City Stops Accepting Charter Applications Due to State Cap

In all, $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funds will go to states strong on school reform. One measure of success is charter school expansion. New York can still approve 33 new charter schools before maxing out, but at least 15 schools have cleared all but the final hurdle. Roughly 40 applications are in the pipeline, Merriman said. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/11/23/2009-11-23_charterschool_backers_say_cap_could_cut_funds.html#ixzz0XmXnqyLc

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Some eye school hours to bring up the grades

Time commitment Some districts are taking a look at extended time, but they say it requires a thorough discussion with teachers and parents. Merrillville Assistant Superintendent Mark Sperling said the district has taken notice of the thoughts of Obama and Duncan. "It's a very interesting idea and it hasn't escaped us," Sperling said. "It's something that we might consider in the future." Merrillville currently offers a freshman academy tutorial that goes to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Any move to extended time requires a lot of planning, from talking to teachers and parents to rearranging bus schedules. "Nothing can be done in vacuum," Sperling said. "If you're going to do it, you have to do it as school community. We would want to work very closely with teachers and the school community."

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Gates Foundation gives $335 million to raise teacher effectiveness

The grants amount to one of the largest privately sponsored school improvement initiatives in recent years. Through them, the foundation aims to push policymakers to put more weight on teacher performance than qualifications. Hillsborough County schools, in the Tampa area, will receive $100 million; Memphis schools, $90 million; Pittsburgh schools, $40 million; and five charter networks in Los Angeles (Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools, Inner City Education Foundation and Partnerships to Uplift Communities Schools), $60 million. The initiative, including $45 million to study how to measure teacher effectiveness, is of the same magnitude as Obama administration reform efforts.

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Three St. Louis charter schools get federal grants

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded more than $2 million in Charter Schools Program grants to four new Missouri charter schools. In St. Louis, Shearwater High School, St. Louis Collegiate and Jamaa Learning Center — all slated to open this fall — received three-year grants of more than $500,000 each. Pathway Academy of Kansas City got $460,053. Pathway, a K-8 school, opened in August. It is managed by EdisonLearning and sponsored by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The grants aim to help leaders in planning, program design and opening their schools. Shearwater High School, focused on dropout recovery and prevention, received $647,541. Shearwater will be sponsored by St. Louis University. Jamaa Learning Center, a K-8 community school, received $703,266. Jamaa is set to open in the Ville neighborhood of north St. Louis. St. Louis Collegiate, a college-prep middle and high school, received $524,693. It hopes to serve the Baden neighborhood in north St. Louis.

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House halts Deval Patrick’s push for school reform

Students at the Excel Academy Charter School in East Boston perform cheers for Gov. Deval Patrick, who pressed House lawmakers to pass an education reform bill during his visit. See video here:http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20091119house_halts_deval_patricks_push_for_school_reform/

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Amendments bog down charter school bill in Senate

Dominic Slowey, an association spokesman, said yesterday that the group remains committed to having a bill passed, but one that allows charter schools to proliferate. “We have a lot of support for the amendments we offered that would fix the problems in the bill,’’ Slowey said. “We are hopeful the amendments will be adopted and the bill will move on to the House.’’

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The Experiment

Can a tough-love gritty middle school in East Boston get 90% of its graduates to apply to college? See full article here: http://www.excelacademy.org/about-news.html

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Rays of hope and joy for D.C. public school kids

Shantelle Wright, founder and head of Achievement Preparatory Academy, told me she wants to put the "J Factor" back in schools -- "J for joy." And her students, all in uniform, sang and chanted and danced their joy -- at having a clean, safe joyous place to learn. Their test scores are joyous, too. At least three firsts took place at Draper Campus, in the far eastern edge of the city, on this rainy chilly Friday morning. Mayor Adrian Fenty showed up to cut the ribbon on a charter school. It was the first time he had given such attention to a charter. The public and private coalition that has been creating and funding the steady growth of charter schools was on public display for the first time. Discovered for the first time that the city's Office of State Superintendent of Education has been actively financing charter schools.

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Schools for education

THE D.C. government has never been particularly generous when it comes to making space for public charter schools. It grudgingly accepts applications from charters hoping to acquire vacated school buildings but, more often than not, opts to sell the properties to private developers or, worse, lets the buildings rot. So it's important to celebrate when the city gets it right -- as in the recent renovation of an old elementary school into an incubator for fledgling charters. Draper Elementary School on Wahler Place in Southeast closed at the end of the 2008-09 school year. The facility will now serve as home to two new public charter schools until they outgrow it. Achievement Preparatory Academy Public Charter School is a middle school in its second year of operation; National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter High School is in its first year.

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Normal E. “Sandy” McCulloch Jr.: Education and jobs: Where’s that pony?

A week in the deep woods of Canada never fails to give me plenty of time for reflection and perspective, as well as a few chances to miss ruffed grouse. Returning to Rhode Island, where people everywhere are hurting and the end is not yet in sight, where a buffet of critical issues has gradually grown over the years to frightening proportions, it is easy to get discouraged.

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