This from Minnesota Public Radio:Minnesota's Auditor evaluates the state's 143 charter schoolsSt. Paul, Minn. — Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles told a Minnesota Senate committee that charter schools have a mixed record of success."We found a mixed picture... improvement is needed" in Minnesota's charter schools, Nobles said..The bottom line according to the report is that about half of charter sc
By: Patricia HawkeStudents are Fleeing Minneapolis SchoolsMinneapolis schools are being faced with the prospect of empty school buildings as more and more students flee the system to charter schools in the district. Minneapolis schools enrollment figures have plummeted to just 36,000 this year - thats almost half its capacity of 50,000 students. Schools in the north side have felt the pinch the hardest with a 44 percent drop in enrollment over the past five years. All indications are that there is no stemming this tide and Minneapolis schools have already announced plans to close 5 schools leaving more than 2000 students in the lurch, desperately scrambling to find new schools. The Exodus of Blacks and Minorities from Minneapolis SchoolsA bulk of the students that chose to leave Minneapolis public schools belongs to high poverty black neighborhoods and other minority communities. The statistics reveal a strong yet disturbing trend. In the 99-00 academic year, more than 48,000 black stu
By: Patricia HawkeStudents are Fleeing Minneapolis SchoolsMinneapolis schools are being faced with the prospect of empty school buildings as more and more students flee the system to charter schools in the district. Minneapolis schools enrollment figures have plummeted to just 36,000 this year - thats almost half its capacity of 50,000 students. Schools in the north side have felt the pinch the hardest with a 44 percent drop in enrollment over the past five years. All indications are that there is no stemming this tide and Minneapolis schools have already announced plans to close 5 schools leaving more than 2000 students in the lurch, desperately scrambling to find new schools. The Exodus of Blacks and Minorities from Minneapolis SchoolsA bulk of the students that chose to leave Minneapolis public schools belongs to high poverty black neighborhoods and other minority communities. The statistics reveal a strong yet disturbing trend. In the 99-00 academic year, more than 48,000 black stu
Hamden School Continued To Pay Director After State Demanded His OusterMore than a year after the state warned a Hamden charter school to fire him, Lyndon Pitter still had a hand in the school's operations - and, state officials say, in its bank account.Investigators want to know why the Highville Mustard Seed Charter School wrote a series of checks for at least $150,000 between October and April to Pitter - who was already the target of an investigation for allegedly spending thousands in school funds on personal expenses from Armani suits to limousines.The case could make Pitter, the school's longtime director, a poster child for the need for tighter controls over charters, the publicly funded experimental schools that have often been an appealing alternative for parents.Charters, part of a popular nationwide movement, are granted freedom from customary administrative and union rules in an effort to foster innovation. The unusual degree of freedom has produced success stories such
Several years ago, during the Paul Patton administration, I went to the governor's office in Frankfort and sat down with Executive Cabinet Secretary Ed Ford to discuss charter schools in Kentucky. I was very interested in getting Cassidy School out from under the kinds of bureaucratic constraints that were big hearted, but too frequently empty headed. Typically, some desperate middle manager at the district level would read the executive summary of a research report and then hustle out to the schools to try to convince principals to abandon their council's plans and jump on the new bandwagon. This kind of unplanned unilateral action kept the younger principals spinning. Few felt comfortable bucking their bosses. Some may not have known what to do themselves making them willing to grasp straws.Today, it's apparently much worse. I am told by principals and teachers alike that a top down neo-authoritarianism has overwhelmed school councils, principals and teachers. Marching orders are
Theola Labbe of the Washington Post pointed out yesterday that the D.C. Public Charter School Board approved the opening of six new charter schools in the Fall 2008. Now the real fun begins for these start-up businesses in that they need to find facilities. I know that Ms. Labbe is going to closely follow the progress of these schools and my hope is that she focuses in on the hunt for space.
This is a four-part special report by the Orlando Sentinel.Florida is home to more than 300 charter schools – public schools funded by your tax dollars but run by groups, such as cities, nonprofits or management companies. Some operators are steeped in education experience, while others have no academic credentials. Many charter schools enjoy good reputations. But scores of them continue getting education dollars despite records of low student achievement and financial mismanagement.A yearlong investigation by the Orlando Sentinel found that the state's lack of oversight has allowed students to fail academically and charter operators to profit from their relationships with the schools. This series looks at student performance, charter-school spending and what the state is doing – or not doing – to hold the campuses accountable.
I remember, during the Patton administration, going to Frankfort to talk to former State Senator Ed Ford about starting Charter School legislation in Kentucky. I liked the idea of getting out from under certain regulations (or was it authorities) that we believed made it harder for us to meet our goals. Ford rejected the idea saying Kentucky was just "not ready" for charter schools. After all these years the results for states with charter schools appears to be very mixed. The Cincinnati Post reports:"Gov. Ted Strickland crossed the state Thursday to promote his $53 billion spending blueprint as anger flared among advocates of education choice over his plan to scrap the state voucher program outside Cleveland and cut off state funding to for-profit charter schools...""The charter school movement in Ohio has been a dismal failure," Strickland said during a Thursday stop in Cleveland."What I'm asking for in terms of charter schools is simply that they are held to the same standards
Last week while I was in New York City dropping our youngest daughter off at NYU to start her freshman year and looking at the Edward Hopper paintings at the Whitney, the New York Times went on the attack on charter schools.There are so many errors contained in this editorial that I can't even comment. Instead I'll answer with my own letter to the editor in the Washington Post. Keep your eyes this coming Sunday on the Close to Home page in the Outlook section for my response.More importantly, let's go back to the Edward Hopper exhibition. As I have witnessed before (especially a couple of years ago in London) it is never quiet around a showing of his paintings. People love to speculate about the scenes in front of them. They question what those in the paintings are doing. Sometimes arguments break out. The fact that viewers become so connected to the art fascinates me.
Dion Haynes reports today the D.C. Superintendent Janey is asserting that he has the right to mandate teacher training in charter schools and their accountability to him as a result of recent standardized test scores.I guess he wants to make charters more closely resemble the crap that is DCPS.If he is successful in his plan I will lobby Congress to increase the Washington Opportunity Scholarship program so that all charters can convert to private schools and accept their students through vouchers.
Theola Labbe and Dion Haynes report in today's Washington Post that almost all charter schools authorized by the D.C. Public Charter School Board (including William E. Doar) failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind.There are a lot of reasons for this result including the fact that this was a new test poorly administered with little student preparation combined with the fact that it is going to take charters years to catch D.C. kids up to grade level after years of neglect by DCPS.But if someone asked me to focus on 1 cause I would love to say that we have spent the last 3 years trying to locate, renovate, and expand our facility. This process has been so difficult that it distracts us from teaching.
