Not all kids are as blessed as I am, yet their families have opportunities to find a successful education, too. Business Week has such an inspirational story from Harlem. Former media executive Deborah Kenny has created the successful Village Academies charter schools to reach a population of mostly black and Latino kids in an area where other schools are failing:

A former Time Warner executive herself, Kenny has applied a business management style to running her schools, focusing on attracting smart teachers, nurturing talent, using reams of data to improve performance, and putting a huge emphasis on rewarding results. In June, she announced that 100% of Village Academies’ eighth grade students had passed the state math test, a first for Harlem that was lauded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I was proud,” says Kenny. “But this should not be some historic, amazing achievement. It should be a given.”

You really ought to read the whole story. It tells why Ms. Kenny left the business world for education, how she carefully studied the practices of successful schools, and how she views the parents of her students:

Kenny also tells her staff, which now numbers more than 65, that they need to follow the “Ritz-Carlton” model. “We think of the parents as customers, and we pay as much attention to them and pay them as much respect as Ritz-Carlton workers are trained to treat their guests.” In turn, Kenny every several weeks puts data for each student onto spreadsheets—everything from hallway infractions to how often students are late handing in homework. This, she says, enables teachers to see trends and communicate with parents and students before it’s too late.

Treating parents like customers? Sounds like success to me. It will be exciting to see Village Academies continue to grow as quickly as it can while still effectively serving the needs of students. Maybe someone else can study what Deborah Kenny has done and bring a new successful education model to Colorado.

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A bunch of political leaders are getting together with new tough talk on education reform, reports the Denver Post:

The national movement, called the Education Equality Project, began a little more than a month ago with [New York City education chancellor Joel] Klein and civil-rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton. In a short time, it has attracted an odd cast of bedfellows such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and a handful of urban superintendents and pastors across the country.

The group’s message: In the last generation and a half, education has become too much about serving adults.

“It’s children we need to worry about,” Klein said. “Even if they graduate, they’re woefully unprepared. … Every kid should get a shot at the American dream. It’s not about politics.”

Sadly, despite exceptional success stories, today’s school system is out-of-balance – shortchanging kids and families, and favoring the monopoly interests of unions and other groups. The most encouraging thing about this Post story is seeing Democrat politicians who appear willing to stand up to the teachers unions. I look forward to seeing what happens when the rubber meets the road on the decision to stand strong or bow to union money and pressure.

Bringing balance back to the school system means empowering families with greater choice and improving education through competition. It also means high expectations and accountability – not excuses – for students, teachers, and schools. And local control at the parental and school level.

The talk about education reform continues on and on. I don’t think they’ll have it all figured out and fixed by the time I head off to school in six weeks, but maybe a little political courage will help pick up the pace.

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It’s Friday, it’s hot, and I don’t want to make my Education Policy Center friends work too hard. But before I take a weekend break, here’s a story from the Rocky Mountain News that caught my attention:

Summer slides occur in more than just water.

During summer months, poor children fall behind academically more than wealthy children do.

In fact, two-thirds of the learning gap between rich and poor can be attributed to unequal summer learning activities, research shows.

Education activists call this the “summer slide” for students in Denver Public Schools.

The story goes on to highlight calls for more federal funding of a special summer school program. I’m still young enough to believe this kind of stuff, but do these grown-ups really think a new government program is the best way to address the problem?

What about the idea of year-round school? Or maybe at least summer school programs that aren’t dictated by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.?

Okay, that’s enough. If you’ll excuse me now, I think that water slide idea sounds really good.

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My parents and my friends at the Education Policy Center say that school is a place for learning what I need to be successful some day, and that includes hearing both sides of an argument. It’s kind of scary then to see that some schools are busy indoctrinating kids.

As the Heartland Institute points out, the British High Court ruled that due to at least 11 scientific errors contained in Al Gore’s feature-length movie An Inconvenient Truth, schools who show the movie to students in class must balance the presentation with contradictory evidence.

In Colorado, our Governor Bill Ritter has made it clear he wants all K-12 students “to understand the science of climate change.” Yet as more students are exposed to this topic, it is important they receive a balanced presentation and not an uncritical indoctrination from Al Gore’s movie.

The British approach is to make a universal mandate for all their classrooms. But in Colorado, we value local control. One way then to ensure your public school student is not being indoctrinated in climate change hysteria or anything else is to petition the local school board or your school principal. Of course, school leaders are more likely to listen to the concerns of students and parents where they have the power of choice and can use their feet to find someplace that doesn’t indoctrinate.

An important tool helping parents to become good education consumers is our School Choice for Kids website – search to find the right school near you! As for me, I’ve still got a lot of time before school begins again. I’m going to go enjoy it.

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Last night my friends in the Education Policy Center hosted a get-together for teachers to eat, fellowship, and watch Flunked: The Movie.

Afterwards, teachers discussed the themes and stories in the film, expressing a wide range of views. Besides the discussion, a lot of people stayed around for the ice cream sundaes. I wish I could have come just for that part, but the Education Policy Center staff has promised to save me some. Summer just wouldn’t be as good without ice cream.

For those who weren’t able to make the movie and the event, here is some of what you missed:
Information was given out about the Independence Institute’s teacher website (set to move to a new location soon). A representative from the Professional Association of Colorado Educators shared information about his group. An Independence Institute intern told teachers about the opportunity to take the Free People, Free Markets class.

Teacher guests were given the chance to take home copies of some relevant Independence Institute publications – including one on Denver’s ProComp plan, and one on the national Tough Choices report. Finally, the Education Policy Center also made mention of the School Choice for Kids website and handed out a few bookmarks.

Besides the special annual summertime teachers event, the Independence Institute gives teachers a free invitation to all education events with an opportunity to sit down and have a teachers-only discussion with guest speakers. To find out about these events, stay tuned to this blog and sign up for the Education Policy Center e-newsletter.

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A few weeks ago I told you about the D.C. voucher program that was threatened by Congress. Well, the 1,900 kids who have found hope and educational opportunity through the publicly-funded scholarships to attend private schools were relieved to learn that Congress decided to continue funding for at least one more year.

In today’s Washington Post, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings makes the case that the program’s success calls for more than just putting it on temporary maintenance. The kids benefiting from the program have found their way out of a bad situation:

Whether the children were failing school or the schools were failing the children, the District of Columbia’s leaders finally became fed up with institutionalized failure. They designed a unique “three-sector” strategy that provided new funding for public schools and public charter schools and new educational options for needy children.

Working with the District, Congress and the Bush administration then implemented the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act in 2004, giving birth to D.C. opportunity scholarships.

The program has clearly filled a need. Evidence does not just appear on a chart. It is visible in the long lines of parents waiting to participate. More than 7,000 students have applied for scholarships. Eligible applicants represent nearly one in eight low-income District students.

Margaret Spellings urges Congress to commit support for the program beyond just the next year, and to expand scholarships to meet the demand of those on the waiting list. If you want to see testimonials from real families affected by the D.C. opportunity scholarships, check out the Voices of School Choice website.

While school choice and opportunity for struggling D.C. kids has dodged a major bullet, there’s certainly far more room to improve the support provided. And Colorado lawmakers might learn a lesson or two from the program’s success.

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My parents say I’ve still got a lot to learn about civics and government, but it seems to me that the people running for President like to talk a lot more about education than they can actually do to help fix education. A major reason Presidential candidates talk about education as much as they do is all the money and political clout of the National Education Association (NEA) teachers union.

As NEA has done every time, the union recently endorsed the Democratic candidate for President. Last week, Barack Obama gave an official acceptance speech to NEA’s big annual meeting via satellite. Obama said a lot of things the union delegates wanted to hear, but at one point he was loudly booed: Why? He suggested changing the way most teachers are paid, including more money given out based on performance. He also spoke highly of charter schools.

Not too surprising, NEA officials edited out Barack Obama’s comments about merit pay and charter schools. Wow, this union really goes out of its way to block sensible reforms that benefit students, parents, and professional teachers!

When you think about it, maybe it would be better if the Presidential candidates didn’t talk so much about education. Policies for our schools are best created and enacted closest to the child and the classroom, and not done so well from the White House or the U.S. Department of Education.

A lot of people like to talk about local control, but let’s take it a step further. What could be more local than giving more control to parents to choose the best school for their child? That’s the idea behind our School Choice for Kids website.

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Colorado needs more charter schools. We have about 140 now. But many of them are full, and parents keep asking for more. Thousands of families across the state are on wait lists to get into charter schools.

On a lighter note today, Denise at Colorado Charters tells us how all those new charter schools we’d like to see could avoid confusion by steering clear of duplicating names. She gives plenty of Colorado examples. After reading through her list, your head will spin. With all the Academies, Pioneers, Frontiers, Excels, and Vanguards, you might think you’re on a car dealer’s lot (or maybe just shopping for car insurance).

Denise concludes:

In my dream world new charter schools select names that are unique and easy to differentiate. The founders check the Secretary of State’s website to make sure the legal name is available. And, of course, my dream world includes charter founders asking about the feasibility of using a school name before making it official.

So here’s a challenge to all those aspiring charter school founders: Pick a name that really sets you apart. How about naming the school after an inspiring national or Colorado historical figure? Whatever it is, find that unique name that really sells its strengths. Remember, if nothing else, it will make Denise’s dream world come true.

As for me, I plan to spend the next few days swimming, playing outside (baseball!), lighting sparklers, watching the big fireworks, maybe a picnic or two … But I won’t be having these Education Policy Center people blog for me. Have a great Independence Day weekend, and check back with us on Monday!

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Our governor has placed a lot of attention on the goal of cutting Colorado’s dropout rate in half in 10 years. To get a sense of what it will take to accomplish that goal, inquiring minds should go check out Diplomas Count 2008 by Education Week. (Thanks to John LaPlante at the SPN Blog for pointing it out.)

There’s lots of information at your fingertips, such as:

• State-specific background reports with easy-to-read information … here’s the report for Colorado (almost 26 percent of students failed to graduate in 2005)
• A tool to compare Colorado’s P-20 Council to different states’ education alignment councils
• An interactive mapping tool that allows you to see how successful individual school districts are at seeing kids through to high school graduation

Memo to Education Week: The Education Policy Center staff here says what you have put together is a great resource for looking at the dropout issue. But did you know that there is no way to find Colorado’s largest school district (Jefferson County, where I am right now) on your mapping tool? It doesn’t come up in a name search. It isn’t labeled on a map of the Denver metro area. What’s the deal?

When it comes to great mapping tools on education websites, I’ll stick with the one that helps my parents to find the best school for me.

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Less than three weeks after it cleared the major hurdle of the state senate, Louisiana’s private tuition scholarship pilot program officially has become law:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal [on June 26] signed a landmark $10 million scholarship program into law. The new program will benefit low-income families in New Orleans and marks a major turning point for education reform in the Bayou State.

Sponsored by two New Orleans Democrats–Senator Ann Duplessis and Representative Austin Badon–the plan passed both houses of the Louisiana Legislature with bipartisan support.

With the new school year fast approaching, it is estimated that hundreds of students will apply for scholarships of up to $6,300 to attend the private schools of their parents’ choice. For the first year of the program, only children in public schools, grades K-3, are eligible to participate.

For each additional year, the scholarships would continue to support those students as they advance to the next grade level, with new groups of K-3 students entering every year. This indicates that the program could grow incrementally, and benefit more students each year.

The scholarships are reserved for children in families with an income that does not exceed 250 percent of federal poverty guidelines.

So writes the Alliance for School Choice.

It’s great to see Louisiana join the ranks of states that make publicly-funded private tuition scholarships available, becoming the 24th private school choice program overall in 14 different states and Washington, D.C.

If this keeps going for long, Colorado soon may end up in the minority of states without any private school choice. That would mean great opportunities for many kids, but not so much for Colorado.

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