Search Results for: Vouchers

Budget/Financing, Curriculum, School Climate

Statistics Made Happily Real

Patrick McIlheran:

A new report says students in Milwaukee’s private choice high schools are much more likely to graduate: Such schools had a graduation rate of 85% last year, compared to 58% in the Milwaukee Public Schools.
In flesh-and-blood terms, that means Babatunde Saaka unexpectedly has a future.
The figures are the latest from what is now a five-year report by University of Minnesota sociologist John Robert Warren. Milwaukee students using vouchers are pulling farther ahead. If 2003’s MPS freshmen had done as well in 2007 as students in choice schools, there’d be 1,517 more high school graduates in Milwaukee.
That’s a theoretical number. In life, graduation is more concrete – do or don’t, succeed or fail.
Saaka once expected to fail. When the Milwaukee teen graduates from the Hope School this weekend as part of its first graduating class, he will be the first in his family merely to make it through high school. A young man who grew up in fatherless poverty, he’s going on to Wisconsin Lutheran College, planning to become a youth counselor, to make a difference for other poor children.

Budget/Financing, Curriculum, Elections, Events, Governance/Board Decision Making, School Climate

On education, McCain & Obama may not be far apart

Greg Toppo:

Jeanne Century, director of Science Education, Research and Evaluation at the University of Chicago’s Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE), is an adviser to Obama. Lisa Graham Keegan, the former superintendent of public instruction in Arizona and a two-term member of the Arizona House of Representatives, has McCain’s ear on educational issues.
To anyone casually observing the two in an effort to divine differences between the candidates, the disagreements seemed small.

  • Both Obama and McCain believe in rigorous standards and rich curricula to help students compete in a global economy. Century even suggested that American kids should be “trilingual,” not just bilingual, to compete with the rest of the world.
  • Both candidates support publicly funded, but privately run, charter schools.
  • For now at least, both oppose using taxpayer dollars for large-scale voucher programs. (In a later session with reporters, though, Keegan pointed out that McCain actually supported the push in 2003 for a small-scale voucher that now operates in Washington, D.C., public schools. She added that if a state asked McCain to support a voucher program, “he might be supportive.” But she said he doesn’t currently support changing the provisions of No Child Left Behind to allow for private school vouchers. Currently, students in under-performing schools can get taxpayer dollars for free tutoring or transfer to a better-performing public school.)
  • Speaking of No Child Left Behind, both candidates would tweak it in ways that, for the most part, only education wonks can appreciate. They’d both fund it differently. Keegan says McCain would figure out more efficient, focused ways to spend what she says is NCLB’s “unprecedented” increase in funding to schools. Century says Obama believes NCLB “was insufficiently funded and poorly implemented.”

They both bemoan the law’s inability to ensure that low-income children get high-quality teachers and they’d both push for so-called “value added” provisions that would give schools credit for test score gains that children make each year, even if all children don’t meet a pre-set proficiency goal in reading or math.

Community Partners, Curriculum, School Climate

Changing Perceptions of Private Religious Schools: Public Money and Public Trust in the Education of Children

William Bassett:

Private religious schools were originally intended to provide a sound secular education to children in their formative years, together with religious instruction and the experience of the life and culture of their faiths. In recent decades, however, as ongoing social and economic challenges have led to the deterioration of the public school system, private schools have been looked to as possible alternatives for educating public school children through such programs as tax-funded school vouchers.
But can these institutions be trusted to provide quality education without bias? In the last half century, Supreme Court opinions discussing public education and the Establishment clause have reflected a general distrust of parochial school systems. Public perception of religious schools has also changed little. The author argues, however, that private religious schools – in particular Catholic schools – have evolved to become more professional, more ecumenical, and more financially transparent, and thus are well positioned to offer viable alternatives to provide quality educational opportunities to public school children. But in order for these programs, such as school vouchers, to succeed, the public must be assured that religious schools will not divert taxpayer dollars into self-interested sectarian purposes.

Budget/Financing, Community Partners, Parenting, School Climate, Student Support

Democrats for School Choice

Wall Street Journal Editorial:

When Florida passed a law in 2001 creating the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program for underprivileged students, all but one Democrat in the state legislature voted against it. Earlier this month, lawmakers extended the program – this time with the help of a full third of Democrats in the Legislature, including 13 of 25 members of the state’s black caucus and every member of the Hispanic caucus. What changed?
Our guess is that low-income parents in Florida have gotten a taste of the same school choice privileges that middle- and upper-income families have always enjoyed. And they’ve found they like this new educational freedom. Under the scholarship program, which is means-tested, companies get a 100% tax credit for donations to state-approved nonprofits that provide private-school vouchers for low-income families

Budget/Financing, Curriculum, School Climate

School Choice: The Bad Good News

David Kirkpatrick:

In the ongoing debate over school choice in its various dimensions such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools, a stepping back to obtain a broader overview seems to be virtually nonexistent, or at least it is rare to find such an observation. The fact of the matter is that school choice is already a reality for the overwhelming majority of students and their parents.
The largest such category consists of those choosing the public school they attend. A few years ago a survey of public school parents as to why they live where they do found a majority, about 53%, said it was so the children could attend school in the district, or even to live in the attendance area of the specific school being used. Fifty-three percent of about 50,000,000 public school students is twenty-six million.
As an aside this leads to a few pertinent considerations as well. Opponents of school choice, especially of the use of vouchers, regularly base that opposition on the view that this would permit wholesale flight from the public schools. This, of course, is actually not just a weak defense of their position but strengthens the pro-voucher view because it is saying that students, or at least huge numbers of them, are being forced to attend public schools against their will and, in the words of former National Education Association (NEA) President Keith Geiger, they can’t be allowed to “escape.”
Moreover it shows a lack of awareness of the public opinion poll and its implication that 26 million students are not going to go anywhere, vouchers or no, since they are already where they and/or their parents want to be. And there are perhaps at least a few million more who are happy where they are but didn’t show up in the poll because they aren’t where they are because they specifically moved there for that purpose but coincidentally already lived where they find the schools to be satisfactory. However, that number, whatever it may be, will not be included here because its actual size is unknown.

Budget/Financing, Parenting, School Climate, Student Support

Competition Improves Results in Many Areas, What About Schools?

Letters to the Wall Street Journal Editor regarding School Choice: Now More Than Ever:

We, of course, have school choice in America as long as those who choose a non-public school pay their own way.
The failure of some public schools to achieve academic excellence should not be used as an argument in favor of vouchers. The real issue is whether or not our present system of financing education affords all students freedom of choice in selecting a school — public or private. Truly, the present system does not provide this freedom of choice.
Bob Meldrum
Harper Woods, Mich.
Mr. Riley presents a good argument illustrating the benefits of school choice replete with the results of studies on charter schools and the like. He doesn’t need to limit the illustration to schools and school choice programs. The simple facts are that public schools in the U.S. are a state-run monopoly and that a free market will outperform a monopoly every time.
Do you really need a study to see freedom’s superior ability to deliver goods and services that are actually needed and wanted? If so, there was a big study in the last century. It was called the Soviet Union. This century continues with several smaller studies — Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and Argentina, to name a few.

Budget/Financing, Community Partners, Governance/Board Decision Making, History - Madison Schools, School Climate

Madison Busing to Continue for Most Madison Catholic Schools

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WKOW-TV:

he MMSD finance and operations committee of the school board on Tuesday voted to approve a plan to continue bus services for Madison’s Catholic schools. MMSD provides bus transportation under state law.
Under the plan, two schools, Queen of Peace and St. Maria Goretti, will adjust their schedules so they can share a bus. The kindergarten noon bus at St. Dennis will be discontinued, as will bus service to Edgewood. The eliminations would affect a handful of families and they will receive vouchers from MMSD to cover the cost of private transportation.
The school schedule adjustments and two route cancellations will save the public schools about $140,000 a year, according to MMSD officials.

The Madison School District eliminated private school busing last spring – a decision that was undone via an adminstrative snafu.

Community Partners, School Climate

Madison Mayor Proposes Expansion of Low Income Housing Throughout Dane County in an Effort to Reduce the MMSD’s Low Income Population

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Dean Mosiman:

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is proposing a regional approach to affordable housing to help ease high concentrations of poor students in Madison schools.
Cieslewicz is proposing to merge the city and Dane County public housing authorities into a single entity that would take a more regional view.
The authorities handle federal vouchers that offset rent payments, public housing and support first-time buyers.
Cieslewicz also wants to make communities outside Madison eligible for money from the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which now stands at $4 million.
Over time, the proposals might spread low-income housing more evenly through the region, which would help all schools, Cieslewicz said.

Madison Demographics: 82.2% white (Dane County = 87.5%) with 15% of the population living below poverty (2000 census; Dane County = 9.4%). 43% of the Madison School District’s students were classified as “low income” for the 2007-2008 school year.

Budget/Financing, Community Partners, School Climate

Milwaukee’s School Choice: Preliminary Analysis Gives Average Grades

Anneliese Dickman:

Back in 2001, then-Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist summarized his case for school choice by stating: “Vouchers work. They don’t hurt taxpayers, and they encourage public schools to do better.”
Norquist’s conviction was strongly supported by school choice proponents and vociferously refuted by opponents. All the while, the Public Policy Forum cautioned that very little data existed to either support or refute him.
Now, for the first time in over a decade, data are available to shed light on the efficacy and effectiveness of Milwaukee’s private school voucher program. An ambitious five-year longitudinal study is under way to evaluate the school choice program and compare its performance to Milwaukee Public Schools. Last month’s research reports, the study’s first, provide us with the long-elusive data.
As expected, school choice proponents and opponents each have come away with their own distinct interpretations of this data. However, certain conclusions are inescapable.
First, the new findings have reframed the policy debate over school choice, pulling it away from the original goals of school choice proponents. There was a time when school choice was touted as a panacea, as the competitive leverage the public schools needed to improve, as a means to empower parents and save low-income students from bad schools. With the latest data, however, the Milwaukee voucher program is now simply portrayed as a popular program that pleases parents and performs at least as well as MPS.

Community Partners, Parenting, School Climate, Student Support

The Translators: The Media and School Choice Research

Andrew Rotherham:

The Media play a pivotal role in determining how and why research influences public opinion with regard to policy. Political scientists Shanto Inyengar and Donald Kinder have shown through experimental research involving televised news how the presentation of news stories can have a powerful impact on what Americans think about issues.1 Prominent columns and articles, especially in the big East Coast papers, influence political behavior among the policy and political elites and offer signals about elite thought and opinion on key issues. The debates about the research on school choice illustrate the broader challenges the media face when translating research for public consumption.
At a superficial level, school choice is a relatively easy debate for the media to cover. It can be simplified into arguments for and against vouchers, charter schools, and altering the definition of “public” schooling, and these arguments are often boiled down to an easy framework of “public” versus “private.” Likewise, the question of increases in test scores fits readily into a debate about whether school choice is “working” or not. While such framing greatly oversimplifies the issues, it nonetheless drives much of the coverage precisely because it offers easy contrasts.

Community Partners, Curriculum, Governance/Board Decision Making, School Climate

Milwaukee Public School options gain share in education marketplace

Alan Borsuk:

If your definition of “public school” is the regular public school system, you are talking about a slice of Milwaukee’s educational infrastructure in which the student population is getting smaller each year.
But if your definition means any school where public dollars pay for children’s educations, you’re talking about a bigger pie, with more ingredients – a pie unlike anything served elsewhere in the United States.
Voucher schools, charter schools, alternative schools, ways of sending kids to schools in other communities – parents, especially those with low income, continue to have a wide array of choices in Milwaukee, all of them funded by public dollars.
Thousands of parents are taking advantage of that. Enrollment statistics for this year show more than 30% of all Milwaukee kids whose educations are paid for with tax dollars attend schools outside the main roster of Milwaukee Public Schools. That appears to be the highest percentage on record.
While enrollment in MPS elementary, middle and high schools fell almost 4% to 81,681, the number of students using publicly funded vouchers to attend 122 private schools in the city rose 8% to 19,233.

School Climate

Utah: At $8.4M, school voucher fight costlier than last governor’s race

Robert Gehrke:

The campaign clash over education vouchers has run up a tab that easily would fund Utah’s voucher program well into its second year.
The more than $8 million in campaign expenditures, reported to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Tuesday, included $2.6 million alone from Utah-based Overstock.com’s Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne and family.
The contributions from Byrne and his parents, John and Dorothy, made up three-quarters of the $3.5 million pro-voucher forces raised since September. Earlier in the campaign, Byrne gave $290,000.
“I have been lucky to be the recipient of the American dream,” Byrne said. “Whether you want to become a teacher or artist, an entrepreneur or doctor, having a great education is one of the keys to reaching dreams.”
The voucher program, which narrowly passed in the Legislature, must survive a referendum on Tuesday to be enacted.
Fundraising and spending between Oct. 27 and the election won’t be disclosed until January, under requirements of Utah law.
Most of the spending on both sides went to pay for the relentless campaigns that have targeted residents through TV, radio, newspapers, billboards and direct-mail ads.

Curriculum, School Climate

High school dropouts’ price is high

T. Keung Hui:

High school dropouts are costing North Carolina taxpayers millions of dollars each year, according to a new report, but there’s sharp disagreement on what is the best way to solve the problem.
The report released Wednesday by the Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation says a single year’s group of dropouts costs the state’s taxpayers $169 million annually in lost sales tax revenue and higher Medicaid and prison costs. It’s the first time a specific dollar figure has been given for the cost of dropouts in this state.
“In additional to the personal consequences it has on dropouts, this has a very real cost for taxpayers,” said Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. The group instigated the report as part of its efforts to get public money vouchers for students to attend private schools.
The report’s recommended solution of using taxpayer-funded vouchers to help students pay for private schools has drawn a sharp dividing line between supporters and critics of public schools.

School Climate

“School Choice: The Findings”

Tyler Cowen:

This new Cato book is a good introduction to the empirical literature on vouchers and charter schools. For my taste it places too much weight on standardized tests, but admittedly that is the main way to compare educational results over time or across countries. I believe the lax nature of government schooling in the U.S. often leaves the upper tail of the distribution free to dream and create, but I would not wish to push that as an argument against vouchers. If you’re interested in bad arguments against vouchers, and their rebuttals, Megan McArdle offers a long post.

Community Partners, School Climate, What Can I Do?

Fixing the Milwaukee Public Schools: The Limits of Parent-Driven Reform

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David Dodenhoff, PhD.:

The Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) district, like many of its big-city counterparts in other states, continues to suffer from poor student performance. Student test scores and dropout rates are at deplorable levels, both in absolute terms and in comparison with the rest of Wisconsin. This fact has led to a veritable cottage industry dedicated to improving educational outcomes in Milwaukee. The district itself has embraced two reforms in particular: public school choice and parental involvement.
Advocates of public school choice claim that by permitting parents to choose among a variety of public school options within the district, competition for students will ensue. This should improve school effectiveness and efficiency, and ultimately lead to better student outcomes.
Proponents of parental involvement argue that even first-rate schools are limited in their effectiveness unless parents are also committed to their children’s education. Thus, the parental involvement movement seeks to engage parents as partners in learning activities, both on-site and at home. Research has shown that such engagement can produce higher levels of student performance, other things being equal.
Research has also shown, however, that both reforms can be stifled in districts like MPS, with relatively large percentages of poor, minority, single-parent families, and families of otherwise low socioeconomic status. With regard to public school choice, many of these families:

  • may fail to exercise choice altogether;
  • or
    may exercise choice, but do so with inadequate or inaccurate information;

  • and/or
    may choose schools largely on the basis of non-academic criteria.

As for parental involvement, disadvantaged parents may withdraw from participation in their child’s education because of lack of time, energy, understanding, or confidence.
This study offers estimates of the extent and nature of public school choice and parental involvement within the MPS district. The basic approach is to identify the frequency and determinants of parental choice and parental involvement using a national data set, and extrapolate those results to Milwaukee, relying on the particular demographics of the MPS district.

Alan Borsuk has more along with John McAdams:

Rick Esenberg has beat us to the punch in critiquing the methodology of this particular study. As he points out, it’s not a study of private school choice, only a study of choice within the public sector.

George Lightburn:

ecently, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) released a report entitled, Fixing Milwaukee Public Schools: The Limits of Parent-Driven Reform. Unfortunately, the headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel read, “Choice May Not Improve Schools.” That headline not only misrepresented the study, it energized those who are dying to go back to the days when parents were forced to send their children to whichever MPS school the educrats thought best.
So that there is no misunderstanding, WPRI is unhesitant in supporting school choice. School choice is working and should be improved and expanded. School choice is good for Milwaukee’s children.
Here are the simple facts about the WPRI study:
1. The study addressed only public school choice; the ability of parents to choose from among schools within MPS. The author did not address private school choice.

A Capitol Times Editorial:

Credit is due the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute for releasing a study that confirms what the rest of us have known for some time: So-called “school choice” programs have failed to improve education in Milwaukee.
The conservative think tank funded by the Bradley Foundation has long been a proponent of the school choice fantasy, which encourages parents to “shop” for schools rather than to demand that neighborhood schools be improved — and which, ultimately, encourages parents to take publicly funded vouchers and to use the money to pay for places in private institutions that operate with inadequate oversight and low standards for progress and achievement.

Elections, School Climate

Union Orders, on Ohio Charter Schools

The Wall Street Journal: The concept of charter schools is popular enough that even most liberals won’t attack them openly. Yet the national political assault continues behind-the-scenes, most recently in Ohio, where unions have now been caught giving orders to Attorney General Marc Dann, who has duly saluted. Last week the Columbus Dispatch published emails … Continue reading Union Orders, on Ohio Charter Schools →

School Climate

New research on school choice: Winning isn’t everything

Anneliese Dickman: How many times have you heard of a lucky duck who wins the lottery, just to squander it all and return to his old work-a-day self? I’m sure those guys thought winning the lottery would turn their luck around forever. Just like education reform proponents who are fond of calling school choice a … Continue reading New research on school choice: Winning isn’t everything →

Community Partners, Curriculum, School Climate, Student Support

Notes on Charter/Voucher Options and Public Schools

Scott Elliott: The program Friday included a tour of some choice schools in Milwaukee. I’ve done tours like this in other places, including Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Michigan. They are always enlightening. We had one especially inspiring visit to a school called the Milwaukee College Preparatory School. The school began as a Marva Collins … Continue reading Notes on Charter/Voucher Options and Public Schools →

School Climate

“PROXIMITY is not destiny, educationally speaking”

Joanne Jacobs: A generation of experience with racial integration has taught a clear lesson: Sitting black kids next to white kids in school is not a silver bullet that zaps unequal achievement. However, the faith that proximity leads to equal achievement remains the cargo cult of education. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court barred school … Continue reading “PROXIMITY is not destiny, educationally speaking” →

School Climate

An elite education should be open to all who can benefit, not just those who can pay

The Economist: NO exam question is as perplexing as how to organise schools to suit the huge variety of pupils they serve: rich and poor, clever and dim, early developers and late starters. Every country does it differently. Some try to spot talent early. Others winnow out the academic-minded only at 18. Some believe in … Continue reading An elite education should be open to all who can benefit, not just those who can pay →

School Climate

Free to choose, and learn

New research shows that parental choice raises standards—including for those who stay in public schools The Economist: FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers—letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer’s expense. First suggested by Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1955, the principle is compellingly simple. The state … Continue reading Free to choose, and learn →

Budget/Financing, Elections, Governance/Board Decision Making, School Climate, Staff Support, Student Support, Teacher Support, What Can I Do?

An open letter to the Superintendent of Madison Metropolitan Schools

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Dear Mr. Rainwater: I just found out from the principal at my school that you cut the allocations for SAGE teachers and Strings teachers, but the budget hasn’t even been approved. Will you please stop playing politics with our children education? It?s time to think about your legacy. As you step up to the chopping … Continue reading An open letter to the Superintendent of Madison Metropolitan Schools →

School Climate

How Much Does a Neighborhood Affect the Poor?
Government test tracks families who moved; girls flourish, not boys.

Jon Hilsenrath & Rafael Gerena-Morales: Climbing out of poverty hasn’t been as easy as getting on the bus. She says her life is now drug-free and more stable, and her children are growing up in a better environment. Yet in many ways, her struggles traveled with her. “You really need to have a focus to … Continue reading How Much Does a Neighborhood Affect the Poor?
Government test tracks families who moved; girls flourish, not boys. →

School Climate

A Look at Single Sex Schools in Milwaukee

Erin Richards: In a school with more non-Catholics than Catholics, a more universal identifier is average income: More than 80% of the students receive vouchers to attend St. Joan, and almost the same number qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. “Our girls face a huge amount of challenges,” says Teddi Kennedy, the school’s director of … Continue reading A Look at Single Sex Schools in Milwaukee →

Curriculum

Does Closing the Minority Achievement Gap Require a Downward Rush to the Middle

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The prime motivator for taking MMSD’s high schools from an academically rich curriculum to the one-room schoolhouse model has been to close the minority achievement gap. Thus, I read with interest the following NYTimes letters: A Racial Gap, or an Income Gap? (7 Letters) Published: November 24, 2006 To the Editor: In emphasizing race-based achievement … Continue reading Does Closing the Minority Achievement Gap Require a Downward Rush to the Middle →

Curriculum, Governance/Board Decision Making, School Climate

“How to Manage Urban School Districts”

Stacey Childress, Richard Elmore and Allen Grossman writing in the Harvard Business Review: One of the biggest management challenges anywhere is how to improve student performance in America’s urban public schools. There has been no shortage of proposed solutions: Find great principals and give them power; create competitive markets with charters, vouchers, and choice; establish … Continue reading “How to Manage Urban School Districts” →

Governance/Board Decision Making

The Not-So-Public Part of the Public Schools: Lack of Accountability

Samuel Freedman: WHEN Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein gained unprecedented power over the vast archipelago of public education in New York more than four years ago, they were the beneficiaries of three beliefs widely held in the city. The first was that the system of decentralized control, ended after 35 years … Continue reading The Not-So-Public Part of the Public Schools: Lack of Accountability →

School Climate

Can the model designed for a farm economy be fixed?

Jim Wooten: School reform matters especially in Atlanta. The city may or may not be in the midst of a return-to-the-city movement. Certainly, condos and apartments are going up everywhere. But until the problem of a laggardly school system is cured, people with children won’t return, unless they have alternatives. Atlanta’s revival will be limited … Continue reading Can the model designed for a farm economy be fixed? →

Curriculum, Curriculum - Math, Curriculum - Science, Governance/Board Decision Making, Student Support

Public vs. Private School

NY Times Editorial: The national education reform effort has long suffered from magical thinking about what it takes to improve children’s chances of learning. Instead of homing in on teacher training and high standards, things that distinguish effective schools from poor ones, many reformers have embraced the view that the public schools are irreparably broken … Continue reading Public vs. Private School →

School Climate

“I have private preference but a public purse”

Nefertiti Denise Jones: My 5-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Virginia, now attends a private school that teaches foreign language and arts and offers after-school music and dance classes. But tuition is forcing me to look at Atlanta Public Schools next year for kindergarten. When I first started researching where to send Elizabeth next year, I was looking … Continue reading “I have private preference but a public purse” →

School Climate

Children Before Special Interests

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Matthew Ladner: Oprah Winfrey recently used two days of her program to highlight the crisis in American public schools, focusing attention on our appalling dropout problem. The visuals were quite stunning. In one segment, a group of inner-city Chicago students traded places with a group of suburban students to compare facilities and curriculums. In another, … Continue reading Children Before Special Interests →

Budget/Financing

Wisconsin SAGE Class Size Discussion

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Amy Hetzner: If his school couldn’t exceed the SAGE ratios, Burdick K-8 School Principal Robert Schleck said his school probably would have dumped the program. “There’s different models that are being used throughout the city,” he said, noting that in some SAGE classrooms, groups of students are pulled into the hallway or other locations during … Continue reading Wisconsin SAGE Class Size Discussion →

School Climate, Student Support, What Can I Do?

“School Choice: A Moral Issue?”

Shay Riley: I am a staunch advocate for school vouchers, and a recent controversy help reaffirm my support. Residents of Ladera Heights – an affluent, mostly black community in Los Angeles metro – have organized for a territory transfer proposal to leave Inglewood’s school district of not-as-affluent blacks and Hispanics and join Culver City’s mostly white, middle-class … Continue reading “School Choice: A Moral Issue?” →

Curriculum

Fascinating: Novel Way to Assess School Competition Creates a Stir

Jon E. Hilsenrath: The unusual spat has put a prominent economist in the awkward position of having to defend one of her most influential studies. Along the way, it has spotlighted the challenges economists face as they study possible solutions to one of the nation’s most pressing problems: the poor performance of some public schools. … Continue reading Fascinating: Novel Way to Assess School Competition Creates a Stir →

Curriculum

High Quality Teaching make the difference

Young, Gifted and Black, by Perry, Steele and Hilliard is a little gem of a book. (Hereafter, YGB). The subtitle is “Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students”. Though specifically addressing African-American kids, the descriptions and proscriptions proposed can be applied to all – important, given the continual poor showing of U.S. students generally on international … Continue reading High Quality Teaching make the difference →

School Climate

Maryland’s Education Reform Guidelines

Daniel de Vise: Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele released his blueprint for education reform yesterday, a series of 30 recommendations that call for schools to be graded and teachers to be paid for performance. Members of the 30-person Governor’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland recommended efforts to promote charter schools but rejected school … Continue reading Maryland’s Education Reform Guidelines →

Curriculum, Governance/Board Decision Making

Copenhagen Consensus Project on The Learning Deficit

Harvard’s Lant Pritchett writes in a new paper for the Copenhagen Consensus Project: There are many ways to press forward this kind of systemic reform, Mr Pritchett argues. Vouchers and a �market� for education might work well in some circumstances, but other approaches could achieve good results too in some cases: school autonomy (as granted … Continue reading Copenhagen Consensus Project on The Learning Deficit →