1.   Vermont Schools In Need of Improvement
2.   KIPP Schools
3.   Education News from Down Under
4.   Editorial - Beyond 'No Child'
5.   A Chronology of School Choice in the U.S
6.   New – VBE Website Update

Vermont Schools In Need of Improvement

This is a list of Vermont schools that have been identified by the Department of Education as being “in need of improvement” for the 2007-08 school year:

KIPP Schools
An idea for some schools in Vermont?

David Levine's “Knowledge Is Power Program” (KIPP) has been used in a few public schools in the the US which has improved the achievement of many kids at risk of failure in school. Behind every KIPP school is the idea that every child can succeed regardless of their socioeconomic background. As a matter of fact, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are given preference in attending a KIPP school. This places the students in a school which sets high expectations and levels  of performance. In order to make sure the students succeed, parents and staff work closely with the kids supported by the following five pillars:

1) High expectations that start in 5th grade and prepare the kids to go on to college

2) Choice and commitment by parents and teachers

3) Spend more time on task through extended school days, weeks, and years.

4) Gives “the power to lead” to well trained school leaders which allows them to make decisions about purchasing, budgets, and staffing.

5) Focus on results – KIPP schools give preference to children from the poorest neighborhoods and then work hard to achieve a high level of academic performance.

If an idea, or a different method of operation, dramatically raises educational excellence for students in a low performing public school, then the idea is worth investigating.

This is a biography about David Levine which also gives a brief summation of his experiences with the KIPP schools. Excerpts:

“Since 1997, the KIPP Academy Charter School has been the highest performing public middle school in the entire Bronx as measured by standardized test scores in reading and math, improvement in test scores, and attendance. In the spring of 1999, KIPP was named one of the twenty-five most effective schools in the nation in low-income communities. Of these twenty-five schools, David was selected as one of the seven most effective principals. In December 1999, David received the Robin Hood Foundation’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Hero Award in Education.”

“By 2007, over 20,000 students will attend KIPP schools.” 

Education News from Down Under

Reform push on preschool 
By Dina Rosendorff, Herald Sun, July 13, 2007

“HEFTY preschool fees could be lowered if education for three and four-year-olds were made compulsory in Victoria, according to the education union.”

Parent police – welfare cuts loom 
By Lincoln Wright, Herald Sun, July 15, 2007

“THOUSANDS of Victorian parents face having their welfare payments suspended if their children miss school or are neglected.”

School recess in danger
From The Herald Sun, July 30, 2007

“MORNING recess could be cut from school timetables and children would spend less time on key subjects under expanded literacy and numeracy testing to be introduced next year, an education lobby group says.” -- VBE wonders what use is a well rounded education if kids can't read, write, and use numbers effectively?

A Chronology of School Choice in the U.S.
by Krista Kafer, Senior Fellow, Education Policy Center, Independence Institute, May 2007
 
Excerpts from the Executive Summary --
 
“School choice predates American nationhood. Until the mid-19th century, families chose from among a variety of autonomous schools and homes schooling. Tax-funded public schools gradually displaced tuition-charging independent schools, considerably raising the price f choice. To exercise choice, a family need to buy a home in a neighborhood with a good school, or to pay independent school tuition in addition to taxation, which supported public schools. For more than a century, few opportunities existed for middle- and low-income families.
 
“After a slow start at the beginning of the 20th century, new options have become available in recent years. The U.S. Supreme Court held in the landmark Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) decision that a “child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” In other words, families have a right to guide their children's education – the core value of school choice. Thirty years later, renowned economist Milton Friedman debuted the concept of an education 'voucher' as means of providing choice to families.”
 
"Research on these programs shows parental choice in education benefits the individual, the community, and the school system. Students reap academic benefits while choice acts as an incentive for system-wide improvement. The chronology of choice is the struggle to give every child the chance to attend a good school."

Read the Full Report here (pdf)

Editorial - Beyond 'No Child'  
USA Today, 2/21/2007
Read the Full Editorial here

VBE: To read the full editorial click on the link above. There is innovation in education going on all across the country. This innovation is bold and in many instances, completely changes the way things are being done in a single public school. Charter schools can be used to allow this innovation to happen. A charter is still a public school but it can follow vastly different rules. If Vermont is not careful, we will fall far behind the innovation that is going on. Vermont should encourage the use of charter schools.
 
Excerpts:
 
“Walk into any school, and you'll find plenty of opinions — many negative — about the No Child Left Behind law, now almost five years old. Some complaints, particularly about bureaucratic rules, make sense. But too many are simply resistance to the accountability the law imposes. “
 
“The real reward from the law is the innovative and successful practices that have sprung up to address demands for improvement. They include:”
 
“Creating new choices. New York City schools have made giant strides since Michael Bloomberg, who made billions in business before becoming mayor, applied the laws of supply and demand to school reform. To increase the supply of schools that work, Bloomberg and his schools chief, former prosecutor Joel Klein, identified the most successful national innovators in education, such as the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) and Achievement First charter schools, and recruited heavily to bring them to the city. In some cases, charter schools — which operate free from many traditional school practices — were shoehorned into traditional schools.”
 
“Reforming teacher pay. So far, NCLB has failed to boost teacher quality — one of its core goals. What's needed is a shift from producing teachers who are qualified on paper to ones who are effective in class.”
 
“Boosting time on task. One of the simplest reforms might prove one of the best. At KIPP charter schools, which have been particularly effective in low-income neighborhoods, children spend 60% more time on academic tasks than regular public-school students do.”
 
“These innovations don't make the NCLB debate irrelevant. School accountability is driving them, and it is here to stay. But the best practices put the debate into perspective. The goal, after all, is better educated children, not better rules and regulations.”

New – VBE Website Update  

VBE has added a search feature to the web site. This includes the archive of the Vermont Education Report! Go to our web site and look on the left side of the page at the bottom for the search box.

We do!  Please consider a gift to Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of the weekly Vermont Education Report, Vermont's ONLY continual source of education news. Send donations to: VBE, PO Box 72, Woodbury, VT 05681. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.

The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education PO Box 72 Woodbury, VT 05681 - 802-472-5491. The Vermont Education Report may be reprinted with the editor's permission. For more information contact: VBE@comcast.net or visit us on the web: http://www.schoolreport.com

VERMONTERS FOR BETTER EDUCATION is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence.

Retta Dunlap, executive director
VBE@comcast.net