New York State Authorizers Accept 48 New Letters of Intent for Charter School Proposals
The State University of New York Charter School Institute (SUNY) and New York State Department (SED) have accepted 48 Letters of Intent to start charter schools in the fall 2013. The 48 new entrants have been given a green light to submit full proposals by February 29, 2012 in order to open charter schools in […]
NAACP: Hiring Flexibility Helps Kids!
Over Christmas break, the NAACP quietly released a resolution on charter schools. Among the expected anti-charter rhetoric are sprinkled some things of interest. First, in the midst of listing the advantages charters have, e.g., the supposed selection and removal of students, the resolution also states that charters operate more autonomously in the “selection and removal […]
Preliminary Victory: Justice Feinman Rules Against Charter Opponents in Rent Lawsuit
Today, Justice Feinman of NYS Supreme Court ruled against a group of charter opponents who had sought a preliminary injunction against the NYC Department of Education, requiring it to charge charter schools rent when they are co-located in public school buildings. Justice Feinman, in a well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion, declined to grant the preliminary injunction. […]
Co-location, 19th Century Edition
Not much has changed in co-location or availability of real estate for public schools in more than 110 years. Our friend Nelson Smith recently perused through the history books and found an interesting quote from 1898 about our public schools in NYC – long before charters were part of the public school landscape. “The number […]
Amber Charter School Launches Education and Parenting Column in El Diario La Prensa
Amber Charter School is launching a column on education and parenting in El Diario La Prensa (see story in the paper today concerning the new column: http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/vida-estilo/educacion/2011/11/7/no-se-pierda-a-la-maestra-del–281088-1.html. The new weekly column will be written by Dr. Vashti Acosta, Principal of Amber Charter School, starting as of November 14 discussing a variety of education and parenting […]
Clearing Up Confusion On Charter School Accountability
When the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) released its “struggling schools” list last week, it included six charter schools alongside over 40 district schools. Clearly, NYC DOE wants to signal that accountability is for all schools, including charters. (I can’t help but think how far we’ve come from the time when actual […]
New analysis: Did charter co-locations cause school overcrowding?
As many NYC public schools adapt to life in full or overcrowded school buildings, charter school co-locations have been targeted for blame. To get beyond warring anecdotes, we took a look at the DOE’s latest “Blue Book” data on building utilization across the city. We found some surprising facts: Judging by utilization rates, co-located school […]
More Progress Reports: 2 A’s, 3 B’s, and 2 C’s for Charter High Schools
Today, the NYC Department of Education released its 2010-11 progress reports for high schools. (See our breakdown of the K-8 progress reports.) The reports assign a letter grade to each school, based on student test scores, student progress, attendance, and “learning environment” survey results—all heavily weighted to account for differing student characteristics. There were 21 […]
Learning from the Learning Environment Surveys
The NYC Department of Education’s Learning Environment Surveys are a rich source of data about New Yorkers’ experiences in their public schools. Upwards of 450,000 parents, 425,000 secondary students, and 55,000 teachers completed the surveys in 2010-11—in district and charter schools. Although survey scores only count for 10 of 115 possible points on the Progress […]
Our Week on Eduwonk
We spent the week guest blogging over at Eduwonk.com, the Ed Reform blog by Bellwether Education Partners’ Andrew Rotherham. Here’s a round-up of all of the posts from Monday, October 3 to Friday, October 7. Friday, October 7:It’s Been RealWhen Bad Charters Stay Open, Parents Deserve a WarningStretching the Clock Thursday, October 6:Thursday BitsFinnish LinesGetting […]
