Tag: K-12

A welcome new contributor to the debate

February 4, 2013 at 7:10 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Public Schools FirstThere’s some excellent news this morning on the public education front in North Carolina: the emergence of a new and powerful voice for public schools.  Public Schools First NC, a new statewide, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy group committed to high-quality public schools for North Carolina, has formed out of deep concern about the growing threat to privatize and weaken North Carolina’s public schools. Despite the fact that most North Carolinians regard public education as the foundation of North Carolina’s economic future and our best investment, public school funding has declined year after year and our children are bearing the brunt.

Public Schools First NC supports: Read More…

THIS!? is the future of public education?

January 29, 2013 at 9:03 amCategory:Uncategorized

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“Incubators of innovation”:  Isn’t that what charter schools are supposed to be for our education system?

You know the rap: All we have to do is unshackle local entrepreneurs and public-spirited groups and individuals from the burdensome rules that bind traditional public schools and then stand back and watch as the “genius” of market forces and “parental choice” drive all sorts of amazing and creative change.

Well, that the rap anyway.

Here’s the reality: Some charter schools are very good (most typically the ones that have creamed off the most engaged parents and ambitious kids), some are okay and some are truly dreadful. On average, they’re no better than traditional schools and, for the most part, we’re still waiting for all of those amazing innovations that will somehow percolate back through the system.

And here’s the other side of that reality — especially here in North Carolina: Because we provide essentially zero meaningful oversight of the charters we have, some have become embarrassing disasters.

Consider, for instance, the Winston-Salem charter school profiled in a new NC Policy Watch investigation by reporter Sarah Ovaska. The school — Quality Education Academy — is, by all indications, a gussied-up basketball factory. As Sarah reports in great detail, Read More…

Encouraging signs on high school graduation

January 22, 2013 at 3:02 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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It’s only incremental progress, but it is worth noting the quite measurable bump (almost 3%) that has taken place in the most recent data on American high school graduation rates. The data are from 2009-10 so there may even be grounds for hoping that the actual rate is now even higher. This is from the story in Education Week:

“The new NCES report reflects the best performance in decades by high school students. It is the highest graduation rate since 1969-70, when the figure was 78.7 percent. Since 1972, when the dropout rate was 14.6 percent, it has steadily improved, falling to 11 percent in 1992 and 3.4 percent for the class of 2010.

There were 38 states with an increase of one percentage point or more, in the most recent analysis. Overall, 3.1 million students received a diploma in 2009-10, the report, ‘Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009-10′ finds.”

Does this mean that the problem has been addressed or that we now know the solution to all of our public education challenges? Of course not. We obviously have a long way to go and can readily surmise that the recent progress is the result of dozens of factors — some related to school policies and some not.

But it also seems safe to draw a couple of additional conclusions from the new data: Read More…

Greensboro News-Record: Don’t rush charter school approvals

January 16, 2013 at 9:01 amCategory:Uncategorized

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In case you missed it, the Greensboro News-Record ran a moderate, common sense editorial yesterday about the need for the state to carefully review charter school applications. As it noted:

“Because student outcomes are so important, the State Board of Education must not grant a charter to any school that doesn’t submit a convincing plan showing how it will serve the needs of students. In addition to the right curriculum, it needs qualified faculty and an adequate facility. It also must make provisions for student health and safety.

So, enough time is needed to investigate applications. That’s where an endorsement by the local school board would be helpful. Ideally, charters should work in partnership with local boards….

This year, the state has received 155 letters of intent, indicating interest in submitting applications by the March 1 deadline. These are from organizations that want to open schools in 2014. If most of them do apply, the state office will be swamped. It could not evaluate so many detailed applications in time to make informed recommendations to the state board by its July meeting, as required. Children’s education is too important to rush through this process.”

You can read the entire editorial by clicking here.

K-12 cuts are really starting to take their toll

November 15, 2012 at 7:26 amCategory:Uncategorized

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The folks on Right-wing Avenue like to tell us that all is well in North Carolina’s K-12 education system after the last few years of budget cuts.

Well, actually, that’s not true; they like to tell us that everything is terrible and that we need to privatize and “voucherize” the whole thing, but that the cuts they’ve advocated and imposed over the last few years have had nothing to do with any of the problems.

Well, here’s the truth: Read More…