Creating New Leaders in the Charter Sector

The charter community in the Buckeye State recently received some welcome news (see here and here ).

KIPP Columbus Seeks Founding Cluster Executive Director

Passionate about increasing excellent schooling options for all children? Here's a chance to work with one of the leading charter school networks in the nation. The KIPP Foundation is seeking an accomplished leader to create a cluster of KIPP schools in Columbus, Ohio.

Making the Grade (or Not)

Too many of America's youngsters--Ohioans among them--are still being left behind.

School Restructuring Under No Child Left Behind: What Works When?

Reclaiming the American Dream

Few can argue that college completion rates are depressingly low. Just 35 percent of the 4.1 million students entering high school will go on to earn a college degree. Luckily, pursuing a rigorous academic curriculum in high school (as set forth in Governor Taft's Ohio Core plan) greatly increases the likelihood high school students will obtain a college degree.

School Buildings in Need of Children (and Vice Versa)

It's no secret that Ohio's school funding system is deeply troubled (see here and here).

Courting disaster

Schools in Garfield, New Jersey, boast the latest in high-priced amenities, including a spanking new $40 million middle school.

Make new friends, but keep the old

I appreciated last week's Gadfly editorial ("Urban tragedy," Oct.

Moe money for performance

"Makes no sense at all.... A truly dumb idea." A commentary on Mike Tyson's recent announcement that he wants to fight women? Nope.

A right to single-sex education?

Last week the Department of Education announced new rules that clear the way for public school districts to open single-sex schools and classrooms. Since then, a flood of criticisms from women's groups and some civil rights organizations has spewed forth.

No Springtime for Hitler

Student Walter Petryk must have known when he donned a Hitler costume this past Tuesday morning that administrators at Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences wouldn't be pleased. Probably for that precise reason, or because he had grown a mustache for the occasion, he did it anyway.

Tests, elections, and achievement

Any number of things can be said about next week's election and I will forbear from most of them. But one issue has surfaced that is genuinely alarming for education reformers: indications that some Democratic candidates (and office holders) are turning against standards-based reform and moving to roll back the assessment regimen that plays a crucial role in it.

Charter School Achievement: What We Know

Bryan Hassel, Charter School Leadership CouncilFebruary 2005

Double the Numbers for College Success: A Call to Action for the District of Columbia

DC College Access Program, DC Education Compact, DC Public Schools, DC State Education OfficeOctober 2006

Expanding Learning Time In High Schools

Hilary PenningtonCenter for American ProgressOctober 2006

Comma combat

"Grammar Greiner" suddenly has a following at Westfield High School in Northern Virginia. Although he's known as the toughest English teacher in the school, students who want to do well on the SAT's new essay-writing section know they have to improve their grammar. So they sign up and endure his lessons on commas, apostrophes, spelling, and sentence structure.

Judgment day

This October, the Halloween treats came early for supporters of Ohio's 300 charter schools. In a 4-3 decision handed down Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state's charter school program, much maligned by critics, is indeed constitutional. The ruling is consistent with decisions by other state courts across the nation.

Urban tragedy

During the past few years, scores of impoverished inner-city schools have shut their doors. On the surface, that could be a blessing. After all, one of the major problems with American education is that bad schools seem to live forever.

Fewer cop outs on dropouts

Low high school graduation rates have headlined the education woes of many urban districts, worrying educators and Oprah alike. But the data on dropouts have always been inadequate and rather one-dimensional, denoting that X out of every 100 students fail to graduate.

For the kids?

The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik, himself an Upper East Sider, believes "that a constant obsessive-compulsive anxiety about children--their health, their future, the holes in their socks, and the fraying of their psyches--is taken entirely for granted" in New York City.

The Future of Charter Schools and Teachers Unions: Results of a Symposium

Paul T. Hill, Lydia Rainey, and Andrew J. RotherhamCenter on Reinventing Public Education's National Charter School Research ProjectOctober 2006

Teacher and Principal Compensation: An International Review

Susan Sclafani and Marc S. TuckerCenter for American ProgressOctober 2006

Charter Schools Not to Blame for DPS's Financial Woes

There is much to be said that's critical of charter schools that's also true.

Columbus Sets Its Sights on KIPP

It's no secret that Ohio needs more high-quality schools, especially for its poorest children. So why not shoot for the best--the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)?

Beware the Phantom (Revenue)

If you think Halloween is spooky, consider what Ohioans will face on November 7th--a slew of new school levy and tax issues at the polls.

Educational Entrepreneurship: Realities, Challenges, Possibilities

For years, common wisdom held that aside from textbooks, the business sector had little to offer the world of education. But scores of educational entrepreneurs are now proving this belief false.

Struggling schools in New Orleans are not charters

Last week, in "A dose of reality," Gadfly mistakenly wrote that a number of New Orleans charter schools were struggling. In fact, none of the fraught schools to which we referred were charters. Our mistake.

Hit the deck!

The first rule of combat is to avoid cross-fire. But the newly appointed Los Angeles superintendent, retired Navy Vice Admiral David L. Brewer III, already finds himself squarely in the middle of it.

Measuring the melting pot

"It's a sordid business, this divvying us up by race," quoth Chief Justice John Roberts last year. The Department of Education is finally implementing a 1997 OMB mandate that students should be allowed to identify themselves as multiracial.