START SPREADING THE NEWS
Great news for students at underperforming district schools in New York City: On Wednesday, the Empire State approved seventeen new charter schools throughout the city, including fourteen within the Success Academy network. Time will tell if the move leads to a rematch of the de Blasio-Moskowitz title bout from this spring.
CHARTER GROWTH IN D.C.
Elsewhere in the Chartersphere, recently released figures from the D.C. Public Charter School Board indicate a 3 percent increase in the number of children enrolled in Washington, D.C. charters. Overall, 44 percent of D.C. students attend charter schools.
TEACHING TEENS
In an interview at the Mindshift blog, Temple University's brilliant Laurence Steinberg explains the theories behind his new book, Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence. Steinberg discusses peer pressure, the structure of the academic year, and the plasticity of the human brain as it enters adulthood. For more information (as well as the dulcet voice of Fordham's own Mike Petrilli), listen to Steinberg break it down at the Education Next Book Club.
HISTORY BOYS
Colorado Democrats are seeking to take advantage of the recent curriculum controversy in Jefferson County. The party's state-senate campaign fund is running an ad saddling local Republicans with responsibility for the county school board's efforts to change the teaching of U.S. history, as well as the weeks of protests and media attention that have followed.
