One of the secrets of Success Academy schools’ success is “holding parents to account for honoring the agreement they signed when enrolling their children,” writes Robert Pondiscio. The high-scoring charter network — with mostly low-income black and Hispanic students — requires parents to get kids to school on time and in uniform, avoid unexcused absences and monitor homework and reading logs. “We’ve… Read more →
Even though I went to elementary school a long time ago in a galaxy far away in California, I am repeatedly surprised by how much my children’s school right here in Illinois looks like my elementary school. I was the type of kid who did well in school. I was good at folding my hands and being quiet. I followed… Read more →
School reform advocate Derrell Bradford and policy writer Andy Rotherham hit on it. Illinois education writer Tracy Dell’Angela has a blog focused on it. Teacher/education writer Robert Pondiscio said it was a factor in the anti-charter vote in Massachusetts last fall. And former Education Secretary Arne Duncan famously broached the subject in 2013. “It” is the long overdue conversation about… Read more →
Do we need a charter movement in the suburbs? Education activist Derrell Bradford recently argued that yes, we do–but mostly because it broadens the base of clout-heavy supporters and makes it more palatable for self-interested politicians to “do the right thing” on school choice. I would agree, but for a very different reason posited by Mr. Bradford: We need competition… Read more →
To President Trump: I was one of the 470,000 women who marched on Washington Saturday, the day after your inauguration, holding a sign that was earnest but not angry, focused on the aspirations I have for my young adult daughters. In a million years I couldn’t have imagined I would ever be writing you a letter (let alone putting the… Read more →
There’s something depressingly familiar about the privileged pushback we’re seeing in Massachusetts around the ballot measure to lift the cap on charter schools. An active group of affluent white parents in well-resourced suburban districts are organizing to deny low-income black and brown families access to better schools, all under the progressive guise of “saving our public schools.” If this sounds… Read more →
At a recent book club meeting, we were wrapping up a spirited discussion of James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” when our talk veered to the racially charged education politics of New Orleans, where one of my neighbors was raised and educated. She mentioned the rapid expansion of charter schools, which she described as “private schools that drain money from… Read more →
It is hard to look at photos splashed all over social media with mostly white teachers who work in the suburbs, smiling, while they protest what would ensure that more disadvantaged children get the education that they deserve—the education that these teachers would most assuredly demand for their own children. “But giving parents in underperforming districts more opportunity to… Read more →
Suburban schools have slipped under the radar when it comes to the biggest philanthropic investments and most controversial reforms to roil the education space—school closures, charter growth, teacher evaluations and state interventions. But suburban schools need to wake up from their long complacent slumber. As a new report points out, these schools are ill equipped to deal with the mounting challenges they… Read more →
If there’s anything more depressing than reading another news story about just how badly our nation is falling behind other nations educationally, it’s reading the public comments that try to excuse-ify it all away. In this case, I’m talking about the National Public Radio piece about a newly released federal study on PIAAC, the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies,… Read more →