Remembering Frank Macchiarola
In a guest post for Democrats for Education Reform, James Merriman remembers the man known by many as The Chancellor. “Frank fought hard for schools to be organized in ways that worked for children. But as he fought, he never lost his direction or way, never let his anger get the better of him, and […]
More Progress Reports: 4 A’s, 3 B’s, 1 C and 1 D for Charter High Schools
Yesterday, the NYC Department of Education released its 2011-12 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 […]
Two Million and Counting
That’s how many students have enrolled in public charter schools nationwide, according to a new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In 41 states and the District of Columbia, parents and educators have come together, voluntarily, seeking a high-quality public education. After last week’s elections, more families in Washington State and Georgia […]
Progress Reports: The Numbers Behind the Grades
In Monday’s New York Post, James Merriman highlights several additional findings from the 2011-12 New York City Progress Reports, based on the full data set now available on the NYC DOE website. (Our initial analysis of the top-level letter grades can be found here.) The full data set provides numerical detail around several important trends, […]
Progress Reports: High Marks for Charter Schools
Today, the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE) released its 2011-12 Progress Reports for public schools serving grades K-8, including charter schools. Overall, charter schools’ grades are improved from the previous year. Close to half (46%) of all charter schools received an A grade, compared to 25% of public schools citywide. As in previous years, […]
Are You Equipped with the Right Tools to Start a Charter School?
Creating a charter school often starts as an exhilarating project, filled with breakthrough curriculum ideas, ways to serve families where there are low-performing schools, and visions of better futures for children through superlative education. The glittering ideal, however, meets an imposing reality, in the form of the charter school application. Practical and technical issues abound: […]
Survey Says: Parents Love Charter Schools
The results are out from the NYC Department of Education’s Learning Environment Surveys, a rich source of information on how parents, students, and teachers view their public schools (district and charter). This year’s surveys elicited responses from over 476,000 parents, over 62,000 teachers, and over 428,000 students in grades 6-12. (Charter schools’ collective responses rates […]
Caution Gone Wild: Do Rising Proficiency Rates Tell Us Anything?
Nobody does scientific caution like Matt Di Carlo, blogger for the union-affiliated Albert Shanker Institute. Though “not so fast” isn’t the sexiest message in education debates, we could surely use more fair-minded and careful voices like his. But this week, Di Carlo takes his caution to the extreme, writing: “Charter schools and their students may […]
NYC Charter Schools Show Math and English Gains on 2011-12 Tests
UPDATE: We posted our in-depth analysis of charter school test scores. View it here. The results are out from the 2011-12 state tests for Math and English Language Arts (ELA) in grades 3-8, and New York City charter school students, teachers, parents and school leaders once again have reason to feel extremely proud and hopeful. […]
No Shortcuts to School Reform (Even Technology)
Charter school educators are big on “grit,” that teachable character trait that helps at-risk students persevere to and through college. As a movement, charter schools have learned our own lessons about grit. We started with grand aspirations, to which we still fervently hold, but we also know that progress never comes as fast as one […]
