Public Education

A Virginia company leading a national movement to replace classrooms with computers — in which children as young as 5 can learn at home at taxpayer expense — is facing a backlash from critics who are questioning its funding, quality and oversight. K12 Inc. of Herndon has become the country's largest provider of full-time public virtual schools, upending the traditional American notion that learning occurs in a schoolhouse where students share the experience. In K12's virtual schools, learning is...

A Democratic senator who helped craft President Obama's signature health-care law gave the administration "a failing grade" Wednesday for its efforts to educate the public and small employers about sweeping changes set to take effect in eight months. "I just see a huge train wreck," Sen. Max Baucus of Montana told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs. "I'm very concerned that not enough is being done so far. Very...

Dale Stephens leads UnCollege, a social movement that challenges the conventional wisdom that a college education is the surest path to success. Stephens, 19, is a Thiel fellow — which means he received $100,000 to pursue innovative and entreprenurial interests for two years instead of going to college — and he is working on a book about "hacking your education. " He was interviewed online by Emi Kolawole of The Washington Post. Kolawole: How does an uncollege experience make someone more innovative?

The school choice movement — which germinated 50 years ago in free-market economist Milton Friedman's fertile mind — recently counted its largest victory. The Indiana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's school voucher program. Under it, more than half a million low- and middle-income Hoosier students — and about 62 percent of all families — are eligible for state aid to help pay for a private or religious school. This is what school choice traditionally has lacked: scale.

The school choice movement — which germinated 50 years ago in free-market economist Milton Friedman's fertile mind — recently counted its largest victory. The Indiana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's school voucher program. Under it, more than half a million low- and middle-income Hoosier students — and about 62 percent of all families — are eligible for state aid to help pay for a private or religious school. This is what school choice traditionally has lacked: scale.

Jim Zorn kept his gaze down last Sunday as he strode toward a lectern in a concourse underneath the stands at the Georgia Dome, another loss just past. It was the fourth straight defeat for the Washington Redskins, and the season -- now halfway over -- was palpably slipping away. Yet when Zorn stepped up to the microphone to face a bank of television cameras and reporters, he said what he says basically every week in virtually every such instance: "Hi, everybody. " It is, perhaps, the one constant in Zorn's interaction with the public,...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a series of articles examining President Obama's record . In 3 1 / 2 years in office, President Obama has set in motion a broad overhaul of public education from kindergarten through high school, largely bypassing Congress and inducing states to adopt landmark changes that none of his predecessors attempted. He awarded billions of dollars in stimulus funding to states that agreed to promote charter schools, use student test scores...

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Thursday named Abigail Smith, a former Teach for America executive with leadership experience in both traditional D.C. schools and charters, as the city's next deputy mayor for education. If confirmed by the D.C. Council, Smith will replace De'Shawn Wright , who resigned in the fall to take a job in his native New York. Wright's chief of staff, Jennifer Leonard, has been serving in an interim capacity. "Abigail has devoted her entire career to working with families,...

The nation must act urgently to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children by changing the way public schools are financed, improving teacher quality, investing in early-childhood education and demanding greater accountability down to the local school board level, according to a report issued Tuesday by an expert panel. Created by Congress in 2010 — with legislation sponsored by Reps. Michael M. Honda (D-Calif.) and Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) — the...

The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by 45 states and the District as the foundation for what students in America's public schools need to know and be able to do. They will require our children to develop a deeper, more conceptual understanding in mathematics and English-language arts. They hold tremendous promise for improving our international competitiveness. The standards could also trigger a sea change in education, the kind that colleges, businesses and politicians have been talking about...

The Virginia School Boards Association announced that staff member Gina Patterson will become the organization's executive director beginning Jan. 1, 2014. Patterson, who is currently serving as the deputy executive director, will succeed Barbara Coyle, who is retiring as executive director at the end of this year. The Virginia School Boards Association is a public education advocacy group based in Charlottesville. Patterson joined the organization in 1998 as a membership services specialist...

When the D.C. Council held its annual retreat at the convention center last year, David A. Catania and Marion Barry nearly came to blows after years of rivalry and animosity erupted in public. During a profanity-laced exchange, Catania called Barry "a despicable human being," and the 77-year-old former mayor said he almost punched his 45-year-old colleague. The altercation, similar to other spats between the two, forced the council to implement rules barring members from...

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Thursday named Abigail Smith, a former Teach for America executive with leadership experience in both traditional D.C. schools and charters, as the city's next deputy mayor for education. If confirmed by the D.C. Council, Smith will replace De'Shawn Wright , who resigned in the fall to take a job in his native New York. Wright's chief of staff, Jennifer Leonard, has been serving in an interim capacity. "Abigail has devoted her entire career to working with families, teachers...

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold will spend at least 30 days in jail for his misconduct in office, a sentence that went beyond what prosecutors were seeking . Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Dennis Sweeney sentenced the 70-year-old Republican politician to two years of incarceration with all but 60 days suspended for abusing his authority. Leopold, who was led from the court in handcuffs, will serve at least 30 days in the county detention center, after which he...

Educators, policymakers and business leaders trying to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children are increasing focusing on the role of early childhood education. President Obama has made a sweeping expansion of preschool education a priority for his second term. In his State of the Union address last month, the president called for universal preschool for 4-year-olds, saying that quality early childhood education pays huge dividends by boosting graduation rates, reducing...

John Engler President, Business Roundtable, and former governor of Michigan (R) We've actually solved every problem that we have in public education somewhere in America. We have a system. It doesn't replicate our success rate effectively. So part of our strategy also is: How do you take what is working [in one school and apply it to others] where English is a second language, [where there is] very high poverty? How do you take the success that we can document today...

It's the latest sign that the District is on track to become a city where a majority of children are educated not in traditional public schools but in public charters: A California nonprofit group has proposed opening eight D.C. charter schools that would enroll more than 5,000 students by 2019. The proposal has stirred excitement among those who believe that Rocketship Education , which combines online learning and face-to-face instruction, can radically raise student achievement in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

A six-year Maryland effort to spend billions of dollars more on public education has led to major performance gains that have helped make the state's schools the best in the country, according to a pair of independent reports released yesterday. A three-year study of the Bridge to Excellence Act came as Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes the trade newspaper Education Week, announced the results of its annual survey of state school systems. In the latter report, Maryland was ranked first...

Robert F. McDonnell ran for Virginia governor promising to reform public schools by offering parents more accountability and better teachers and giving them greater school choice by growing the state's tiny list of charter schools. In his final push in the General Assembly this year, McDonnell (R) backed successful bills to bring Teach for America to Virginia, give grades to schools using A through F report cards , fine-tune a voucher-like program to help poor students attend private schools and...

More than two dozen D.C. education leaders met Thursday evening at the Hay-Adams hotel for a gathering with no stated agenda except conversation and good food and drink. On the menu: Maine lobster bisque, artisan greens and filet mignon. In the offing: a chance to make a habit of more coordination and collaboration among the people who shape D.C. public education, according to the evening's host, David A. Catania . "We can only improve public education in...