May 16, 2011
Facing the largest cut to K-12 school funding in decades, Metro Detroit school districts are laying off their biggest expense: teachers. Thousands of teachers have been pink-slipped this spring as districts grapple with multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Th e Walled Lake Consolidated School District laid off a […]
May 16, 2011
Incoming Chicago schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard will report to work at CPS headquarters Tuesday. For now, he’ll be working on a transitional basis, meeting with interim schools CEO Terry Mazany and CPS officials and becoming familiar with the issues confronting the troubled schools system, said spokeswoman Becky Carroll. CPS is facing a $720 million deficit, […]
May 16, 2011
A hasty legal maneuver by top Los Angeles school officials will not fend off a legal challenge of their decision to turn over low-performing Clay Middle School to a charter-school organization, The Times has learned. To undermine a lawsuit filed last week, the Board of Education, at Tuesday’s meeting, had voted to close Clay, which […]
May 16, 2011
ALBERTSON, N.Y. — Kathleen Cervasio’s daughter, Gina, who is 12, has cerebral palsy, cannot speak and is quadriplegic. Without a doubt, Ms. Cervasio said, the best thing that ever happened to Gina was getting into the Henry Viscardi School, one of 11 state-supported public schools for the severely disabled in New York. Ms. Cervasio, a […]
May 16, 2011
The District’s public charter schools discriminate against students with disabilities — especially those with significant needs — in their admissions policies and often steer them instead to expensive private schools, special education advocates contend in a complaint filed Thursday with the Justice Department. The city’s 52 publicly financed, independently operated charter schools, which educate nearly […]
May 16, 2011
While Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been issuing a ton of waivers from No Child Left Behind requirements, he’s stopping short of offering the big one. And by that we mean a waiver of the requirement that all students reach proficiency in math and reading by 2014. This elusive 100 percent goal is proving to […]
May 13, 2011
Almost 250 teachers will lose their jobs this summer at New Orleans schools run by the state’s Recovery School District in what’s become an annual occurrence as officials close down underperforming schools and convert others into charters. But this year layoffs will be different, and likely controversial. For the first time, the district will use […]
May 13, 2011
Wasn’t it just the other day that teachers confiscated cellphones and principals warned about oversharing on MySpace? Now, Erin Olson, an English teacher in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, is among a small but growing cadre of educators trying to exploit Twitter-like technology to enhance classroom discussion. Last Friday, as some of her 11th graders read aloud […]
May 13, 2011
“Illinois has done something truly remarkable, and every state committed to education reform should take notice. Business, unions, educators, advocates and elected officials all came together around a plan that puts children ahead of adults and paves the way for meaningful education reform. For some time now I have been saying that tough-minded collaboration is […]
May 13, 2011
A merger that could have created the state’s largest charter-school organization has fallen through after both sides quietly backed away from the plan, officials said.A pending acquisition of financially troubled ICEF Public Schools by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools was announced in March. But by late April, ICEF Chief Executive Caprice Young had put together a […]