Matt Damon and I are “in” the same film. I should be thrilled, but it’s a poorly contrived documentary with a storyline worlds apart from the reality of education for most Americans. Entitled “Backpack Full of Cash” for a phrase I used in an interview with the filmmakers, it posits that the point of [...]
The grades are in: For the fifth year, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction has rated North Carolina schools using a “college and career readiness” standard. DPI’s most recent release breaks down the performance of 123 high schools in the Charlotte area — including public and charter high schools in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Union and Gaston [...]
On Oct. 12, News & Observer reporters Lynn Bonner and David Raynor published an article about North Carolina’s virtual schools. As superintendent of North Carolina Connections Academy, one of the state’s virtual public schools, I had multiple conversations with Lynn to inform the story, and I’d like to thank her for delivering a balanced piece [...]
In a News & Observer letter to the editor, Amy Marschall discusses her desire to see district and charter schools collaborate. Many charter school directors have shared that they are open to a dialogue with district representatives. Ultimately, the students would be the beneficiaries of a reciprocal arrangement. Share your thoughts with the Association. Have you [...]
Charter schools started in North Carolina, as they did across the nation, as laboratories for testing ideas for improving education. But now the special schools – publicly funded, but privately run – are testing something else. They are challenging our common commitment to offering all children a fair opportunity at a sound, basic education. Charter [...]
Two studies were released this month from universities in California that demonstrate the effectiveness of school choice and the need for more options in education. In early October, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University released a study which followed the educational progress of over 97,000 charter school students in New [...]
Sadly, decades of school reform efforts have come down to little more than throwing cooked spaghetti against the wall. To date, a lot of that spaghetti has peeled off. Reforms that haven't completely stuck include the Common Core curriculum, seen by conservatives as an Obama conspiracy and the "progressive" left as a plot to hold [...]
As more than 50 million students go back to school, Americans of every background and political persuasion should agree on one basic bedrock goal: No matter where these young people live, no matter how much money their parents earn and no matter their race or ethnicity, they all deserve an excellent education. That is a [...]
