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PHILADELPHIA'S RENAISSANCE SCHOOLS AT 18 MONTHS: RFA'S NEW REPORT
Can chronically low-performing schools dramatically improve in a short period of time? That was the question that the Renaissance Schools Initiative - Philadelphia's approach to the turnaround school reform model - sought to answer when it was implemented in 2009. Eighteen months into the Initiative, as the School District of Philadelphia and the School Reform Commission deliberate its future against the backdrop of severe budget cuts, RFA has released results of its evaluation of the Renaissance Schools. RFA's research represents the most exhaustive study of school turnarounds - a key element in federal and state education reforms - in the commonwealth and region to date. The study focused on determining whether the first group of 13 schools - both District-run Promise Academies and Charter-managed schools - made early progress toward the longer-term goal of dramatically improving student outcomes. Overall, both district- and charter-managed models of Renaissance Schools made notable progress in Year One of the Initiative, improving significantly on all other student outcomes measured. However, these schools remain among the lowest performing in the District. It is also too early in the life of the Initiative to determine whether these preliminary results will be sustained over time. Read More...
NEW YORK JOINS OBAMA-BACKED MOVEMENT TYING TEACHER REVIEWS TO TEST SCORES
An agreement between New York (STONY1) and its largest teachers union on evaluations makes the state part of a movement backed by President Barack Obama to hold educators responsible for student performance. The deal announced yesterday by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a 54-year-old Democrat, may save New York $700 million in federal funding. It’s also an example of how the push to hold teachers accountable has been taken up by both sides of the negotiating table, said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based group that supports charter schools and diminished union power. “This is a big step in the right direction that puts New York up there in the top tier of states that have already begun down the road of codifying an evaluation system with some portion based on student test scores,” Allen said in a telephone interview yesterday. “It’s terrific that we have people from both parties finally recognizing that evaluation is an important component of creating student achievement.” Last month, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned that New York would have to return $700 million if it didn’t fulfill its promise to Obama’s Race to the Top program to implement teacher evaluations. The president, a Democrat, has proposed $5 billion in incentives for states and school districts to tie teacher pay to performance as part of his $69.8 billion education-budget proposal. Read More...
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