November 22, 2010
On the eve of a Board of Education meeting in February where the death knell was to sound for five schools, Ron Huberman, the chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, granted an 11th-hour reprieve. The low enrollment and poor academic record at Paderewski Elementary had made the South Side school a target for closing, and […]
November 22, 2010
The one commonality educators have regarding online schools, particularly cyber charter schools, is a passionate opinion about their contribution to American education. The politics and turf war between traditional (also known as brick-and-mortar) and online schools have made it difficult to collect public, non-partisan data on virtual charter schools and online education in general. Currently, […]
November 22, 2010
When Hurricane Katrina struck five years ago, it displaced families and destroyed schools. And the storm unwittingly provided a chance to reinvent public education in a failing school district. So was launched the nation’s biggest charter school experiment.Today, 70 percent of New Orleans public school students attend a charter school. No other city comes close. […]
November 22, 2010
On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh’s life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer? By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months. He […]
November 22, 2010
Atlanta Schools Supt. Beverly Hall today bowed to calls for her to step down following a standardized-testing scandal, saying she would not return next school year. A statement from her office said that Hall, who has been superintendent for 11 years, had notified school board members that she won’t seek another contract when her current […]
November 22, 2010
Indiana’s move toward a school-funding program in which dollars follow students has come as the dollars have diminished. But the state’s system for funding schools now more closely mirrors neighboring states such as Michigan and Illinois, where voters have up-or-down votes on school funding. For years, those states and about 40 others have assured public […]
November 19, 2010
The state Board of Education Thursday adopted English and math standards that Alabama will share with at least 40 other states, allowing the states to compare their students’ performance. After hearing comments from 40 people in the audience — 18 who supported the initiative and 22 who opposed it — the board voted 7-2, […]
November 19, 2010
“Ouch.” The pain expressed by Sheila Moulton, a Clark County School Board member, followed the surprise revelation of a projected $180 million deficit in the coming school year. That’s 9 percent of the district’s $2 billion budget. The deficit could lead to 2,000 or more layoffs because the district doesn’t have the leeway under union […]
November 19, 2010
Houston school district officials are debating whether to make it easier for students to be promoted to the next grade level, reversing a decade-old policy touted as one of the toughest in Texas. A draft proposal from Superintendent Terry Grier’s administration, delivered to the school board Thursday, suggests that students should no longer be automatically […]
November 19, 2010
The state House’s top budget writer said Thursday that cutting 10 days out of South Carolina’s school year could save $210 million and help ease an $800 million deficit. Whittling down the 180-day school calendar is just one of the ideas House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper offered after his panel’s first meeting, […]