Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and school choice advocate Susan Mitchell have been honored by RightWisconsin for their work on education reform
Thompson won the 2016 Ronald Reagan award; Mitchell was the recipient of the 2016 Iron Lady award, named in honor of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Read more about the awards and these great advocates of School Choice here.
Across the United States, the number of children who are under the age of five is approximately the same as the number who are between age five and 10. Both groups are equal five-year cohorts.
But in many of our nation’s poor communities, some children unfortunately seem to disappear when they reach elementary school age. Take Durham County, as an example. The most recent Census indicates there are 3,252 fewer five- to 10-year-olds living in Durham than we should expect, given the number of preschool children who live there.
Of course, we know where these children have gone: Next door. Chapel Hill and Orange County have an extra 1,100 elementary-age children, and thousands more reside in Cary and areas of Wake County not far from the Durham County line.
What force seems to be driving families across the county lines? It’s school assignments. Middle class families flock to the areas with good assigned schools, and they avoid areas where they perceive that schools are bad.
Read more here.
It’s never been easier for educators to collaborate with peers and grow their professional learning networks. Because hundreds of thousands of teachers, administrators and instructional technologists regularly participate in scheduled and “slow” hashtag-based Twitter chats, there is always somebody online who can answer a question, share an idea or recommend a digital resource for an upcoming unit or lesson plan.
Check out the rest of this article from Getting Smart here.
Check out the story here.
Online school is letting Brooke Elizabeth go after her dream. Read the story here.
Sorry, but I have some bad news for opponents of school choice. The Success Academy public charter-school network, which is based in New York City, marked its 10th anniversary this year and shows no signs of slowing down.
The first school opened in Harlem on Aug. 20, 2006. The 165 kindergartners and first-graders, chosen by lottery, shared a building with a traditional public school. Now there are 41 Success schools, serving 14,000 children. The waiting list has nearly doubled in the past three years to about 17,000, and over the next decade the plan is to expand to 100 schools serving 50,000 children, which would rival the size of the Atlanta and Boston public-school districts.
Read more of this Wall Street Journal article here.
MANATEE
Bradenton’s Jacqueline Galvano thinks it would be a hoot to sing the song “Tomorrow” with “The Late Late Show” host James Corden as part of his famous segment, “Carpool Karaoke.”
“I would just love it,” a beaming Jacqueline said Monday during a visit to the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton where she said the foundation of her skills were laid over the past few years.
Although Corden’s call to the Stewart Elementary School graduate to sing in his sport utility vehicle like Adele and Justin Bieber have done might not come right away, she does stand a chance since she is really going to sing “Tomorrow” in a national touring company of “Annie.”
Read the rest of the story here.
Raise up a child in the way he would go, that is what Marlin and Virginia Kinser have done. Their son Joseph Kinser has been brought up to respect his country and to serve others.
They have helped their son follow his heart and his calling. At age six he set his sights to become a United States Marine. In the Boy Scouts, he honed his skills learning how to live his life according to the 12 points of the Scout Law. He graduated High School from California Virtual Academy of San Diego in June 2015, an online school that helps student develope not just scholastically by their individual passions as well. In June 2016 he took his oath of Eagle Scout and soon after entered U.S. Marine Corps boot camp.
The rest of the story can be found here.
Finding a good elementary school in Houston is easy — if you live in the right neighborhood, or can take on a school search as a full-time job.
Read more here.
Twenty-five thousand people marched on Wednesday in New York City, reports Kate Stringer with The 74, to call for expanded school choice.
The march, organized by Families for Excellent Schools, called for the city to expand charter schools until they serve 200,000 students. That would double the number of students currently in New York's charters, rising to about one-fifth of all New York students.
The city currently has 212 charter schools, with a combined 44,400 students on their wait lists.
Read the rest here.