Charter school eyes second role

By CHARLES LUSSIER
Advocate staff writer
Published: Jun 16, 2011 - Page: 1B

A new career-oriented charter school set to open in August may be joining forces with the Louisiana Department of Education to rescue the troubled Capitol High Academy.

The details are still emerging, but Nancy Roberts, executive director of the nonprofit group behind the new Career Academy, said the two sides plan to meet Thursday. “We’ve agreed in concept to a partnership,” she said.

Dennis Blunt, a member of the board of 100 Black Men of Baton Rouge, which won the charter to take over Capitol High in spring 2008, said 100 Black Men was formally alerted to the proposal late last week and would likely “wholeheartedly” support it.

The East Baton Rouge Parish school system, however, is not yet on board.

School Board President Barbara Freiberg said she’s concerned about having two schools run simultaneously by Career Academy, which the board granted a Type 1 charter to in May 2010.

Landrieu chats with Avoyelles Public Charter School students by videoconference

MANSURA -- It's been a big week for a class of high school students at Avoyelles Public Charter School.

The class returned from a trip to Boston late Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, they were in a videoconference with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Avoyelles Public Charter is one of a handful of Louisiana schools that Landrieu is "visiting" as part of National Charter Schools Week. The school in Mansura was founded 11 years ago.

"I'm a very strong supporter of public charter schools," Landrieu said. "It's incredible to think of the opportunity you have there in Avoyelles Parish. It's an opportunity opening up around the state."

"We are very fortunate," said school principal and founder Julie Durand. "It's an honor to be one of only a few schools chosen. I hope they know how special this was."

After some opening remarks and a brief talk with Durand about the school, Landrieu, D-New Orleans, took some questions from the students. The first was a subject of tremendous local interest in Avoyelles Parish -- a proposal to sell or privatize some state prisons, including Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport.

"I am strongly opposed to the governor's plan to privatize prisons, but I don't have a vote in that," Landrieu said.

She said she has seen abuses in privately run prisons and expressed the thoughts of many parish residents -- that private companies are more interested in making money than public safety or rehabilitating

inmates.

The senator urged the students who are close to voting age to write Gov. Bobby Jindal and state legislators to express their opposition.

Landrieu addressed a question about high gas prices by saying America must diversify its vehicle-fuel needs to rely less on foreign oil. She said she supports using electricity and natural gas as alternate fuels, but that it will take time to move them into mass production.

"Even though it was nerve-racking, it was a very good opportunity for us all to experience this," said student Simone Swanier. "I felt lucky."

"It was interesting to hear her side of the story on some issues," said Leslie Saucier.

Other student questions dealt with potential flooding issues in Louisiana and when U.S. forces are expected to pull out of Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead.

Landrieu had to cut the session short to get to the floor of the Senate, where a bill she sponsored to reauthorize two programs of the Small Business Administration was being debated.

"I thought it was a really good experience to talk to her," said student Haylee Doyle. "She gave us some good answers."

Source : thetowntalk.com

Sixth-grader at Abramson wins state science fair

By Marilyn Stewart
Contributing writer
Thursday, April 21, 2011
nola.com

Twelve-year-old Andre Johnson entered the state science fair for the first time this year and walked away with first place in the junior division. Now his eye is on an international competition this fall in Washington, D.C.
“It took practice, and it was hard work,” Andre said. “I had to believe in myself.”
Andre won the Greater New Orleans Science and Engineering Fair’s junior division before taking top honors in the mathematics category at the recent state Science and Engineering Fair at Louisiana State University. His win marks the 100th science competition award by an Abramson Science and Technology student since the Pelican Foundation Charter School opened four years ago.
The sixth-grader’s victory earns him a chance at an all-expense-paid trip to the Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars, or MASTERS, Competition in October. Thirty middle school students from across the nation will be chosen to compete for a $25,000 grand prize for education.
Andre’s experiment involved trial runs of a yellow toy car down an incline. He varied the height of the incline and measured the distance the car traveled off the ramp. In a second set of experiments he added weight by adding pennies, then made a comparison.
“I found out Isaac Newton was right,” he said.
Andre observed that the higher the incline, the greater the distance the car traveled off the ramp. He graphed his results, and in mathematical language, determined “the slope of the line.” The variance in height affected the outcome more than the change in weight, he concluded.
“Science fair is either the best, or one of the best ways, to teach the scientific method,” said Elkhan Akhundov, the school’s science research coordinator.
The scientific method, the organized testing of an idea through experimentation and observation, is the basic method in any research, Akhundov said.
“This introduces students to a simple method for carrying out research,” Akhundov said. “It gives them the blueprint for a path that takes them to a new invention.”
The Pelican Educational Foundation was formed in 2005 with educators from Louisiana State University, Southern University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University and the LSU Science Center in New Orleans. The foundation operates Abramson Science and Tech, its first school, and Kenilworth Science and Tech in Baton Rouge.
Pelican Foundation schools emphasize the integration of technology and digital arts in education, web-based training and monitoring, and collaboration with university professors and researchers for national and international science competitions. Orhan Kizilkaya, LSU professor with the center for advanced microstructures and devices and the department of physics, is president.
Cuneyt Dokmen, principal, said the science fair is valuable because it connects students to educators and resources at the university level. Partners include the University of New Orleans, LSU, Southern University at New Orleans and Tulane.
“Science fair is a tool,” Dokmen said. “It is additional support in making students aware of college opportunity. It is a tool to keep them academically challenged.”
Abramson graduates its first senior class in May with 27 students. The kindergarten through 12th grade has an enrollment of 550. Saturday school, after school tutoring and additional help on core subjects are standard. Teachers visit with parents in the home.
“We want to challenge students according to their level,” Dokmen said. “These children are smart. If they are already at mastery level, we want them to go for advanced.”
Abramson students took home 19 awards in this year’s city-wide science fair, and earned five of the nine awards offered at a competition this year sponsored by SUNO.
The school is located on the site of the former Marion Abramson Senior High School, 5552 Read Blvd. It is a Type 5 charter school and has open enrollment. Testing is not required for admission.
Andre’s win at the state science fair is another “first” for the school. Abramson came close two years ago when his brother, Michael Barnes, won fourth place in a computer science entry.
“He told me when I won, ‘Good job, little bro,’ ” Andre said. With a grin, he added, “Sometimes, I tease him that I passed him up.”

Source : nola.com

Online charter school starts up in Louisiana

BY JESSICA GOFF
THE DAILY IBERIAN
Monday, April 4, 2011

A new Baton Rouge-based statewide online charter school began accepting applications statewide on Friday.

The school, which is the first of its kind for the state, will be holding information sessions in several Louisiana cities for parents interested in enrolling their students in grades kindergarten through 12 into the program next fall.

The closest session to the Teche area will be held in Lafayette on April 12.he school, Louisiana Connections Academy, was approved by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in December and is predicted to enroll 500 students statewide in its first school year.

The school is one of 11 charter schools approved to open in the fall, the state department said.

There are 90 charter schools currently in operation in Louisiana.

The school is operated through the Friends of Louisiana Connections Academy but like all charter schools must demonstrate state-mandated academic performance and accountability requirements to maintain its BESE approved charter status, the department said.

The school advertises itself as “a challenging, K–12 curriculum developed by leading education experts- with instruction from state-certified teachers experienced in online instruction.”

Connections Academy is a national nonprofit company that operates free online public schooling in nearly 20 states.

The program combines learning in a non-traditional out-of-classroom atmosphere with curriculum that includes art, physical education, music, home life, foreign language, technology literacy depending on state issued curriculum.

For more information on the Louisiana Connections Academy visit www.connectionsacademy.com

Source: THE DAILY IBERIAN

Most New Orleans charter schools outperform traditional schools, study finds

By Andrew Vanacore, The Times-Picayune

Friday, March 18, 2011

A new analysis of standardized test scores in New Orleans shows a majority of the city's independent charter schools are improving student performance in reading, math or both, at a notably faster rate than traditional schools.

That's an important finding considering the city and state have placed enormous confidence in the success of the charter model. The state's Recovery School District, which took over most city schools after Hurricane Katrina, has turned a majority of those over to charter organizations that are responsible for their own curriculum and day-to-day operations. The Orleans Parish School Board, which kept a handful of high-performing schools, has turned most of those into charters as well.
"It's incredibly useful data," RSD Deputy Superintendent Kevin Guitterrez said. "It tells you much more about which schools are really driving student achievement."
The new analysis of student test scores, from Stanford University, will also help shape the school system's future. The nonprofit group New Schools for New Orleans commissioned the study to help decide which charter organizations will get some of the $28 million in federal grant money available to start up additional schools over the next five years.

Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, or CREDO, analyzed test scores from 44 charter schools. Twenty-three met eligibility requirements to win grant money, with test scores improving faster than scores at schools run by the RSD. The difference had to be statistically significant in either reading or math.
Another 12 charter schools fell into the "neutral" category, showing no significant difference in scores for either category.
Nine other schools missed the bar completely, with scores in at least one category lagging behind those of direct-run schools. While the ranking doesn't necessarily mean a school is failing, three of those schools have already turned in their charters.
To advocates of entrepreneurial schools, that's the way a city's education system should work. Schools that succeed should be rewarded with responsibility for more students, while those that fail should be jettisoned.
But that approach still has its detractors, and the new testing data won't end the debate over how the New Orleans school system should be governed in the future.
Some schools that fell short in the study defended their performance.
Echoing other administrators at schools that didn't make the cut, Roslyn Smith, board president of McDonogh 42, pointed out that the Treme Charter School Association took over a failing school rather than starting one with new students. It's been handling students who are sometimes years behind grade level and doing it without the type of fund-raising resources some other charter schools have.
"We took whoever could walk, crawl or run through the door," Smith said. "We have to survive on what the state gives us and it's harder to do it that way."
Much the same is true at Sojourner Truth Academy, said Principal Channa Cook, adding that test scores often don't reflect the "range of psycho-social challenges our students face including trauma, homelessness, violence, and legal challenges."
UNO Charter Network spokeswoman Vera Billy said test scores shouldn't be the only barometer for success. Thurgood Marshall, for instance, graduated all of its seniors last year and took in more than $800,000 in scholarships for them, she said.
CREDO took pains to even the playing field when analyzing test scores in New Orleans. Researchers did not simply compare one school to another. Instead, they matched up students in charter schools with "virtual twins" at a direct-run school to compare students from roughly equivalent backgrounds.
For every charter student, the group found one or multiple students at direct-run schools that had lost pupils to charters in the same area. That ensured a similar population of students. Within that pool, they made sure the students matched up in a slew of different categories, including race, gender and socioeconomic background. They also made sure the paired students began with exactly the same test results.
CREDO Director Macke Raymond said the group was able to find matches for 85 percent of New Orleans charter students and extrapolate for the rest.
The findings in New Orleans appear to buck the national trend.
CREDO did a similar study in 2009 using data from 15 different states and Washington DC. The group found that only 17 percent of the charter schools provided superior results to traditionally run schools. At the same time, 37 percent did significantly worse.
New Orleans likely stands out in part because of the tremendous national attention and funding that arrived after Katrina, said Paul Peterson, who heads the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.
Along with Katrina-related recovery dollars, the school system benefited from a large corps of new teachers from Teach for America and other programs.
Peterson also singled out Louisiana for putting a strict system in place to approve charters. In the vast majority of cases, the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has not approved a charter that doesn't have the recommendation of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Indeed, some local charter groups have been frustrated by the high bar set by the state.
New Schools for New Orleans will use Stanford's data and other criteria to decide which schools should get grant money to expand in the fall, as well the 2012-2013 school year. It plans to announce its decision some time in the next week or so.
Four charter organizations have applied for the first round of funding: KIPP New Orleans is preparing to open two new elementary schools and FirstLine will either open a new high school or take over a failing one. Both organizations met New Schools for New Orleans' requirements in the CREDO study.
There are also two new charter groups looking for cash to help get off the ground: Crescent City Schools, which is taking over Harriet Tubman, and Educators for Quality Alternatives, which is opening NET Charter High School. New Schools for New Orleans will review their applications for grant money through interviews and a review of their school plans.



Source : nola.com

BESE honors teacher, students from charter school

• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jan 21, 2011 - Page: 8A
• 
  

  Students from a Baton Rouge middle school and a Baton Rouge teacher were recognized Thursday by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
  A robotics team from Kenilworth Science & Technology Charter School was given a resolution from BESE, which sets state policies for public schools statewide.
  The team, called “Alienbots,” earned first place for overall performance during the state’s First LEGO League Championship in New Orleans.
  The students were also picked as the best rookie team.
  The competition was held in November.Students built autonomous robots to perform tasks related to a biomedical and engineering theme.
  Teams were also required to present judges with a biomedical problem and proposed solution. Students were rated on teamwork and professionalism.
  Members of the Kenilworth team are Jabir Abdullah, Fazil Ozcelik, Matthew Kingsley, Emma Lacy, Dylan Aguiluz and Nathaniel Batiste.
  The coach is Irfan Demir, a computer teacher and robotics coordinator at the school.
  BESE also recognized Laura Hill, a teacher at Cedarcrest-Southmoor Elementary School, who recently won a Milken National Educator Award.
  The award includes a $25,000 gift from the foundation, which issues the honors annually to teachers around the country.
  Hill teaches fourth grade. In 2009 all of her home room students passed the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program.
  Passage of the test, which measures math and English skills, is required for promotion to the fifth grade.
  The state’s other Milken winner, Renee Lee Ward, was also recognized by BESE.
  Ward teaches at Delhi Charter School in northeast Louisiana.

  
  

  Source : 2theadvocate
  Videos for this success : www.kenilworthst.org

  
  

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Parents deserve charter choice

January 28, 2011
Palladium-Item
Opponents of charter schools in Indiana are saddled with a fundamental weakness in their argument against expansion of educational choices. They must persuade the public, and members of the Indiana General Assembly, that parents aren’t qualified to select the best learning environment for their children.
After all, parents aren’t forced to ship their children to charters. They choose to do so. …
Now, the General Assembly is debating whether more families should have the option of choosing a charter for their families. House Speaker Brian Bosma and other key legislators from both parties are pushing a bill that could greatly expand the number of charter schools in Indiana. Only 62 charters now operate in the state, in part because Statehouse Democrats used their majority in the House to attack educational options.
The legislation would give authority to a host of new sponsors, including a new state charter school board, mayors in cities of more than 35,000 people, and private, nonprofit universities.

Opponents are aghast that private universities would be allowed to sponsor charters. That’s another tough argument for the opposition to win.
However, one component of the legislation, although well intended, does present a problem. The bill would require districts to rent vacant school buildings to charters for only $1 a year. It’s certainly a challenge for charter school organizers to raise capital to obtain and often renovate buildings, but the state shouldn’t take away school boards’ ability to make decisions about how best to use public properties.
With that weakness noted, and with the understanding that charters are by no means a panacea to what ails this state’s educational system, the legislation deserves strong public support.

SOURCE: Palladium-Item, 

Minnesota ranks first in 2011 charter school law rankings

January 23, 2011
Alexandria Echo Press

Minnesota has the nation’s strongest charter school law for the second year in a row, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ second annual ranking of state charter school laws.
Mississippi’s new charter school law ranked last.
Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws analyzes the country’s 41 state charter laws and scores how well each supports charter school quality and growth based on the 20 essential components from the Alliance’s model charter school law.
“Minnesota tops the chart most notably because of its laws promoting quality and funding equity for charter schools,” said report author Todd Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy and support, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “However, legislators could do more to ensure equitable access to capital funding and facilities for charter schools.”

Minnesota enacted the nation’s first charter school law in 1991. In 2009, Minnesota enacted a “second generation” charter school law that addressed a comprehensive series of measures to strengthen the accountability of authorizers, schools, and boards of directors as well as to enhance the innovation within charter schools.
“Our ongoing effort has been to enhance accountability, quality and innovation in Minnesota’s charter schools and authorizers – so we are extremely pleased to see that, for a second year in a row, Minnesota’s charter school law is ranked first in the nation, especially as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of Minnesota’s first in the nation charter school law. The first in the nation ranking, however, does not mean that we cannot continue to improve our law. In fact, we will be introducing a number of proposals during this legislative session to continue to promote quality and accountability,” said Eugene Piccolo, Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools.
The new report captures all the legislative moves states made to be more competitive under the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top program. As a result of positive policy changes made over the past year, Florida made the biggest jump from 2010, moving from number 11 to second place. Because of charter schools legislation passed in 2010, Massachusetts also made a jump, from number six to third place. And, the charter school legislation New York enacted in 2010 moved it from number eight to number five.
Conversely, the District of Columbia tumbled the furthest from 2010, dropping from the second to the eighth place. In addition, California fell from the third to the sixth position, Georgia fell from fourth to seventh, and Utah dipped from seventh to tenth.
As a new crop of governors and legislators prepare for the upcoming legislative sessions, the rankings provide clear indications of where some states excel and others come up short in charter school laws and offer a positive roadmap for how governors and legislators can take action to strengthen their charter school laws.
“High-quality charter schools start with strong charter school laws. Our state charter law rankings describe how laws can ensure charter schools are able to innovate in ways that boost student achievement while being held to high standards of academic, fiscal, and operational performance,” explained Peter C. Groff, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “The rankings and the model law developed by the Alliance and other key stakeholders are moving lawmakers in key states to make positive policy changes.”
The 10 states with laws shown to best support the growth of high-quality charter schools are: Minnesota, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, California, Georgia, District of Columbia, Louisiana and Utah.
The report also found that 24 states and the District of Columbia still have caps that impede the growth of charter schools. In nine of these states, such caps are severely constraining growth: Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio. More than 420,000 students across the country are hoping for an additional seat at a charter school and there is no correlation between caps and school quality or student achievement. “These states should remove their arbitrary restrictions on charter growth,” added Ziebarth.
In addition, 10 states have still failed to enact a charter school law: Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.
The complete analysis can be downloaded at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools web site: www.publiccharters.org/charterlawrankings2011 . See detailed state-by-state summaries and color-coded maps of how states measure against each component at the http://charterlaws.publiccharters.org.
For more information on Minnesota’s charter schools, visit the MN Association of Charter Schools website: www.mncharterschools.org

SOURCE: Echo Press

D.C. Charter School Laws Earn an ‘A’

By Deborah Simmons
January 12, 2011
The Washington Times
 
Education-reform group cites city, underscoring Rhee’s efforts

As unions move to organize charter-school employees, former D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee rolled out a taut school-reform agenda that pushes charter expansion and public-private vouchers, and she said the untold number of charter teachers she has encountered are not “interested in joining a union.”
Ms. Rhee‘s proposal and comments came as the District of Columbia won the No. 1 spot for its charter-school laws, which are touted in a new Center for Education Reform study for supporting school and teacher autonomy. Ms. Rhee supported those efforts as chancellor by pushing union roadblocks aside to institute groundbreaking reforms and broaden school choice.
“I am in favor of employees being able to organize. That said, I’ve met significant numbers of charter-school teachers, none of whom are interested in joining a union,” Ms. Rhee, now head of an organization called Students First, told The Washington Times. “Rather, they are focused on working with the students, parents and administrators in their school to create the best learning environment possible. Work rules and tenure are the least of their concerns.”

Those learning environments, which often include longer school days and weekend classes, are least restrictive when teachers and administrators are free of traditional red tape and parents are encouraged to select the best academic fit for their children.
Labor organizers already wield influence in charter schools in several states, such as New York and New Jersey, as well as Florida, California, Illinois and Michigan.
But charter schools and “union shackles” are incompatible, Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, said Wednesday.
“In states where charters are not granted the freedom and flexibility to provide innovative learning environments for their students, they are not able to fulfill their intended purpose,” Ms. Allen said.
“This is especially true when it comes to their staff. Teachers should be allowed to achieve success in the classroom free of union contracts that could restrict extended school days or additional instruction. At the same time, charters should be empowered to identify and remove staff who are not making the grade for kids. Union shackles are at odds with the nature of charter schools,” she said.
The new study reviewed 40 states and the District of Columbia on their charter-school laws, and graded them on the number of authorizers, schools allowed, fiscal equity and operations, including autonomy, teacher freedom and union influence.
D.C. charter laws ranked No. 1 on all criteria, with two other jurisdictions — second-place Minnesota and third-place California — also earning an A. Minnesota was the first state to establish charter schools, doing so in 1991.
Virginia ranked 40th out of 41, one of four states to earn an F — the others being Kansas, Iowa and Mississippi.
Maryland wasn’t much better — placing 35th, or seventh from bottom.
New York ranked as the seventh strongest even though its “union-forced rules dominate some aspects of charter [school] contracts,” the report said.
But the state got good marks because it raised its cap on the number of charter schools in 2010, grants a blanket waiver on most centralized rules and regulations, and grants limited autonomy based on individual schools’ enrollment numbers.
A total of 14 states earned a C, largely attributed to funding inequities and the lack of autonomy. For example, while New Jersey’s laws allow teachers in new charter schools to negotiate contracts as a unit or as individuals, teachers in traditional schools that convert to charters retain collective-bargaining agreements and their schools must participate in the state’s retirement system.
With Ms. Rhee looking on Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called union demands problematic for school reform and fiscal responsibility.
Promising to push merit pay, end tenure and expand charters, the Republican governor said in his State of the State address, “Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform.”
He also vowed to trim the rising costs of union pensions, which he called “this cloud that hangs over us and almost every state in the union.”
Ms. Rhee, who implemented a teacher-evaluation plan that continues to draw heavy union criticism, is an educational adviser to top officials in New Jersey, Florida and several other states.

SOURCE: The Washington Times

Jindal Proposes business-operated charter schools

By Mike Hasten
January 13, 2011
Monroe News Star

Louisiana businesses could start their own charter schools that give preference to children of their employees under legislation to be proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The governor surprised state lawmakers Wednesday in announcing at the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s annual meeting that he will propose such legislation in this year’s legislative session. It’s modeled after Florida’s “charter schools in the workplace” initiative and has been implemented in other states.
“This new business-charter school partnership legislation will help feed the pipeline of qualified workers for Louisiana businesses while creating important career opportunities for students,” the governor said. “Ensuring that every Louisiana student has a great education is the critical foundation to helping our children pursue the career of their dreams.”

Charter Schools and Public Ones Align in Valley

By Morgan Smith and Sarah Butrymowicz
December 2, 2010
New York Times

It was almost lunch time on the day before Thanksgiving break, but Gustavo Corrales, a math teacher, was not ready to let his students out the door at the San Juan campus of IDEA Public Schools, a network of charter schools in the Rio Grande Valley.
“I’m not going to pass you if you don’t know what to do — but it’s not because I’m being mean. I’m not being gacho,” he said, using a Mexican slang word for “unkind.” “It’s because I want you to learn.”

Earlier that same morning, across Highway 83 at Southwest High School in Pharr, Cindy Rivera, a language arts teacher, passed out copies of Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology” to about 18 ninth graders. “This is a college level book, guys,” she said encouragingly, introducing a unit on classical gods and goddesses. “The material is perfect for high schoolers. You love violence, and you love romance.”

The two teachers are supposed to be rivals. Mr. Corrales works in a charter school that is publicly financed but operates independently of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, where Ms. Rivera teaches. Nationally, charter schools and traditional school districts battle for students and money, and trade claims about their relative success.

Obama Set to Meet With ‘Waiting for Superman’ Students

By Tim Perone
October 11, 2010
New York Post

In a huge boost for the charter-school movement, President Obama is set to meet today in the Oval Office with the five kids featured in the documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” which trumpets the need to reform the country’s education system.

Obama will shake hands with the youngsters whose struggles to leave failing public schools and enter more successful charter ones via a lottery system are profiled in the movie by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who will also be at the White House.

The president has previously hailed the film as “heartbreaking” and its message of reform as “powerful.”

Geoffrey Canada, the CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., whose work promoting charter schools is featured in the film, said, “The president understands that charters are a really valuable asset.

Gates Foundation Invests In Charter Schools

Dow Jones – “Getting Personal: Gates Foundation Invests In Charter Schools”

by Shelly Banjo | November 11, 2009

New York (Dow Jones)–Even the country’s richest foundation is looking for a way to conserve assets while using them to fulfill its charitable mission.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday announced it is making $30 million in bond guarantees to high-performing charter schools in Houston. It is part of a new two-year, $400 million push in so-called program-related investments, which can consist of direct loans, equity investments, bond guarantees and other non-traditional forms of financial support.