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"New York City has seen some of the more far-reaching educational reforms over the past decade, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein set in motion an array of market-based reforms. Both Bloomberg and Klein argued vigorously that the New York City schools had substantially closed the achievement gap, pointing to a shrinking difference in the percentage of white students and Black and Latino students classified as proficient on the New York State English Language Arts and mathematics assessments administered in grades 3 to 8. Many scholars have demonstrated, however, that differences in proficiency rates are potentially misleading, and especially so if the tests have inflated scores reflecting predictable and easier questions. Has the achievement gap in New York City decreased over time? What happened to the achievement gap when the state of New York, recognizing the flaws in its testing system, raised the "cut scores" defining proficiency on its tests in 2010?"

We compare the spending of charters to that of district schools of similar size, serving the same grade levels and similar student populations. Overall, charter spending variation is large as is the spending of traditional public schools. Comparative spending between the two sectors is mixed, with many high profile charter network schools outspending similar district schools in New York City and Texas, but other charter network schools spending less than similar district schools, particularly in Ohio. We find that in New York City, KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools charter schools spend substantially more ($2,000 to $4,300 per pupil) than similar district schools. Given that the average spending per pupil was around $12,000 to $14,000 citywide, a nearly $4,000 difference in spending amounts to an increase of some 30%. In Ohio, charters across the board spend less than district schools in the same city. And in Texas, some charter chains such as KIPP spend substantially more per pupil than district schools in the same city and serving similar populations, around 30 to 50% more in some cities (and at the middle school level) based on state reported current expenditures, and 50 to 100% more based on IRS filings. Even in New York where we have the highest degree of confidence in the match between our IRS data and Annual Financial Report Data, we remain unconvinced that we are accounting fully for all charter school expenditures.

A shareholder in Virginia-based K12 Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the virtual-schools operator in federal court, alleging that the firm violated securities law by making false statements to investors about students' poor performance on standardized tests. The class-action complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, also accuses K12 of boosting its enrollment and revenues through "deceptive recruiting" practices.

The Department of Education released a final installment of Teacher Data Reports today, for teachers in charter schools and schools for the most severely disabled students. Last week, the city released the underlying data from about 53,000 reports for about 18,000 teachers who received them during the project's three-year lifespan. Teachers received the reports between 2008 and 2010 if they taught reading or math in grades 4 through 8. When the department first announced that it would be releasing the data in response to several news organizations' Freedom of Information Law requests, it indicated that ratings for teachers in charter schools would not be made public. It reversed that decision late last week and today released "value-added" data for 217 charter school teachers.

"Here is the bitter truth. Standardized tests are a political weapon and can be used to tell whatever story you want. The campaign to hold schools and teachers "accountable" for test scores is a political project designed to deflect responsibility away from people who have gotten obscenely wealthy over the past few decades. The concept of "failing schools" is a bogus one. Schools are being shut down not in the interest of the children who attend them, but in order to create opportunities for new players in the education marketplace."

A Literature Review of the Effects of Retention on Students' Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes

Barely one in three city eighth-graders met the bar for reading standards on state tests this year -- the lowest mark for that group since tests were changed in 2006, new data show.

Over the past 2 years, several states have passed legislation to create new teacher evaluation systems linked to student learning, and to require results from those evaluations to be used to inform key personnel decisions--particularly teacher layoffs. (Report can be found at http://bellwethereducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/State-Teacher-Leg-Comparison.pdf)

A new teacher-evaluation system that was tested at 20 city schools has found 18% of teachers to be "ineffective"-far higher than the usual 2% deemed unsatisfactory by the usual evaluation system.

Graphical displays of disaggregated data

Scores for the 2010-11 NYSTP 3-8 ELA and mathematics assessments will be available to schools and districts in the Verification Reports in the Level 2 Reporting (L2RPT) environment (see http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/level2reports/home.html) and on nySTART (www.nySTART.gov) on August 4, 2011. Data on these assessments will be released publicly by the Commissioner on August 8, 2011. School and district aggregated results are embargoed until the Commissioner's public release. Data under embargo cannot be discussed at public meetings or released to the public or the media.

MSNBC video. Where are the teachers?

Middle-class public schools educate the majority of U.S. students but pay lower teacher salaries, have larger class sizes and spend less per pupil than low-income and wealthy schools, according to a report to be issued Monday.

Gov. Chris Christie has been touting his plans for education overhaul, including the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. It's the first full week of school, a traditional time for politicians to roll out proposed changes. It's also the week a new book on education, Howard Wainer's "Uneducated Guesses," was released by the Princeton University Press. It raises significant questions about the premise on which much of Christie's crusade is based - using student test scores to evaluate teachers.

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstein I have a few essential questions before going further any further in the name of standards-based reform. 1) Are standards expectations? 2) Are standards limitations? 3) Should the practice of standardizing performance and quality in the business world be translated into assessing children in the world of education? 4) Is standards-based reform what is best for kids?

Last week I read Paul Tough's New York Times Magazine article, "What if the Secret to Success is Failure?," about the approach being taken by the KIPP schools and others, inspired by the work of Martin Seligman. Two big issues came up for me. The first were some practical concerns, regarding what happens when public schools attempt to implement a "no excuses" model. The second were some larger philosophical questions about the moral lessons being taught, and the roles our

This paper is designed to help policymakers and accountability professionals wrestle with the challenges of using student performance information as a component of educator evaluations when yearly state standardized tests are not available.

A Failing School? Not to These Students

A low-performing Manhattan high school that was granted up to $6 million in extra funds to undergo a "transformation" has found the secret formula for success: Dumb down the requirements for students to pass.