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An Update on One City Schools & Literacy

Kaleem Caire: One City Schools was mentioned in the United States Congress during the House Appropriations Committee hearing today! Dr. Holly Lane, Director of the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI), highlighted the groundbreaking partnership we are forming with UFLI, Project Read AI, and others during her testimony. She also referenced the highly successful and […]

One City Schools marks a decade educating kids with LeVar Burton event

Ava Menkes: One City Schools, the independent charter school on Madison’s south side, plans to hold a community rally Thursday at The Sylvee to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Over the last decade, One City has raised $50 million to help serve underprivileged students in the area through innovative and unique ways, according to founder and […]

An update on One City Schools

In this brief video, Dr. Cheryl Twyman, Director of Partnerships, and Dr. Penny Rossetto, Senior Coach and School Designer, both with EL Education, speak about their organization and its partnership with One City Schools. They also share their assessment of the progress being made at One City’s elementary and middle schools. About EL Education EL […]

An update on One City Schools (Monona, WI)

Kaleem Caire One City Preschool continues to attract far more children than we can enroll, and is ready to grow and expand. Our two public charter schools, One City Elementary School and One City Preparatory Academy, are making notable progress as well: In July 2025, we will host our 10th anniversary celebration and first 8th […]

One City Schools CEO talks what led to partial closure, plan to bring 9,10th grades back

Arman Rahman Arman Rahman Arman Rahman Reporter Author email : According to Caire, the school was forced to take its foot off the gas by closing 9th and 10th grades, when five core subject teachers left between last September and December. “We didn’t hire teachers, enough teachers, that could retool their curriculum to serve students […]

One City Schools shutting down ninth and 10th grades

Chris Rickert: Citing an exodus of core-class teachers, Madison charter school One City Schools told parents of about 60 students Thursday that it would shut down its first ninth- and 10th-grade classes after only one semester. The school’s vice president of external relations, Gail Wiseman, said the school lost five teachers since the beginning of […]

Staving off the ‘summer slide’ through year-round learning at One City Schools

Rhonda Foxx: Some education experts and parents fear the “summer slide” may be more troublesome due to the lasting impacts the pandemic has had on learning. For students at One City Schools, the learning doesn’t stop. Students at One City Schools eagerly don pajamas for spirit week in July because for them, it’s a regular […]

First Report on Groundbreaking Longitudinal Study of One City Schools Released!

Kaleem Caire, via a kind email: Dear Community Members, In November 2019, the Wisconsin Partnership Program, located within the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, awarded One City Schools a five-year, $1 million grant to support the implementation of our education programs, and the design and launch of a long-term longitudinal evaluation […]

One City Schools’ Preparatory Academy Enrollment Begins on 4 April, 2022

One City Schools (expanding in Monona…) Our formal enrollment for Elementary School period for the 2022-23 school year will begin on March 1, 2022 at 8 am. Applications will be accepted for all Elementary grades from 4K through 5th. One City Preparatory Academy enrollment period starts on April 4, 2022 for Sixth grade only for […]

Notes on One City Schools’ Monona Expansion

Elizabeth Beyer: Caire, UW-Oshkosh and Madison Area Technical College are hashing out a dual enrollment partnership that would allow students to gain college credits while in high school and potentially earn an associate degree, too, which could be used to transfer to a UW campus or an institution outside the System. The idea may even […]

One City Schools expands – in Monona (Governor Evers’ proposed budget would once again abort this school, by eliminating the UW charter office)

Logan Wroge: With a $14 million donation from American Girl founder and philanthropist Pleasant Rowland, One City Schools announced plans on Tuesday to purchase an office building in Monona that will become a new home for the fast-growing independent charter school. One City will use the donation to buy a 157,000-square-foot office building on the […]

Chinese model for early learning part of One City Schools’ educational approach

Logan Wroge: A Chinese approach to teaching preschool students has made its way to Madison. One City Schools, a Madison charter school founded by former Urban League president Kaleem Caire and authorized by an office within the University of Wisconsin System, was the first school in the United States to practice Anji Play and is […]

A crack in Madison’s non diverse K-12 governance model: independent charter One City Schools

Logan Wroge: In a previous attempt at a charter school, Caire proposed the Madison Preparatory Academy, which would have served a similar population as One City Schools, but would have been for grades 6-12. The Madison School Board rejected the idea in December 2011. Caire sought to bring his “change-maker” approach to the Madison School […]

One City Schools Admitted to EL Education’s National Network of Schools

Kaleem Caire, via a kind email: One City Schools, Inc., a local nonprofit operating an independent preschool and public charter school, announced today that it has been accepted into a coveted network of more than 150 schools nationwide in the EL Education (EL) program. EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) is an educational model that balances […]

“I have tried to understand how we could spend so much money on big city schools and get such terrible results”

New Gingrich: I could never understand why the education bureaucracies and teachers’ unions could tolerate terrible outcomes for millions of children (most of them poor and minority) and do nothing to fix the system. Then I read “Failure Factory.” Now, I see the corruption clearly. Papst has done the entire country an enormous service by […]

One city (charter) schools changed teacher work week: 4 days

Chris Rickert: The free charter school is required to meet minimum instructional hour requirements contained in state law, which Davis said the school exceeds because its school day runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and its year from Sept. 1 to July 31, longer than most traditional public schools. The school will continue to […]

One City Charter Schools continues to fundraise and grow (Monona)

Elizabeth Beyer: A contract, inked in February with the UW System, greenlit Caire’s 33-year dream of growing One City Schools from early childhood education and elementary to include students through grade 12, roughly a decade after the Madison School Board rejected a similar proposal for a charter school overseen by the Madison School District that […]

“Most MMSD schools are not over capacity. Six of the 32 elementary schools and one of the 12 middle schools had Third Friday enrollment numbers above their calculated capacities.”

Somewhat ironically, Madison has unused capacity in a number of schools, yet a successful Spring, 2015 referendum will spend another $41M+ to expand certain schools, including some of the least diverse such as Hamilton Middle School. Madison School District (PDF): Key Findings 1. Most MMSD schools are not over capacity. Six of the 32 elementary […]

NY city’s controversial ban on cellphones in schools has persuaded kids to leave their devices at a stranger’s home

textually:

New York city’s controversial ban on cellphones in schools has persuaded some kids to leave their devices at home — a stranger’s home! The New York Post reports.

Dozens of students at the former Bushwick HS campus have been paying $1 per day to store their phones at an alumnus’ apartment — just down the street from the Brooklyn campus.
Academy of Urban Planning graduate Giovanni Monserrate — known affectionately as either “Gio” or “The Mayor” — has padded his income as a Broadway usher by serving as a cellphone-storage site for between 30 and 100 teens daily over the last seven years.

Missouri Education Commissioner Outlines Options for Kansas City Schools

infozine:

Citing a critical need to not underestimate the stakes at hand, Commissioner of Education Chris Nicastro presented to the State Board of Education today her analysis of ways the state could assist the Kansas City Public Schools in regaining accreditation.
The State Board met in Branson on Dec. 1-2, where discussion of the Kansas City Public Schools was part of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s recommendation for revamping a statewide system of support. This system would identify risk factors and target limited resources to assist unaccredited school districts and those that are at risk of becoming unaccredited. Currently, nearly one dozen schools would receive focused attention.

Judge Jolts Little Rock Ruling Cuts Money Meant to Desegregate Schools in City at Center of 1957 Fight

Leslie Eaton:

A federal judge has halted longtime state payments intended to help integrate three Arkansas school districts, including Little Rock, site of one of the most bitter desegregation fights in U.S. history.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian S. Miller, who oversees the districts’ federally ordered desegregation efforts, found the payments were “proving to be an impediment to true desegregation” by rewarding school systems that don’t meet their long-standing commitments.
Judge Miller’s recent rulings triggered protests by the school districts. But some lawmakers and state officials hailed the decision to shut off the payments, which totaled roughly $1 billion over the past two decades.
Lawyers for Little Rock and the other districts said the loss of as much as $70 million for the year that begins in August would cause budgetary chaos. The state payments amount to about 10% of the Little Rock budget and about 9% for each of the other two districts. The parties have until Friday to seek a stay of the order.

The Closure of Four Chicago Catholic Grade Schools

Jordan Powell: The closing of four Catholic elementary schools in Chicago, Saints Bruno & Richard, Saint Jerome, Saint Stanislaus Kostka Academy, and Saint Francis Borgia looks at first glance like a familiar story: Declining enrollment, rising costs, and another set of urban parish schools unable to make the numbers work. But beneath the surface sits […]

“independent charter schools have the highest median performance relative to demographic expectations of any school sector”

Will Flanders: We also look at Wisconsin’s largest school choice program–open enrollment. Here, you see the marketplace working as families move to school districts with better academic outcomes and graduation rates. The Report: WILL’s Apples to Apples report provides a rigorous, side-by-side comparison of academic performance across Wisconsin’s public, charter, and private choice schools. Because […]

Understanding High Schools’ Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes

Preeya P. Mbekeani, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil & Richard J. Murnane: Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, […]

“Schools have become laboratories for esoteric ideological projects, not centers of learning”

Jason Riley: Far too many children are still assigned to substandard schools, and too many remain unable to read or do math at grade level. Meanwhile, educators and policymakers seem preoccupied with nonsense like helping students “transition” behind their parents’ backs or indoctrinating impressionable youngsters with social-justice poppycock to promote trendy political causes. American kids […]

What does an unconstitutional “gender support policy” look like? Below is one from Madison, Wis.

Dan Lennington: Note that the plan tells teachers to actively deceive parents by referring to students one way in school & another way in front of family. WILL: “The Supreme Court reinforced that parents have enforceable rights to be involved in major decisions affecting their children’s health and wellbeing. Because of this clarification, WILL is […]

Understanding High Schools’ Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes

Preeya P. Mbekeani, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil & Richard J. Murnane: Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, […]

“Madison school district’s property tax increase accounts for 17% of the rise in total tax levies for K-12 schools statewide”

Erin Gretzinger: In letters sent to residents with their tax bills this year, the city of Madison reported eight area school districts, including the Madison Metropolitan School District as the largest one, accounted for more than half of residents’ tax bill this year. Schools have historically accounted for 42% to 46% of the average tax […]

How the Big Ten Transformed Into College Football’s Money Machine

Rachel Bachman and Laine Higgins: For almost all of its 129-year existence, the Big Ten has positioned itself as a moral custodian of college football. This was a conference of hulking stadiums and buttoned-up traditions that was older than the NCAA itself. It bragged about the academic prestige of its schools and reminded its athletes […]

Carmen schools are successful. Why is the Milwaukee School District fighting them?

Julie Quinlan Brame Last month, the MPS Board voted to end the Carmen Northwest Charter Schoolcontract in 2027. That decision dismayed me deeply, because it appeared driven more by ideology about charter schools than by the needs of students, families, staff — and even MPS itself. I come from a family of teachers. In fact, my […]

Cecily Myart-Cruz’s Hostile Takeover of L.A.’s Public Schools

Jason McGahan: The head of the L.A. teachers’ union is ambitious, audacious, and uncompromising. But critics blast her as a demagogue whose gamesmanship during the pandemic took a toll on the kids she claims to fight for Cecily Myart-Cruz rarely sits for interviews. When she wants to communicate with the media, which is infrequently, she usually […]

“We do not have the number of students in the entirety of Boston Public Schools performing at grade level in ELA and math to fill the total available seventh-grade seats across the three exam schools.”

Karen Vaites: Getting rid of public gifted education programs will accelerate the enrollment crisis hitting American public schools When Zohran Mamdani came out in favor of eliminating New York City’s gifted and talented program in the earliest grades, it represented the latest chapter in an ongoing debate about gifted and selective schooling options in our nation’s largest […]

Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious

Guardian: In a letter to school families obtained by WBAL TV 11 News, the school wrote: “We understand how upsetting this was for the individual that was searched as well as the other students who witnessed the incident. Our counselors will provide direct support to the students who were involved in this incident and are also […]

We know how to make schools effective. What’s lacking is leadership committed to doing so.

Roland Fryer: In 2012, my graduate student Will Dobbie and I collected unprecedented data from nearly 50 New York City charter schools to see which practices truly boosted student learning. Class size and teacher credentials—political obsessions for decades—mattered little. What mattered most were five concrete, replicable practices: more instruction time, high expectations, frequent teacher feedback, […]

k-12 tax & $pending climate: City of Madison budget growth

Enjoyiana Nururdin: If approved by city leaders, most agencies would receive increases of 1% to 8% from previous spending levels. One exception would be a 30% budget increase requested by the City Clerk’s Office. The office is restructuring this year after the resignation of longtime City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. City Attorney Michael Haas, who is serving as […]

Notes on Governance and the taxpayer funded Milwaukee k-12 schools

Terry Falk: Partly, for that reason, new Superintendent Brenda Cassellius asked the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) to evaluate the MPS Office of Human Resources. This is not the first time CGCS has looked at the district’s HR department. But of the 19 recommendations it made in 2019, only one was fully implemented. At the July […]

Michigan spent big to fix schools. The result: Worse scores and plenty of blame

Ron French, Mike Wilkinson & Isabel Lohman: Frustrated by declining academic performance in state schools, education leaders in 2015 announced an audacious goal: make Michigan a top 10 education state by 2025. “If 10 years from now we’re not a top 10 performing state, then shame on all of us,” said then-State Superintendent Brian Whiston. 

Dual Enrollment and AP Course Availability in Wisconsin High Schools; Madison….

Wisconsin Policy Forum The number of Wisconsin high school students who participate in dual enrollment programs continued its decade-long growth in the 2023-24 academic year, hitting a new record. A combined 78,703 students participated in the dual enrollment programs offered by the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College systems, through which they could earn […]

Congratulations to One City’s 2025 8th Grade Class

Kaleem Caire: This summer marks a truly historic moment in our journey. On Friday, July 11, 2025 in the auditorum at Trustage, the same place where we announced the creation of One City Schools 10 years ago to an audience of 400 community leaders and supporters, we will celebrate our first class of 8th graders: […]

What Public Schools Could Learn From Fred Smith

Jason Riley: The Ford Foundation has spent billions of dollars on poverty initiatives, human-rights advocacy and other selected causes, yet Henry Ford’s most significant achievement was developing the moving assembly line in the 1910s, which transformed manufacturing. Ford made automobiles accessible to America’s burgeoning middle class, expanded job opportunities, and accelerated the expansion of related […]

San Francisco schools kill controversial grading proposal after backlash

Jill Tucker: San Francisco school officials killed plans Wednesday to test out alternative ways to grade some high school students after politicians and parents panned the proposal in the wake of misinformation about it.  An estimated 70 teachers in 14 high schools — about 10% of the educators in grades nine to 12 — were […]

“Officials love to brag about the 84% graduation rate for New York City public-school students”

Mike Dowd But if you thought that was an honest measure of how many kids are passing, I have bad news. High-school grading policies have become so corrupt, class credits have become almost meaningless. In recent years, the Department of Education and many individual schools, have adopted “equity grading” practices intended to benefit disadvantaged students. But […]

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

James Walsh: Lee thought it absurd that Columbia, which had a partnership with ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, would punish him for innovating with AI. Although Columbia’s policy on AI is similar to that of many other universities’ — students are prohibited from using it unless their professor explicitly permits them to do so, either on […]

Catholic schools are closing: Can tax credits or ESAs save them?

Joanne Jacobs summary: New York City’s Catholic schools are closing their doors, writes Ray Domanico in City Journal. Families with children are leaving the city, and parents who might have turned to Catholic school in the past are choosing tuition-free charter schools. A small group of Catholic high schools has learned how to survive in […]

How the pandemic response destroyed the learning culture in one Baltimore high school

Jennifer Gaither The name Baltimore City College may not mean much to the rest of the world, but it means a whole lot to people who live in Baltimore. Baltimore City College, or “City,” founded in 1839, is the third oldest public high school in the nation and is typically ranked in the top high […]

How do parents choose Milwaukee schools?

Quinton Klabon: This is 1 of the coolest things I have done. We did an unbiased, deep poll of Black and Latin Milwaukee parents to see how and why they pick the schools they do. 🧵 In short, parents lack the information they need to make the best match for their children. We were shocked […]

Lawsuit claims schools purchased reading material that hurt children

Andy Pierotti: – A pending lawsuit claims a publishing giant sold defective instructional material to school districts for decades, allegedly hurting children’s ability to read. An Atlanta News First investigation uncovered the same publisher sold its curriculum in metro Atlanta, including Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school district. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Massachusetts parents whose […]

A generation of schoolchildren is being exhorted to believe in their brain’s elasticity. Does it really help them learn?

Carl Hendrick: Over the past century, a powerful idea has taken root in the educational landscape. The notion of intelligence as something innate and fixed has been supplanted by the idea that intelligence is instead something malleable; that we are not prisoners of immutable characteristics and that, with the right training, we can be the […]

Don’t want to close underenrolled schools? Here’s how to make the math work

Marguerite Roza As enrollments drop, city after city is facing pressure to close half-empty schools. Fewer kids means fewer dollars. Consolidating two schools saves money because it means paying for one less principal, librarian, nurse, PE teacher, counselor, reading coach, clerk, custodian… you get the idea. Low-enrollment schools end up on the chopping block because […]

Milwaukee Public Schools, WI Redevelopment Funding Bonds Placed On CreditWatch With Negative Implications

Standard & Poors: S&P Global Ratings placed its ‘A+’ long-term ratings on Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Wis.’s outstanding series 2016A and 2017A redevelopment lease revenue bonds; series 2015A, 2016B, and 2016C taxable redevelopment lease revenue bonds; and ‘A’ long-term and underlying ratings (SPUR) on the district’s series 2003C and 2003D taxable pension funding bonds, all […]

Only half of Chicago Public Schools’ $10 billion in yearly spending makes it to the classroom

Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner Here’s one fact Chicagoans should know as the Chicago Teachers Union demands billions more for its massive labor contract: only half of the $10 billion spent at CPS each year makes it to classrooms and instruction. The other $5 billion goes to fund a sprawling bureaucracy of near-empty to half-empty […]

“The city has been providing almost $1 billion in subsidies annually to the schools in addition to the schools receiving 56% of all property taxes”

Paul Vallas: Easy solution to avoid Mayor’s $300 million property tax increase without eliminating the  2,476 Police and 646 Firefighter and EMS positions he threatened: Reduce city subsidies to the schools by an amount equal to the annual TIF “WINDFALL” which would save the city $300 mil. Schools don’t lose property tax revenues to TIF’s because […]

Big-City Districts Are Beset by Financial Dysfunction — and Kids Pay the Price

Marguerite Roza & Maggie Cicco: Financial dysfunction is plaguing many city school districts. Chicago is the most concerning. The district’s current $300 million budget gap is set to triple next year, which isn’t surprising since enrollment dropped 10% over six years as the district added staff. Now, it won’t close schools, won’t reduce the workforce […]

Ten lessons from six decades in the struggle to improve schools

Chester Finn: In 1953, the Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin published one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated essays, titled “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” He was riffing on the Greek poet Archilochus, who wrote that “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” In this essay, Sir Isaiah divided people—well, writers […]

Madison’s K-12 Schools Don’t Make the Grade

Dave Cieslewicz: This morning it’s grades. They’re getting rid of them. No more letters, only “advanced,” “proficient,” “developing,” and “emerging.” Only four categories — apparently no one will fail. Actually, this is nothing new. MMSD has had this system for elementary and middle schoolers for a while and it was being “piloted” (read: phased in) at East […]

How can 84% of Chicago Public Schools students graduate when only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading, math?

Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner It’s shameful. Chicago Public School officials want to celebrate a record graduation rate when much of the other data shows they are failing Chicago’s children. Only 26 percent of CPS 11th-graders can read and do math at grade level, according to the latest Illinois Report Card data, and yet last week the district […]

K-12 Tax & $pending climate: A “no” on the city of Madison 2024 November Referendum

Judith Davidoff & Liam Beran: Soglin opened the news conference at the Park Hotel noting that the room contained an array of “unconnected” folks who are “connected by their concern for the city.” Audience members included former Alds. Nino Amato, Dave Ahrens and Dorothy Borchardt; Lisa Veldran, who led the city council office for 30 […]

Foundation for Madison Public Schools at the 12 October Farmer’s Market

Notes and links on the Foundation for Madison Public Schools. Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this fall. Madison taxpayers of long supported far above average K – 12 spending. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, […]

“In a class of 20 kids, that’s $358,000 of taxpayer money”

Will Flanders: A typical Wisconsin school district now gets more than $17,900 per student. In a class of 20 kids, that’s $358,000 of taxpayer money. If a district can’t “keep the lights on” for that, it’s more than just MPS who’s cooking the books. More. Scott Manley: We spend more per kid than the tuition […]

(Madison) “district officials are still determining how they would use the money”

Kayla Huynh Less is clear with the district’s plans for the $100 million referendum, which would fund day-to-day operating costs, such as salaries and programs. Approving this referendum alone would hike property taxes on the average home by over $300 in the first year, the district estimates.  By 2028, the operations referendum would permanently raise the […]

Schools Make Millions Offering Degrees That Double as Work Visas

Zachary R Mider and Nic Querolo: At 1 p.m. on certain Saturday afternoons, hundreds of foreign-born professionals from all over the US converge on a small city in central Pennsylvania. They assemble in a high-rise office building, where they sit through four hours of college classes. Then they return to the airport and head home.  […]

“The idea is to pretend that someone is listening, even if they’re from out of town and well paid to do so”

David Blaska: The canary in the coal mine has already died when a city’s schools are in decay. So we must double down on school choice, aided by vouchers that allow the state’s school district contribution to follow the student to the school of his/her family’s choice. Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government […]

Foundation for Madison Public Schools

I noticed these signs placed on the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds Saturday, 28 September 2024 and wondered who was behind their printing and placement (along with whether such partisan activity can be placed on taxpayer funded facilities)? One week later, two employees of the Foundation for Madison Public Schools (8 total employees according to them) […]

“More referendum money would pay for an estimated $15 million increase in health care costs” (no mention of total spending or changes over time)

Abbey Machtig: More referendum money would pay for an estimated $15 million increase in health care costs, and for new teaching and mental health staff. An additional pay increase for district employees also is tied to the operating referendum. The district and Madison Teachers Inc. already agreed to a 2.06% wage increase, in addition to […]

In 2021-2022, Philadelphia switched all schools to a unified lottery system, and the school’s focus on excellence was systematically dismantled.

Masterman: The recommendations in the report were developed by the HSA Board and also were informed by conversations with administration in an effort to gain consensus around some of the main recommendations. One primary recommendation (see page 48) is to end the randomized admissions process and restore human judgment to admissions, preferably with a designated […]

He said the “district’s (Madison) academic results don’t justify giving the board and administration more money”

Abbey Machtig: Plus, the combined tax impact of the city’s operational referendum and the two measures from the School District means will likely have to increase monthly rent for tenants living in his rental property.  “This will mean about $1,500 a year, best-case scenario, which means rent for everybody will go up at least 150 bucks a […]

Chicago public schools: “already the nation’s largest junk-bond issuer”

Chicago Tribune: Johnson has demanded that CPS — already the nation’s largest junk-bond issuer, paying more than $800 million annually just to service its mountain of ongoing debt — add another $300 million in high-cost debt to cover teacher raises and to make a $175 million pension payment whose responsibility has ping-ponged in recent years […]

Arguments that Wisconsin schools are underfunded fall flat. Data shows otherwise.

Will Flanders & Shannon Whitworth: In a recent op-ed published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona articulated a series of criticisms about school choice in Wisconsin, opting instead to defend a failed status quo of one-size-fits-all education. His arguments lean heavily on national talking points commonly used by opponents of school […]

“The public schools prepare Chicago schoolchildren only for prison, not success in life”

John Kass: The mayor of Chicago would rather protect the violent over his citizens. He’d rather embrace repeat gang offenders than the people who need his protection.  As the corrupt corporate media becomes anxious and defensive about Johnson’s self-destructive reasoning, like the clownish leftist fools mocked by Matt Walsh in “Am I a Racist?” a great […]

Madison’s k-12 Referendum climate: “As expenses pile up faster than money comes in”

Abbey Machtig Last school year, the food and nutrition department used $1.5 million from the district’s general education fund to cover expenses. Another $2.9 million is set to be transferred this school year.  “Those are dollars that we now don’t get to dream with in many ways,” School Board President Nichelle Nichols said Monday night. […]

“This basically never happens in the US, where the rich have decamped in many cities, and city centers are invariably left-wing strongholds”

Adopt Gupta: One of the features of exclusionary zoning which really surprised me are the associations with educational outcomes: test scores are better in areas with exclusionary zoning, spending per pupil is a lot higher, as are Chetty opportunity measures — these are good places for social mobility. I think one way to rationalize this set […]

“There is currently a Manitoba Human Rights Inquiry being conducted into reading instruction in Manitoba public schools.”

Anna Stokke: Unfortunately, illiteracy remains largely hidden and its impact on our society largely underappreciated. I agree that more needs to be done to support adult education. But we should also ask ourselves how so many adults, who were once children, did not learn to read at elementary or middle school in Manitoba. Without understanding […]

Why is LAUSD spending $70 million to boost capacity at a school in Silver Lake, when nearby schools have thousands of empty seats?

Tim Deroche: It’s the feel-good story of the year for the Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. L.A. Unified recently broke ground on a beautiful new $70 million renovation of Ivanhoe Elementary in Silver Lake, adding a shiny new building that will boost permanent capacity at the school. Ivanhoe is one of the shining stars […]

As many kids fall behind, schools try a new approach to teach how to read

Brook Silva-Braga Only about one-third of elementary school students in the U.S. are reading at grade level, according to the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress. In response, many schools are rethinking how they teach kids to read. In one New York City first grade classroom, Melissa Jones-Diaz goes letter by letter, teaching the specific […]

S.F. school board president abruptly resigns as city schools face yet another big challenge

Jill Tucker The president of the San Francisco school board abruptly resigned Friday, citing health and personal reasons, a decision that adds another element of drama to a district facing one of the most difficult years in recent memory.  Lainie Motamedi submitted her resignation Friday morning, with her departure from public office effective as of noon.  Mayor London Breed will […]

How To Stop Critical Race Theory In Your Local Schools: Advice From A School Board Member

Georgia Howe Since I began covering the spread of critical race theory into public school curriculum, I’ve received one question more than any other: what concrete actions should we be taking to get this stuff out of kids’ classrooms?  This morning, I spoke to Vicki Manning, school board member with the Virginia Beach City Public […]

Schools Will Have to Start Closing Again

Michael Petrilli: So now many places have too few students for the schools, thousands of which will have to be permanently closed in coming years. Postponing the inevitable only makes the process more expensive by wasting scarce tax dollars on half-empty buildings and unneeded principals, gym teachers and attendance clerks. Whereas leaders on the left […]

Notes on the Taxpayer Funded Milwaukee Public Schools $pending, governance and outcomes

Brian Fraley: “How bad are things that MPS? Only 40% of MPS sophomores are proficient at reading and less than 30% are proficient at math. And the graduation rate and MPS is abysmal. Obviously what MPS has been doing is not working. So why has DPI ignored the problems of MPS? Why can’t the Superintendent and her deputies take […]

Rebuilding a safe, pro-learning culture at an inner-city school

By Shannon Whitworth It’s been a rough cultural transition back to schools since the lockdowns, and we are starting to see the price that will be paid for keeping our kids out of the nation’s schools for as long as we did. We are fighting to reclaim our schools for the sake of the children […]

St Albans aims to be smartphone-free for under-14s

Sally Weale “This is mega!” said Daisy Greenwell from the Smartphone-Free Childhood campaign. “We are absolutely thrilled and we believe it’s going to have a domino effect.” She was reacting to news that St Albans in Hertfordshire is attempting to become the first UK city to go smartphone-free for all children under 14. Before St Albans, it was Greystones in […]

How a one-year hiccup in Florida’s school grading system unmasked glaring disparities in the classroom

Marlene Sokol and Ian Hodgson Each day, 18,000 students take their seats inside Hillsborough County’s most struggling schools, enough to fill a small city. The county by far logged more schools with D or F grades than any other in Florida, according to state numbers released in December. In all, 33 elementary and middle schools. The vast […]

Fight over admission to Boston’s exam schools heads to US Supreme Court

By James Vaznis A group of white and Asian-American parents in Boston are taking their fight over admission to the city’s exam schools to the US Supreme Court, arguing that efforts to diversify enrollment is resulting in discrimination against Asian-American and white applicants. “Wherever competitive admission K-12 schools exist, it seems that policymakers have targeted them […]

NYC schools’ low literacy

Jessica Gould: But since announcing an overhaul of readinginstruction and implementing new curricula in half of all elementary schools last September, the city education department has declined to release data from seasonal assessments, called “screeners,” saying it would be premature. Gothamist has now obtained preliminary screener data shared with some public school educators that shows stubbornly […]

Police chief makes case to bring cops back to Madison high schools

Paul Fanlund: When Shon Barnes became Madison police chief in 2021, the School Board had already removed police officers who had been stationed in each of the city’s four mainstream public high schools. The year before, raucous protests against the school resource officers — SROs — had been visceral in the racial upheaval that followed […]

Charter schools do things that all Democrats say they support

The Economist: A year ago New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, proposed to adjust a state cap on charter schools, the publicly funded but privately run schools that have become a locus of innovation and controversy in American education. Ms Hochul’s plan was not ambitious, but it would have allowed dozens of new charter […]

“The pious posturing of public schools has little to do with aiding the disadvantaged and lots to do with furthering the interests of the wealthy.”

James Marriott: The website of Eton College promises that “Eton believes in equal opportunity for everyone irrespective of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, belief, disability or social demographic background”. Before you dispatch your progeny to claim their free first-class education at this socialist paradise by the Thames, it is worth checking the “fees” section of […]

Black students bypass neighborhood schools for other options more than any other group. Two moms explain their different choices

Sarah Karp: Blackburn and Presswood are two Black mothers in the middle of an intensifying debate about school choice, the system that allows Chicago parents to send their children to charters, magnets and selective enrollment schools, rather than be tethered to the school in their attendance boundary. The Chicago Board of Education wants to undo that system. […]

Loudoun County Taxpayer funded schools PR person salary: $251,000 + benefits

Nick Minock: 7News was the first to report how Loudoun County Superintendent Aaron Spence brought his public relations person, Natalie Allen, with him from Virginia Beach City Public Schools, created a new position for her at LCPS and gave her a taxpayer-funded salary of $251,000 — which is more money than LCPS pays their top […]

Boston Schools’ admission policy Litigation

James Vaznis: Boston Public Schools legally admitted students to the city’s three exam schools two years ago under a temporary admissions policy that aimed to increase diversity by distributing seats by grades and ZIP codes, according to a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. “There is nothing constitutionally impermissible about […]

Johnson’s Board of Education has proposed shifting back toward neighborhood schools – away from the system where kids compete for selective programs

Claudia Aohara The schools are not just the best in Chicago – but rank among the top high schools in the entire country.  Walter Payton College Prep is ranked 10th best school in the US. Northside College Prep is 37th. Jones College Prep ranks 60th.  Now, a resolution is up for a vote by the school board […]

Decline has consequences: One of them is more decline.

Paul Mirengoff: Yesterday, Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards (NBA) and the Washington Capitals (NHL), announced that he has reached a non-binding agreement under which both teams would move to Alexandria, Virginia. Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared with Leonsis to tout the relocation, for which the Commonwealth will make a major financial commitment.  The original owner of […]

“Loudoun County Public Schools’ top spokesperson is making more than a quarter of a million dollars”

Nick Minock: That’s more money than what the Governor of Virginia, the White House Press Secretary, and many federal government attorneys are earning. 7News was the first to report how Loudoun County Public Schools hired Natalie Allen as Chief Communications Officer and that taxpayers are paying her a salary north of a quarter million dollars, […]

Schools aren’t up to the task of teaching students about the Israel-Hamas War

Robert Pondiscio: Campus radicalism is easy to spot—and condemn. Attempts to justify the atrocities committed by Hamas, and in some cases to celebrate it, have caused crises at dozens of universities, prompting deep-pocketed donors to publicly withdraw philanthropic support and threaten not to hire graduates. Even some stalwart liberals have been shocked by the depth and virulence of campus anti-Semitism. […]

Inadequate literacy coverage in New York City

Kappan: In the third installment of our series on literacy coverage, one of the parents featured in “Sold a Story” describes a dispiriting media response to problems at his daughter’s New York City school that continues to this day. By Alexander Russo Even before the pandemic, New York City parent Lee Gaul had sensed something […]

Stacy Davis Gates wants choice for her son, but not for everyone else.

Wall Street Journal: Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates has called school choice racist and made it her mission to kill an Illinois scholarship program for low-income children. So how did Ms. Gates try to explain herself this week after press reports that she has enrolled her son in a private Catholic high school? […]

Schools are the least economically integrated institution in America

The Economist: In 1980 roughly 12% of the population lived in places that were especially rich or especially poor. By 2013, one-third did. That made local schools less of a melting pot. Meanwhile colleges became a sorting machine for adults. Low and high-wage workers rarely work in the same sectors. And though some high-paid men […]

Kansas City schools rent homes to teachers starting at $400 a month to recruit more amid a national shortage

Christian Robles: Alexandria Millet found a way to sharply cut her rent this year and move closer to her job at Central High School in Kansas City, Mo.—live in a duplex built to house teachers. A 10th-grade English and journalism instructor, Millet, 24 years old, now pays $400 a month to live with two other […]

North Iowa city relies on AI in banning of 19 renowned books, including Bissinger’s bestseller about a high school football team and the world in which it lived

Mike Hlas: “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream,” the 1990 non-fiction bestseller by H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger about a prominent west Texas high school football team and societal issues in its Odessa, Texas home is one of 19 books recently removed from school shelves in Mason City. Others include Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” […]

A look back at closing Chicago Schools

Becky Vevea: That day would mark the largest mass closure of public schools in the nation’s history, as Henson and 49 other Chicago schools shut their doors for good. Some 17,000 students and 1,500 staff would scatter to schools across the city. Many others would leave the district altogether.  The promise made at the time by […]

The Buckeye State makes vouchers universal and boosts charter schools.

Wall Street Journal: More than 100,000 students attend Ohio’s charter schools, which are especially important for the state’s inner-city students. Out of 26 cities measured, Cleveland students posted the biggest drop in National Assessment of Educational Progress reading scores last year compared to 2019. Cleveland also has its own school voucher program, and one common-sense […]