The big national news in charter school research this week is in New Jersey, where a report has found that students in the state’s 86 charter schools significantly outperform their peers in math and reading.
The report was considered particularly noteworthy because it came from a Stanford University research group that carried out a 2009 study of charter schools in 16 states that is often cited by charter school opponents as evidence of their weak performance.
The New Jersey study found particularly strong results for charter schools in Newark, the state’s largest city. Charter students statewide received the equivalent of an additional two months of learning in reading and three months in math in comparison to peers in traditional district schools, but Newark charter students received seven-and-a-half more months in reading and nine months extra in math. Newark is home to a number of high-performing charter operators, including Uncommon Schools, a network of nine charter schools serving about 2,200 students.
As shown by the 2009 study from the Stanford research group, charter school performance across different states can be quite uneven. Two of the biggest ingredients that figure in the mix are the quality of the charter operators and the rigor of the authorization process that determines which charter proposals are viable and which existing charters should be shut down for failing to make the grade. Those two factors seem to be very much at play in Boston’s charter school community, which is regarded as among the strongest of any city in the country. That was confirmed in 2009 by one of the most authoritative research studies ever done of charter schools, which found that students in Boston charters significantly outperformed their district-school peers.
Against that backdrop came more troubling local charter news this week. State education commissioner Mitchell Chester made clear at a meeting of the state board of education that he may recommend revocation of the charter for the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School. The school has been plagued by poor test scores and high teacher turnover.
But the fault for that may lie with Chester and other state officials who gave the school the go-ahead to begin with. The school has been mired in controversy from the start after it was revealed that the state’s charter school office recommended turning down its 2009 application for a charter, but was overruled by Chester. Records obtained by the Gloucester Times showed that Chester received an email from Paul Reville, the state education secretary, urging him to approve the application as part of the Patrick administration’s effort to maintain good relations with “moderate allies” who support charters like the Boston Globe and The Boston Foundation.
Shutting down the Gloucester school may end up being the right thing to do. But the questions that have dogged it from the start show that the even better thing to do would have been to maintain without exception the high standards the state has been known for and review charter applications solely on their merits.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
The state Gaming Commission prepares to accelerate its casino review, with new competition in New Hampshire and Rhode Island looming. The commission still doesn’t expect to hand out a license until early 2014. Joe O’Donnell, the businessman behind a casino bid at Suffolk Downs, shrugs off Steve Wynn’s pursuit of a casino in O’Donnell’s native Everett. Margery Eagan is not wowed by the site Wynn is chasing — it’s a polluted old chemical plant sitting next to a power plant and some LNG tanks. The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld, meanwhile, tracks down what the state Gaming Commission is spending its money on.
With the federal probe of patronage in the state Probation Department continuing, Beacon Hill lawmakers are squirming over the looming votes in January for leadership positions, worried that those they are expected to grandly anoint and those under investigation could be the same people. The Lowell Sun interviews local lawmakers and they all say they know nothing about a federal probe dealing with legislative patronage at the state’s Probation Department.
Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby testifies at a legislative hearing on the state drug lab scandal, saying chemist Annie Dookhan’s work raised lots of questions, but Bigby had few answers as to why no one in the chain of command stepped in sooner. At the same hearing, Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said nearly 200 inmates have been released from prison and their cases put on hold in connection with the scandal, the Associated Press reports (via Worcester Telegram).
Gov. Deval Patrick says the records that would reveal who played a role in hiring Sheila Burgess as the state’s highway safety director were destroyed, the Herald reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
It’s time for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to retire, Brandeis University journalism professor Eileen McNamara says in a WBUR opinion piece.
The Berkshire Eagle says Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse should be careful what he wishes for, since he might just get it.
Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua settles a long-stalled contract with the patrolmen’s association, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Kevin White’s 40-year-old FBI files are released. They show a few puffs of smoke but no fire.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
President Obama wants to raise taxes on high earners, but he isn’t pushing for a full return to Clinton-era rates. Meanwhile, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles say the US is likely to fall off the fiscal cliff. WBUR’s On Point examines the tax breaks that may be on the chopping block, including mortgage and charitable deductions. The Globe resurrects Warren Rudman’s oral history to provide some useful and frank perspective on the current budget deliberations.
Gail Collins takes up Senate filibuster reform.
With Susan Rice sinking in the State Department sweepstakes, Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast offers up six alternative candidates, with Al Gore leading the list. US Sen. John Kerry didn’t even make his list.
ELECTION 2012
The MetroWest Daily News wants to see Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren on the Senate Banking Committee; Wall Streeters, with visions of their blood and teeth on the floor, do not. The GOP is already loading its committees against Warren, naming Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a financial hawk who wants to abolish government-backed mortgages, to lead the House Financial Services Committee.
Mitt Romney did some things right, like raising money. Meanwhile, all eyes are peeled to see if Mitt has anything to say after The Lunch.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Federal Reserve will keep buying bonds into 2013.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The state is set to unveil new guidelines designed to strike a balance between preservation of the ecosystems in rivers and streams and water needs of Massachusetts communities. Environmentalists aren’t happy, and water ratepayers may not be, either.
AMSC, a Devens-based company that makes electrical control systems for wind turbines, is laying off about 25 percent of its workforce, or about 100 people.
Sea turtle strandings signal the beginning of winter on the Cape.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Officials in Connecticut’s three largest cities are launching a version of the anti-gang violence program Ceasefire that was pioneered in Boston and credited with the dramatic decrease in gun violence during that time. Criminal justice researcher David Kennedy, who helped develop the program in Boston and is now helping bring it to cities across the country, including Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven, was the subject of this Conversation interview in CommonWealth earlier this year.
The case of a Lynn English High School teacher charged with drug dealing takes a bizarre twist when it is revealed that the alleged buyer, a 17-year-old student, didn’t want the bag of marijuana the teacher gave her, the Item reports.
The effective date of an Ayer ordinance restricting where sex offenders can live is playing a critical role in a federal lawsuit, the Lowell Sun reports.
Portland, Oregon, adopts a special tax on landline phones to help pay for federally mandated police reforms, the Oregonian reports.
There was not a single reported slaying, stabbing, shooting or knifing in any of the five boroughs of New York City on Monday, CNN reports.