- The New York Times pulled off a coup with its recent profile of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter network. Students at the astonishingly high-performing schools have routinely achieved fantastic scores on state tests—a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that most come from low-income black and Latino families. So what’s their secret? Emphasizing a stringent focus on test preparation, the piece gives plenty of ammunition both to the schools’ boosters and their critics. On the one hand, most readers will wince at accounts of students wetting themselves during practice tests rather than sacrificing time to go the lavatory. On the other, vast demand for admission—this year, more than 22,000 applications were filed for fewer than 3,000 seats—speaks for itself.
- Of course, Moskowitz is never one to shy away from controversy—or a fight. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, she goes after a new behavioral code for New York City schools instituted by her current nemesis, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Skewering the novel use of so-called “restorative circles,” she touts those huge Success Academy application numbers (undiminished by the network’s reputation for stringent discipline). Moskowitz is right that persistently disruptive behavior is antithetical to learning, and the examples she cites of student misbehavior are abhorrent. But she may be discounting too quickly the ill effects of too-frequent suspensions and expulsions, which can also derail the aims of education.
- The foresight game can be treacherous. Sometimes your predictions can seem more like hopeful wishes. Then again, sometimes you can look at the prevailing trends and come up with a slam-dunk prognostication. After the November shellackin’ party put on by the GOP in statehouses across the country, Fordham’s Michael Petrilli envisioned another “year of school choice” (following 2011’s flurry of choice-friendly state initiatives). Five months later, some thirty-four states are considering proposals to widen options for alternative schooling. Let’s hope the momentum continues.
- A new report from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation reiterates a sad truth that we’ve become too accustomed to hearing: American schools are sorely underserving gifted and talented kids from underprivileged backgrounds. Measuring eighteen state-level policies and student outcomes, the study concludes that not a single state is doing right by its disadvantaged smart kids. “What is available for high-ability students primarily benefits those in wealthier school districts. The lost potential is staggering,” says foundation chief (and former New York City Schools Chancellor) Harold O. Levy. Fordham has also turned its attention to the problem—and found similarly discouraging answers.
- We can finally report some (provisional) good news from our friends at the Capitol: Yesterday, following months of hearings on a working draft to update No Child Left Behind, the leaders of the Senate HELP Committee put forward their plan. The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 represents a genuinely workable, bipartisan effort to change education law for the better. It preserves the critical place of annual standardized testing, but allows states the latitude to decide for themselves how testing data will be worked into their accountability formulae. It won’t be easy leading this camel through the needle’s eye of the legislative process, but the committee’s offering is definitely something to celebrate.
