Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds &and Others Don't
Center for the Future of Arizona & Morrison Institute for Public PolicyMarch 2006
Ignoring charmed schools in Charm City
Several weeks ago, Baltimore managed to thwart a state takeover of several failing schools, including seven of the city's twenty-three failing middle schools (see here). This week, another story brings the Baltimore school district's bureaucratic inertia into sharp relief.
It's all about the authorizers
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr.Over the past decade, champions of bold K-12 education reform, ourselves included, have often termed charter schools the most promising innovation. It's fitting that this week-National Charter Schools Week-educators, reformers, and policymakers are examining where the charter movement stands and where it's headed.
A school board renaissance?
Talk to education reformers about the potential for district school boards to bring about positive change, and they’re likely to channel Nietzsche: School boards are dead. But are they? May’s Governing magazine profiled the school board in our hometown of Dayton, Ohio, which over the past several years has measurably improved Gem City’s perennially failing schools.
This school would rock
Imagine a school where Colin Powell teaches the finer points of diplomacy and Meryl Streep guides the newest batch of budding actors. It doesn't exist, but if it did, that's where New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof would send his kids.
Voucher trouble from Key West to Kennebunk
Private scholarship programs faced turbulent waters up and down the Atlantic coast this week.
Trends in Charter School Authorizing
Michael J. Petrilli, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Rebecca GauBelatedly, policymakers and researchers are recognizing that quality charter schools depend on quality charter school authorizing. This report presents findings from a pioneering national examination of the organizations that sponsor, oversee, and hold accountable U.S. charter schools. Its primary aim is to describe and characterize these crucial but little-known organizations.
Playing To Type? (2006)
Dick Carpenter, Chester E. Finn, Jr.Most discussions of charter schools assume that they are monolithic. This study, the first of its kind, categorizes the nation's charter schools into a robust typology according to their educational approaches. It also provides demographic information by type,how many are in each category, what their student populations look like, and so forth,and makes a first attempt at comparing their test scores. The result is a much richer and more accurate picture of the charter school universe.
The Gangs of New York II: The Reading Wars
Few wonky education articles make good movie scripts, but this excellent New York Magazine piece by Robert Kolker might be the exception. It details the battle over the Big Apple's reading program; the stakes are high. In one corner is Lucy Calkins and her Balanced Literacy program, a whole language approach in sheep's clothing.
Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center Report on Education Service Providers
Michael J. PetrilliAmerican Institutes of ResearchApril 2006
Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. WintersManhattan Institute for Policy ResearchApril 2006
Compounding Challenges: Student Achievement and the Distribution of Human and Fiscal Resources in Oregon's Rural School Districts
Eric OsbergJerry JohnsonThe Rural School and Community TrustApril 2006
Career/technical education: The solution to our dropout crisis?
Americans are becoming acutely aware of our high schools' failings.
David v. Goliath
Might charter schools begin the downfall of teacher unions? David Kirkpatrick, Senior Education Fellow at the U.S. Freedom Foundation, thinks so. He outlines the difficulty unions have faced organizing charter schools, mainly because it's inefficient for six figure-earning union staff members to target individual schools. Here's why.
Two's company
Scott Montgomery Elementary School in Washington, D.C., is suffering from flagging enrollment. A new KIPP school, set to open in the District in July, is having trouble finding affordable real estate. The solution? Buddy up. In a first-of-its-kind move, the principals of Scott Montgomery and the newest KIPP Academy worked out a plan to share buildings and collaborate on teacher training.
Wonderful World
Mark McCaig-who has a beard, holds a master's degree from Harvard, and is purportedly an expert in birds, shark teeth, and shiatsu massage (it's unclear if that's an exhaustive list)-works for Fairhaven School, outside Washington, D.C. But though McCaig manages the institution, don't call him a school administrator. At Fairhaven, "adults teach but are not teachers.
Be a Part of the GreatSchools Network
GreatSchools.net, the nation’s premier provider of online K-12 information, is embarking on an ambitious new project to provide quality educational information to Dayton parents.
Teaching Rating Deadline Looms
Kathryn Mullen UptonThe school year’s end approaches, and teachers in Ohio are scrambling to make sure they are “highly qualified” by the last day of class, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The Schools That Dare Not Speak Their Name
Chester E. Finn, Jr.That Oprah has discovered school reform is probably a good thing, if only because she adds middlebrow legitimacy and an immense audience to most of the causes that she embraces, and because far too many Americans (middle-, high-, and low-brow alike) need reminding their schools, too, not just those across town, need a kick in the pants.
A Consumer Guide for School Operators
Kristina Phillips-SchwartzIn Ohio, educational management organizations (EMOs) play a significant role in educating children in charter schools. In fact, many charter schools in Ohio are operated by EMOs, and these serve an ever expanding percentage of the state’s charter students.
National Assessment of Title I: Interim Report: Volume I: Implementation
Institute of Education SciencesU.S. Department of EducationFebruary 2006
Cutting Through the Hype: A Taxpayer's Guide to School Reforms
Jane L. David and Larry CubanEducation Week Press2006
The Peter principal
Soon enough, New York City's youngsters won't be the only ones receiving report cards. Starting September 2007, the Big Apple will track test scores of individual students year-by-year, and give schools A-F grades mainly based on their students' academic progress. The grades will count, too; schools that outperform others in their "peer groups" will receive extra money.
Garden slate
Astute observers of urban political campaigns know better than to be surprised when candidates "play the race card"; but how often does this happen when both opponents are black? Cory Booker is the frontrunner to take the reins of Newark, New Jersey from longtime Mayor Sharpe James, but Booker's catching flack from his closest competitor, Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice.
Idle minds build Maginot Lines
It seems that the cultivated Old Europe ennui of countries such as France and Italy has migrated from the continent, hitched a Chunnel ride, and taken a foothold in the land of Thatcher, Disraeli, and Burke. The Independent reports that British teachers are embracing boring lessons as "preparation for life" and have called for more of them.
A hex on state flex
Michael J. PetrilliOnce upon a time, most of us at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation enthusiastically supported the notion of devolving K-12 decisions to the states.
Arizona: When 500 charter schools are not enough
Matthew LadnerThis is the first in an occasional series of articles about state-level education reform and its national implications. To write an essay on your state, please contact Liam Julian.
A San Francisco feat
Weighted student funding isn't just a topic for wonkish debate anymore-regular citizens are starting to get interested, too. Reason's Lisa Snell profiles parents and students who have benefited from San Francisco's school funding program, which allocates public education dollars based on individual student needs.
Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job
Eric OsbergRobert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane, and Douglas O. StaigerThe Hamilton Project, Brookings InstitutionApril 2006