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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Who Benefits from Cyber Charters? Part 2 « Diane Ravitch's blog

Who Benefits from Cyber Charters? Part 2 « Diane Ravitch's blog:

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Who Benefits from Cyber Charters?

The question often arises: Who are cyber charters for?
I have gotten emails from people in the industry saying that children with special needs should be home in front of a computer, where a parent can help them.
Or they say that cyber charters are good for sick children.
Certainly they are attractive to home schoolers, who suddenly become eligible for state tuition money (which is 



Who Benefits from Cyber Charters? Part 2

A little while ago, I posted a statement by a mother of a high-functioning autistic child who said she did not want him to be in a cyber charter; she wanted him to be in a school to have contact with other children and to learn social skills.
Bear in mind that cybercharters have a record for getting terrible academic results, in terms of test scores, retention, and graduation rates. The fact that most of them are for-profit makes it even worse because their



Judge Says No to Bloomberg in 40 Minutes

The city of New York appealed to a judge to overturn the the decision of an independent arbitrator, who said that the city should keep open 24 schools it planned to close.
After only 40 minutes, the judge said that she would not enjoin the arbitrator’s ruling.
This means, for now, that the city must reinstate the hundreds or thousands of teachers who were fired at the “turnaround” schools.
If you read the article, you will see that the city is not at all happy and is mulling other ways to get free of the “binding” arbitration.


Should We Be Like Sweden?

A while back, a reader wrote that we should try to be like Sweden, because it is among the “best in the world.” Sweden now has for-profit schools and choice, so presumably the choice-based reforms of our day will make us more like Sweden.
I pointed out that on the latest PISA, Sweden does not outperform the U.S.. Its ranking are virtually identical,


Brooks, Petrilli, and Murray: Conservatives Confront Class Realities

There is one fact about America today that has not been mentioned in the political debates: nearly 25% of our nation’s children are growing up in poverty.
This nation leads the advanced nations of the world in child poverty.
Two articles today by conservative writers suggest that some hint of realism may enter the national discourse.
David Brooks wrote a column today expressing alarm about the growing inequality of opportunity among children, as affluent parents invest more in their children and lower-income parents have not. There is some hope here that Brooks is beginning to think that the large and widening opportunity gap is a social problem, not a result of bad teachers and bad schools. He concludes by saying that liberals are going to have to voice more support for two-