By Emilie Arroyo | Posted: Wed 5:06 PM, Apr 18, 2018 | LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Kentucky Board of Education is taking a new direction after the resignation of education commissioner Dr. Stephen Pruitt and Gov. Matt Bevin’s appointments of new board members this week. Many expect that direction to be a stronger push for charter schools, but Kentucky’s…
Category: School Choice
Letting state approve ‘new kinds’ of public schools would enhance education for the next generation
In 2011, Children wait to shake hands with Florida Gov. Rick Scott during his visit to the Florida International Academy charter school in Opa-locka. Joe Raedle Getty Images April 18, 2018 06:45 PM The Florida Constitution Revision Commission had a profound responsibility: We had to legislate for the next generation. We worked to adapt a document drafted…
CMS fact check: Superintendent said 50 percent of charter schools fail. Was he right?
Charlotte’s StudentFirst Academy charter school closed in 2014, the first of three Charlotte charters that collapsed within their first year after the state lifted its 100-school cap. Davie Hinshaw Observer file photo BY ANN DOSS HELMS April 18, 2018 01:42 PM Updated April 18, 2018 01:42 PM At a meeting to discuss whether Matthews town officials should pursue…
Big spending turns California’s race for governor into a proxy war between teachers unions, charter school backers
Netflix co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings last week donated $7 million to bolster the financially struggling gubernatorial bid of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg) By GEORGE SKELTON APR 19, 2018 | 12:05 AM | SACRAMENTO For most of us, the notion of someone spending $7 million to help another person run for governor…
Milwaukee parents, educators, students protest against public school takeover
Bridget Shanahan MILWAUKEE — Before classes began at schools all throughout the Milwaukee Public Schools district, hundreds gathered to walk in and make their voices heard. Teachers, parents, community and union members joined forces against a public school takeover: eventually under performing schools within MPS will be run by private entities. “I think the question…
3 HUNTSVILLE SCHOOLS ‘FAILING’ ACCORDING TO THE ALABAMA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
Posted: Jan. 24, 2018 6:44 PM Updated: Jan. 24, 2018 10:39 PM Posted By: Travis Leder Three Huntsville schools are listed as “failing” in the 2018 Alabama Accountability Act list. The Alabama Accountability Act deems schools in the lowest six percent as “failing” based on reading and math scores. The only three Tennessee Valley schools…
Closing Low-Performing Schools is a Failing Reform Strategy
May 18th, 2017 Boulder, Colo. – Federal and state school accountability policies have used standardized test results to shine a spotlight on low-performing schools. A remedy offered to “turn around” low-performance in school districts is the option to close the doors of the low-performing schools and send students elsewhere. School Closure as a Strategy to…
Should Failing Schools Be Closed?
If a company can’t make profit or manage its business correctly, the company inevitably fails and a better one takes its place. When public schools fail, they rarely “go out of business,” but instead go through a process of remediation and restructuring. There has been no evidence to show that restructuring procedures lead to significantly…
DeVos seeks cuts from Education Department to support school choice
By Valerie Strauss, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Moriah Balingit February 13 More than $1 billion would be spent on private school vouchers and other school choice plans under the budget proposal released Monday by President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The proposal also calls for slashing the Education Department’s budget and devoting more resources to career training, at the expense…
Alabama’s national test scores still low, but not last
By Trisha Powell Crain tcrain@al.com Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released Tuesday, show Alabama’s scores in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math remain unchanged from 2015, the last time the tests were given. Scores at the national level were flat, too, except in eighth-grade reading, where scores increased. Scores in Alabama were…