Stories tagged: school choice
Voucher movement is alive, growing in PA
Submitted by Frank Murphy on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 10:59 | Permalink
The progress of the voucher movement in Pennsylvania reminds me of an old adage that my neighbor shared with me the first time I planted ivy in my garden. Ivy sleeps when you first plant it. After a while it starts to creep. Eventually it leaps all over your garden. Like ivy, the voucher movement’s roots have begun to take hold and gain attention in the future landscape of Pennsylvania schooling.
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'Waiting for Superman': Help or menace
Submitted by Paul Socolar on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 17:31 | Permalink
"Waiting for 'Superman'," this year's highly touted education documentary, had a preview screening in Philadelphia Tuesday night, and its producer, Lesley Chilcott, clearly hopes it can have as big an impact on US schools as her previous collaboration with director Davis Guggenheim on "An Inconvenient Truth" had on awareness of the climate crisis.
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Sen. Williams introduces voucher bill
Submitted by Brad Gibson on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 16:35 | Permalink
State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D-Philadelphia) has continued his advocacy for school vouchers in Pennsylvania by introducing the Opportunity Scholarship Act. Senate Bill 1405, introduced last month, would require the Department of Education to create an opportunity scholarship program for low-income students in districts with at least one chronically failing school.
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Pew Report: Options are growing, but parents want still more
Submitted by Dale Mezzacappa on Tue, 06/29/2010 - 17:14 | Permalink
Those of us who have been following the education world in Philadelphia for any length of time know that it has changed drastically just in the past decade. Catholic schools are on the wane. Charter schools are on the rise. And the public school system itself has undergone huge upheavals -- a state takeover, the advent of private management in some low-performing schools, the creation of dozens of additional high schools under Paul Vallas.
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La Escuela Chárter Independence ofrece un mundo de oportunidades
por Sarah Burgess Posted in Verano 2010 Edition | Permalink
Ericka Morris, mejor conocida por los estudiantes de 4to grado como la maestra Ericka, sabe cómo atrapar la atención de sus estudiantes. Este día en la Escuela Chárter Independence, están de pie en grupos fuera de la letra U formada por sus escritorios.
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Viewing board members' disclosure forms isn't always easy
by Paul Jablow Posted in Summer 2010 Edition | Permalink
“Of course they’re public records,” said Kayne Deissroth, board secretary of the Philadelphia Electrical and Technology (PE&T) Charter High School in Center City, ushering a Notebook reporter back into her office and pulling a slender manila folder filled with documents out of a file cabinet.
A day earlier, a set of similar documents was emailed to the Notebook by the KIPP Philadelphia Charter School, marked “Right-to-Know request granted.”
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Alliance seeks to unionize Philly charters
by Ron Whitehorne Posted in Summer 2010 Edition | Permalink
Ted Kirsch, now the head of the statewide teachers’ federation, AFT Pennsylvania, sits at his desk surrounded by a wall of pictures spanning his four decades as a teacher unionist.
The former longtime president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers points with pride to a youthful, slimmer version of himself with Martin Luther King Jr. and talks of past struggles and victories.
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Politics swirl around efforts to revise charter law
by Sarah Peterson Posted in Summer 2010 Edition | Permalink
In the wake of reports of questionable financial practices in more than a dozen Philadelphia charter schools, state legislators are considering how or whether to overhaul the 13-year-old charter school law to strengthen oversight, tighten accountability, and increase transparency.
The Rendell administration and some legislative leaders disagree over how broad any reform should go – whether to stick to measures designed to prevent financial abuses or wade into deeper waters as to how charter schools are authorized, funded, and renewed.
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Parents have praise for charters but want better oversight
by Daniel Denvir Posted in Summer 2010 Edition | Permalink
When Irene Bowie’s grandson attended New Media Technology Charter School, he did not come home with textbooks.
That’s not something she anticipated, having chosen charters for their academic excellence. So Bowie shelled out $200 a week for tutoring. Then in December, her grandson came home and said that his teacher had left. A security guard was now teaching the class.
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Showing students a world of opportunities
by Sarah Burgess Posted in Summer 2010 Edition | Permalink
Ericka Morris, better known to her 4th-graders as Teacher Ericka, knows how to engage her students. On this day at Independence Charter School, they stand in clusters outside the U formed by their desks.
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Black and Latino boys disrespected, task force finds
by Dale Mezzacappa
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