Student Michelle Mueller talks about her experience at WCA. Check out what she had to say here.
River Falls Student Graduates from Wisconsin's First Online Public School
This is a great story about how a virtual school helped a student reach his full potential. Check out the full article here.
Why we need parents in education
Great piece by Gerard Robinson of American Enterprise Institute who explains, "The reason to involve parents in a child's education is not just theoretical."
You can read the whole column here.
Review of 100 Studies Shows Support for School Choice
From the article on WisconsinWatchdog.org:
“I think it shows that what they’ve been attempting to do here in Wisconsin, give parents more high quality choices, is something that is having a positive impact on our education system."
You can read the whole article here.
New Statewide Survey Shows Majority of Wisconsinites Proudly say #ITrustParents
Today the American Federation for Children, the nation’s voice for educational choice, released the results of a Wisconsin survey showing a majority of likely voters support the statewide voucher program in the state.
Continue reading here.
The Benefits and Challenges of Education Savings Accounts
By Inez Feltscher
School choice programs, from charter schools to voucher and tax credit scholarship programs, enjoy bipartisan support and are growing quickly across a majority of states. However, not all school choice programs are created equal. Education savings accounts, sometimes called flexible education spending accounts or ESAs, are “the new kid on the block” in the arsenal of innovative programs that allow parents to direct funds toward the educational opportunities that best suit their child. ESAs take Milton Friedman’s initial voucher plans to the next logical step: allowing parents to fully control the dollars the state allocates for the education of their pupil.
This report explores the benefits and challenges that accompany the groundbreaking programs which allow parents to fully control state dollars allocated to their child’s education, as well as points to three tools – peer reviews, branding, and consumer reports – that parents will use in the future of individually-customized educational options.
Read the full report here.
How Calculating Graduation Rates is Misleading
This data routinely hurts Virtual School's rankings as they are often the schools of last resort for kids who have been failed by previous institutions.
Check out the full article here.
How the Press Covers Charter Schools
Interesting report from the American Enterprise Institute. Unfortunately, many reporters often fail to get parents' perspectives when covering education reform issues. No one cares more about the success or failure of a school than parents.
Click here to read the report.
Portfolio Management Fails in New Orleans
Bureaucracy, no matter how well intentioned, stifles creativity and suppresses parental choice.
Click here to read the article in Education Next.
The Weak Predictive Power of Test Scores
The school choice tent is much bigger than it used to be. Politicians and policy wonks across the ideological spectrum have embraced the principle that parents should get to choose their children’s schools and local districts should not have a monopoly on school supply.
But within this big tent there are big arguments about the best way to promote school quality. Some want all schools to take the same tough tests and all low-performing schools (those that fail to show individual student growth over time) to be shut down (or, in a voucher system, to be kicked out of the program). Others want to let the market work to promote quality and resist policies that amount to second-guessing parents.
Continue reading here.