AEP Online
Featured Columns
Blaschke
on Fed. Funding
A+
Advice for Parents
Archives
Archives
Education
Legislation
Technology
Market Trends
Misc. Topics
About
|
D.C.'s Fenty Latest to Seek School Control
In response to repeated requests during his campaign last year,
Washington, DC's new mayor, Adrian Fenty, has made it a priority
to right the city's struggling school system, where roughly four
in five schools are not meeting NCLB achievement goals and just
43 percent of students graduate from high school in five years.
However, according to the Associated Press, his plan to address
this issue - assuming control of the school system himself - has
stirred an argument currently under review in Los Angeles, Seattle,
and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"Mayors have a lot on their plate. It's a wonder that some
of these mayors think they also have the time to take over public
schools," Anne Bryant, executive director of the National
School Boards Association, told the Associated Press. Other
critics of mayoral control argue that it makes school systems less
democratic, that the absence of a school board silences the voice
of the community.
Supporters make the case that turnarounds can occur more quickly
when the various voices of committees are cut out of the equation.
This argument is supported by a recent study showing modest but
statistically significant progress in reading and math for elementary
and middle school students in schools whose districts were under
mayoral control from 1999-2003. The study was conducted by school
governance expert Ken Wong at Brown University.
Questions, ideas, or
in need of more information? Please contact Stacey
Pusey at 856-241-7772.
|
"Mayors
increasingly seek to take charge of schools"
CNN.com/AP
|
|

©
2008 The Association of Educational
Publishers
510 Heron Drive, Suite 201
•
Logan Township, NJ 08085
•
P:856-241-7772
•
F:856-241-0709
•
Email:
mail@AEPweb.org
Satellite Offices:
Two Bala Plaza, Suite 300
•
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
C/O Knowledge Alliance
•
815 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 220
•
Washington, DC 20006
|