Tag: school choice

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The Baltimore Riots: A Case for School Choice?

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Public schools fail the inner city youth

Robby Soave|Apr. 29, 2015 2:25 pm

Would school choice reforms prevent or reduce future unrest in cities like Baltimore by improving the plight of poor minority teenagers? Some are making that case. Here was Charles Krauthammer on Fox News last night, according to National Review:

“There are essentially two problems. . . . One is single parenthood, and the other is the worst schools on earth,” said Krauthammer on Tuesday’s Special Report. “Of the first, we have no idea how to solve that. Of the second, we do. If you can’t improve the schools, give the kids a choice to go to better schools. The parents begged to have that opportunity, but the teachers’ unions won’t allow it and thus the Democrats won’t. If you want to do something, let them choose their schools.”

This idea has merit. The traditional public school system fails inner city youth in two major ways—both of which reinforce the kind of problems on display in Baltimore.

First, inner city schools are just plain awful. As Terry Jeffrey pointed out in Townhall, the most recent information shows that the Baltimore school district spends about $18,000 per student and only achieves a reading proficiency rate of 16 percent for eighth graders. That’s a lot of money wasted in pursuit of terrible result. When public schools can’t even teach the vast majority of Baltimore’s most vulnerable kids to read, the traditional education system is condemning them from a very young age to dim college and career prospects.

Second, the public school system increasingly turns mildly troubled young people into criminals thanks to a depressing trend of overcriminalization. Safety paranoia led administrators down the dark path of zero tolerance; classroom misbehavior that once would have resulted in detention now triggers a call to the cops, arrest, and expulsion. It’s really no wonder black teens and 20-somethings distrust the police—consider the representative case of Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a black 11-year-old in Virginia who incurred disorderly conduct and felony assault charges for causing a bit of mischief. In a sane education system, teachers would work with Kayleb to improve his behavior, not strap him in handcuffs. And inner city streets are filled with teens who were arrested and expelled when they should have been counselled and reformed. This is almost the perfect system for creating a society of displaced, impoverished, lawless young people.

School choice would mitigate these problems by liberating poor minorities trapped in a cycle of failure. Still, there are limits to what any single reform could accomplish. Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, told me that he expects school choice would certainly help, “but there are limits to what schools can fix.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/04/29/the-baltimore-riots-a-case-for-school-ch

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Concerns Grow About Common Core Standards

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Gregory Dymshits, a full-time research biologist, teaches a genetics lesson at a special school for advanced science and math students. (Photo: Jim Ketsdever/KRT/Newscom)

Concerns Grow About Common Core Standards
Brittany Corona/ March 12, 2015

“If you came to college with only an Algebra II background and you wanted to major in a STEM area, you have a 1/50 chance— a 2 percent chance— of ever obtaining a degree in STEM… This level of preparation is simply insufficient,” said Milgram.

According to Education Week, teachers also are struggling with how to teach to the Common Core math standards.

“Each standard has so many ideas built into it, you really have to sit down and think through all the implications of that,” said math teacher Bobson Wong. “I could easily make each of these courses a two-year course.”

And recently, reports surfaced that the Common Core architects left what some consider holes in the standards.

Richard A. Askey, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former member of the math standards’ feedback group, later noticed an omission of a geometry standard in Common Core. In fact, according to Education Week, Askey said “the process toward the end was so hurried that an entire high school standard was left out of the final draft.”

“There’s no formal mechanism in place for a wholesale review of the common core, but it’s likely that states will—as they always have—review their standards at times and decide whether they need to be altered,” the Education Week article said.

When Common Core was created in 2009 by Achieve Inc., with oversight from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, its adoption immediately was tied to federal incentives through billions in competitive grants and waivers from provisions in the No Child Left Behind law.

By 2010, 46 states had signed on to the standards and agreed to implement them fully by this school year. Over the last two years, states have begun to realize the costs of quickly signing on to Common Core. By 2015, 15 of the original 46 states that agreed to Common Core have made efforts to withdraw from the standards and aligned tests. Four exited the standards completely—Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana.

The haste of Common Core’s adoption is felt across the nation—but the extent is not yet realized. The alignment of college entrance exams, such as the SAT and ACT, and advanced placement courses cause concern over the “voluntary” nature of the standards.

Yet, there is still hope. Many states are putting forth measures to reclaim autonomy over their standards and are beginning to practice competitive federalism, thoughtfully considering their state standards, Common Core and other state standards to make a set of standards and tests that are best for their students’ college or career readiness.

https://dailysignal.com/2015/03/12/concerns-grow-about-common-core-high-school-standards/?source=hafa

 

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N.J. limits its school choice program

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Education Commissioner David Hespe

N.J. limits its school choice program

FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:45 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015, 10:46 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

In an effort to cut down on rising costs, the state is capping a program that allows students to attend schools outside their own district at no extra cost, limiting some Bergen and Passaic schools to just a handful of open spots for the coming school year.

“It’s fiscally unsustainable,” state Education Commissioner David Hespe said in an interview. “The program has increased fivefold. The cost has increased fivefold.”

The education commissioner is also considering preventing additional students from high-performing schools, which would include many in Bergen County, from participating. The program was meant to give students access to better schools, but many of the students who took advantage already had good schools in their hometown, Hespe said.

State officials say they need to stop the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program’s growth because it has ballooned to about 5,000 students at a cost of $50 million a year. But supporters of the program say the decision to cap it seems to contradict the Christie administration’s stated policy of creating more taxpayer-financed options for students who don’t want to attend struggling local schools.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-limits-its-school-choice-program-1.1262801

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How did Camden, N.J. come to have one of the highest spending AND worst performing school districts in the nation?

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How did Camden, N.J. come to have one of the highest spending AND worst performing school districts in the nation?

The recent history of Camden, New Jersey, which is the poorest small city in America, provides a case study of the tragic ineffectiveness of government programs at ameliorating poverty. State and federal taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on various redevelopment programs in Camden over the years, but the money never ended up where it was supposed to and the promised revival of this fallen manufacturing town never happened.

By far, the largest initiative to combat poverty with government largess has been directed at Camden’s public schools. New Jersey spends about 60% more on education per pupil than the national average according to 2012 census figures, or about $19,000 in 2013. In Camden, per pupil spending was more than $25,000 in 2013, making it one of the highest spending districts in the nation.

But all that extra money hasn’t changed the fact that Camden’s public schools are among in the worst in the nation, notorious for their abysmal test scores, the frequent occurrence of in-school violence, dilapidated buildings, and an on-time graduation rate of just 61 percent.

This is the story of how Camden became one of the nation’s best funded and worst performing school districts, which is the first in a three-part video series on Camden public school system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0JorXgqxiU

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Is Homeschooling Right for You?

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Is Homeschooling Right for You?
Jan 23, 2015
Jessica A. Bush

10 THINGS TO CONSIDER: PART 1: The prospect of homeschooling is a daunting task as it has many advantages as well as some disadvantages. We know you want what is best for your children, and so if you are thinking of homeschooling, here are some things you should consider before making your final decision.

Why homeschool?

There are always a number of schooling choices in every neighborhood, so you need to have a really strong idea of why you want to homeschool. Homeschooling takes an enormous amount of your time, requires organization and a whole lot of work on your behalf, so having really strongly formed reasons for why you want to embark on this is important to keep you going.

What are the legal requirements?

Contact your local school boards for curriculums and the legal requirements you have as a parent. Each school board has materials and books for homeschooling that make it easier for you to create and follow a curriculum that covers everything your child needs to learn in each semester.

Join homeschooling groups in your area as they will have a wealth of information too. Register your family for homeschool and ensure that you know your legal responsibilities.

What is your homeschooling style?

As homeschooling develops, so does the number of homeschooling styles. From classic to eclectic to unschooling, select your style and ensure it fits with your child’s learning style.

Who will help you?

Most people have academic strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps you and your husband have different talents and can share the workload or perhaps you will need tutors to guide your child through those subjects that you don’t excel at. Ensure that you have a plan that covers the entire curriculum and don’t be afraid to ask for help; you don’t have to do everything on your own.

Another possibility is to share classes with other homeschooling families in a homeschooling co-op. This will help to reduce your work load and will ensure that your children are getting a great education from like-minded individuals.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

It’s really important to be honest about this; sure we would love to do everything ourselves, but we have to provide the absolute best for our children. If you are poor at discipline or schedules, then ask for help making one that the family has to stick to. Know your strong points and play to them; know your weaknesses and illicit help from your family members, homeschooling community and tutors.

What is your support base?

Create a support base for yourself that will create a community of learning that supports your children. Friends, family members, other homeschooling families and tutors will help you to create a community in which your children are free to learn, grow and play. This community is also there to help you and to provide the support you need to enjoy your homeschooling experience and to provide advice and ideas that you can adopt so your homeschooling practice evolves and grows with your family.

Tutor Doctor of North Jersey

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/homeschooling-right-you-jessica-a-bush

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Chris Christie Reviews Plan for School Vouchers

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Chris Christie Reviews Plan for School Vouchers 

As New Jersey Governor Chris Christie moves toward a decision on whether to run for president, he is touting his education success stories, including tenure reform and more charter schools. Yet one victory has eluded him – the Opportunity Scholarship, a voucher program for students in the worst-performing public schools. (Sullivan/Forbes)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maureensullivan/2015/01/19/chris-christie-revives-plan-for-school-vouchers-in-run-up-to-2016-decision/

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The Next Step in School Choice

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The Next Step in School Choice

Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation

In their classic work, Free to Choose, Milton and Rose Friedman described four basic ways of spending money. People can either spend their own money or someone else’s money, and they can either spend it on themselves or on someone else. The Friedmans argued that people generally have a stronger incentive to economize when spending their own money than when spending someone else’s money. Likewise, people generally have a stronger incentive to maximize value when spending money on themselves than when spending on someone else.

The lack of incentive to reduce costs or maximize value is particularly acute when the spender does not know whose money he is spending or on whom he is spending it. For instance, a person is more likely to purchase a lavish dinner with a corporate expense account than when a close friend is paying. Likewise, someone is less likely to maximize value when buying a gift for the office holiday gift exchange than when buying a gift for a significant other. In the latter scenario, the spender’s knowledge of what would provide the greatest value is also considerably higher when he knows the recipient well.

Public-school officials, like all government bureaucrats, primarily engage in the worst kind of spending: They spend other people’s money on children who are not their own. As competent and well-meaning as they may be, their incentives to economize and maximize value are simply not as strong as those of parents spending their own money on their own children…

If traditional public-school systems work by spending someone else’s money on someone else’s children, taxpayer-funded vouchers allow parents to spend taxpayer money on their own children. Parents have a strong incentive to maximize the educational value that their children receive from the voucher, but since a traditional voucher must be spent in a lump sum, there is no incentive to economize below the value of the voucher.

Though Education Savings Accounts are still taxpayer funded, the way they are structured makes for a dynamic closer to the one involved in spending your own money on your own children: Parents still insist on the best quality education but have more incentive to find a bargain. ESAs are not the equivalent of cash because the funds are restricted to approved categories of educational expenses, but they do provide families with much greater flexibility in how to spend (or save) the funds than vouchers do. As a result, parents have the ability and incentive to economize in a manner that more closely resembles their spending of their own money — with both economy and value in mind — which in turn fosters the development of a real education market

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Only 19 Paterson Students Ready For College

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Only 19 Paterson Students Ready For College

Posted: Dec 01, 2014 10:43 AM EST Updated: Dec 01, 2014 10:43 AM EST
By Tamara Laine, @ChasingTamara

Paterson, New Jersey (My9NJ) –

In Paterson, New Jersey only 19 kids who took the SAT’s are considered college ready. This means that they scored at least a 1500 out of 2400 on the standardized test, and this number is truly shocking considering how large the school district is.

Paterson resident Jason Williams is one of the lucky ones. He just graduated high school last year and has been enrolled in college since September, after taking the SAT’s three times determined to score over 1500. He says that the key to his success was not falling victim to the streets.

“Just last summer, my friend and teammate, he was shot and killed that summer and that really affected me,” he said.

https://www.my9nj.com/story/27515692/only-19-paterson-students-ready-for-college

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NJTPC Will Host Guest Speaker Rabbi Israel Teitelbaum

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NJTPC Will Host Guest Speaker Rabbi Israel Teitelbaum 

Tuesday, August 19 @ 7PM
At the American Legion Teaneck PostIsrael Teitelbaum, Cofounder of Alliance for Free Choice in Education, will address:UNIVERSAL SCHOOL CHOICECome and hear what he has to impart to us all about freedom of choice in Education.

For further background on universal school choice, you may wish to view this short broadcast of Liberty Action Network

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jJnphl_uT4&feature=youtu.be

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Major Win For School Choice: Charter Students Smarter, Earn More

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Major Win For School Choice: Charter Students Smarter, Earn More

Robby Soave|Jul. 22, 2014 10:15 am


Wikimedia CommonsA just-released study from the University of Arkansas provides a substantial endorsement of charter school education. U.S. students who spent several years in charter schools were found to score significantly better on tests and make more money than their counterparts in traditional K-12 public schools, when adjusted for funding discrepancies.

Researchers examined data from 21 different states. While the results varied, charter schools were found to be more productive—and generate a higher return on investment—than traditional public schools (TPS). On average, charter school students scored so much better on assessments that spending money on charters was roughly 40 percent more efficient than spending money on TPS. According to the study:

Comparing [National Assessment of Education Progress] achievement obtained in public charter schools versus TPS for 21 states and DC, we find the public charter school sector delivers a weighted average of an additional 17 NAEP points per $1000 invested in math, representing a productivity advantage of 40% for charters; In reading, the public charter sector delivers an additional 16 NAEP points per $1000 invested, representing a productivity advantage of 41% for charters.

https://reason.com/blog/2014/07/22/major-win-for-school-choice-charter-stud

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Charter School Applications Remain Strong, Despite Few Approvals by State

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Charter School Applications Remain Strong, Despite Few Approvals by State

Administration’s reluctance to sign off on new charters doesn’t do much to discourage nearly 40 new applicants

Even as the Christie administration approves fewer new charter schools, interest in opening these facilities remains high, with nearly 40 applications coming in last week for the latest round of review.

Thirty-eight applications were received in all, although that number may be culled after preliminary reviews are conducted by the state Department of Education to determine if the proposals are complete.

The high number of applications reflects the enduring interest in operating these schools, even as the state throttles back on approvals. In the round of applications this past March, 38 proposals yielded just three approvals.

Overall, 14 of this year’s applications are repeat submissions; nearly a dozen come from the larger education management organizations that are coming to dominate New Jersey’s charter landscape.  (Mooney/NJSpotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/04/10/charter-school-applications-remain-strong-despite-few-approvals/ 

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N.J. study warns of continuing struggle for black, Latino children

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N.J. study warns of continuing struggle for black, Latino children

APRIL 1, 2014
BY MONSY ALVARADO
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

White, Asian, African-American and Latino children in New Jersey scored higher than the national average across racial and ethnic backgrounds in several key indicators that measure a child’s chance at success in school and in life.

But the data in a report, for release today by a national advocacy organization, reveal deep disparities within the state’s racial and ethnic groups in areas including fourth-grade reading proficiency, eighth-grade math skills, high school and college graduation rates, and poverty levels. White and Asian children in the Garden State continue to score better than their Latino and black counterparts in several of these areas.

“To me this report provides data that confirms what we have suspected for a long time, that there is a significant gap in the well-being of children based on race and ethnicity,” said Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, a statewide, non-profit, non-partisan child research and action organization that jointly released the information with the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The statistics found in The Kids Count policy report, “Race for Results: Building a Path to Opportunity for All Children” by the Baltimore-based Casey Foundation, is intended to better inform policymakers when making decisions about programs that can benefit children, foundation officials said.

“This first-time index shows that many in our next generation, especially kids of color, are off track in many issue areas and in nearly every region of the country,” said Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation in a press release. “Race for Results is a call to action that requires serious and sustained attention from the private, non-profit, philanthropic and government sectors to create equitable opportunities for children of color, who will play an increasingly large role in our nation’s well-being and prosperity.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-study-warns-of-continuing-struggle-for-black-latino-children-1.838961#sthash.9Bwgc49c.dpuf

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New School Chief Returns at Tumultuous Time for Education in NJ

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David Hespe

New School Chief Returns at Tumultuous Time for Education in NJ

State-aid crunch, strife in Newark and debate over Christie’s policies greet former education commissioner upon return to Trenton.

Gov. Chris Christie picked quite a day yesterday to announce David Hespe would be returning as his next education commissioner, a post he held more than a decade ago.

The governor’s school-aid numbers for next year were released yesterday afternoon to a less-than-enthusiastic reception. Earlier in the day, legislators argued over how to deal with the growing turmoil over the state’s ongoing control of Newark schools. And, throughout the day, advocates were gearing up for protests over the administration’s overall education policies. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/02/28/new-schools-chief-returns-at-tumultuous-time-for-education-in-nj/

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Is Your Child in the Right School?

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Is Your Child in the Right School?
Amy Payne
January 27, 2014 at 6:30 am

South Carolina mom Lisa Stevens wasn’t satisfied with her child’s school. Then she heard about charter schools and discovered she could get a group of people together and start one.

Nathan, a second-grader in Arizona with a learning disability, is thriving in a small class with teachers who are able to give him the attention he needs. His parents discovered they could choose the right program for Nathan because Arizona has Education Savings Accounts.

School choice doesn’t look the same for everyone—because learning doesn’t look the same for everyone. This week, kids and parents who have found the right combinations are celebrating National School Choice Week—and it’s the perfect time for you to learn more about your family’s options.

The old way of doing K-12 education—every child put into the same public system—hasn’t worked out. But school choice has returned control of education to the local units where it belongs: the family and the individual school. School choice has proven to produce better academic outcomes, significantly increased graduation rates, improved student safety, and higher parental satisfaction with their children’s education.

This week, we’ll be highlighting school choice success stories on The Foundry. Here are some of the ways students and parents are achieving success:

Charter schools. Watch our video to hear Lisa’s story of starting a charter school.

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Check out this slideshow of families who are customizing their children’s learning thanks to Arizona’s ESAs.

Vouchers. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which gives students from low-income families vouchers to attend private schools in the nation’s capital. These students are seeing success like never before thanks to this program.

Online learning. Students can access educational opportunities that aren’t available in their geographic areas, thanks to all the online innovation taking place.

Homeschooling. Parents and students have freedom and flexibility to pursue the type of education they want for their families. School choice is working—but it’s up to all of us to make sure government doesn’t stand in the way of these exciting developments. Visit The Foundry each day this week to learn more.

https://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/27/child-right-school/

There may be a School Choice Week event going on in your area. Check out the website.