The Boston Globe has reported that Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts state commissioner for elementary and secondary education, will lift the state’s cap on the number of charter schools that may operate in the state. Only 68 charters have been permitted to open so far in MA, and demand far outstrips the number of available seats. Waiting [...]
Massachusetts to Lift Cap on Charter Schools
Posted 11 March 2013 by K12RebootTagged As: Boston, charter cap, Massachusetts | Categories: Choosing Choice | Leave a Comment
Is Suburban Education Holding Back the Economy?
Posted 26 November 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: achievement gap, Arthur Levine, Eric Hanushek, Global Report Card, international, suburban schools | Categories: Choosing Choice, Performance | Comments Off
Arthur Levine, former president of Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, has highlighted an often overlooked failing of public education in the U.S. — the gap between what students in our “better” suburban districts achieve and what students in other countries, with similar demographics, achieve. As a nation, our discussions around “closing the gap” almost always focus [...]
Houston, Denver Traditional Schools Learn From Charters
Posted 28 September 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: Brookings Institution, charter schools, Denver, Hamilton Project, Houston, Roland G. Fryer Jr. | Categories: Choosing Choice, Performance, School Administration | Comments Off
An article in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor highlights a new report from the Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution that describes how traditional public schools in Houston and Denver have shown gains by imitating the not-so-ground-breaking practices employed in successful charter schools. Among the changes that produced positive outcomes were, not surprisingly: extending the school day; [...]
Condi Rice Discusses How Our Education System Leaves Us All Vulnerable
Posted 24 September 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: | Categories: Choosing Choice | Comments Off
In an interview today for the Education Nation conference in New York, former Secretary of State and current Stanford Professor Condoleezza Rice talks with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell about how our current educational system underserves so many students, leaving the nation less competitive, less cohesive, and less prepared. She describes education as a “civil right”, and [...]
Hundreds of U.S. Mayors Back New Parent Trigger Laws
Posted 7 September 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: cities, mayors, U.S. Conference of Mayors | Categories: Choosing Choice | Comments Off
I missed this news when it first came out, but it’s too important not to highlight. In their national meeting in Orlando, FL in June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously voted to back new parent trigger laws that would allow parent groups to take back their local schools from the district monopolies and convert them [...]
CA School Board Ignores Judge’s Order On Parent Trigger Conversion
Posted 28 August 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: Adelanto, parent trigger, San Bernadino Country | Categories: Choosing Choice, School Administration | Comments Off
Last year this blog discussed the lengths that the entrenched local school bureacracy in Compton, CA would go in subverting the letter and spirit of the state’s Parent Trigger law. Intimidation of parents and successive legal challenges by the Compton district finally defeated the parent-supported conversion of poor-performing McKinley Elementary to an independently-run public charter. But [...]
Former NYC Schools Chancellor Cites Charters as Proof That Even Poverty Is Not Insurmountable Barrier to Academic Success
Posted 30 July 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: Joel Klein, New York City, Success Ac | Categories: Performance | 1 Comment
Former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has long attracted the animosity of school choice opponents because of his advocacy of more school choice during his tenure as the city’s schools chief. In a Wall St. Journal opinion piece from July 26, he tackles one of the “sacred cow” excuses long given by the education establishment [...]
Charter Leader and Parent Talks “Charter Envy”
Posted 23 July 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: charter school operators, New York City, Success Academies | Categories: Choosing Choice, Performance, School Administration | 2 Comments
Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools. In a column in today’s New York Post, she discusses why so many parents in New York City public schools express envy for the learning environments provided by the Success Academies, which are often co-located in previously under-used spaces in traditional public school [...]
NH and Virginia Add Voucher Programs
Posted 29 June 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: New Hampshire, tax credit scholarships, Virginia, voucher | Categories: Choosing Choice | 1 Comment
New Hampshire and Virginia became the latest states to offer greater school choice for lower-income students, with both enacting tax-credit scholarship programs this week. In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the act into law. In New Hampshire, the legislature adopted a scholarship plan by overriding Gov. John Lynch’s veto. Under tax-credit scholarship programs, government provides [...]
Louisiana Launches Major New Voucher Program
Posted 9 May 2012 by K12RebootTagged As: apprenticeship, Bobby Jindal, charters, Louisiana, New Orleans, online, parent trigger, vouchers | Categories: Choosing Choice | Comments Off
After Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans public schools in even more of a shambles than they were prior to the storm, local officials decided to give a greater role to public charter schools in getting the K-12 educational system up and running again. The New Orleans public school system had long been infamous for its [...]