Tag Archives: Delaware

A couple months ago I told you about the state of Florida’s amazing success in improving early reading test scores. Here were the main things to which former Gov. Jeb Bush attributed the successful gains: Raising standards, measuring progress, grading school performance, providing educational options and targeting resources to reward success and reverse failure are all tools that are transforming schools and raising student achievement…. I also believe we need to better apply free-market principles to the way we deliver education in order to improve the entire system. We should expand educational options so all parents can make the best choices for their children. Teachers and principals should be paid based on performance. Educators that teach subjects with a shortage of teachers, teach in low-performing schools or carry increased responsibilities should be paid more. We should also give merit pay to teachers based on student learning gains and other objective measures…. But blogger Charlie Barone says, hey, wait a minute, let’s take a closer look at Delaware, too. It seems that the First State has shown remarkable improvement, as well. As Matt Ladner points out, some of the same success story themes emerge that have come from Florida: It turns […]

I’ve told you about examples of charter school success in Colorado and about Denver parents demanding more public charter school options. If you’re new to the scene, however, you might be wondering why there aren’t enough charter schools to meet the demands of parents (and kids like me). In a great post, Colorado Charter Schools guru Denise highlights a teachers union attack on charter schools in Delaware, and then brings the topic closer to home: Don’t expect the teacher’s union to make a frontal assault on charter schools — not when they’re so popular with parents and teachers. Speaking negatively about charter schools would never work. Instead, “limit the number of charters,” which in Delaware means putting a moratorium on the number of approved charter applications and keeping the focus on districts’ losing money. Other strategies could include: Limiting the number of authorizers, or eviscerating alternative authorizers; Raising the application approval bar so high that almost no one can meet the requirements (all in the name of holding high standards, of course); and Ensuring that heavy-handed authorizers retain total control in both the big things and little things. Oh, but that might sound like Colorado and not Delaware… Denise makes […]