Charter school ruled private entity for labor relations
The question of just how public charter schools really are has been further muddied by aruling by the National Labor Relations Board in a case involving a Chicago charter school.
Critics of charter schools have long contended that private companies that run publicly funded charters don’t act like public organizations and that charter schools represent the privatization of public education in the United States. I recently published this post about whether judges are increasingly viewing charters as private.
Now we have a decision by the board, made last month and just publicized, involving efforts by teachers at the Chicago Math and Science Academy to form a union. Teachers organized under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, which regulates labor relations between public schools and their employees, with two-thirds of the teachers voting in favor, according to WBEZ.org. The private managers of the academy, however, wanted
The Hobbit: A Common Core literature unit falls short
There's no end to discussion and controversy about the Common Core State Standards in English-Language Arts. Here's a look at the inadequacies of one literature exemplar offered by a state Education Department, an issue that more broadly highlights some of the basic problems that are bound to accompany implementation of the standards. This was written by Darcy Pattison, a children's book author and writing teacher (darcypattison.com). She often provides professional development to educators in the area of English Language Arts and blogs about Common Core issues. She was the keynote speaker for ELA Grades 6-8 for the 2012 Smarter Online Common Core Educator's Roundtable webinar from The Principal Center. A version of this appeared on her blog, Making the Common Core Practical.
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