Full-time cyber schools expanding despite no evidence of their effectiveness, new report finds

Great Lakes Center For Education Research & Practice:

Full-time cyber schools expanding despite no evidence of their effectiveness, new report finds

Study finds more questions than answers about the benefit of full-time virtual schools

EAST LANSING, Mich. (Oct. 25, 2011) — Full-time virtual schools are expanding despite no high-quality evidence that they are effective, according to a new report released today.

Cash-strapped states and school districts are using online education — including full-time virtual schools with no face-to-face contact between students and teachers — as a lower-cost alternative to traditional public schools. In states such as Florida, virtual schools are used as a loophole in laws that limit the size of classes.

According to the report, authored by University of Colorado education professors Gene V Glass and Kevin G. Welner, full-time "cyber schools" are now operating in 27 states. In at least one case in Arizona, a private firm outsourced essay grading to low-paid workers in India.

"Private operators are gaining access to large streams of public revenue to run cyber schools," Glass said. "But school districts are not getting full information on the actual costs of these programs, so it's not clear if taxpayer money is being used effectively — or properly."

Cyber schools are subject to only minimal government oversight, according to the report.

"We have to make sure that cyber schools don't become just a cheap way of providing second-rate service

Jersey Jazzman: Bring Democracy To Jersey City

Jersey Jazzman: Bring Democracy To Jersey City:

Bring Democracy To Jersey City

by Duke

Hey, Jersey City! If you're good, maybe ACTING Lord High Executioner Cerf will give you a hint about who he will install to run your schools:

Some 40 people were stuck on the outside looking in for more than an hour on Dec. 22 when acting state education commissioner Christopher Cerf met with the school board in a closed session to discuss the ongoing superintendent search.

Cerf and board members conferred at a special meeting in the board’s central office on Claremont Avenue. The closed session received mostly negative reviews from the citizens present, a group made up of primarily parents and community activists. Some criticized the board for not allowing residents the

Reforming Higher Education at $1400 a Plate | Dailycensored.com

Reforming Higher Education at $1400 a Plate | Dailycensored.com:

Reforming Higher Education at $1400 a Plate

by Adam Bessie

• Are you a hedge fund manager or venture capitalist feeling guilty about being in the 1%?
• Do you need a philanthropic investment to help polish the image of your brand, sullied by the Occupy protests?
• Or are you a seeking a way to make huge profits off of the government you love to hate?

If so, on January 12^th in New York City, you’ll have an exciting opportunity to ring in the New Year by delivering cutting-edge educational products for our increasingly competitive global marketplace – and, while doing so, you can enter into this new and profitable market at theCapitol Round Table’s Private Equity Investing In For-Profit Education Companies One-Day Conference!

Despite the pesky “grumbling from activists” (who sometimes resort to base rhetorical devices like satire, which nobody gets anyways), the emerging for-profit education industry is “getting good results.” [i] While “no sector has

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National - The Atlantic

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National - The Atlantic:

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

DEC 29 2011, 3:00 PM ET

The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.

Sergey Ivanov/Flickr

Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.

The small Nordic country of Finland used to be known -- if it was known for anything at all -- as the home of Nokia, the mobile phone giant. But lately Finland has been attracting attention on global

DCPS Achievement Gap Blamed on Officials, Demographics, Lack of Funding

DCPS Achievement Gap Blamed on Officials, Demographics, Lack of Funding:

DCPS Achievement Gap Blamed on Officials, Demographics, Lack of Funding

DOROTHY ROWLEY

THURSDAY, 29 DECEMBER 2011

0digg National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data shows the efforts of former D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Michelle Rhee and current Chancellor Kaya Henderson failed to reduce achievement gaps, or guarantee to that children would receive at least an adequate, "average" education, regardless of the school they attended. The report also concluded that in the DCPS system which is about 80 percent African-American, the gap in achievement between black and white students was the widest in the country. For example, 4th-grade math students in the District scored an average of 212 points out of a possible 500 while white students scored 262 points. This equates to a 50-point difference—twice the national average. (The gap in New York City and Philadelphia, on the other hand, is about 20 points.) The DCPS

Manhattan BP Scott Stringer: ‘The Incompetence of The Department of Education is Simply Staggering’ | PolitickerNY

Manhattan BP Scott Stringer: ‘The Incompetence of The Department of Education is Simply Staggering’ | PolitickerNY:

Manhattan BP Scott Stringer: ‘The Incompetence of The Department of Education is Simply Staggering’

By Hunter Walker 3:42pm

Scott Stringer (Photo: Facebook)

Manhattan Borough President and possible 2013 mayoral candidate Scott Stringer blasted the New York City Department of Education at a press conference today following the publication of a New York Times report documenting the DOE’s failure to claim millions of dollars in federal Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to students with special needs from 2006 to 2010. Mr. Stringer called for hearings investigating the missed reimbursements, which he described as a missed opportunity to curb school budget cuts and evidence of widespread problems at the DOE.

“This calls out for state and city hearings immediately, there’s no time to waste. This agency has been going down this perilous path for many years, but nobody could have imagined that, when it came for reimbursement, they would fail so miserably. I am shocked and I am

That @alexanderrusso, kind of a knucklehead, perhaps a pouting baby as well? That right @teacherken? « At the Chalk Face

That @alexanderrusso, kind of a knucklehead, perhaps a pouting baby as well? That right @teacherken? « At the Chalk Face:

That @alexanderrusso, kind of a knucklehead, perhaps a pouting baby as well? That right @teacherken?

December 29, 2011

I wish I could take credit for the pouting baby meme, but I think that’s Firedoglake. But I think SA’s Alex Russo gets the pouting baby merit award this week for starting a little online cat fight. So, the original catalyst was here, where in a post Mr. Russo complained that the “reformers” were the Davids battling it out online with these big bad bullies, the Goliaths as reform opponents. Ken Bernstein responds here at Kos. Nancy Flanagan andAnthony Cody respond, the other so-called Goliaths. Sure, I’d say they’re pretty

Fraud, lies and cheating among British parents to get their kids in coveted primary schools | Dailycensored.com

Fraud, lies and cheating among British parents to get their kids in coveted primary schools | Dailycensored.com:

Fraud, lies and cheating among British parents to get their kids in coveted primary schools

Written by Danny WeilEducation, World NewsDec 29, 2011

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Andrew Hartman, who teaches history at Illinois StateUniversity, had a brilliant piece in the Washington Post regarding Teach for America (TFA), the reserve labor army for the capitalist class in their effort to destroy teacher unions and the teaching profession. Although the discussion centered around TFA, Hartman did comment about the rampant cheating on test scores that proliferate the educational landscape now that standardized tests are the measure for both teacher and student ‘success’ in the new privatized climate of American schools:

“More recently, cheating scandals have likewise discredited several celebrated reform projects. In Atlanta, a TFA hotbed, former superintendent and education reform darling Beverly Hall is implicated in a

Larry Ferlazzo: Education-Related Predictions for 2012

Larry Ferlazzo: Education-Related Predictions for 2012:

Larry Ferlazzo

English teacher

GET UPDATES FROM LARRY FERLAZZO

Education-Related Predictions for 2012

Posted: 12/29/11 03:40 PM ET

I recently posted The Best (and Worst) Education News of 2011, and thought I'd take a stab at some prognostication for 2012.

I think I batted close to 50 percent in last year's predictions -- that can't be that much worse than those made by professional pundits.

Feel free to add your own predictions in the comments section -- and don't hesitate to include "wishful thinking!"

Here are my Education-Related Predictions For 2012:

1. Proponents of what is typically called "school reform" -- expansion of charter schools and