Is a Little Open Enrollment a Dangerous Thing?
In an article about Missouri’s open enrollment proposal, the Post-Dispatch quotes the director of a Minnesota education center: “I don’t...
Online Education Can Be a Boon for Districts
A school district in Michigan finds that partnering with K12, Inc. is beneficial both to students and to the districts’...
Quick Fixes Won’t Raise Test Scores
Charles Murray can’t be pleased with the New York City Department of Education’s plan to spend a few hundred thousand...
People We Can’t Do Without in an Emergency
Midwives, breastfeeding mothers, and now school nurses: They are all claimed to be indispensable when disaster strikes. Nurses are in...
Build a Better Mousetrap, Then Run an Ad Campaign
It’s not unusual to see some ignominious mention of SLPS in newspaper articles about education. The reference goes something like...
Districts of Choice
The California legislature is considering whether to extend its inter-district public school choice program. I completely agree with this statement...
Somebody at SLPS Gets It!
Or, at least, someone doing marketing for them has read the writing on the wall. I just watched the elementary...
What the Critics Are Saying
My last post responding to charter school criticisms elicited even more criticisms, so it’s time for another installment in the...
Answers to Charter School Criticism
A couple of weeks ago, David Brooks wrote about charter schools run by the Harlem Children’s Zone. The comments on...
How to Compete With Charters
The St. Louis Public Schools are faced with a problem: how to compete with the new KIPP Inspire Academy. The...
School Reformers Tinker Around the Edges
I’m not usually a “let’s tear down the establishment and start a revolution” kind of person, but even I can...
Language Learning
The St. Louis Language Immersion Schools blog has posted a series of essays describing immersion schools the faculty have visited...
Cautious Optimism on Sale of SLPS Buildings
In the past several years, St. Louis Public Schools has been forced to consider selling dozens of its former school...
School Closings in Chicago
The St. Louis Public School District isn’t the only district faced with declining enrollment and the need to close buildings....
SLPS to Sell to Charter Schools?
Our buddy Dave over at the Arch City Chronicle has a story up about how Reps. James Morris, Jamilah Nasheed,...
More on Single-Sex Classrooms
The Parkway School District’s foray into single-sex education is steadily gaining popularity. What began as a tentative experiment with first-graders...
SLPS Deed Restrictions
As Clovis pointed out the other day, the Special Administrative Board for the St. Louis Public Schools recently adopted deed...
SLPS Should Keep Community in Mind When Closing Schools
Hundreds gathered in a recent meeting, in an attempt to voice their opinions against this measure, which would result in...
No Pain, No Gain
It’s not a happy time for the St. Louis Public Schools. Enrollment is way down. Parents are enrolling their children...
How to Improve Education While Spending Less Money
A new legislative session is under way in Jefferson City, and everyone is concerned about the budget. Legislators are...
