Weekend Reads

Look Ma, we're on a 'growth trajectory'

Daley/Duncan's Ren10 initiative has been portrayed as the "Chicago miracle." The graph on the left shows Ren 10 schools (mainly charters run by management companies) badly lagging behind so-called "failing" neighborhood schools they were supposed to replace in reading. But evidence be damned, that's not the way the Renaissance School Fund sees it.

Katheryn Hayes, communication director of RSF, said the report was affirming because it found that RSF-funded schools were “performing equally well to students in CPS schools” very early and serving students in the same income bracket and ethnicity. The Renaissance schools are following a growth trajectory similar to that of charter schools historically, Hayes said, which show charter schools increasingly outperform neighborhood schools the longer they are open. (Medill Reports)

Oakland's small schools movement

A new report examines the history and impact of an effort to create smaller schools in the 43,000-student Oakland, Calif., school district. The report concludes that small schools, created with the backing of advocacy groups in the city, have shown stronger academic performance, better school climate, and an improvement in how teachers view their schools’ professional culture, compared with larger schools studied over the same period. (Edweek)