by Robert Pondiscio
October 19th, 2009
Tags: Carl Icahn School, charter caps, charter schools
Posted in Core Knowledge School | No Comments »
The Carl C. Icahn Charter School, a Core Knowledge School in the South Bronx, had 99 percent of its third- through eighth-graders score at or above grade level this year’s state math exams, while 94 percent of kids pass the state’s reading test. The New York Post notes that three more Icahn schools have opened and three more are planned. The only other Icahn school whose kids have taken the state tests saw 100 percent of its third-graders meeting or surpassing the benchmarks.
However, if New York State doesn’t lift its cap on charter schools, currently set at 2o0, plans for more Icahn schools will come to a halt. “This is part of the answer to a better education for children, so why limit it only to a 200 cap in a large state like this?” said Principal Daniel Garcia.
“It’s a joy for me to hear kids in second grade talking about why the South seceded from the North and about abolitionists,” Garcia tells the paper. “It’s no wonder by the time they get to the eighth grade, they’re superstars.”
by Robert Pondiscio
October 19th, 2009
Tags: math, reading, remediation, UNLV
Posted in Assessment and Testing, Higher Education, accountability | 1 Comment »
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is launching an ambitious research project to figure out why so many of its freshmen need remediation in reading and math. Every incoming student will be evaluated “to reverse-engineer his academic upbringing,” UNLV president Neal Smatresk tells the Las Vegas Sun. Since eighty percent of UNLV’s undergrads come from a single source, the state’s own Clark County School District, Smatresk hopes to gain particularly vivid insights.
Data gathered from the academic assessments would be shared with school districts and could help educators identify and correct patterns of weakness, whether it be general flaws in teaching philosophies or student study habits. Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said the research findings could offer important insight into the root causes of the problems requiring remediation.
“The possibility that the district will be able to identify clusters of underachieving students, and trace them to not only individual campuses but individual classrooms, has Clark County’s teachers union on edge,” the paper notes.
Last year, more than a third of Nevada’s high school graduates who enrolled at the state’s universities and colleges required remedial classes in English and mathematics, at a cost of over $2 million.
by Robert Pondiscio
October 19th, 2009
Tags: education blogs, online schools
Posted in Core Knowledge | 1 Comment »
The blog Online Schools has compiled a list of “50 Excellent Blogs About Education Reform” and lists the Core Knowledge Blog. The most surprising news: there are actually 50 blogs about ed reform.
