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California’s online charter schools are performing poorly. A new analysis performed by Voice of San Diego and the Center for Research and Evaluation at UC San Diego Extension has found that online charter schools—as well as other charters that don’t use traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms—performed among the worst in San Diego County in a new analysis of test scores that took each school’s poverty level into account.
This adds to the findings in In the Public Interest’s report, Costly Failure: California Is Overpaying for Online Charter Schools That Are Failing Students, released earlier this year. Voice of San Diego
A Florida gold rush. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida writes about the state’s issues with for-profit charter schools, which are diverting huge sums of public dollars intended for traditional public schools. Jacksonville.com
Support for “school choice” wanes. A new poll from Education Next finds that public support for charter schools and school vouchers has dropped significantly in the last year. Education Next
How we’re fighting for public schools
Community schools see revival in time of heightened need. Journalist Lauren Camera takes in the national picture of community schools. “Though their popularity has waxed and waned for more than a century, a full court press is underway from the White House, states, and education officials to make community schools stick.” U.S. News and World Report
How schools can address their community’s deep trauma. Journalist Sarah Lahm writes about community schools in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. “Not every school community is facing the kinds of challenges linked to systemic racism and poverty that Brooklyn Center has, of course. But it’s certainly possible to see from the past year, when the pandemic forced many school districts to quickly pivot to distance learning, that no community really knows exactly when they’ll need more support.” Alternet
Photo by Nenad Stojkovic.