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Category Archives: Charter Schools
Betsy DeVos, the Force Behind Detroit School Chaos
With apparently good intentions to help kids trapped in “low wattage” schools, Betsy DeVos, a champion of charters and school choice, by leverage of her family’s financial and political clout, has engineered changes in Michigan schools that have lowered their standing, and undercut the viability of Detroit schools. She has been tapped as Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education. Continue reading
Charters Revisited: It’s a Broad Spectrum Out There or, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Charter horror stories in Newark and Detroit mask a Stanford CREDO report that finds charters outperforming traditional public schools in many areas of the country. That same CREDO report however is critiqued as statistically flawed; in truth charters may benefit kids of better organized low income families, but their selection processes leave the more intractable of the poor languishing in low performing urban schools. Continue reading
Posted in Charter Schools, School Reform
Tagged charter debate, charter success, charters pull funding, CREDO report, Detroit charter schools, kids of poverty, low-income students, market solutions for school failure, Massachusetts charter schools, organized low income families, public schools flounder fiscally, substandard public schools
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Charters: Discriminatory Suspension Patterns Linked to Focus on Test Scores
Summary: A new study out of UCLA finds that charters suspend African-American and disabled students far more frequently than whites and non-disabled students. While charters are designed for innovation, they have succumbed to some of the exclusionary tactics for which … Continue reading
Charter Schools: Russakov’s The Prize, and Lessons from Newark
Summary: Dale Russakov’s tale of the assault by reformers on Newark Schools is a saga of conflict, righteous myopia, entrenched interests, unintended consequences, upheaval in neighborhoods, grudging progress, and a rending of social fabric; yet in the end no easy … Continue reading
Charter Schools Revisited: The Washington Supreme Court Throws a Curve Ball
Summary: In a major blow to the belated arrival of charter schools in Washington State, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled that charter schools in the state cannot receive public funds dedicated to “common schools” because they are not governed … Continue reading
Charter Schools: The Search for the Golden Mean
Summary: After lagging behind other parts of the country in establishing charter schools, the state of Washington is poised to enter the arena after enabling legislation was passed via a recent initiative. An article in the Seattle Times which explores … Continue reading
Posted in Charter Schools, Schools and Politics
Tagged at risk students, charter schools, education and politics, fiscal impact charter schoools, Green Dot Public Schools, Initiative 1240 Washington State, low-income students, school bureaucracy, school reform, teaching culture, UCLA education research
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Charter Schools and the Selling of Short Term Teachers
Summary: How is it that young charter teachers achieve results comparable to their more experienced traditional public school brethren, and why do so many in both camps leave teaching so prematurely? Whether or not any charter iteration creates a … Continue reading
