Sunday, January 12, 2014

Record year for Ohio charter school failures is unnerving proponents | The Raw Story

Record year for Ohio charter school failures is unnerving proponents | The Raw Story:

Record year for Ohio charter school failures is unnerving proponents

By George Chidi
Sunday, January 12, 2014 22:17 EST

'Elementary School Kids In Science Class Using A Microscope' [Shutterstock]

The charter school movement in Ohio has to contend with a rash of failing schools in Columbus. Of the 17 that failed last year — an unprecedented number, according to the Columbus Dispatch — nine only managed to remain open for a few months before failing, leaving students scrambling to find a new school.

Since 1997, 29 percent of Ohio’s charter schools have closed, the Dispatch reported. The median life of an Ohio charter school is four years.

A handful of large corporate charter school operators appear to be responsible for wide swaths of the problem. For example, The Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Boys and the Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Girls closed in October after inspectors at the schools discovered that students faced unsanitary conditions and poor management. Both schools were operated by the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

“Meals were not served at regular times and often were purchased at fast food restaurants,” Richard Ross, Ohio’s state school superintendent, noted in an announcement closing the schools. There are reports of several significant fights, thefts and property damage. … They did

Educators air academic alternative to increased student testing - NorthJersey.com

Educators air academic alternative to increased student testing - NorthJersey.com:

Educators air academic alternative to increased student testing

SUNDAY JANUARY 12, 2014, 10:09 PM

BY GEORGE WIRT

STAFF WRITER

THE MONTCLAIR TIMES

PAGES: 1 2 3 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE | PRINT | E-MAIL

Montclair public schools could take a different route in assessing their students' academic achievement.

Above, at left, teacher Avram Barlowe describes his experiences with students at a school using performance-based assessments. Below, Ann Cook of the New York Standards Consortium fields questions from some of the more than 100 people who attended Sunday's Montclair Cares About Schools forum.

Members of the New York Performance Standards Consortium said the Montclair School District and other districts in New Jersey don't have to lock themselves into an expanded regime of standardized testing to gauge whether their students are meeting the recently adopted Common Core State Standards.
"The performance-based system allows students to show what they know and what they can do without resorting to high-stakes testing," Ann Cook, the Consortium's director told The Montclair Times. "I don't think there is any comparison between a high-stakes testing system and a system that uses performance-based assessment."
Cook's comments came following the Montclair Cares About Schools public forum Sunday afternoon on alternatives to student testing programs.
The nearly three-hour long session was cosponsored by MCAS, the Bloomfield Board of Education, the Montclair Education Association and by Save Our Schools New Jersey, and drew an audience of more than 100 from Montclair and several surrounding towns.
Increased student testing has become a controversial issue in Montclair since the Board of Education adopted a new strategic plan last

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/239854621_Educators_air_academic_alternative_to_increased_student_testing.html#sthash.kdyEiRCM.dpuf

empathyeducates – Columbus Has 17 Charter School Failures In One Year

empathyeducates – Columbus Has 17 Charter School Failures In One Year:

Columbus Has 17 Charter School Failures In One Year

Photograph; Sam Greene | Dispatch | The school on S. 6th Street is one of four Olympus schools shuttered.

Felony theft, filth, and failure to meet payroll, and still, the public funds keep coming. A sponsorship is all you need and regardless of your record you too can become a Charter School founder. Your doors will remain open and the children will keep on giving, but let enrollment numbers fall and you will not be forgiven! Such is the state of the Ohio Charter School union. “A couple of players with standards that are not up to par,” will spoil the bunch, or add to the confusion. Should the 134 have ever opened? What caused the closes? Will the taxpayers’ recover their millions? Sure precious time was presumably wasted; but what of the minds of our children? Should there be a proposal for possible fines? Maybe. And might that too be brushed aside as … “It’s a hazard of the business”?

Schools closing at alarming rate, costing taxpayers and disrupting the lives of hundreds of students

By Jennifer Smith Richards and Bill Bush | Originally Published at Dispatch. Sunday January 12, 2014 8:44 AM

Columbus Has 17 Charter School Failures In One Year

Photograph; Sam Greene | Dispatch | The school on S. 6th Street is one of four Olympus schools shuttered.

Schools closing at alarming rate, costing taxpayers and disrupting the lives of hundreds of students

By Jennifer Smith Richards and Bill Bush | Originally Published at Dispatch. Sunday January 12, 2014 8:44 AM

At the beginning of 2013, one long-struggling charter school closed. Over the summer, five more did. And in the fall, 11 more Columbus charters closed their doors, most of them brand new.

That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented.

“It shows the power of a couple of players with standards that are not up to par really affecting an overall market,” said Chad Aldis, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors 10 charter

L.A. Unified surveys prices others pay for iPads, similar devices - latimes.com

L.A. Unified surveys prices others pay for iPads, similar devices - latimes.com:

L.A. Unified surveys prices others pay for iPads, similar devices

In Perris, Pinacate Middle School students Raul Curil, 13 and Marco Fuentes, 12, in Mark Synnott's journalism class, work on Chromebook devices producing their electronic newspaper, the Puma Press.(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times / December 6, 2013)

By Howard Blume

January 12, 2014, 4:51 p.m.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is conducting a survey to determine what other districts pay for technology just as the Board of Education is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the next phase of a $1-billion program to provide computers to every student.

The survey has gone out to 21 of the largest school districts in the nation and to another 40 districts in California, said Hugh Tucker, deputy director of facilities contracts for L.A. Unified. Tucker disclosed the survey in a district meeting last week.

Earlier this month, The Times reported that L.A. Unified was paying among the highest prices, based on a cross-section of school districts contacted by the newspaper. The nation’s second-largest school system is paying $768 per device for its students, teachers and administrators. The reason is that L.A. Unified selected a relatively costly product — a higher-end Apple iPad — and also paid for a new math and English curriculum that is installed on the tablets.

District officials have insisted that, within the context of what it sought, it received the best product for the best price.

The Perris Union High School District is paying $344 per device, but its Chromebooks lack a

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lausd-surveys-ipad-costs-20140112,0,3048105.story#ixzz2qFM5PoZj

Don't pull the parent trigger in Georgia. It will exacerbate... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Don't pull the parent trigger in Georgia. It will exacerbate... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Don't pull the parent trigger in Georgia. It will exacerbate school-to-prison pipeline.

COMMENT(9)
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Some child advocates believe the parent trigger bill could lead to more kids being suspended and expelled, both of which contribute to Georgia's school-to-prison pipeline. (Kent Johnson/AJC)

Top 10 Georgia education issues to watch in 2014
January 10, 2014
Why the arts and arts teachers enrich schools
January 9, 2014
Georgia schools rank 17th in nation in annual Quality Counts review
January 9, 2014

By Maureen Downey

Pamela Perkins Carn is a community coordinator with the Interfaith Children’s Movement. Marlyn Tillman is the School to Prison Pipeline community organizer for the ACLU of Georgia. David Payne is president of SNAPPS, the Southwest and Northwest Atlanta Parents and Partners for Schools.

Here is an essay they wrote about the proposed Georgia parent trigger bill, which they fear will exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline.

By Pamela Perkins Carn, Marlyn Tillman and David Payne

The federal government provided guidance last week on improving school climate and ending the school-to-prison pipeline. We hope Georgia lawmakers were listening.

Georgia schools issue more out-of school suspensions than 41 other states. In 2011-12, our school systems assigned more than 325,000 suspensions, at a cost to public school students of

Honey, School Reform, Democrats and Republicans | Reclaim Reform

Honey, School Reform, Democrats and Republicans | Reclaim Reform:

Honey, School Reform, Democrats and Republicans

Posted on January 12, 2014by Ken Previti

We have all been trained since youth to trust certain brands for wholesome contents. We believed in those brands out of some experience; but as the brands remain, and contents change, many of us continue to believe and trust that old brand name.

Honey has nutrients and health benefits.
High fructose corn syrup is detrimental to our health and well being.

What happens when, as we now know for a fact, even our most trusted brands of honey are not honey but are actually high fructose corn syrup? Well, some people continue to purchase and consume the trusted brand in spite of reality. (Read about honey that isn’t honey HERE and HERE.)

In the Attack on Public Education, under the euphemistic title of Education Reform, teacher ratings, salaries and pensions are savaged, their unions are demonized, their students are labeled failures, our public schools are closed and massive amounts of education tax funding is diverted into the private profits of corporate investors in the growing Educational Industrial Complex of charters, testing, etc.

Who supports active and retired teachers? Who refuses all of the scams of high stakes

Sunday, January 12, 2014