Big Stories Of The Day

In Philadelphia, Privatized Schools Suffer a Setback Washington Post
Six years ago, the Philadelphia School District embarked on what was considered the country's boldest education privatization experiment, putting 38 schools under private management to see if the free market could educate children more efficiently than the government.

Slight gains, but sanctions list grows Minneapolis Star Tribune
The percentage of black students deemed proficient in math and reading hovered 36 percentage points below that of their white counterparts.

Tenure makes bad teachers hard to fire MSNBC
Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

Public gives schools low marks, wants more English and math AP
It's not much of a report card.  Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force.

Education: Bringing Potential Dropouts Back From the Brink NYT
To improve their dropout numbers, officials in districts throughout Long Island say they are taking aggressive steps to keep students in the classroom.