In a nutshell, here's my philosophy on how well the free market solves problems: It works exceedingly well when the proper conditions are in place, but it does not work well in all circumstances. What you need for the free market to work … [Read more...]
Scot Lehigh vs. Professor Menino
From Scot Lehigh's column in the Boston Globe today comes this intriguing snippet: Over the years, as he’s been thwarted on various aspects of his education agenda, I’ve prodded Mayor Menino to support more Commonwealth charters. After the … [Read more...]
Do We Need More Unsupervised Charter Schools?
With the Legislature holding hearings today on whether to hand out more feedbags for the charter school trough, let's hope they consider our recent experience with the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School before they put the Department … [Read more...]
The Charter Waiting List Game
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's some actual reporting from the Boston Globe! Today's above-the-fold expose by James Vaznis shines some much needed light on one of the worst kept secrets in charter-land: that incredible, ever expanding … [Read more...]
The Failure of our Failed and Failing Schools
Did you know that African American 8th graders in Massachusetts outscored the Finns in math on last year’s TIMSS tests, the global education equivalent of March Madness? Or how about the fact that between 2003-2011, students in the Boston … [Read more...]
Charter School Attrition
Well, with Scot Lehigh once again burnishing the charter school myth in today's Globe, it's time once again to go to the numbers. Charter schools like to tout their test scores and long waiting lists, especially when advocating for more … [Read more...]
How the BTU can help the Renaissance Charter School.
Yesterday (Saturday Feb 23rd) the Boston Globe ran an editorial about the Renaissance Charter School, one of the oldest charter schools in the state and one that, until recently, was hailed as a shining example of how charter schools … [Read more...]
MADOE Commissioner Mitchell Chester…Listen Up!
Boston Public Schools is the Number 1 urban school district in the Nation! Michael Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools said, “the district’s many excellent teachers to guide classroom instruction have … [Read more...]
Gloucester charter two year anniversary – it just gets worse
One of the conditions of the probation supplement was that the school create a plan to address the deficiencies in its special education program. Why these deficiencies exist is puzzling given that the schools founders had promoted … [Read more...]
The Real Charter School Agenda in Boston
This is what Carol Johnson's school closing plan amounts to. The city is already in talks with charter schools to lease the closed school buildings to charter schools. It's about union busting, of course, but it's also something … [Read more...]