Mark Tapscott from the Washington Examiner explains why it’s happened. The Rev. Al Sharpton has come out against teachers’ unions and in favor of charter schools. “I’m not anti-charter schools. I’m pro-good charter schools. We want what’s best for our kids, even if it doesn’t follow the liberal status quo.” “I think there’s a new [...]
Michael Petrilli at Education Next has a very interesting video interview with Chester Finn and Terry Ryan about the new book they’ve written with Michael B. Lafferty. All three are from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The book– Ohio’s Education Reform Challenges: Lessons from the Front Lines–chronicles Fordham’s attempts to help what they refer to [...]
Reason TV notes that out of the tragedy and devastation of Hurricane Katrina came at least one good thing. It meant a fresh start for schools–and kids– in New Orleans. Most of the new schools built since the hurricane are charter schools and, so far, their results look quite promising.
Sharon Cohen reports for AP about Urban Prep, an all-boys charter school in Chicago. There are many things that make Urban Prep different, but perhaps the most important one is that 100% of its first graduation class is headed to college. Along the way, boys’ lives have been changed — and very possibly saved. Urban [...]
Kevin Carey’s post at The Quick and the Ed clarifies what’s going on in education reform right now and how’s it’s changed since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001. We’re in what Carey calls the “post-NCLB era of education reform.” For one thing, today’s major players are different: When I began [...]
Sam Dillon at the NYT reports on the cost of trying to turn around a failing school. Readers of Donna Foote’s Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America will remember the problems at LA’s Locke High School, a school that has been described as the worst of the worst high schools [...]