New Arrangements
An occasional series on the changing definition of public schooling, including articles on vouchers, the education industry, philanthropy, privatization, school choice, privately financed scholarships, senior citizen involvement, and tutoring.
Teaching Profession
Unions Turn Cold Shoulder on Charters
Floated early on as an idea by the American Federation of Teachers' legendary leader Albert Shanker, charter schools seemed to offer the promise of creating a variety of public schools free from bureaucratic meddling. But as laws favoring the new-style schools passed in state after state, teachers' unions generally opposed them.
School & District Management
Doing It Their Way: Teachers Make All Decisions at Cooperative Venture
Gigi Dobosenski is a first-year teacher at Minnesota New Country School. She's also a curriculum developer, a staff recruiter, a performance evaluator, a school spokeswoman, and a maintenance worker.
Early Childhood
New Twist in Charter Schools: Preschool Programs
Charter school preschool programs, now being operated at scattered sites areound the country, have emerged for much the same reason as charter schools themselves: They meet a need or provide an alternative that is not available within the existing public system.
School Choice & Charters
States' Work on Charters Still Unfolding
Charter schools arrived a decade ago. But even as the charter movement matures, this legislative season finds states still seeking the right level of oversight for the nearly 2,500 independent public schools operating nationwide.
States
Short on Funds, Cyber School Awaits Ruling
The fate of what might be the nation's largest online charter school was scheduled to rest in the hands of a Pennsylvania judge early this week.
School & District Management
Sales Pitch: Go to School in Our District
The Milwaukee school district and others around the country are honing their marketing tactics as competition for students rises.
School Choice & Charters
High Court High Noon
When the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the topic of Cleveland's school vouchers next week in a case destined for landmark status, the wisdom or efficacy of vouchers won't really be at issue. But in Cleveland, the policy debate over the voucher plan has continued to simmer ever since the program was enacted.
School & District Management
Community Groups Looking to Run Phila. Schools
In a nationally watched move last December, Pennsylvania took over the country's eighth-largest school district. As part of that shift, nonprofit community groups will run low-performing local schools in partnership with for-profit school-management companies or other organizations by fall.
Student Achievement
Tutoring Services See Opportunity in New Law
The new federal education act promises to give children in chronically failing public schools new educational options, including federally financed tutoring services. That's good news for eligible children and their parents, supporters of the provision say. The nation's supplemental education industry is gearing up to share in their delight.
Early Childhood
Generation Connection
In an unusual move, an Oklahoma school district and a nursing home have joined forces to build and run an early-childhood facility that brings together young and old.
Equity & Diversity
Minority Parents Quietly Embrace School Choice
After all, the most typical advocates of wide-open school choice are conservative Republicans and libertarians; the staunchest opponents tend to be Democratic and liberal, and can usually count on blacks and Hispanics as political allies.
School Choice & Charters
A Spiritual and Moral Foundation
—Karla Scoon Reid
The value of an education was lost on Tonya Jordan until her children started school. When she was growing up in Milwaukee's inner city, she says, her parents didn't stress the importance of the classroom. Instead, the strict family edict for the six Jordan children was: "When you get 18, you had to get out of the house."
The value of an education was lost on Tonya Jordan until her children started school. When she was growing up in Milwaukee's inner city, she says, her parents didn't stress the importance of the classroom. Instead, the strict family edict for the six Jordan children was: "When you get 18, you had to get out of the house."
School Choice & Charters
Public Debates, Private Choices
Funding for these stories was provided in part by the Ford Foundation, which helps underwrite coverage of the changing definition of public schooling.
School Choice & Charters
Basking in Personal Attention
—Robert C. Johnston
Kiva Jefferson had her first parent-teacher conference before school started this year. That's because teachers at Lee A. Tolbert Academy Charter School, where her three daughters are enrolled here, visit their students' homes even before the opening bell.
Kiva Jefferson had her first parent-teacher conference before school started this year. That's because teachers at Lee A. Tolbert Academy Charter School, where her three daughters are enrolled here, visit their students' homes even before the opening bell.