AM News: NYT Finds Virtual Schools Operate Like For-Profit Colleges

Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in Classrooms NYT: Current and former staff members of K12 Inc. schools say problems begin with intense recruitment efforts that fail to filter out students who are not suited for the program. Online schools typically are characterized by high rates of withdrawal.

New teacher contract could shut down Los Angeles school choice program LA Times: The competition for schools could end immediately, however, if teachers approve a tentative three-year pact with L.A. Unified this week. ALSO: L.A. county hit by a rash of tuba heists USA Today 

States Creating New Districts to Steer ‘Turnarounds’ EdWeek: Experts say the “new breed” of turnaround districts getting under way in Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee require new kinds of leaders.

Race to the Top Likely to Stick Around Politics K-12: Lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on a bill financing the U.S. Department of Education for the rest of the fiscal year (which goes until Sept. 30, 2012). And it looks like the Obama administration's signature education reform initative—Race to the Top—is going to get another year of funding.

Unemployed teachers finding work as nannies Chicago Tribune: As job prospects across the state and nation remain bleak for new and laid-off teachers — more than 8,800 Illinois teachers received pink slips in 2010, according to officials — many are finding welcome work as nannies and baby sitters.

MORE NEWS ITEMS INSIDE

YouTube Creates Separate Site for Schools NYT: With many schools blocking access to YouTube as a way to protect students from content that is inappropriate, or worse, the online video site opened a new network that allows access only to content that can be used in the classroom.

3 hunters questioned in shootings at Texas school AP: Three deer hunters suspected of possibly firing the shots that wounded two South Texas middle school students were taken in for questioning, but investigators hadn't determined early Tuesday whether the shootings were accidental, reckless or intentional, a sheriff said.

Michelle Obama breaks jumping jacks record AP: In order to achieve her goal, Mrs. Obama led about 400 elementary and middle-school students from Washington in jumping jacks on the South Lawn of the White House. 

2 charter schools allowed some families to bypass lotteries LA Times: Two popular Los Angeles charter schools have allowed some families to bypass a lottery for admission in exchange for providing special services or a substantial volunteer commitment.

Oregon Senator Pushes Local Pears For School Lunches NPR: Pears sound like a healthful school lunch treat, but not if they're Comice pears. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says they don't qualify for kids who get free lunches, but a senator wants to change that.

School Transforms Teens' Lives, One Pound At A Time NPR: In a nation where child obesity rates are soaring, some parents are turning to a boarding school that focuses on both weight loss and academics.

Safety violations found at Head Start centers AP: A machete near a play area, household chemicals accessible to preschoolers, and instructors teaching without a criminal background check were among the violations found at Head Start centers across the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department.

Comments

[CarolineSF]

Just noting. Our school board here in San Francisco got beat up for rejecting a charter proposal for Flex Academy, a hybrid virtual school that's linked with K12. The school opened (in a hotel conference room, I believe) as a charter overseen* by the California Dept. of Ed. It now has a year of test scores, which are rock bottom. I'm on its list of prospects, and I get peppered with sales calls (from Virginia and Florida area codes) and e-mails trying to get my 12th-grader to enroll. Meanwhile I'm sure they're telling the press they have a "long waiting list."

*I use the term "overseen" loosely, because I doubt if the California Dept. of Ed has any wherewithal at all to oversee the numerous charters it supposedly oversees.

[Marie]

Interesting articles. Thank you for sharing these!

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[Mary]

Alex, do you read the comments on these older posts? I finally have the minutes to comb through and sort the (incredibly useful) links you've run during this (incredible week) and I just noticed one I missed. The You-tube school channel!! Thank you, thank you for the link.

I need that at work, so desperately! The school's tech system can't seem to get a common site together where my students can share the videos they're shooting in our clubs. The net-nanny keeps us off You Tube. Maybe they'll just unblock that one channel, and suddenly we'll be able to access ourselves.

Did you know that low-income kids don't really have internet access at home, whatever they say on a survey? Even if they have some kind of working laptop or something somebody has managed to pass down to them? Guess what: if you don't pay the cable bill, they shut it off.