Parents Call on NAACP to Withdraw from Divisive Lawsuit
Rally News Round-Up: “NAACP Under Fire in New York Charter School War”– The Daily Beast “Charter Parents Rally Against NAACP’s Lawsuit Involvement”– GothamSchools “Parents Rally in Harlem”– Fox 5 “Parents Rally in Harlem to Protest NAACP’s Involvement in School Closure Lawsuit”– New York Daily News “In Harlem Charter School Parents and Students Target the NAACP”– […]
Charter Pioneer Takes the Reins at NYSED
Today the Board of Regents unanimously appointed John B. King, Jr., commissioner of education in New York State. We applaud the Board of Regents and Chancellor Tisch for making what we believe is a very wise and courageous choice. King is a co-founder of Roxbury Prep Charter School in Boston and a former managing director […]
Guest Post: The Mother Teacher
With Teacher Appreciation Week, Mother’s Day weekend, and National Charter Schools Week all coinciding, the Charter Center is pleased to share this guest blog post by Christina Reyes, founding school leader of Inwood Academy for Leadership Charter School in upper Manhattan. Today I write an ode to the mother teacher. Yes, every woman who is […]
Humility
Joe Nocera, writing in his new column on The New York Times Op-Ed page, accuses the education reform movement of hubris and prescribes reformers a dose of humility as to what reform can and cannot accomplish. I’ll leave to others to point out that the beliefs attributed to the movement are straw men. But given […]
Post’s re-post of UFT post: A Riposte
The NY Post wrote the book on tabloid headlines. They can’t all be “Headless Body in Topless Bar” but the headline on a charter school article this weekend was the worst I’ve seen: “Charters ënix 23%’ of kids.” How can I put this? No they don’t. The headline refers to this graf from reporter Annie […]
The Fragility of the Not-Quite-Charter Model
Please, go now and read Jonathan Mahler’s NYT Magazine profile of RamÛn Gonz·lez, star principal of Middle School 223 in the Bronx. It’s a subtle, illuminating, balanced, superb piece of education journalism, worth reading more than once. Policy debates aside, it’s a portrait of educational heroesóreminding us again how just how hard the best school […]
John King, Reformer
New York needs vigilant eyes on its school reform efforts, not just when they’re announced but over time when Albany interests can resist and co-opt. The New York Post editorial board fills this watchdog role with relish (and we’ve had occasion to be thankful for it), but today it bit too hard. While rightfully worrying […]
IBO on City Budget: Ignore the Elephant, Blame Charters
In its report on the Mayor’s proposed budget for 2012, the NYC Independent Budget Office took another big step back from integrity on charter school issues. Issuing selective, one-sided revisions was apparently just the teaser: now, for the main event, the agency is ready to discuss education policy and appoint charter schools as the main […]
Tell NY How to Define High School Graduation (Survey TODAY ONLY)
What should be required to graduate from high school in New York? Should we move toward higher graduation standards, a more flexible system, or some combination of both? The State Education Department wants your opinion to share with the Regents. Take the online survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LJTTZ6R Estimated completion time is 20 – 30 minutes, and […]
