charter schools

U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of the nation's best high schools are out, and the results suggest students thrive when given access to curriculum and instruction that's significantly more challenging than what a typical American student receives.

Charter school families in Horry County will rejoice in August when Coastal Leadership Academy opens its doors, providing a charter high school option for students who now attend charter schools that only provide instruction through grade eight.

In an attempt to provide an alternative to nearby charter schools, the Brunswick (Maine) school board is in preliminary talks for a partnership with the proposed Brunswick Landing International School, to open by fall 2014.

Charter schools have spread across the country while generally keeping organized labor out, with operators saying they can manage schools better when their staffs aren't unionized. But labor groups are now making a big push to get a stronger foothold in this educational realm.

Facing increased competition for students and the funding that comes with each, many public schools and districts are embracing new ways of promoting themselves.

An Andover lawmaker has filed legislation that would lift the charter-school cap on the state's 30 lowest-performing school districts, including Lowell, Gardner, and Fitchburg, a move praised as creating more options for nontraditional education and criticized for taking state dollars away from the public system.

Parents at 24th Street Elementary School have overwhelmingly chosen a partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District and a charter operator to run the persistently low-performing Jefferson Park campus.

The School Committee for the brand-new $133 million Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School is moving to hire the school’s first superintendent-director by July 1, if not sooner.

Before moving our family back to central Maine, my husband and I began the search for quality elementary school options for our children. In our community where we used to live, we were fortunate to have an abundance of public charter school options. As a former teacher, I appreciated the innovative curriculums and hands-on experiential learning opportunities that many of the charter school alternatives offered.

Gov. Rick Snyder got some hands-on experience Tuesday with the type of cyber charter school program that will be expanding next fall under a new Michigan law when he read to a class of children who watched and listened online through the Michigan Virtual Charter Academy. The children could see Snyder, but he couldn’t see them.