Tangipahoa Parish.

Lafayette Considers Charter Schools
The Advocate, July 23, 2013
A charter school has never been approved in Lafayette Parish, but that may be about to change.

MARYLAND

Grade changes investigated in city schools
Baltimore Sun, July 22, 2013
Baltimore school officials are investigating allegations at a middle school that dozens of students were given passing grades so they could move on to the next grade, even though their teachers had given them failing marks.

MICHIGAN

State of Michigan clears way to dissolve Inkster, Buena Vista schools
The Detroit News, July 22, 2013
Two Michigan school districts will disappear and their students will be scattered.

Back-to-school supplies cost is up, parents tightening purse strings
MLive.com, July 23, 2013
While the cost of school supplies is up from 2012, families are expected to spend less than they did last year.

MISSOURI

Educators, community leaders call for unity for St. Louis County school districts
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 23, 2013
More than 1,000 people, nearly all African-American, packed a north St. Louis County gym Monday night to show support for one another in dealing with the problems of the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts and issues of student transfers.

NEW JERSEY

Only six charter schools get go-ahead to begin classes next fall
NJ Spotlight, July 22, 2013
Two others, in Camden and Atlantic, are found lacking and fail to win final approval.

NEW YORK

City Loses Millions in Teacher Training Funds
WNYC, July 22, 2013
Yet another impasse over the teacher evaluation system coming to all New York City schools this fall has caused the city to lose $15 million meant to help school staff implement the complex plan.

NORTH CAROLINA

Teachers say NC lawmakers are forsaking education
News & Observer, July 23, 2013
Teachers on Monday said cuts in the state budget released Sunday amount to the legislators forsaking education.

Proposal of vouchers for special needs students moves forward
News & Observer, July 23, 2013
Arguments over a bill that would give tax money to private schools that enroll children with disabilities offered a preview of the debate brewing over a broader measure that would give private school vouchers to thousands of students.”

Teachers group to mount legal challenge to budget proposal
WRAL-Online, July 22, 2013
A little more than 12 hours after House and Senate negotiators announced a budget deal, the North Carolina Association of Educators announced plans Monday to try to block key provisions in the $20.6 billion spending plan.

OHIO

Columbus schools’ interim chief to ax high level positions
Columbus Dispatch, July 23, 2013
Interim Superintendent Daniel Good intends to cut up to eight high-level management positions to save $1.5 million a year for Columbus city schools.

Public educators cut out of online charter school franchise
Akron Beacon Journal, July 23, 2013
The Ohio Department of Education this month flunked itself on an application to oversee an online charter school.

School voucher programs expand, giving Ohio more programs than any other state
Cleveland Plain-Dealer, July 22, 2013
Up to 2,000 Ohio kindergartners from low-income families will be able to use state vouchers for private school tuition this fall, thanks to a provision in the state budget approved last month.

PENNSYLVANIA

Unions join in push for charter change
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 2013
Some of Philadelphia’s biggest unions and their political allies came together Monday in an unusual show of solidarity against a common enemy: Mayor Nutter.

Catholic mission school gets grant for online, in-class teaching
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 2013
One of Philadelphia’s new independent Catholic mission schools has won a grant to incorporate individualized online instruction into its classes.

Former Allentown Racquetball Club could become charter school
Morning Call, July 22, 2013
Thomas Lubben, founder of two other charter schools, announces plans for charter elementary school.

TENNESSEE

Nashville schools rethink calendar after sessions during breaks were a bust
Tennessean, July 20, 2013
Sparse attendance and a lack of funds are forcing some Middle Tennessee school systems to rethink the breaks they have set aside in the fall and spring for academic camps.

WISCONSIN

Seattle district forms new department focused on building, maintaining schools
Seattle Times, July 22, 2013
Seattle Public Schools is creating a new department of capital, facilities, and enrollment planning.

Cedar River Academy Prepares Charter School Application
Enumclaw Patch, July 22, 2013
Cedar River Academy in Enumclaw is asking community members to voice their support for the formation of a Public Charter School.

ONLINE LEARNING

Broward School Board to vote on renewing deal with K-12
Miami Herald, July 23, 2013
The Broward School Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a one year contract renewal with K-12, a for profit virtual learning company that has been dogged by complaints from other districts.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

Daily Headlines for July 22, 2013

July 22, 2013 By

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

House GOP Passes Education Bill to Reverse No Child Left Behind
Washington Post, July 19, 2013

Title I Funding Would Follow Students to Charters Under US House Bill
Education Week, July 19, 2013
The US House of Representatives today passed its version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including an amendment that will allow Title I funds to flow to charter schools, after two days of debate.

US Schools Chief Arne Duncan Labors to Straddle Political Divide
Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2013
Education Secretary Arne Duncan was riding to the airport in a black government SUV last week, working his cellphone to try to save a plan to reduce interest rates on new student loans that is expected to face a vote in the Senate as early as Tuesday.

Why do schools hide exams from parents?
Washington Post, July 21, 2013
Some education issues never appear in political debates, op-ed pages or blue-ribbon commission reports. That doesn’t make them any less irritating. Take, for instance, the widespread reluctance to let students take exams home after they are marked and graded.

STATE COVERAGE

COLORADO

Adams 12 changing budget practice, finding millions in underspending
Denver Post, July 22, 2013
After a year of deflecting accusations of questionable and unethical budget practices, Adams 12 Five Star Schools officials say they are changing the way they develop district budgets.

CONNECTICUT

Change Agent in Education Collects Critics in Connecticut Town
New York Times, July 22, 2013
Paul G. Vallas, a leader in the effort to shake up American education, has wrestled with unions in Chicago, taken on hurricane-ravaged schools in New Orleans and confronted a crumbling educational system in Haiti.

ILLINOIS

City Schools Poised to feel impact
Chicago Tribune, July 20, 2013
The fallout from the Chicago Public Schools’ decision to lay off almost 3,000 teachers and school-based staff will be felt citywide when classes resume next month.

LOUISIANA

Robert R. Moton Charter School in New Orleans holds ground-breaking for new school
Times-Picayune, July 21, 2013
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Robert Russa Moton Charter School was held July 17.

Testing 3- and 4- year olds is newest front in Louisiana school accountability
Times-Picayune, July 21, 2013
Louisiana is pushing school accountability a step further.

MARYLAND

MSDE finds violations in Carroll autism program
Baltimore Sun, July 19, 2013
The Maryland State Department of Education has found Carroll County Public Schools in violation of missing deadline for students’ Individualized Education Programs.

MASSACHUSETTS

State takes action against Salem Community Charter School
The Salem News, July 22, 2013
Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester has taken administrative action against the Salem Community Charter School due to serious concerns about its management.

Despite facing financial and attendance hurdles, Catholic schools remain upbeat
Herald News
Holy Name Parish Center School Principal Patricia Wardell said she is “absolutely” certain that Catholic education will continue to be viable in the city.

MINNESOTA

Duluth teachers seek more pay for increased workload
Duluth News Tribune, July 22, 2013
The Duluth teachers union is attempting to lower class sizes through contract negotiations.

MISSOURI

Legislator, Francis Howell board member spar amid transfer controversy
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 18, 2013
An escalating dispute between a state legislator and a Francis Howell School Board member has added to the ongoing controversy over the transfer of students from the unaccredited Normandy district.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NH OKs opening of three new charter schools
Union-Leader, July 21, 2013
The state’s Board of Education has given the green light to open three new charter schools, and will hear a presentation next month from a group looking to establish a fourth.

NEW JERSEY

Newark’s School Chief Is Up For Her Next Performance Bonus
NJ Spotlight, July 22, 2013
Cami Anderson’s contract enters third year of potentially earning extra pay of as much as $50,000.

NEW MEXICO

NM Public Education Dept. defends grading system
The Deming Headlight, July 21, 2013
State legislators question reliance on standardized tests to rate schools.

NORTH CAROLINA

Proposed NC budget would end teacher tenure, pay tuition vouchers
News & Observer, July 22, 2013
Legislators are set to vote on a historic $20.6 billion budget this week that would have the state take a giant step toward further privatization of education.

OHIO

Editorial: Schools to see challenge, educators face stiffer measures of effectiveness in coming year
Columbus Post Dispatch, July 21, 2013
Summer is racing past and a new school year looms. Students, families, teachers, principals and other school officials will have beg changes intended to improve learning and accountability.

PENNSYLVANIA

Grading Our Schools: Line Mtn. focuses on individual improvement
News Item
Line Mountain Junior-Senior did not make adequate yearly progress in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) testing in 2011-12.

PA Has New Teacher, Principal Evaluation System
WRTA-Online, July 22, 2013
School may be out for summer, but across Pennsylvania districts are gearing up for a new teacher evaluation system that takes student performance into account.

TENNESSEE

Opinion: Teacher pay should not be performance based
The Tennessean, July 21, 2013
Teacher performance pay will not bring desired results.

TEXAS

Blog: When we pay our coaches the most, students get the wrong idea
Huffington Post, July 20, 2013
Given the number of people involved in important public sector jobs, I was simply stunned when I came across this graphic in Tod Robberson’s blog in the Dallas Morning News.

WISCONSIN

Parents eager to apply for school vouchers
Green Bay Press Gazette, July 20, 2013
Mary Rehberg recognizes there’s not much chance her family will receive one of the 500 private school vouchers the state will hand out next month, but she is still planning to apply for one.

WYOMING

Hill accusees Wyo state senator of $4 million conflict of interest
Star Tribune, July 22, 2013
State Sen, Phil Nicholas says his efforts to secure a $4 million appropriation for the Snow Range Academy to buy a new building aren’t a conflict of interest, even though the charter school is a client of his law firm.

ONLINE LEARNING

Milford schools anticipate online learning with new policy
New Haven Register, July 21, 2013
Anticipating a growth in online course offerings, the Board of Education passed its first policy governing such classes.

Schools in Keaau, Pahoa Chosen for Digital-Based Learning Program
Big Island Now, July 19, 2013
Two Big Island schools have been chosen to take part in a program designed around a new digital-based curriculum.

Saginaw School District starts online program to attract home-schooled students
MLive, July 18, 2013
Saginaw School District officials are hoping to attract more students by going digital.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines, Uncategorized

Daily Headlines for July 19, 2013

July 19, 2013 By

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

Education Proposal in House Could Replace ‘No Child’ Act
New York Times, July 19, 2013
For the first time since No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature education law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a dozen years ago, a bill seeking to rewrite the law came to the floor of the House for debate on Thursday, dividing legislators along party lines.

Teacher training programs need a reboot
Washington Post, July 18, 2013 When the National Council on Teacher Quality released last month its report on teacher training programs, I was not shocked to read that the vast majority of colleges and universities do a poor job of preparing their students to teach. I imagine that many other people who have gone through such programs were equally unsurprised.

STATE COVERAGE

CALIFORNIA

LAUSD’s Grumpy Old Man Richard Vladovic Could Squelch Reform
LA Weekly, July 18, 2013
For the first time in six years, the politicians on the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, responsible for educating one in every 10 children in California, have chosen a new president, the inscrutable Richard Vladovic.

LAUSD’s struggling arts school
Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2013
Turmoil at the $232-million Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts threatens to turn it into just a terribly overpriced neighborhood school.

Vacaville unified School District trustees deny charter school’s petition request
Vacaville Reporter, July 19, 2013
Citing its “unsound educational program,” a majority of Vacaville Unified leaders on Thursday chose to deny a petition by a Rio Linda-based nonprofit operator of charter schools to have its downtown campus, Heritage Peak, fall under district oversight.

DELAWARE

State student test scores flatten out in latest report
News Journal, July 19, 2013
A year after double-digit gains on the standardized test, statewide scores fell slightly or plateaued this year.

FLORIDA

New Fort Myers academy offers ‘careers’
News-Press, July 19, 2013
The officials behind the new DJB Technical Academy in Fort Myers wanted a place where young people could complete their high school diplomas, be trained for skills and have jobs ready to hire them.

IDAHO

Idaho Teachers’ Union Sees Big Membership Decline
Boise State Public Radio, July 18, 2013
Union membership among Idaho teachers has dropped sharply in recent years. Idaho Education News reports a 14.3 percent decline in Idaho Education Association (IEA) membership between the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. That is compared to a 3.6 percent drop nationally.

ILLINOIS

CPS: More layoffs coming
Chicago Tribune, July 19, 2013
Citing a $1 billion budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees, more than a 1,000 of them teachers, the district said Thursday night.

LOUISIANA

Elmira school board to let state know it’s against charter school proposal
Shreveport Times, July 18, 2013
The Elmira school board took a stance Wednesday night against a group trying to establish a charter school. The board voted 9-0 to send a statement by Aug. 1 to the state Education Department to outline why it opposes the application for Finn Academy: An Elmira Charter School.

MARYLAND

Montgomery County measuring ‘hope’ to help improve academic success in schools
Washington Post, July 18, 2013
The questions — intended to measure student hope, engagement and well-being — are part of a survey Montgomery is conducting with the help of polling giant Gallup.

School emphasis on cultural diversity in spotlight for national program
Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2013
When Centennial High School Assistant Principal Joelle Miller arrived at the school three years ago, she got a copy of her students’ responses to a countywide survey seeking their view of schools’ overall environment for learning.

MICHIGAN

Michigan schools chief offers lesson in improvement
Commentary, Toledo Blade, July 19, 2013
Mike Flanagan, Michigan’s state superintendent of schools, has spent his life in public education. Now, he’s presiding over a system in crisis. Gov. Rick Snyder this month signed a bill that gives the state the power to dissolve two small, economically troubled districts: Buena Vista, near Saginaw, and Inkster, in the Detroit area.

MISSOURI

Bill could be introduced to give schools power to veto school transfers
KSDK, July 18, 2013
It looks like a bill could be introduced to give school boards the power to veto school transfers, which could eventually keep Normandy students out of St. Charles.

St. Louis forges unique partnership with KIPP
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 19, 2013
Six years after refusing to sell vacant buildings to charter schools, leaders of St. Louis Public Schools on Thursday approved a partnership that would give the charter school organization KIPP St. Louis keys to an empty elementary building. For free.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Three New Charter Schools Get OK To Open In New Hampshire
New Hampshire Public Radio, July 19, 2013
The state Board of Education has given the green light for three new charter schools to open in New Hampshire.

NEW JERSEY

Metuchen charter school developer awarded $4.6 million grant
Star-Ledger, July 19, 2013
Build with Purpose, Inc. has been awarded more than $4.6 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education.

NEW MEXICO

PED must address audit to keep reform on track
Albuquerque Journal, July 19, 2013
The New Mexico Public Education Department is under fire from the state auditor for alleged lax financial management. And that is disturbing on several fronts.

NEW YORK

Charter kids shut out of summer school
Riverdale Press, July 18, 2013
The Department of Education is quick to say charter schools are public schools, so it came as a shock to Tech International Charter School parents that this wasn’t the case when summer school seats are at stake.

Teachers union sues Mayor Bloomberg over charter schools opening after he’s out of office
New York Daily News, July 19, 2013
The teachers union slapped the city with a lawsuit Thursday to stop Mayor Bloomberg from opening more charter schools in traditional public school buildings — after he leaves office.

Van Buren faces co-location
Queens Time Ledger, July 19, 2013
The city is considering the co-location of a charter school at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village that could cut 500 seats, a city Education Department spokesman said, despite borough leaders’ concerns.

NORTH CAROLINA

Senate OKs bill to cut school board
Daily Reflector, July 19, 2013
The N.C. Senate passed an amended bill to reduce the number of members on the Pitt County School Board. The legislation creates nine single-number districts and eliminates a voter referendum.

Proposed charter school passes state test
Citizen Times, July 19, 2013
Advocates for a local charter school are one step closer to launching the area’s first charter high school, which could open as soon as next year if the state approves the plan.

OHIO

Columbus schools could legally break up fall levy
Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2013
A proposal by a Columbus school-board member to break a 9.01-mill property-tax request into as many as five operating levies and a bond issue has some wondering whether that is even possible under Ohio law.

More flexibility on school year
Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2013
Ohio’s schools can benefit from schedule flexibility, but they shouldn’t shorten the time their students spend in class.

PENNSYLVANIA

Christie vetoes bill boosting nonteaching staff’s rights
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 2013
Gov. Christie vetoed a bill Thursday that would have given nonteaching school employees such as teacher’s aides, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers the same right to binding arbitration that educators have.

RHODE ISLAND

Carolyn Sheehan and Kyleen Carpenter: High school is not too late for success
Opinion, Providence Journal, July 19, 2013
Twelve years ago, a small group of us set out to create a demonstration project of sorts in Rhode Island. Frustrated by the high drop-out and low college-attainment rates of local students, and the lack of alternatives to large traditional high schools, we designed a small charter school for students from Central Falls and Pawtucket.

TENNESSEE

Metro to begin using evaluation scores as reason to fire teachers
The Tennessean, July 19, 2013
For the first time, Metro Nashville Public Schools is poised to use chronically low scores on controversial state-mandated evaluations as a reason to fire teachers.

VIRGINIA

Transparency
Editorial, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 19, 2013
The concerns relate to turnover among administrators and principals. They may be valid, they may not be. It is hard to tell. This needs to be discussed in the open. Transparency is the enemy of rumors. The absence of transparency encourages whispering. And whispers fan suspicions.

WASHINGTON

School board’s schedule for evaluation system focuses on new teachers
News Tribune, July 19, 2013
The Tacoma School Board on Thursday approved a roll-out schedule for the new teacher evaluation system that will launch its first phase this fall.

WISCONSIN

Local private schools to seek voucher program participation
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, July 18, 2013
Leaders of two Wisconsin Rapids-area parochial school systems hope the state’s expanded voucher program will benefit local students and their families who want a Christian education.

ONLINE LEARNING

A virtual high school? Baldwin County considers launching state’s first
The Hunstville Times, July 18, 2013
With overcrowding of many of its facilities becoming a major concern, Baldwin County schools officials may have come up with the perfect long-term solution: A virtual high school.

Learning academy seeks new students
Times Herald, July 18, 2013
Your high school diploma is waiting for you online. The Virtual Learning Academy of St. Clair County is a proven lifeline to high school graduation for more than 200 students.

Virtual public schooling offered to students in grades three through 12
Killeen Daily News, July 18, 2013
While most Texas students will return to brick-and-mortar classrooms for the 2013-2014 school year, some will need to walk only as far as their computers.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines, Uncategorized

Recalibrate Federal ESEA Efforts, Says Leading Reform Group

July 18, 2013 By

CER Sets a Reformer’s Vision For Change in Federal Education Programs

CER Press Release
Washington, DC
July 18, 2013

With a final vote looming in the U.S. House of Representatives on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), The Center for Education Reform (CER) this afternoon said federal lawmakers need a New Vision for federal programs that both ensures accountability and respects state reform efforts.

In a policy perspective entitled “A Reformer’s Course of Action for The Next Generation of ESEA,” CER authors Jeanne Allen, Alison Consoletti, and Kara Kerwin argue that “it’s time for a real education reform perspective to guide the debate.”

The authors call on Congress to find a balance of incentive and consequence in renewing its commitment to K-12 education, something they say neither House nor Senate visions achieve.

While acknowledging that review of ESEA is “long overdue,” the authors contend that the public backlash created by the ongoing controversy over No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has only served to move reauthorization efforts into two camps – the local control camp which wants ESEA to provide “structure but few rules,” and the federal control camp, which desires “prescriptive federal spending” on programs, so that the money is “protected from people locally” who may have other ideas.

Rather than “tunnel vision… evenly distributed among ideologies and political parties,” CER president Allen and her co-authors vice presidents of research and external affairs Consoletti and Kerwin call for “a reformer’s vision” to guide the discussion, one that “unites the majorities of the two camps.”

Filed Under: Press Releases

A Reformer’s Course of Action For the Next Generation of ESEA

July 18, 2013 By

Defining the Needs of Substantive Education Reform in Federal Programs
By Jeanne Allen, Alison Consoletti and Kara Kerwin

Policy Perspective
July 2013
PDF version

Despite the lack of consensus on just about every other issue, both sides of the aisle of the 113th Congress seem committed to get something done to reestablish the federal role in K-12 education in the U.S.

What’s even more surprising is that two very different camps are approaching this reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) in seemingly very distinct ways, but may essentially end up at the same place.

With House action taking place in the immediate future, along with the likelihood that a new ESEA may actually get to conference subsequently, it’s time for a real education reform perspective to guide the debate.

Numerous groups and organizations have surely filled the halls of Congress over the past several years and more immediately, the past several months to celebrate and herald those Members who seem most to espouse their own programs and points of view. Most, however, seem to be viewing the ESEA debate through a narrow lens.

This paper defines the proper role of federal programs to meet the needs of all education reform strands combined – not just charter schools OR accountability OR teacher quality but ALL – while putting the interests of parents and students first and ensuring the adults around our schools have the authority and freedom to defy the status quo.

The New Course – Build on Both Versions. Five years overdue, we’re in the midst of much debate on the Republican-controlled House version, H.R.5 Student Success Act, and the Democrat-controlled Senate version, S. 1094 Strengthening America’s Schools Act. While neither version offer the right balance of incentive and consequence, its important to look to the lessons of the past to shape the future. What’s clear from much of the Committee debate in both chambers is that the best way to move forward on ESEA is to take a little from both sides and build on what there still seems to be a consensus on—that once upon a time, before waivers and broad use of the “safe harbor,” No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had pieces that once worked.

Performance-based accountability should be the goal of any federal funding that is allocated for the express purpose of supporting education, as well as being the basis upon which NCLB was created and the basis upon which all conflicts about that same program today revolve. There are two major and very opposite visions of the federal role and they are visions that were united for a short time when NCLB was first developed.

History is critical if we are to learn from where things went awry. The assumption is often that such history is known by most when in fact it is known by very few, even among those negotiating on Capitol Hill.

Original Vision. There was once just one prevailing vision of federal program efforts. This vision was embraced mostly by the leaders of the education establishment who for the 30-plus years after ESEA was enacted in 1965 administered programs that they helped create with their advocacy and significant presence on Capitol Hill. These programs – from Title I and Bilingual Education to Special Education – were implemented largely free from real performance-based accountability. It was conventional wisdom that all the federal government needed to do was to create enough rules to ensure that kids would be served by the programs, send enough money — and more each year — to states and communities, and the programs’ role would be fulfilled. This vision of federal involvement in education supposed that the state and local communities and any special interests should be “trusted” to make decisions about how to teach and what to teach; who could and couldn’t teach or administer was safe guarded not only by local and state policies but by strong lobbying at the federal level. By the time NCLB was debated, the federal role was simply that of regulator and check writer. While accountability for funding was often set and demanded, there were no consequences for success or failure.

Enter President George W. Bush, Senator Edward Kennedy and the reauthorization of ESEA in 2001. Hundreds of days and thousands of pages of negotiations, battles and collaboration resulted in a program with actually a simple premise – that federal funds should be deployed to help students succeed, and to determine success they must be measured, with data about their measurements disaggregated to better understand the landscape and challenges. Federal funds should only support improvement; to that end, schools would have to meet certain benchmarks and parents would have options to have their kids supported outside of that school, or given other choices if their assigned school did not live up to the set benchmarks.

What resulted initially was the first national effort to understand the real story in education. With mounds of data being collected and made fully available to the public eye for the first time, no more were ordinary people forced to accept education-speak when important questions were asked. Tests and data about schools would provide a bird’s eye view into communities that later would permit groups like Education Trust to discover and report out the widespread practice of school districts unevenly distributing funds to schools and assigning teachers without regard to where they’d add the most value.

How many recall that recognition of the very real “achievement gap” was a byproduct of NCLB? The public simply didn’t know how bad it was until it was revealed by the data that NCLB mandated and was made the law of the land as a condition for federal funding.

But like all federal programs, good intentions are not enough and human nature is a stronger force than even law. Those for whom NCLB meant a completely different way of doing business would rebel and begin to respond to the new mandates by creating unforeseen rules of their own – requiring teachers and schools to become test prep entities rather than leaders of education, and creating a public backlash that is at the heart of today’s debate over how best to move forward with a new ESEA. It’s not the fault of one political party or another.

Tunnel Vision. The backlash is evenly distributed among ideologies and political parties:

Local Control Camp: Those who lead state or local school boards and who long for the nostalgia of local control that existed before NCLB have welcomed the waivers that the Obama Administration provided from meeting pre-determined benchmarks but insist that they know best how to spend money. These “local controllers” want simply for the new ESEA to give them structure but few rules on school improvement, on teacher quality, on programs in general. This camp tends to be represented by the Republicans, with a focus in the House, whose Members seem to want ESEA to be all carrot and no stick. What they fail to realize is that their idea of local control was never really a reality, and that the school boards have become almost as oppositional to consequences for failing as the teachers unions are to education reform in general. Local control isn’t really local anymore – it’s been replaced by interest group politics that dictate who is local and what is control.

Federal Control Camp: The other camp is led by the leaders of organized labor, the leaders of associations of certain segments of teachers (National Council of Teachers of Math, of English, etc.) of traditional education school pundits and their representatives in Washington. This group includes conventional civil rights organizations that believe money is the root of all problems and that good programs with money will take care of the kids. This camp tends to be most represented by the Democrats in Congress, who argue that the federal government must clearly define how federal funds are spent so as to protect the programs in which members of their camp are fully vested. Their ideas for ESEA require prescriptive spending on programs, so they are protected from people locally who may have other ideas about how to spend it. They have advocated for specific regulations that protect their ideas of how best to do education, while also arguing, like their local control colleagues, that carrots are enough and sticks need not be applied. They, too, like waivers, as they remove an obligation to meet NCLB’s 2014 benchmarks for proficiency that the U.S. education system is far from meeting.

While the conventional media punditry – aided by a willing public – dismiss Congressional inaction as incompetency or ideological rigidity, the reality is that these two visions of the way education should be funded, managed and expected to perform are at the heart of every policy battle on education in the Nation today. From board rooms to state halls to associations to charter school research, there are fundamental disagreements about how best to govern education funding when results are so very lacking and the nation’s achievement gap remains wide and bleak – even more so than our economic gap.

More importantly, the two visions pay homage to some education reform efforts, but at their core increase federal oversight of reform while loosening accountability on the establishment and status quo. It’s the law of unintended consequences but a reality that must be addressed.

A Reformer’s Vision. To minimize the damage, a new ESEA should include parental choice as well as performance driven evaluations of students, teachers and schools. A new vision must be forged that unites the majorities of the two camps. That of course requires their own constituencies to pressure and to speak up around some very simple, proven methods for ensuring progress in American education and ensuring that federal funds follow and not impede that progress.

 1)    Standards and Testing

Consider that rather than setting Common Core as a bar or ignoring it altogether, why not ensure that every state has standards that meet or exceed those of the Common Core, while not imposing the notion of the Common Core on every state? As a condition for Title I, it’s not okay to simply submit to those standards but instead, like a charter contract, states must outline a way to close their achievement gap that includes things like standards, testing, school improvement and turnaround models, online learning and more. Unlike Race to the Top (RTT), such a model doesn’t prescribe specific reforms or methods for doing so (such as requiring states to have teacher union buy-in or charters to have to comply with certain rules for participating in RTT grants). Instead the state plan is just that – a plan, and is public and informed by demonstrating a certain percentage of progress on state tests over a three to five year period of time.

This direction addresses the concerns of the local control camp who recognize that the federal government has set in motion a testing regime that is now focused not on results but on test preparation and permits wide latitude in how states might set out to achieve clear goals. It addresses the interests of the federal control camp that wishes to see Common Core all but-mandated as a condition for certain funding pools but permits latitude for states to submit plans that uniquely recognize their own political conditions while still ensuring monies flow to fund those plans.

2)    Teacher Quality and Performance

We know that teacher quality is the bedrock of good schools. Why then would the federal government not impose requirements on states to receive federal money to support teachers? Good teachers deserve a boost up and those who fail to achieve student-learning gains during their tenure need a boost down. There are dozens of ways to do this and all may be equally valid in accomplishing the goal. The local control camp wants no prescriptions on teacher funding programs and the federal control camp wants money prescribed for teachers and their development but with no real performance evaluation required. The middle road here is easy — incentives for states to use funds for performance pay and to support any state program that is already based on evaluations — and the consequence for failing to use these monies to improve student learning should be termination of funding when the state plans are renewed.

In 2004, Bryan Hassel wrote similarly of the middle road: “I think we need to consider a hybrid approach that harnesses market dynamics but also retains a key state role in ensuring quality. We call this model a portfolio of providers model or a multiple-providers model, and the basic idea is that the state’s role is to authorize providers of teacher preparation that meet certain criteria.”

Race to the Top, the federal competition offering winning states a share of over four billion dollars, placed a huge emphasis on teacher quality, developing teacher evaluations that were really appraising a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom and performance pay. When all was said and done, RTT didn’t move the ball forward on teacher quality issues, largely because winning states had to receive full support from teachers unions, not known for their willingness to change. The ‘Race’ was rendered meaningless from the start because no federal law could mandate against the teacher collective bargaining agreements by which local districts are held hostage to. That said, the combination of NCLB and RTT did bring teacher quality to the fore of the reform debate. States and the federal government recognized that states and districts who took teacher quality seriously – by creating evaluations that measured academic effectiveness, and by offering real merit pay programs – were actually making significant academic gains.

3)    Charter Schools and School Choice

The earliest role of the federal government in the charter school program worked well once upon a time in 1997 and gave life to the Public Charter Grant Program under then President Bill Clinton. Bi-partisan efforts by Republican Frank Riggs in the House and then Democrat Joe Lieberman in the Senate accomplished unprecedented support for this early and controversial reform from their respective chambers. That original vision, provided much needed start up funds, and incentivized states to adopt charter laws that had high or no caps, operational flexibility and were not limited to school board authorizing. The program was that simple.

It is not so anymore. Today a wide variety of strings have grown attached to the program, and there is less focus on whether state charter laws are strong and more on whether states have shown certain benchmarks—benchmarks that the federal government is ill-equipped to evaluate—for qualifying for funds.

Today’s debate on charters seems unified – at least at the national level. The leaders of the charter school movement’s associations argue for more money and more programs aimed at specific kinds of school networks and needs. Such prescriptions drive not accountability but paperwork, and add strings to state education agencies which is problematic as most state laws do not cede authority for chartering to SEAs but to other authorizers, including universities, independent boards, mayors or other elected municipal governing authorities, non-profit organizations and local school boards.

NCLB was supposed to affect charter schools like all other traditional public schools, with the key difference being that charters were first held accountable to their authorizer, as defined by state law. Charter schools were supposed to continue to report to their authorizers and simply add AYP to the list of things to be monitored. Charters were not, therefore, to start reporting on their progress to anyone else. Today’s recommendations on both sides changes all that and it is cause for concern among real rank and file advocates leading and managing schools.

This was a concern in the earliest discussions of federal support for charter schools. There was debate around NCLB in the early stages on how best to protect charter schools’ independence with this federal law to require schools to show yearly academic progress or face sanctions. Language was urged to be included to ensure that charter schools’ compliance with this act was overseen by their “authorized chartering agencies” and not the state education agency. Steps were taken in the beginning to ensure their autonomy.

As time has gone on, it’s become much more regulated and unnecessarily so. There are now complicated formulas, more money and attempts to regulate charters and charter authorizers from the federal government when no such attempt to regulate traditional public schools and their districts is happening in the same legislation.

When Race to the Top was introduced in 2009, policymakers across the country were declaring it a success for reform. In truth, the impact on reform was minimal, but what it did do was require states to sign off on certain guidelines, such as common core, teacher quality, and various charter law components.

Both the House and Senate versions of the new ESEA will keep the charter schools grant program intact, but each propose changes that state education agencies will interpret as license to directly oversee charter schools regardless of their state law’s provisions:

HR 5 (Republicans) proposes to expand eligibility for entities for funding to include statewide entities to foster greater charter school growth. It encourages greater expansion and replication of proven, high-quality charter school models at the state level, and requires states to set aside funding to focus on charter school authorizer quality. The question is how is high quality defined? Those words themselves invite federal officials to make determinations in concert with state education entities that remain hostile to charter schools to this day.

S. 1094 (Democrats) asserts it will create a “successful charter program” where grants will be available for “successful” charter models so that they can create, expand or replicate charter models including through conversion of a public school. Eighty-five percent of federal charter funds would go to this program. In this arena too, someone has to take charge of what “success” means. That assuredly will not be people who understand data and conditions for success, even with verifiable tests and assessments that are still subject to varying cut off scores and interpretations.

The federal role in charter schools should look a lot more like the Clinton-era program that incentivized states to create a healthy and strong charter school environment for themselves by passing strong laws. It’s not up to the feds to dictate or make judgments on which charter school models should be replicated or expanded. That’s the role of authorizers and each state’s charter marketplace.

On more general school choice efforts, NCLB afforded parents a newfound freedom to leave a school that was failing their child and pick another public school or get tutoring services. Despite foot dragging and bureaucracy and attempts to discredit this opportunity by districts, millions of parents made a choice. They credit that law with having given their children real opportunities but now the consequence of bad schools is removed and supplementary education services (SES) are simply another federal pool of funds that districts draw down. Most districts administer their own SES programs, some still contract with private providers, but few demonstrate the progress seen in the early days of NCLB.

Choice belongs at the state level, and it’s unlikely any Congressional Republican or Democrat will ever truly reinstate the ability of parents to vote with their feet. We’d prefer no more damage be done to choice and recommend that the feds stick with ensuring accountability for funds over traditional schools, use a stick when they don’t meet their proposed goals and let the states grapple with the finer details of choice and charters.

That said, the federal government could benefit from taking a page out of the recent Supreme Court decision striking down DOMA. Regardless of one’s view of that decision, the reality is we now have precedent for a program where federal law is predicated on state law. States that do permit school choice should be permitted to use federal funds to follow students to the schools they attend. This simple prescription, offered repeatedly by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander over the years, is always rejected as folly for education but perhaps it’s time we recognize that state education efforts are often more bold and more innovative and more closely aligned with their needs and federal law that contradicts or impedes that progress should and can be challenged.

Conclusion

Despite reformers’ best intentions, it is not clear whether or not many have looked at how the language in laws gives people far away from the final signed laws license to create new requirements or stall progress. A Reformer’s vision ensures that the federal government be held accountable for its role in education but not seek to control programs and services that are often not even provided for in federal law. We know and agree that the federal government can’t dictate what goes on in a classroom it actually has no control over, but the federal role in education must be one that ensures every child’s civil right to learn is protected.

As AEI’s Frederick Hess said, “A decision to focus NCLB reauthorization on promoting transparency, honest measurements of spending and achievement, and on ensuring that constitutional protections are respected ought not be seen as a retreat from NCLB but as an attempt to have the feds do what they can do sensibly and well.”

The ability of the federal government to ensure that the public’s interest is protected, and that education is well managed, is best left to those closest to our families and communities. The federal role should be one of assessment and data gathering, conducting nonpartisan, objective research to support policymaking, and ensuring that the most needy are supported and helped, provided that such support is predicated on success, and not the status quo. It needs to find that right balance of incentive and consequence necessary to ensure that money spent on education actually makes a difference. Republicans need to take another hard look at their Student Success Act with potential future interpretations in mind and consider talking to local actors more vigorously before taking steps to implement charter and choice provisions. They should also revisit their assumption that local control means what it used to mean – and ensure that accountability for federal spending be restored with clear benchmarks set including the option for the feds to penalize states that fail. The Democrats should similarly reevaluate their instincts on charter funding and remove prescriptive language that reflects certain opinions of what “successful” models should look like and limits innovation as well as a more diverse charter marketplace.

As both laws move toward further national debate and potential conference, it’s critical to put these issues on the table with all due speed.

[i] Hess, Frederick; Rotherham, Andrew and Walsh, Kate. “A Quality Teacher in Every Classroom: Appraising Old Answer and New Ideas,” 2004. http://www.nctq.org/nctq/research/1109818629821.pdf

Filed Under: Federal Policy Tagged With: ,

Daily Headlines for July 18, 2013

July 18, 2013 By

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

House takes up GOP version of No Child Left Behind
Associated Press, July 18, 2013
The House is ready to make the final tweaks to its Republican-led rewrite of the sweeping No Child Left Behind education law that governs every school in the country that receives federal education dollars.

A Pitbull in defense of charter schools
Editorial
Orange County Register, July 18, 2013
Armando Perez, known better worldwide as the singer-songwriter Pitbull, is a rapper, record producer and businessman, but now he adds a fresh and welcome voice to the world of school choice as part of his lengthening resume.

The Simple Choices We Face in Education
Huffington Post Blog, July 17, 2013
The charter school movement has long been controversial, and criticism has risen recently over a number of schools that have not been performing as expected. However, the yearly National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference, held between June 30th and July 3rd in Washington, DC, proved yet again that the movement is alive and well in spite of its critics.

FROM THE STATES

ALABAMA

Calhoun County Schools to ‘flex out’ of state rules
Anniston Star, July 15, 2013
The Alabama Board of Education last week approved Calhoun County Schools’ new guidelines based on flexibility options offered under the Alabama Accountability Act passed earlier this year. Calhoun County is the first school system in the state to get approval to opt out of state guidelines under the new law, state school officials said.

ARIZONA

Charter offers ‘something different’
Arizona Daily Star, July 18, 2013
Rural Marana’s first charter school, Open Doors Community School, opens on Aug. 5, and Principal Douglas Roe said he’s most excited about the chance to dispense with bureaucracy and connect directly with students and parents.

CALIFORNIA

Millennium Charter High School, stalled by budget woes, set to welcome first class.
Monterey County Weekly, July 18, 2013
A new public high school is coming to Monterey County this year, one that boasts a TV production truck instead of a playing field, and a dance studio and theater in lieu of a gymnasium.

Is Charter School Co-Location Tearing Public Schools Apart?
Huffington Post
July 17, 2013
For more than 30 years each, Cheryl Smith-Vincent and Cheryl Ortega have shared a passion for teaching public school in Southern California. Smith-Vincent teaches third grade at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park; before retiring, Ortega taught kindergarten at Logan Street Elementary School in Echo Park.

Et tu, Jerry Brown?
Wall Street Journal
July 17, 2013
This week California Gov. Jerry Brown, a liberal Democrat, was forced to choose between two dear political friends: President Obama and the California Teachers Association. Guess who the National Education Association’s 2013 “Governor of the Year” picked.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Number of charter schools in Virginia to triple under Norfolk plan
Washington Post, July 17, 2013
Charter schools are poised to gain a much larger foothold in Virginia thanks to a plan under consideration by the Norfolk School Board to transform 10 traditional public schools into charter schools in the coming year.

FLORIDA

Fla. leaders want state to develop its own test
St. Augustine Record, July 18, 2013
Florida legislative leaders are calling on the state to draw up its own test for new educational standards that will soon be in place.

Convoluted school grading system fails all
Column
Tampa Bay Times, July 17, 2013
In fact, it doesn’t work. It is one big, fat, honking scam is what it is. In fact your little rug-rats are merely pawns in a bureaucratic game of three-card monte.

ILLINOIS

Gang expert testifies school closings will put kids ‘in line of fire’
Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2013
A Chicago gang expert testified in federal court Wednesday that the Safe Passage program used by Chicago Public Schools to provide community escorts for students affected by school closings won’t be enough to protect children from gang violence.

Magic Johnson Opens Alternative Schools In Chicago
NBCChicago, July 17, 2013
Former NBA player Magic Johnson is hoping to cast his spell on the educational experience of some Chicago teens.

IOWA

Bad policies in education reform law
Opinion
Press-Citizen, July 18, 2013
From all the pounding of chests and declarations of victory from both sides of the aisle, one would think the 2013 education reform bill passed by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by the governor was the panacea for Iowa’s education system. The truth is a large portion of the legislation will come back to haunt the Legislature.

LOUISIANA

Race, sex, religion argued by Orleans Parish School Board
Times-Picayune, July 17, 2013
An Orleans Parish School Board discussion over an anti-bullying policy affecting five schools erupted into a jaw-dropping argument spotlighting racial and religious tension.

MAINE

Bangor, state don’t see eye-to-eye in early meeting about charter schools
Bangor Daily News, July 17, 2013
A senior adviser to Gov. Paul LePage listened Wednesday to concerns about charter school policy voiced by Bangor officials who are wary of allowing such a school in the city. But the LePage administration isn’t budging on its support of charter school growth in the state, city officials were told.

MARYLAND

Launching minority students in the sciences
Baltimore Sun, July 17, 2013
Hopkins programs give young scientists classes in the basics and hands-on laboratory experience

MICHIGAN

Buena Vista schools leaders discuss inviting charter school group to represent it before state officials
Saginaw News, July 17, 2013
The Buena Vista School District Board of Education is taking a step to allow the district to operate.

How best to fix our school district model?
Letters
Detroit Free Press, July 18, 2013
Stephen Henderson suggested in a column that the state rethink its school districts. One possibility was going to countywide school districts. Our readers filled our inbox with letters to the editor on the subject.

MINNESOTA

St. Paul charter school under fire
Star Tribune, July 17, 2013
The state Department of Education has ordered the authorizer of a St. Paul charter school to investigate allegations of repeated misuse of funds as well as retaliatory employment practices at the North End institution.

NEW MEXICO

13 A-F shows schools do improve, reform works
Editorial
Albuquerque Journal, July 18, 2013
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools had 30-plus ways to fail. And under NCLB, fewer New Mexico schools each year made required adequate yearly progress and were labeled as failing – even when their students were performing well and/or improving.

NEW YORK

Elmira school board to let state know it’s against charter school proposal
Star-Gazette, July 17, 2013
The Elmira school board took a stance Wednesday night against a group trying to establish a charter school. The board voted 9-0 to send a statement by Aug. 1 to the state Education Department to outline why it opposes the application for Finn Academy: An Elmira Charter School.

NORTH CAROLINA

Arapahoe, Other Charters, One Step Closer To Expansion
WUNC, July 17, 2013
Arapahoe Charter School – and others across the state – will soon be able to grow by one grade per year without seeking approval from the State Board of Education.

Proposed NC voucher program would have weaker standards than other states
News & Observer, July 17, 2013
A voucher program state legislators are considering would have less oversight and looser standards than other states that allow parents to use taxpayer money to pay private school tuition.

OHIO

Audit Finds More Problems at City’s Largest Charter School
City Beat, July 17, 2013
A state audit found more evidence of misused public funds at Greater Cincinnati’s largest charter school, including one example of salary overpayment and a range of inappropriate purchases of meals and entertainment. The school’s former superintendent and treasurer are already facing trial on charges of theft for previously discovered incidents.

Vouchers overtaken by ‘mission creep’
Editorial
New Philadelphia Times Reporter, July 17, 2013
You won’t find a better example of “mission creep” in state government than the private school voucher program. The latest example is in the two-year state budget that took effect July 1.

School choice could be history-making change
Opinion
Cincinnati Enquirer, July 18, 2013
There’s one freedom that belongs at the very top of the list: the basic right of every child to a quality education, regardless of the economic environment in which that student lives.

PENNSYLVANIA

Phila. school group plans $4.7M in grants
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18, 2013
The Philadelphia School Partnership will announce Thursday grants totaling $4.7 million to help high-performing charter schools expand and a nonprofit develop a new high school with the School District.

Should merit matter in deciding which Philly teachers to lay off?
Newsworks, July 17, 2013
Jacqueline Bershad loved everything about the way her son’s second grade teacher ran her classroom at Greenfield Elementary School in Center City Philadelphia.

Closer look at Pa. charter schools
Letter
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 17, 2013
Important facts were omitted in Kate Wilcox’s article regarding the Center for Research on Education Outcomes’ charter school study (“Pa. charter students’ skills fall far short, study reveals,” July 8 and TribLIVE.com).

Pocono Mountain superintendent throws several body blows at charter school
Pocono Record, July 18, 2013
Pocono Mountain School District’s superintendent slammed Pocono Mountain Charter School with allegations that it has excluded students with special needs at a board meeting Wednesday night.

TENNESSEE

TN charter schools incubator and lobbying group merge to be ‘voice for quality’
The Tennessean, July 18, 2013
Tennessee’s two leading support groups of charter schools are merging in what organizers are calling the first organization of its kind in the country to both lobby for and create new publicly financed, privately operated charters.

VIRGINIA

Hampton School Board considering policy to allow charter schools
Daily Press, July 17, 2013
Hampton’s School Board is considering a new policy that will allow the division to receive and consider applications to establish charter schools.

A charter, or not
Opinion
Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 18, 2013
The City of Richmond blazed a trail in the commonwealth with the launching of the Patrick Henry charter school.

WISCONSIN

No private school applicants yet for Wisconsin voucher program
Appleton Post-Crescent, July 17, 2013
No private school has yet submitted a formal application to participate in Wisconsin’s newly expanded voucher program.

ONLINE LEARNING

Online charter school plans public forum in Myrtle Beach
Horry News, July 18, 2013
Provost Academy South Carolina will host an informational session for prospective students and families at the Courtyard by Marriott on Thursday, July 18, from 6 to 8 p.m., according to a news release.

Clay Virtual Academy invites new students, ideas
Clay Today, July 18, 2013
Virtual school is now a viable and attractive option for many young people. However with each school district having its own option for a virtual learning experience there is a plethora of options for children to choose from. Clay Virtual Academy, Clay County’s program for online instruction, is an alternative to the traditional learning environment that is growing “in leaps and bounds.”

INCA offering free E-learning information session
Evansville Courier & Press, July 17, 2013
Melissa Brown, principal at Indiana Connections Academy, said virtual education has changed the way children learn.

Free computer tablets for all in five new Utah ‘Smart Schools’
Salt Lake Tribune, July 17, 2013
The program that aims to boost digital learning in state public education is adding five schools in fall.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines

Daily Headlines for July 17, 2013

July 17, 2013 By

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

The Charter School Vs. Public School Debate Continues
NPR, June 6, 2013
Charter schools turn 21 this year. In that time, these privately run, publicly funded schools have spread to 41 states and enrolled more than 2 million students.

Republican House leaders visit D.C. charter school to tout education bill
Washington Post, July 16 2013
Republican House leaders gathered at a high-performing D.C. public charter school Tuesday to promote their vision for a new federal education law to replace No Child Left Behind.

GOP divided on rewrite of ‘No Child Left Behind’
Associated Press, July 17, 2013
Conservative Republicans don’t think a GOP rewrite of the No Child Left Behind education law does enough to reduce Washington’s influence. Moderates are warily eying proposals that would expand charter schools’ role. Those intraparty differences appear to be blocking the bill’s momentum.

Better Teachers and Better Tests
Letters, New York Times, July 17, 2013
Re “The Trouble With Testing Mania” (editorial, July 14): The country’s fixation on high-stakes testing is a failure.

STATE COVERAGE

ALABAMA

No choice in ‘school choice’ at Brookhaven
Editorial, Decanter Daily, July 17, 2013
During the legislative session, Alabamians heard all sorts of claims from lawmakers about the wonders of the Alabama Accountability Act.

ARIZONA

Charter school funding loophole could create budget crisis
KPHO, July 16, 2013
Arizona public schools have taken a hit over the years with some big-time cuts in state funding. But a number of school districts have found a new way to generate more revenue, and if the trend continues, it could bankrupt the entire state, lawmakers say.

COLORADO

An education reform victory
Editorial, Denver Post, July 17, 2013
A recent court decision will allow more school districts to create “innovation schools,” freeing them from rules restricting reform.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C. teachers cast a vote against teamwork
Editorial, Washington Post, July 16, 2013
RECENT DEBATE about the future of school reform in the District has focused on a series of legislative proposals being championed by the chairman of the D.C. Council’s education committee.

FLORIDA

Another reprieve for school grades as officials question validity
Miami Herald, July 16, 2013
Many Florida schools that struggle under the state’s polarizing A through F grading system will again get a reprieve this year after the state Board of Education narrowly agreed Tuesday to keep rankings from dropping more than one letter, regardless of performance.

Hillsborough School District creates job to oversee charters
Tampa Bay Times, July 16, 2013
As part of a $1 million reorganization, the Hillsborough County School District will hire a charter schools director, a new position.

GEORGIA

New APS charter school: Why our students are thriving. And learning Latin.
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, July 17, 2013
Eric Wearne is the chair of the Latin Academy Charter School, a middle school that opened in Atlanta Public Schools last fall. He writes today about how the school is faring, based on the newly released school-level CRCT scores. Wearne is an assistant professor at the Georgia Gwinnett College School of Education.

ILLINOIS

Nearly half of CPS students miss tougher ISAT cutoff
Chicago Tribune, July 16, 2013
With state officials raising the bar on what it takes to pass, the number of Chicago Public Schools students who met state standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test plummeted this year.

LOUISIANA

Accountability for vouchers?
Daily Comet, July 16, 2013
How many ways can we screw it up and still pretend like it’s working? State Superintendent John White has realized that at least one of his vaunted voucher schools is a sham.

Teacher reviews spark new flap
The Advocate, July 17, 2013
A decision by state Superintendent of Education John White to delay final action on the evaluations of some public school teachers points to bigger problems with the new reviews, an official of a teachers’ union said Tuesday.

MINNESOTA

St. Paul school board OKs groundbreaking racial equity policy
Pioneer Press, July 16, 2013
After much revision and hours of impassioned debate, the St. Paul school district adopted an uncommon policy Tuesday night enshrining a commitment to battle racial inequities.

MISSOURI

Evaluating performance, transferring students
Commentary, St. Louis Beacon, July 17, 2013
Of the 521 school districts in Missouri with recorded accreditation status reported by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 97.4 percent are fully accredited. That’s all but 14. Of those, 11 have received provisional accreditation, and three are currently unaccredited. Those three – in the news for the last couple of weeks on account of the June Missouri Supreme Court ruling regarding student transfers from unaccredited districts – are Normandy and Riverview Gardens in the east, and Kansas City in the west.

NEW JERSEY

A win and a loss in South Jersey teacher tenure cases
Editorial, South Jersey Times, July 17, 2013
But it’s tough to oust a tenured teacher in New Jersey. Credit the school board for sticking to its guns.

NEW YORK

District drags its feet while students face the loss of another year of education
Opinion, Buffalo News, July 16, 2013
Talk about a gang that couldn’t shoot straight. What is it that the Buffalo School District can do right?

Record number seeks school transfers
WIVB, July 16, 2013
News 4 has learned a record number of students are signing up to be transferred out of failing Buffalo schools.

Schoolyard bully
Opinion, New York Daily News, July 17, 2013
Wielding a political hatchet, state Controller Tom DiNapoli is abusing the power of his office with a campaign of harassment against charter schools.

NORTH CAROLINA

NC House and Senate approve charter school expansion bill
News & Observer, July 16, 2013
A bill allowing charter schools to expand without the State Board of Education’s permission is on its way to Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk.

OHIO

Columbus City Schools: Board member proposes plan to circumvent aid to charter schools
Columbus Dispatch, July 16, 2013
Columbus City Schools should break up a proposed 9.01-mill tax issue for the November ballot into as many as five operating levies, a school board member proposed today. That, he said, would give voters a way to support the district even if they don’t want to give charter schools local property-tax money.

Plan would undermine Ohio schools further
Herald-Dispatch, July 17, 2013
Sen. Kris Jordan, a Republican who represents a district north of Columbus, is proposing that parents who home-school their children receive a property-tax reduction equal to what they pay for school levies in their local districts.

Teacher evaluations hitting snags
Mansfield News Journal, July 17, 2013
More than 100 public school districts in Ohio likely won’t be implementing a new grading system for teacher performance in the upcoming school year.

PENNSYLVANIA

Chester schools have a tireless advocate
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 17, 2013
With a salesman’s charm and snappy patter, Gregory Shannon stood in the blazing sun Tuesday in Chester’s business district and pitched a product that customers have been shying away from in recent years: Chester Upland schools.

In city schools, signs of hope
Opinion, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 17, 2013
For some of us who call the Philadelphia area home, the education crisis may seem like a tragic but distant concern. The reality, though, is that our region depends on the success of Philadelphia’s schools and their ability to provide all students with a strong education.

RHODE ISLAND

Power to the parents would help R.I. schools
Commentary, Providence Journal, July 17, 2013
The greatest responsibility anyone could have is to be a parent. All parents know that the best way to ensure the well-being of their child is a good education. However, government makes it difficult for parents to choose what they think is the best school for their child.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Charter school organizers trying again after rejection
Times & Democrat, July 17, 2013
If at first you don’t succeed, try again. That’s what the would-be founders of the Garden City Preparatory Academy for Boys are doing.

TENNESSEE

6 Memphis suburbs approve school districts
The Tennessean, July 17, 2013
Voters in six Memphis suburbs decided Tuesday to start public school districts in the municipalities where they live.

ONLINE LEARNING

EC schools advance online program
The Herald-Palladium, July 17, 2013
Eau Claire schools students will soon have new opportunities to earn high school credits.

Lawmakers say virtual schools need accountability
Wyoming Public Media, July 16, 2013
Wyoming lawmakers are trying to make alternative virtual schools accountable for the students they serve.

Roundtable: Infrastructure, teacher training key to improving technology in classrooms
Washington Post, July 16, 2013
The future of digital learning in classrooms will require more than just getting tablets in the hands of students to be successful. Education leaders and policymakers must focus on investing on infrastructure and professional training for teachers and administrators to grow technology in education.

St. Tammany school district set for ‘virtual classroom’ program this September
Times-Picayune, July 16, 2013
Hoping to expand its reach, the St. Tammany Parish school district will embark on a “virtual classroom” in September for a small group of junior high school students. The online class offerings, assistant Superintendent Cheryl Arabie said, are aimed at bringing home-schooled students into the fold.

Virtual school board votes to add two new members
Greenfield Recorder, July 17, 2013
The new five-member Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School board of trustees voted to expand by two members at its nearly five-hour kick-off meeting Monday.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines, Uncategorized

The Charter School Vs. Public School Debate Continues

July 17, 2013 By

by Claudio Sanchez
NPR
July 16, 2013

Charter schools turn 21 this year. In that time, these privately run, publicly funded schools have spread to 41 states and enrolled more than 2 million students.

But one key question lingers: Do kids in charter schools learn more than kids in traditional public schools?

There have been lots of skirmishes over charter school data over the years. But few have created as big a ruckus as the 26-state study of charter schools released recently by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, or CREDO.

Like previous studies, the one from CREDO concluded that kids in most charter schools are doing worse or no better than students in traditional public schools. About a third, though, are doing better. And that’s a big jump from four years ago. The gains among blacks, Latinos and kids whose first language is not English have been impressive and surprising, says CREDO Director Margaret Raymond.

“The fact that we can show that significantly disadvantaged groups of students are doing substantially better in charter school in reading and math, that’s very exciting,” she says.

More and more charter school students are doing better, Raymond says, because they’re getting anywhere from three to 10 extra weeks of instruction compared to their public school counterparts.

“The average charter school student in the United States is benefiting from additional days of learning,” she says, “compared to where they were four years ago and compared to traditional public schools they otherwise would’ve attended.

None of these findings were in dispute. But when Jeanne Allen looked at the study, it upset her.

“The way that CREDO has manipulated data and made conclusions about policy based on that data is absolutely ‘un-credible,’ ” she says.

Allen heads the Center for Education Reform. She loves charter schools and would do anything to support them — short of endorsing a study that she says makes bogus comparisons between charter school kids and regular public school kids

“They compared those students to students that don’t even exist,” Allen says.

In other words, she says, the CREDO study did not compare real kids to real kids. Instead, researchers took selected data and created a “composite” student to represent public school kids.

But, Raymond says that’s a perfectly legitimate and not uncommon way to survey similar kids in different schools and compare how much they’re learning.

“Something we call the ‘virtual twin,’ ” she says.

Raymond stands by her findings.

“We have a very long, and we hope untarnished, history and reputation as playing it just right down the middle,” she says. “We let the data speak based on evidence, not rhetoric.”

It’s one thing for opponents of charter schools to question a big study that has anything good to say about charter schools. It’s another for an influential, respected champion of charter schools like Jeannie Allen to do so. And that irritates some charter school leaders, like Nina Rees, the head of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

“Is it a perfect study? No,” Rees says. “But I would not discount the CREDO study as a bad study.”

“What’s interesting about the CREDO study more than anything else are the findings for African-American students in poverty,” she adds, “for Hispanic students and for English-language learners..

But, a study’s findings first have to be credible, argues Allen.

“We absolutely can measure students — individual student achievement — over time,” she says.

But it takes a lot of patience and money that too many studies have been unable or unwilling to spend to get to that crucial question: Are charter school students learning more than kids in traditional public schools?

This fall, 21 years after the first charter school opened, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and Harvard University will for the first time bring top researchers to Washington to try to answer that question.

Filed Under: CER in the News Tagged With: ,

Daily Headlines for July 16, 2013

July 16, 2013 By

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

NEA votes $3 member fee for school improvement
People’s World, July 15, 2013
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers and school personnel union, will institute a $3 per member extra fee on its three million members to fund new school improvement plans.

STATE COVERAGE

ARKANSAS

Charter schools and increasing segregation
Arkansas Times Blog, July 15, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has pretty well decided this is a post-racial world and things like school assignments that resegregate public schools or admission policies that favor whites are no longer constitutional concerns. We’ve come so far, Justice John Roberts reminded us just the other day.

CALIFORNIA

El Cerrito landmark eyed for new charter school
Contra Costa Times, July 15, 2013
Silicon Valley-based charter school operators who are petitioning the West Contra Costa schools for approval of a charter are simultaneously negotiating to lease an iconic El Cerrito landmark to house the new school.

Charter schools — a report card
Editorial
Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2013
What can the education world conclude about charter schools after their first couple of decades in existence? Something so simple that it’s almost earth-shattering: The best ones benefit students enormously, especially those students who are low income, African American or still learning English.

COLORADO

New charter Montessori school has eyes for Fort Collins
The Coloradoan, July 16, 2013
What would be the city’s sixth charter school is trying to take root in Fort Collins with intent to open in fall 2014.

District judge says two Denver schools don’t meet innovation criteria
Denver Post, July 16, 2013
Denver Public Schools did not adhere to the intent of state law when implementing innovation plans for two campuses in a Northeast neighborhood, a district court judge ruled.

Colorado school funding rebounding from cuts during Great Recession
Denver Post, July 16, 2013
Colorado schools will get a sizable bump in per-student funding for the first time since the Great Recession, but the increase offers a false sense of economic progress, according to several district officials.

FLORIDA

¡Dale! Rapper Pitbull a new school-choice voice and 305 charter school booster
Miami Herald, July 15, 2013
The Miami-born son of Cuban exiles is helping build a Little Havana charter school that opens next month and was a featured speaker at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference in Washington, D.C., where he wowed the crowds.

ILLINOIS

Federal lawsuits against CPS school closings begin Tuesday
Chicago Tribune, July 15, 2013
Hearings begin Tuesday on two lawsuits seeking to block the Chicago school board’s decision to close 49 elementary schools and a high school program, with officials from the district and parents expected to testify over four days.

IOWA

26 applicants seek Iowa’s top education job
Quad City Times, July 15, 2013
A small-town high school principal, a state official who helped design the new career ladders for Iowa teachers, and a man who in May was appointed to a top post in the National Education Foundation are three of 26 applicants for Iowa’s top education post.

Bad policies in education reform law
Opinion
Des Moines Register, July 15, 2013
From all the pounding of chests and declarations of victory from both sides of the aisle, one would think the 2013 education reform bill passed by the Iowa Legislature and signed into law by the governor was the panacea for Iowa’s education system. The truth is a large portion of the legislation will come back to haunt the Legislature.

LOUISIANA

Course Choice demand exceeds 2,000 slots
The Advocate, July 15, 2013
Demand for nontraditional public school courses has exceeded the 2,000 available slots, state education officials said Monday.

MASSACHUSETTS

Choice on school boss looms for new mayor
Boston Herald, July 16, 2013
The city’s next mayor will be quickly thrown into the fire by having to pick a new school superintendent, a critical move that could set an early tone for the new administration as it seeks to land a superstar to take Hub schools to the next level.

MICHIGAN

Jack Martin a good choice to lead DPS
Editorial
Detroit News, July 16, 2013
Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts has made it pretty clear in recent months that after two years on the job he’s ready to spend more time on the golf course and enjoy retirement. Now he can. And his replacement Jack Martin is a competent choice to take the reins of the troubled district.

NEW MEXICO

Audit faults PED’s money management
Albuquerque Journal, July 16, 2013
Chief among Balderas’ concerns is the PED’s handling of special education funding and its financial oversight of state-chartered schools.

NEW YORK

Arbritrators could set framework for eventual deal between New York City, teachers union
New York Daily News, July 16, 2013
UFT members have been working without contract since 2009, and union says its members are entitled to two raises that other workers got during that time. City says that would cost $5.4 billion. Situation probably won’t be resolved until Bloomberg leaves office, but it could have wide-reaching implications.

NORTH CAROLINA

Public school officials await proposed changes to charter school regulations
Mt Airy News, July 16, 2013
Local school officials are keeping a wary eye on recent House action passing a bill that proposes allowing charter schools to add to the number of grades they serve without state approval. If that bill is reconciled by the state Senate, it would next be headed to Gov. Pat McCory’s desk.

What will this week bring for public education in North Carolina?
Progressive Pulse, July 15, 2013
As the 2013 legislative session speeds to the finish line, what will lawmakers decide about public education? Lots of unanswered questions remain as a conference committee works down to the wire to decide the 2013-15 budget and several bills could see final votes this week.

OHIO

Deadline near to apply for school vouchers
Columbus Dispatch, July 16, 2013
Ohio’s new budget was a big win for school-choice proponents, but parents wanting a tax-funded voucher to send their child to private school will have to act fast.

Kasich: City schools need levy to pass
Columbus Dispatch, July 16, 2013
With about 100 protesters chanting outside, Gov. John Kasich signed into law yesterday a bill that requires Columbus City Schools to place a tax levy on the ballot in November that would raise money for both district and charter schools.

PENNSYLVANIA

Penn Hills council denies classroom extension for Imagine charter
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July 16, 2013
Barring an appeal, officials at the Imagine Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship will have to make due without modular classrooms in the 2013-14 school year.

Network to run 14 former parish schools
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 2013
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput signed documents Monday designating 14 former parish elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods as Catholic “mission schools” operated by an independent network.

School district is ‘pleased’ as lawmakers approve funding
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16, 2013
STATE HOUSE representatives were back in Harrisburg yesterday to pass a bill that finalizes a state budget including $60 million in funding for the beleaguered school district.

SOUTH CAROLINA

S.C. schools to pilot teacher evaluation system
Charleston Post Courier, July 15, 2013
A performance-based teacher evaluation system being piloted this year across South Carolina won’t include letter grades, a deputy superintendent said Monday.

TENNESSEE

TN seeks to toughen standards on teacher licensing
The Tennessean, July 16, 2013
A plan to tie teacher licenses to student test scores is once again thrusting Tennessee into a small group of states making radical changes to education policy even as it generates kudos for the state’s head educator.

UTAH

Charter Schools – Concerns and Values
Utah Policy, July 15, 2013
In Utah, charter schools have been operating for 14 years. Over those years, many observers have asked my opinion of these schools. Some asking are vociferous opponents; others are supporters. My typical answer is: “Some charter schools are excellent; some are not good.” This opinion is based on my direct and long experience.

VIRGINIA

Richmond School Board approves new charter school
Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 16, 2013
The Richmond School Board approved the city’s second charter school Monday, an administration-backed specialty program designed to teach life and job skills to students with severe cognitive disabilities.

WASHINGTON

Initiatives often need clarification by courts
Opinion
Bellingham Herald, July 16, 2013
Not getting the answer they wanted from voters last fall, opponents of the charter school initiative are continuing their fight in the courts. A coalition led by the Washington Education Association filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court last week arguing that Initiative 1240 violates the state Constitution.

WISCONSIN

Local husband and wife fight school choice vouchers
Journal Times, July 15, 2013
Last month, Warner introduced a School Board resolution — approved by the full board on Monday — that opposes the expansion of vouchers in Wisconsin.

ONLINE LEARNING

Rock Hill teachers get schooled on iPads
The Herald, July 15, 2013
The sun is finally out, but dozens of Rock Hill school district teachers aren’t heading outside to soak up the rays; instead, they’re going indoors at Mount Holly Elementary School for two days of iRock preparation.

Filed Under: Daily Headlines
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