Monday, August 30, 2010

No new post today, but I just created a new feature for this blog-- an overview of No-Excuses charter schools. If you don't know much about No-Excuses charters, or if you already know a lot, but you're curious what I have to say about them, please read up!

2 comments:

  1. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/10/nyc-traditional-public-schools.html

    There is a new study showing NYC public schools, and unionized teachers, outperform charter schools. And at a lower cost. A key quote:

    "Sixty-one percent of traditional public schools, which are unionized, got A’s and B’s, compared with 48 percent of charter schools, where union representation is rare."

    With so many contradictory studies, and such an anti-union atmosphere, how do we compare public & charters? How do we know where to put tax dollars?
    ------------------------------
    And on a different note, watch this wonderful video song from Sesame Street teaching Black girls how great their hair is!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpFde5rgmw

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  2. Hi Cybergrace,
    Thanks for your comment! There's now a whole post devoted to responding to one of the issues you raise. For specific comments pretaining to the particular context of the data you're citing in your comment, see the first footnote to that new post. I recommend reading the actual times article that that quote came from, as it tells you a lot more specifics. The blog where you found the quotation, Schools Matter, is one I'm somewhat familiar with, and it's vociferously anti-charter and anti-No-Excuses-Education; there are absolutely valid arguments to be made against both charters and No-Excuses schools, but Schools Matter is, to put it plainly, a little hysterical and even somewhat irresponsible. They provide information in a way that I find misleading and alarmist, and I'm not sure they're moving the conversation forward in a productive way.

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