The Center for Education Reform connects you to the latest education updates in the news and on the web.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Laptops in the Classroom
New York Times, May 11, 2007
Since fifth grade, my school’s one-to-one laptop program has made it easy for me to grab digital copies of public domain works for English class, annotate lab reports and maintain and organize access to the documents I’m working on.

Cardin Blocks Takeover Of Schools
Washington Post, DC, May 11, 2007
Maryland Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin has held up D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's schools takeover legislation, citing a dispute over the city's plans to rebuild a youth detention center in Anne Arundel County. Cardin (D) blocked Fenty's plan, which has been approved by the D.C. Council and the House of Representatives, by placing an anonymous hold on the legislation when it was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday.

A Hold on School Reform
Washington Post, DC, May 11, 2007
THE PEOPLE of the District long have been accustomed to congressional interference in their affairs. Meddling, though, generally has come from legislators who are either unfamiliar with the city or hostile to its interests. So it was especially galling to learn yesterday that a neighbor and ostensible supporter of home rule, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), is the hitherto anonymous lawmaker who is holding up the all-important restructuring of the District's public schools.

Costs Of L.A. Unified's Building Plan Soar
Los Angeles Times, California, May 11, 2007
The projected shortfall in the new Los Angeles Unified School District's campus construction program has ballooned from $1.6 billion to at least $2.4 billion in the last six months, the result of spiraling construction costs. And Los Angeles school officials, who were already scrambling to cover the lower shortfall, have no plan in place that would entirely make up the gap.

Seceding From The LAUSD
Los Angeles Times, California, May 11, 2007
Three cheers for Locke High School. Three cheers for its courageous teachers and stalwart principal, who have chosen to break with the dithering Los Angeles Unified School District and a hidebound teachers union to become a Green Dot charter school.

New Orleans' State-Run Schools Score Low
Associated Press, Louisiana, May 11, 2007
About two-thirds of students in New Orleans high schools that were taken over by the state after Hurricane Katrina flunked the state graduation exam, according to figures released Thursday.  About 40 percent of the city's fourth graders and a third of the eighth-graders in those schools failed promotion exams.

Charter Schools Go To Head Of The Class
Los Angeles Daily News, California, May 11, 2007
IN late April, Superintendent David Brewer III released a scathing audit of the Los Angeles Unified School District, charging that lack of accountability and insufficient urgency are among the greatest problems hindering student performance at the mammoth district. Buried deep in the report was a brief section on charter schools that might contain some of the answers.

Lieberman: No Promises On NCLB
Hamden Journal, Connecticut, May 10, 2007
United States Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I) told local educators and education advocates that he couldn't promise the reauthorization bill would resolve all of their complaints about the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but he thought it would include a "substantial increase" in the funding provided.

State Board Tells SVVSD To Approve Imagine School
Longmont Daily Times-Call, Colorado, May 11, 2007
The Colorado Board of Education, in a 4-2 vote, ordered the St. Vrain Valley School District to approve a new charter school in Firestone on Thursday. The state board of education made the decision after an hour-long appeal hearing in which attorneys for the Imagine Charter School of Firestone and the St. Vrain school district each accused the other side of not negotiating in good faith.

Brighter Choice Opens Its Boys School
Albany Times Union, New York, May 11, 2007
Tuesday is school budget vote day. To celebrate, Brighter Choice Charter School will hold a ribbon cutting for its new school for boys at 116 North Lake Avenue. (The boys and girls schools have been run out of the same building.)

State Rejects Request, Spelling End For Riverside Charter School
Press-Enterprise, California, May 11, 2007
The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to reject a request for sponsorship from Rehoboth Charter Academy, ending a yearlong struggle for the Riverside school. The school's last day of operation will be June 30.

Principal Of Bronx Charter School Is Reassigned After Walkout
New York Sun, May 11, 2007
The principal of a Bronx charter school has been removed from her instructional duties after students walked out of the school building yesterday to protest the school leadership. The board of trustees at the International Leadership Academy charter school said it was reassigning the principal, Elaine Ruiz Lopez, to operations and launching an investigation into criticism of the school leadership by parents and teachers.

Charter Teachers Want Assurances Of Their Pay
Toledo Blade, Ohio, May 11, 2007
Teachers at a troubled West Toledo charter school demonstrated outside the office of the Ohio Council of Community Schools and demanded assurances that they will be paid through the summer. "Since it is in question that the school will be kept open, we've asked for a guarantee that we will be paid," said Brady Bancroft, a math teacher at the Performing Arts School of Metropolitan Toledo.

Charter School Taking Wait List Applications
Asbury Park Press, New Jersey, May 11, 2007
Hope Academy Charter School is taking applications for the waiting list for kindergarten through eighth grade in the 2007-08 school year.

Charter School Director's Finances Raises Parents' Concern
Contra Costa Times, California, May 11, 2007
The year before the Livermore Valley Charter School hired school founder Lon Goldstein as its $160,000-a-year executive director, he filed for bankruptcy, claiming more than $2 million in liabilities. The $2.26 million total includes a $115,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas casino and more than $700,000 the former stockbroker owed to past employers, according to documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. There was also more than $600,000 in two separate loans. He listed $685,000 in assets.

Will Voters Be Ignored On Voucher Subject?
Deseret News, Utah, May 11, 2007
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. this week set the Nov. 6 municipal final election as the day all Utahns will vote on whether to keep or repeal private-school vouchers. Cities and a few counties are holding elections that day. Huntsman's order means county clerks will run a countywide vote on the school voucher referendum, as well.

No Child Law Is Leaving Isles Behind, Study Finds
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Hawaii, May 11, 2007
Lack of funding, staff and technology support are to blame for Hawaii's struggle to keep up with requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, a national study says. Those problems were more prevalent in states that had a greater number of schools failing annual testing benchmarks, according to the study by the Center on Education.

Education Tops Issues In Mayoral Race
Nashville City Paper, Tennessee, May 11, 2007
If a casual observer were to listen to the collective political pitches of the Metro mayoral field they might mistake this summer’s election as an old-fashioned school superintendent campaign. Last January, Bob Clement said flatly that he would be the “local schools mayor.” The assertion was made less than a month after Buck Dozier gave a speech titled “Let’s Make the August 2007 Election a Referendum on Education.”

New Charter School To Serve Central, South Side
El Paso Times, Texas, May 11, 2007
With a campus and most of its teaching staff now secured, officials of the new La Fe Preparatory School are going door to door looking for students. La Fe Prep, a charter school that will target children in the South Side and Central areas of El Paso, will open in August and concentrate on a dual-language curriculum.

Great Bay Elearning Charter School Goes Regional
Exeter News, New Hampshire, May 11, 2007
The Great Bay eLearning Charter School board of trustees voted to open enrollment to students from outside the Exeter Region Cooperative School District for the next school year. The charter school, which opened three years ago, was initially open only to Cooperative School District students, Charter School Co-Principal Peter Stackhouse said.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

New Figures Show High Dropout Rate
Washington Post, DC, May 10, 2007
First lady Laura Bush and national education leaders yesterday unveiled an online database that promises to provide parents across much of the nation the first accurate appraisal of how many students graduate from high school on time in each school system.

School Choice Has Saved $444 Million
EMediaWire, May 10, 2007
A landmark new study finds that school choice programs throughout the country generated nearly $444 million in net savings to state and local budgets from 1990 to 2006. Contrary to opponents' predictions, the analysis also finds that instructional spending per student has consistently gone up in all affected public school districts and states.

Fenty Regrets Copied Proposal
Washington Post, DC, May 10, 2007
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty characterized his administration's verbatim copying of portions of an education plan from another school district as a "serious issue" that should not have happened, while District leaders warned that the matter threatened to erode support for the mayor's takeover of the public schools.

Locke High Seeks To Leave L.A. Unified
Los Angeles Times, California, May 10, 2007
Challenging the balance of power in the city's public school system, a leading charter school organization is poised to wrest control of a failing high school from the elected Los Angeles Board of Education. Green Dot Public Schools has quietly overseen the collection of signatures of support from a majority of the tenured teachers at Locke High School — clearing the major legal hurdle toward converting the campus into a series of charter schools.

School Choice in 2008
New York Sun, New York, May 10, 2007
It's hard to say at this point whether school choice will become much of an issue in the 2008 election. If Rudy Giuliani is the Republican nominee, it will at least be an issue, as he's made it rather clear he'll be focusing on vouchers as the solution to poorly performing urban public schools.

Voucher Surplus
New York Sun, New York, May 10, 2007
As the presidential candidates start to fill in their c.v.'s, new support is surfacing for the logic of school vouchers, we see in a post by Ryan Sager on the Sun's politics Web log, latestpolitics.com. He cites a study just out from the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, which is a pro-voucher group, purporting to show that the 18 voucher and tuition-tax-credit programs that currently exist in America have, between 1990 and 2006, saved a total of $444 million.

Local Teachers Campaign Against No Child Left Behind
ABC7News.com, California, May 10, 2007
Teachers in the Bay Area launched a campaign today challenging President Bush's education program called No Child Left Behind." They say a lot of kids are being left behind, because of the program and teachers want Congress to change it.

Arabic School Finds Temporary Home in Brooklyn
New York Times, New York, May 10, 2007
The Department of Education has found a temporary site for the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a public school devoted to the study of Arabic language and culture that is scheduled to open in September.

Charter School Gets OK
Brunswick News, Georgia, May 10, 2007
It's official. The Golden Isles Career Academy, no longer just a vision, is well on its way to becoming a reality. The Glynn County Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the school's charter at its meeting Tuesday at the school administration office, 1313 Egmont St.

Board Of Education Criticizes DPS For Closing School
9News.com, Colorado, May 10, 2007
The State Board of Education remanded the Denver Public School Board on Tuesday for its decision to revoke a school's charter. DPS voted to revoke the charter for the Life Skills Center in February, which essentially shuts it down.

Disabled Student Denied
The News-Press, Florida, May 10, 2007
Charter Schools USA violated federal law by twice denying admission to a disabled student on grounds that he requires assistance getting in and out of his wheelchair.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights ruled that Gateway Charter and Six Mile Charter were using illegal screening practices to weed out special-needs students, a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Regional Office To Aid Area Charter Schools
San Bernardino Sun, California, May 10, 2007
An association that provides support for charter schools and start-ups plans to open an Inland Empire office by July 1. The California Charter Schools Association, which offers perks and services such as low-interest loan programs, workshops and networking opportunities to charter schools, will open a regional office to bolster the region's growing charter movement, said association president Caprice Young.

Inquiries Target Charter Schools
Sun-Sentinel, Florida, May 10, 2007
A former charter school principal is under investigation after officials found evidence that tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars meant to educate children in Broward and Miami-Dade counties may have been mishandled.

Huntsman Calls For Special Election On School Vouchers
Deseret News, Utah, May 10, 2007
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. issued an executive order today calling for a statewide special election on the school voucher referendum in November. "This will allow the voters to voice their opinions as soon as logistically possible," Huntsman said. "I encourage all Utahns to study the issues and consider this referendum as part of municipal elections."

County's First Charter School Is Set to Open
Washington Post, DC, May 10, 2007
The St. Mary's County Board of Education voted unanimously yesterday to open its first charter school, just two weeks after those plans appeared nearly gone.

School, District Square Off Over Funding
News-Times, Oregon, May 10, 2007
People on both sides of the Forest Grove Community School funding equation – school district officials and the charter school’s founders – plan to sit down tonight and sharpen their pencils. “We both have positions, and we’re working at understanding each other’s positions,” said Terry O’Day, a founder of the new school that plans to open in Forest Grove next fall.

Personians Lend Voices To Charter Schools Rally At Legislature
Roxboro Courier Times, North Carolina, May 10, 2007
Two Personians were among charter school proponents who descended on the North Carolina Legislature in Raleigh last week to urge state lawmakers increase the number of charter schools allowed in the state.

A Dose Of 'Medicine' Helps Edison Charter School Excel
News-Journal, Deleware, May 10, 2007
Thomas A. Edison Charter School in northeast Wilmington had high hopes when it opened seven years ago. Then reality set in: Fewer than one in four students were meeting or exceeding national standards in core subjects. There was no way the school was going to succeed as a charter with a ratio like that.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Searching For A Mandate's Meaning
Kennebec Journal, Maine, May 9, 2007
Sometimes, when a phrase enters our daily vocabulary, its meaning gets changed, or the essence is squeezed out of it. Such is the case with the federal program called, "No Child Left Behind." The cornerstone of President Bush's attempt to reform public education, the program mandates that all public schools must demonstrate progress in educating children.

English Language Learners As Pawns In The School System’s Overhaul
New York Times, May 9, 2007
Let’s call this the mystery of the missing ELLs. An ELL, you need to know, is the abbreviation for English Language Learner. These students, immigrants or their children, are legally entitled to special classes intended to make them fluent readers, writers and speakers of their new language.

6 L.A. County Charter Schools Are Among 39 In State To Be Certified
Los Angeles Times, California, May 9, 2007
Six Los Angeles County charter schools are among 39 in California to receive new "certified" status, a process similar to accreditation aimed at ensuring these schools meet high academic standards. The goal is to enhance the caliber of charter schools as well as to broadcast that quality, said Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Assn.

Classroom Crunch Sends RSD Scrambling
Times Picayune, Louisiana, May 9, 2007
Some of the 11 Recovery District schools undergoing renovation may not be ready for the fall semester and officials can't guarantee that any temporary buildings envisioned for nine other campuses will be finished in time, state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said this week.

Missouri School Choice Survey Sparks Furor, Questions
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, May 9, 2007
A survey showing widespread support for school choice has unleashed a torrent of criticism from public education advocates who claim it represents the views of the research organization that commissioned the poll and not the majority of Missourians.

Charter Schools Are On The Way
Times Herald-Record, New York, May 9, 2007
New York has been spared the antagonism that has accompanied the issue of charter schools in other states. Although several factors might explain this, the most likely is the limit Albany has placed on this educational innovation. Now that the number is going up, plan on seeing some bad behavior on both sides of the issue.

Cape Charter Teachers To Receive Raise
The News-Press, Florida, May 9, 2007
Teachers in Cape Coral's city-run charter school system will get a raise next year. The Charter School Governing Board unanimously approved allowing all starting teachers to start at a higher salary step next school year than currently.

What's For Lunch?
San Jose Mercury News, California, May 9, 2007
Every day at lunchtime, dozens of Bay Area students tuck into meals not typically found in school cafeterias - dishes like all-natural, hormone-free barbecued chicken breast served over couscous with steamed organic broccoli. Or spaghetti with marinara sauce containing all natural, hormone-free beef.

School Board Votes To Let Edison Keep Control Of 3 Elementaries
Baltimore Sun, Maryland, May 9, 2007
The Baltimore school board voted last night to keep a for-profit company in charge of three elementary schools, but the details of how the company will be paid have yet to be completed. School board documents estimate that Edison Schools will receive $14.6 million to continue running Montebello, Furman Templeton and Gilmor elementary schools next academic year.

When Is A School Dangerous?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin, May 9, 2007
At Todd County High School in South Dakota last school year, 16 calls to police helped earn the school an unsavory distinction in the eyes of the state and federal government: The rural school was slapped with the label "persistently dangerous."

Conservative Group Opposes Lynch's School Plan
Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire, May 9, 2007
The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition called yesterday for defeat of Gov. John Lynch's proposed constitutional amendment on school funding. Lynch's amendment says the state cannot fund less than half the cost of an adequate education.

Arts School To Conduct Survey
Springdale Morning News, Arkansas, May 9, 2007
The Benton County School of the Arts administrators want teachers, students, parents and others to provide opinions on a variety of topics and will conduct an Internet survey in coming weeks.

Academy Founder Hits Streets For Pupils
Tennessean, May 9, 2007
Jeremy Kane is sweating, but not because he has until July 1 to raise $1.5 million. On this day, Kane's concerns are more immediate. He has to persuade rising fifth- and sixth-graders in an impoverished area of west Nashville to leave their zoned school and attend his charter school, the LEAD Academy, when it opens in August.

Teachers Union Delivers 14,000 Petitions Critical Of Bergeson
The Olympian, Washington, May 9, 2007
An oversize box containing 14,000 petitions from around the state criticizing state schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson was brought to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction today. The petitions criticized Bergeson for her continued support of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, and said that she had not done enough to lobby for money to make sure students and teachers can meet state requirements.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Laptops in School: Boon or Bane?
New York Times, May 8, 2007
“Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops” (front page, May 4) is a good reminder that technology can’t solve all problems, or even many of them. The process of education, like the root from which the word comes, is all about leading students on paths to knowledge.

Mtv Tackles America’s High School Dropout Crisis
ThinkMTV.com, May 8, 2007
New Documentary "The Dropout Chronicles" Examines Obstacles High School Students Face in Graduating. Premieres May 9th at 8:30 PM ET/PT on MTV2 with Sneak Peek on MTV May 9th at 2PM ET/PT "Be the Voice" Winner to Join MTV President Christina Norman, First Lady Laura Bush, Tim Russert and Nation's Foremost Authorities on Dropout Crisis at "National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic" May 9th in Washington, D.C.

State Accused Of Inflating Exit Exam Data
Los Angeles Times, California, May 8, 2007
California education officials put forth artificially positive results on the number of students who passed the state's controversial high school exit exam last year, according to a recent UCLA study. The analysis also concluded that about 50,000 fewer students statewide earned diplomas last year compared to previous years, raising the prospect that the exit exam requirement is pressuring students to drop out.

Virtual Schools Lose Funding
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Indiana, May 7, 2007
Pamela Bless thought she had found an exciting education answer when she enrolled her three children in a new online charter school slated to open this fall. Instead, she’s wondering where her 13-year-old triplets will end up after the Indiana General Assembly decided not to fund the schools.

Survey: Public Education Is In Crisis
Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri, May 8, 2007
Missourians have lost faith in the public school system and want parents to have more choices in their children’s education, a study released today says. The Show-Me Institute, a St. Louis-based policy center, found that 63 percent of those polled think public schools in Missouri are either in crisis or have serious problems.

6th-Grade Students May Stay At Charter
Orlando Sentinel, Florida, May 8, 2007
One of Lake County's charter elementary schools may expand in August and serve sixth-graders rather than sending those students on to middle school. Spring Creek Charter Elementary School wants to run two sixth-grade classes next school year, and the Lake County School Board indicated Monday that it supports the plan.

50 Years Later, Little Rock Can’t Escape Race
New York Times, May 8, 2007
Fifty years after the epic desegregation struggle at Central High School, the school district here is still riven by racial conflict, casting a pall on this year’s ambitious commemorative efforts. In the latest clash, white parents pack school board meetings to support the embattled superintendent, Roy Brooks, who is black. The blacks among the school board members look on grimly, determined to use their new majority to oust him.

Charter Bill Dies On Senate Floor
The Oregonian, May 8, 2007
A hotly-contested bill that would have required more licensed teachers in Oregon's charter schools died on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill, Senate Bill 621, did not have enough votes to pass the Senate. The bill sponsor, Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, instead asked that the bill be refered back to her Education and General Goverment Committee.

Some Want Limit On Charter Schools Lifted
Wilmington Morning Star, Delaware, May 8, 2007
In the 10 years since the first charter schools opened in North Carolina, pushed at the time by a Republican-controlled state House, lawmakers have refused to eliminate a statewide limit on the number of the alternative schools.

Charter School Back On Track
Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oregon, May 8, 2007
“Let the wild rumpus begin!” That was Muddy Creek Charter School proponent Anita Grunder’s response Monday night after a Corvallis schools administrator recommended conditional approval of the program.

Districts Offer More Pay, Child Care To Attract New Teachers
The Tennessean, May 8, 2007
Metro this year bumped up the starting salary for teachers with bachelor's degrees by about $2,000 and had only 18 unfilled teaching positions when classes began in August, officials said.
Trying to attract good teachers for next year, Rutherford County planned to launch an on-site child-care program, but because of low interest, the idea got scrapped.

City Schools Shrinking; Big Cuts Looming
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania, May 8, 2007
The Pittsburgh Public Schools last night proposed eliminating 203 positions and making $33 million in other cuts to keep the district from going broke in 2009. The district said significant spending reductions are needed amid the projected loss of another 3,600 students, or 10 percent of the current enrollment, over the next three school years.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Clinton Touts Reforms for Education
Youngstown Vindicator, Ohio, May 6, 2007
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized President Bush on Saturday for underfunding schools to the point where some districts are cutting programs such as art, music and dance. If elected president, the New York Democrat said she would work to revise the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act.

Student at Risk? He Can Help. He’s Been There.
New York Times, May 6, 2007
BACK in the ’hood, they called him Billy. His friends and family members still do. But the children summoned to his office call him Mr. Johnson, as in Mr. William Johnson, dean of students at Amistad Academy.

Bill to Revive School Vouchers Fails in House
The Ledger, Florida, May 5, 2007
A bill designed to revive a stricken school voucher program failed to pass in the House on the last day of the legislative session. Its Senate sponsor blamed inter-chamber politics.

His Challenge: Rebuild New Orleans' Schools
USA Today, May 7, 2007
The brash schools CEO who is about to lead the rebirth of the public schools here has lots of experience reforming intractable big-city systems — and he'll need all of it. More than 20 months after Hurricane Katrina leveled parts of the city and effectively wiped away the old school district, state and city officials are still trying to build new schools, renovate the old ones and hire an estimated 400 teachers in time for the fall.

Vallas to Run New Orleans Schools
Chicago Tribune, Illinois, May 5, 2007
The former Chicago schools chief who brought financial and academic accountability to the nation's third-largest district will take on another formidable challenge—rebuilding the New Orleans school system after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana officials said Friday.

Undisciplined LAUSD
Los Angeles Times, California, May 7, 2007
THE DAYS WHEN school was taught "to the tune of a hickory stick" are over, thankfully. Whacking unruly or unprepared kids is no way to teach. Yet when it comes to discipline in Los Angeles schools nowadays, the hickory stick has given way to a metaphorical egg noodle.

Discrepancies In Enrollment Trigger a Lawsuit, Levy
Dayton Daily News, Ohio, May 6, 2007
Not long after Fred Dawson was hired in 2002 as Dayton Public Schools' chief data expert, Superintendent Percy Mack gave him a big assignment. Mack asked Dawson to figure out why the district's charter school enrollment projection was always wrong.

Charter Academy To Use Former Sacred Heart School
Trenton Times, New Jersey, May 5, 2007
Foundation Academy Charter School announced Friday it has finalized a lease for a school building, the former Sacred Heart School on South Broad Street. The charter school will occupy the former Catholic school in time for classes to begin in August, Carla Hill, the school's admissions officer and co-founder said.

Missouri Supports School Choice Bill, Survey Indicates
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, May 7, 2007
A poll released today by a Clayton research institute shows two-thirds of Missouri residents favor the controversial school choice legislation defeated earlier this year by the state House of Representatives.

Educator Struggling With ALS
San Diego Tribune, California, May 7, 2007
Brian Bennett jokes that he sometimes feels like Forrest Gump – having been at the right place at the right time at some pivotal moments of history.

Charter School Closing Doors
Hartford Courant, Connecticut, May 5, 2007
State officials scrambled Friday to salvage the rest of the school year for students at a small Hartford charter school that will close its doors Monday because it has run out of money.

Charter School Shows Promising Test Scores
Vail Daily, Colorado, May 5, 2007
Third graders at Stone Creek Elementary scored 86 percent proficiency on the 2007 reading portion of the Colorado Student Assessment Program, or CSAP. The charter school, which isn’t a part of Eagle County School District, had higher scores than all but one school in the county, which was Brush Creek Elementary.

Hemet Unified Seeks Students For Careers Charter School
Press-Enterprise, California, May 5, 2007
W. Rex Comer is no Oprah Winfrey, but West Valley High School theater students nicknamed him "Rex Winfrey" as they participated recently in a mock talk show on Hemet's new charter school. Starting next week, Hemet Unified School District eighth- and ninth-graders will view the question-and-answer video about the Hemet Academy for Applied Academics and Technology.

Another School Choice
Denver Post, Colorado, May 6, 2007
Our neighborhood school, Whittier Elementary, is an under-enrolled, low-performing, high-poverty school located in northeast Denver. Some of our neighbors with kids find themselves asking, "Why not follow the many (predominantly Anglo) families and choose a better school?"

Veto Plan That Falls Short On True School Choice
Charlotte Observer, North Carolina, May 6, 2007
When the public school choice plan pushed by state Superintendent of Schools Jim Rex reaches Gov. Mark Sanford's desk as a potential law, here's what the governor must do: Veto it. The S.C. General Assembly members who want true school choice should be busy garnering enough support to uphold the veto.

Science Lessons Squeezed by NCLB Focus On Reading, Math
Kansas City Star, Missouri, May 7, 2007
When Cyndy Detlefson prepared third-quarter report cards for her sixth-grade students at Nieman Elementary School in Shawnee, she didn’t give grades for science. Instead, she told parents that she didn’t spend enough time on the subject to assign a grade for the work.

Officials' Silence Puts Parents 'at Arm's Length'
Washington Post, DC, May 7, 2007
Schools nationwide are calling on parents to get involved. The Maryland State Board of Education endorsed a broad range of family outreach initiatives in a 2005 report that called public education "a shared responsibility."

Teachers Take a Crash Course As County Strives for More AP
Washington Post, DC, May 7, 2007
John E. Deasy, the superintendent of Prince George's County schools, issued a decree soon after taking charge a year ago: Each of the county's 22 high schools will offer at least eight Advanced Placement courses next year.

Missed Charter Deadline Stalls Academy's High School Plans
San Antonio Express, Texas, May 5, 2007
KIPP Aspire Academy, a local charter middle school that has earned acclaim for the academic strides of its low-income students, has canceled plans to become a high school this year. The college prep middle school, which currently serves grades five through eight, had received two grants totaling $825,000 to open a high school, starting with ninth grade in Fall 2007.

Two Appleton Charter Schools Up For Renewal
Appleton Post-Crescent, Wisconsin, May 5, 2007
An Appleton Board of Education panel Friday recommended renewal of charter contracts with Renaissance School for the Arts and Odyssey-Magellan for highly gifted elementary and middle school pupils.

Voucher Vote May Come in November
Daily Herald, Utah, May 6, 2007
This is certain: Utah voters will cast ballots on the state's school-voucher program. What still is uncertain is just when they'll vote. Gov. Jon Huntsman now says he's leaning toward November, instead of February, if lawmakers agree to pick up costs incurred by local governments.

Charter School Faces More Probation
Annapolis Capital, Maryland, May 6, 2007
The county Board of Education last week took its closest step yet to closing a charter school that has frustrated administrators with persistent management problems.

NC Charter School Advocates Looking to Allies to Help Remove Cap
NBC17-TV, North Carolina, May 6, 2007
The charter school movement has had a hard time moving beyond the experimental stage in North Carolina. Republicans in the General Assembly helped pass legislation in the mid-1990s creating charter schools.

Vouchers Now
Salt Lake Tribune, Utah, May 7, 2007
Two bills were passed by the Utah Legislature funding a school voucher program. One bill has been targeted by groups that have prevailed in forcing a referendum.