AM News: Growing Concerns About Waivers, Kline Proposal

Harkin, Miller to Education Secretary: Set a High Bar for Waivers Politics K12: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, any day now, is supposed to announce which states will get waivers from parts of the NCLB Actt, in exchange for embracing certain education reform priorities.

Broad Coalition Argues Bills Undercut Brown v. Board HuffPost: A broad coalition of 38 civil rights, education reform and business groups sent House education chairman John Kline a scathing letter Wednesday, describing his No Child Left Behind legislation as potentially racist.

New Rules for School Meals Aim at Reducing Obesity NYT: The Obama administration announced long-awaited changes to government-subsidized school meals, issuing rules that add more fruits and green vegetables and reduce the amount of salt and fat. ALSO: Kids Have A Say In Louisville's School Lunch Menu NYT

New York City Students at Small Public High Schools Are More Likely to Graduate, Study Finds NYT: A project tracked the academic performance of more than 21,000 New York City students who applied for ninth grade admission at 105 small high schools, mainly in Brooklyn and in the Bronx, from 2005 to 2008.

MORE NEWS ITEMS INSIDE

Many public schools in D.C.’s poorest area should be transformed or shut, study says; more charters recommended Washington Post: A new study commissioned by D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray recommends that the city turn around or close more than three dozen traditional public schools in its poorest neighborhoods and expand the number of high-performing charter schools.

Furor erupts over bills to let parents decide poorly performing schools' fate Orlando Sentinel: Florida lawmakers want to give parents the power to dictate the future of poorly performing public schools, sparking criticism from parent advocates and others that the effort is part of a continuing campaign to privatize education.

Illinois schools will have to provide more performance details Chicago Tribune: Schools across Illinois will have to provide more detailed information about performance under a measure Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Tuesday.

Conn., other states work toward new curriculum Boston.com: An independent education research organization says Connecticut is not alone in the delays it faces as it puts sweeping new curriculum standards in place.

Event unites charter, district teachers under instructional focus GothamSchools:  Organizers of the event said that more than 500 New York City teachers attended (I counted fewer in the morning assembly) and said the ratio of public school teachers to charter school teachers was about 3:2. A handful of independent and private school teachers also attended.

Comments

[Bruce]

Combining the NYT story on effective smaller schools with the D.C. story on school closures in favor of more charters, it appears increasingly easy and beneficial to withdraw one's educationally ambitious students from having to go to school with distracting, academically underachieving peers; one can set up, in those cities, a small charter school attended by the children of similarly ambitious families, raise the achievement standards, and outperform the students left behind in larger traditional schools, thereby attracting glowing media coverage and philanthropic money, and all the while enjoying closer, more personalized teaching. This is likely to work well in the short run for the families so attending, but in the long run, the problem will remain with what to do with those underachievers who drifted into the hollowing, deteriorating caverns of traditional schooling.