The NAACP urges a moratorium on new charter schools. A new law, though, already limits their growth in Detroit.
charter schools
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
*Of all the … the federal government has been giving students money to mess around with experiments in burning animal dung. HELP FROM HOUGHTON: Students at Michigan Tech University used federal grants for research on making cooking fires safer. (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) That’s one way to look at it. Here’s another: Michigan […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
(Bridge archive photo) *Not all charter schools in Michigan are alike. Some focus on quality; others focus on marketing to attract parental attention, reports Michigan Radio. This leaves some high-quality charters still struggling to enroll students. *In Indiana, “lawmakers are considering forgiving $12 million in loans that ‘failing’ charter schools accepted from the state. Isn’t this […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Michigan isn’t properly monitoring schools, education group says
Increasing school choice doesn’t help students, if the new options are bad. All too often, that’s been the case in Michigan recently with charter schools and cyber-schools, claims a new report by the reform group Education Trust-Midwest. CLICK TO ENLARGE The report to be released today, “Invest in What Works: A Call to Michigan Leaders,” lays […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Pursuit of money, learning mix
Do the profit motive and learning mix? In Michigan, the answer, so far, is – yes. Students at Michigan charter schools operated by for-profit companies perform the same or better academically as their peers at charters run by nonprofits, according to a Bridge Magazine analysis. While they perform the same, they don’t always perform well. […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* The expiration of the payroll tax cut did not get nearly enough attention during all the “fiscal cliff” coverage out of D.C. (Could it be that the Beltway TV types live in an econ bracket where payroll taxes are an inconsequential thing?) Well, as reported by Lester Graham over at Michigan Radio, the payroll tax […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* Michigan charter schools get praise from Stanford University: “A new report released today by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that the typical student in a Michigan charter school gains more learning in a year than his or her district school peer, amounting to about an additional two months of learning […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Charter schools hit the extremes in academic ranking
While several charter schools are among the best in the state in outperforming academic expectations, overall, charters fare poorly in Bridge Magazine’s top-to-bottom list of Michigan schools. The analysis offers ammunition to charter advocates and critics alike; mainly though, it raises questions about why Michigan charter schools are so wildly inconsistent, even when teaching similar […]
Posted inTalent & Education
School choice: not your father's classroom
Imagine a world where your teenage son chooses high school courses like picking dishes in a cafeteria – a serving of Advanced Placement chemistry in the white collar enclave across the river, Spanish online at the dining room table, an English class at the local community college, band at his home school. Now imagine that […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Charter school bill should add protections for quality
By Amber Arellano/Education Trust-Midwest The Oakland Academy in Portage has fulfilled much of the bold promise of the Michigan charter school movement. The elementary school, run by the nonprofit Foundation for Behavioral Resources, routinely exceeds state averages in math and reading. But in the northeast corner of Michigan, a more troubling portrait of charter quality […]