Closing Gap?

The gist of this article is that after years of measuring NYC's efforts to close the achievement gap showed consistent success, the gains made by black and Hispanic students relative to white and Asian students largely disappear when a widely accepted national measure is used instead of the state tests that had provided the earlier data. This is the kind of data that will be trumpeted about and said to mean many things, but I need to quote my statistics professor once more: "figures lie, and liars figure."

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What are charter schools?

In response to reading our blog for the first time, a Maine school superintendent wrote with the very kinds of questions I think need to be part of the larger debate.

"I am very intrigued by the discussion of charter schools and would like to learn more about the 'real deal,' when it comes to these schools. Are they producing a better product, do they siphon off moneys that could bolster public schools, are they designed for tailor made audiences, how is tuition handled (do the charter schools take the same amount of per pupil money as allocated to public schools), do they accommodate special needs, what are the two major disadvantages/worries, and the two real advantages?"

I'm going to attempt to answer those questions one at a time over the next couple days...the 'real deal' is that done well, charter schools are fully public schools that, rather than drain resources from public schools, ARE public schools that help communities serve more kids well...but, as you'll see, that's easier said than done.

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New data cause confusion about Maine high school graduation rates

So the news is that depending on how you count, Maine's graduating either 80 or 83% of students. While I admire the attempt to create a meaningful and consistent method of tracking, the larger point to me is that one out of five...or is it one out of six...young people are not graduating high school. That need not be.

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Innovating can help Maine schools lead nation

I wrote this back in January when Maine Department of Education introduced three bills that they hoped would qualify Maine for Race to the Top funds. All three bills passed, including one that purported to allow "innovative schools," but most folks agree that the restrictions placed on that bill, mostly at the urging of the MEA, enable no more innovation that school districts are already

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Asking the right questions...

During the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee debate around the innovation bill that was passed in May to facilitate Maine's Race to the Top application, much of the testimony - including that around enabling charter schools as an innovation strategy - repeated some fairly old arguments based on some assumptions that may longer be true. What is a public school? What kinds of public schools can serve Maine's young people, parents, and communities? How can innovation thrive without dismantling the parts of our current system that are working? If we ask the right questions, we might get closer to agreement on what kinds of policies and practices will work for Maine.

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