National Teachers’ Union Adopts New Policy Statement on Charter Schools
On July 4th, the vast majority of the 7,000 delegates from the National Education Association (NEA) voted to adopt a new charter school policy statement. The new statement is an overhaul of NEA’s former charter school policy statement that they had adopted in 2001. Read more about the statement and the response from NAPCS and NACSA here.
View post »Multilingual Equity Network Provides ESSA Recommendations to MDE
Over the past 20 years, the number of EL students in Minnesota has increased by 300 percent, making them the state’s fastest growing student group. However, despite the rapid growth, their academic progress, as compared to their non-EL peers, has plateaued. The Minnesota Multilingual Equity Network proposed seven recommendations to MDE for ESSA implementation.
View post »National Leaders in Competency-Based Education Share Lessons in Minnesota
Last Thursday, about 100 attendees gathered to hear and learn about New Hampshire’s first-of-its-kind Performance Assessment of Competency Education state accountability system from two of its architects—Deputy Commissioner Paul Leather, and the state’s PACE curriculum director, Ellen Hume-Howard.
View post »Secretary DeVos Speaks, Success Academy Receives Broad Prize at National Charter School Conference
This past week over 4,200 advocates, teachers, policymakers, administrators, consultants, and board members attended the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The conference boasted over 135 sessions, Betsy DeVos spoke, and Success Academy won the prestigious Broad Prize.
View post »Minnesota’s New ESSA Accountability Plan Is Almost Ready
Last week, MDE’s ESSA Accountability Committee had their last meeting regarding their recommendations for state’s accountability plan. Over the course of ten months, the Accountability Committee met to discuss the different components of the plan - the state’s measures of school quality and student success (SQ/SS) measures, graduation rates, academic growth, the state’s goals for the academic indicators, and how the bottom five percent of schools will be identified for support.
View post »Governor Dayton Signs K-12 Education Bill. What’s In It?
Last night, Governor Dayton signed the policy and funding bills that laid out Minnesota’s next two-year, $46 billion dollar budget, which includes over $18 billion for K-12 Education. But, what's in it? Read here to find out about some of the key provisions.
View post »Four Dimensions of Innovation, and the Strategy for Scaling It Up
The word "innovation" is in vogue. But what does it really mean? Read here about the four different dimensions of innovation and how they can be scaled up in K-12 education. This post first appeared on Rick Hess' blog, Straight Up, for Education Week.
View post »Do Minnesota Charters “Skim” the Best Students? Our Analysis Says No
We analyzed the admission and enrollment applications for 47 Minnesota charter schools in order to determine if the state's charters practice unethical enrollment practices. Our analysis found that overall they do not.
View post »Four Minnesota Charters Recognized for Innovation in 2nd Annual Awards Program
On May 4th, the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools presented four Minnesota charter schools with awards for their innovative programming. Specifically, the award categories included increased learning opportunities for all pupils, different and innovative teaching methods, different and innovative forms of measuring outcomes, and new forms of accountability for schools
View post »Innovation and ESSA Provisions in the K-12 Conference Bill
On Tuesday, the K-12 Conference Committee presented its initial version of the Education Omnibus Bill. Read about the provisions in the bill that relate to the themes of this blog: innovation, charter schools, and the Every Student Succeeds Act state accountability plan.
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