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Charter School Law Deskbook
Paul T. O'NeillLexisNexis and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools2007
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Charter school accountability--progress has been made, but more to do
Since 2005, Ohio has ramped up its charter school accountability. The General Assembly took the lead here with legislation like H.B. 66 in 2005 and H.B. 79 in late 2006.
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Gadfly's take on 2008...
It's probably no surprise for those of you intimate with gadflies that they have, prominently, the ability to clearly and accurately predict the future. So, after many long hours in front of the crystal ball over the holidays, the Ohio Education Gadfly is blessing readers with eight insightful predictions for the Buckeye State in 2008:
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Buckeye State: Better than average
Education Week released its Quality Counts 2008 report today. This influential and objective annual report gives Ohio another B-minus. Here are some key takeaway points:Ohio's children start school less prepared for school success than their peers across the country;The state's assessment and accountability system is one of the nation's best;
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Plant a SEED in Cincinnati
The SEED Foundation-created in 1997 to establish college-prep, urban boarding schools-is seeking to open a new school in Ohio's Queen City and is hiring a Director of New Schools Development for Ohio to lead the efforts.
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The OEA needs to take a long look in the mirror
Fordham president Checker Finn's December 11, 2007, Columbus Dispatch op-ed (see here) about how to better Ohio's charter school program generated a predictable letter to the editor from Ohio Education Association (OEA).
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Capital offense
Washington, D.C., parents could not have been pleased after reading about the haphazard way that curriculum decisions are made in their city. Two recent Washington Post articles paint a story of administrative incompetence and misplaced power.
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Subcontinent envy
Some of the best food to be found in England has its origins in Delhi and Puducherry. Now, it seems, some of the best education to be found in Japan has its home in India, too.
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Intervene smarter
No serious person thinks students who require special education should not get it. It's undeniable, however, that public schools have a history of shunting into special education classes many students who suffer from no learning disability but who may simply lag academically for one reason or another, or who have trouble behaving.
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It's not about the kids
Can Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa catch a break? Not only does he have to battle with hardnosed politicians in Sacramento, intransigent school board members, tough union types, and angry parents--now he's catching flak from the kids!
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Jumping through hoops a plus
I thoroughly enjoyed Liam Julian's piece "Check yourself before you wreck yourself." As the director of a teacher training initiative at Haskins Laboratories, practicing teachers, particularly the "big-hearted 22 year-olds," tell me they don't know how to teach children to read.
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Broccoli for your brain
We hear often about the decline of reading and what a nasty harbinger it is. But seldom do we hear the case made as convincingly as Caleb Crain puts it in the December 24th New Yorker.
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Staving off Spicolis
Boys will be boys. But not if Ana Homayoun has anything to say about it. Homayoun is one of a burgeoning number of tutors who have realized that many of boys' school difficulties stem from lack of organization.
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Why ED in '08 won't sway Iowans tonight, or other Americans thereafter
Marc Lampkin--who runs the Bill Gates and Eli Broad-funded $60 million "ED in '08" initiative to make education a top-tier issue in the presidential campaign--doesn't believe that his purpose is to make education a top-tier issue in the presidential campaign.
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Reading First's Christmas massacre
Reading First, funded at $1 billion per year, is among the most promising federal efforts to help the poor. Title I, funded at $12 billion per year, is not nearly so effective.
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Satisfied, Optimistic, Yet Concerned: Parent Voices on the Third Year of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program
Thomas Stewart, Patrick J. Wolf, Stephen Q. Cornman, Kenann McKenzie-ThompsonGeorgetown University Public Policy InstituteDecember 2007
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Check yourself before you wreck yourself
"The popular value of ________ creativity and autonomy as high priorities must give way to a willingness to follow certain carefully prescribed ________ practices."
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Closing the Cumberland Gap
Rhode Island's 5,000-student Cumberland School District has hit a rough patch. Its state funding has dropped by $6 million over the last decade. And in neighboring Massachusetts, student test scores in districts with similar demographics are nearly double those that Cumberland is able to muster. But the city's mayor, Daniel McKee, has a plan.
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Head Start, poor finish
In July 2003, President George W. Bush visited a Maryland elementary school and called for legislation to "hold Head Starts [sic] accountable for getting the job done." Last week, he reluctantly rubber-stamped a bill that contains almost none of the reforms he advocated.
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Ideas with merit
Dallas education administrators are learning a valuable lesson: teachers are reluctant to work in tough classrooms, even if you pay them $6,000 extra.
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Why teachers like Mike
Mike Huckabee made news--and history--last week when the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association endorsed him for president in the upcoming primary--the first time it ever recommended a GOP candidate.
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Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans
Public AgendaDecember 2007
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High Principal Turnover Found in Low-Performing Schools
Advocates for Children and YouthDecember 2007
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George Will on NCLB: Right diagnosis, wrong cure
George Will doesn't much like the federal government, and he certainly doesn't much like the federal government getting involved in education. So it comes as no surprise that he doesn't like No Child Left Behind. More precisely, he loathes it.
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Higher-ed diversity done right
Universities have long complained that far too many of their incoming students are ill-prepared for the rigors of college; the problem is particularly acute for low-income and minority students. Several institutions are actually doing something about it.
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I wish it was like 1999
I enjoyed reading Mike Petrilli's recent article "Parties like its 1999" (November 29, 2007). But I wonder if the lens Petrilli uses to evaluate the education proposals of presidential candidates fails to factor in a consideration of the federal role versus the state role in education.
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Bigotry is back
2007 may be known as the year when the "soft bigotry of low expectations" made a comeback. It started with Education Week's dubious "Chance-for-Success Index" (motto: demography is destiny) and is finishing with another doozy from Michael "No Excuse Left Behind" Winerip.
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Who will be the fittest?
Evolution debates are lighting up the opinion pages of Florida newspapers. On one side are supporters of proposed revisions to the state's science standards, which, if approved by the Board of Education early in 2008, will include the "e-word" for the first time in 11 years. On the other side are creationists and their allies, of which board member Donna Callaway is one.