- If there’s one thing we know about standardized testing, it’s that parents absolutely loathe it. With outrage building across the country over Common Core and its affiliated assessments, it’s no surprise that scads of irate parents have been pulling their kids out of tests. Why, just look at the public opinion polli—oh, that’s weird. According to a new survey conducted by the Education Post, parents aren’t actually incandescent with anti-assessment fervor. Forty-four percent of polled parents say that the tests are fair, versus 38 percent who claim that they’re unfair (18 percent say that they’re unsure). The results pretty closely track those of the 2015 Education Next poll, which found that two-thirds of both parents and the public at large support federally mandated testing. All polls come with caveats (a slight manipulation of wording can skew results dramatically), but reformers should greet these results as welcome evidence of parental patience and wisdom.
- Chicago was probably a lot more fun in the 1920s, when bootleg liquor flowed freely, gangsters and molls packed the speakeasies, and tough guys spontaneously broke into Bugsy Malone-style song. The good news is that the outlaw tradition carries on in the school district: Former schools chief Barbara “He Pulls a Knife, You Pull a Gun” Byrd-Bennett pled guilty yesterday to a federal charge of wire fraud, which will likely carry a sentence of seven and a half years in prison. Byrd-Bennett, who collected a paltry annual salary of $250,000, directed $23 million of no-bid administrator training contracts to SUPES Academy, her former employer. In exchange, she was plied with kickbacks and promised a lucrative consultant position with SUPES after leaving the district. The case against her hinged on a series of head-slappingly dumb emails she’d sent to her contacts at the organization, including one in which she copped to needing the money because she had “tuition to pay and casinos to visit.” That faint stirring sound you’re hearing right now is Al Capone rolling over in his grave.
- Massachusetts is a state that does a lot well, including two specific things that drive reform opponents up the wall: electing Republican governors and operating charter schools. Since their inception in 1992, the state’s choice sector has birthed some of the very best charters in the country, routinely producing better results than the Boston public school system. Unfortunately, local political realities have long imposed a cap of just seventy-two charters across the commonwealth. Politicians of both parties have labored to lift or remove the restriction, and a somewhat quixotic lawsuit against the state is now working its way through the courts; but for the thirty-seven thousand kids sitting on charter wait lists, there’s little time to marshal political consensus. Thankfully, they have a champion in Governor Charlie Baker, who announced legislation last week to permit twelve new or expanded charter schools each year in low-performing districts like Boston, New Bedford, and Salem. As a concession to potential allies in the legislature, the bill also empowers charters to weight their lottery systems toward students with special needs, low-income backgrounds, or English language difficulties. It may not be quite as good as eliminating the cap entirely, but this legislation is a more than worthy start.
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