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Archive for the ‘US Developments’ Category

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New York Charter Schools remain under investigation. If you read my blog a couple of days ago you know the story about a possible scam concerning the startup of several new charter schools in the New York area. Yesterday, more troubling news arrived via the New York Times. According to the Times, a charter school in the Bronx, the Academic Leadership Charter School, which opened its doors only two years ago, “has been put on probation for what city education officials called ‘serious violations’ of state law mandating random admissions, including possibly testing or interviewing applicants before their enrollment.” This is an older problem, of course, because charter schools are not allowed to pick students who they expect will do better on standardized tests, etc. over the ones that would likely do worse. Also, charter schools are not allowed to discriminate by race or religion. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times carried an article on some New York area charter schools yesterday that I wanted to bring to your attention. I have not been following this story too closely but from what I understand, three start-up charter schools, one in New York and two in New Jersey, are in great danger of faltering before they have even started their first year. The reason, the article argues, is mismanagement, failled planning and an educational leader and former executive director of education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation walking away from the project instead of trying to find solutions. Mr. Tom Vander Ark, a proponent of online learning and regular contributor to the Huffington Post, gets criticized pretty harshly in the article and I wanted to invite those of you who know more to comment. Read the rest of this entry »

photo © 2011 U.S. Department of Agriculture | more info (via: Wylio)The advantages of charter schools in countering the deficiencies of the public school system are well known. The White House and the Department of State just released a report arguing that Hispanic student continue to score below the national average on standardized tests and that they have the “lowest education attainment levels” in the United States especially in reading and math. Charter Schools to the rescue – at least in New Mexico, where the problem has long been recognized. Several organization in Valencia county have recently come together in a pilot project that aims to use the possibilities of charter schools and works in close collaboration with the business community. Read the rest of this entry »

photo © 2006 Samuel F. | more info (via: Wylio)
I just read that this month the Florida Legislature passed charter school legislation that some have called historical, appropriately in the very week when we celebrate National Charter School Week. The problem addressed by the Sunshine State was the competition between charter schools and the public school system. Rather than working together the two have competed against each other and public school officials have often lobbied against charter growth and expansion even for those charters that performed very well. Florida is now planning to designate so-called High Performing Charter Schools thus creating models for other schools to replicate. With long waiting lists across the state – and the country for that matter – the more open spots we can provide, the better. Read the rest of this entry »