Pennsylvania leaders push plan for school vouchers/Pittsburgh mentors, money fuel education/Rethinking Advanced Placement/Voucher Studies/Zero Tolerance

 Pennsylvania leaders push plan for school vouchers

By Jodi Weigand PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, January 9, 2011

This week Pennsylvanians will get a look at a plan to use state money to give low-income families alternatives to public school.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/education/s_717365.html

Pittsburgh mentors, money fuel education

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY January 6,2010

http://www.usatoday.com/news/americawants/2011-01-05-education-side_N.htm?csp=34news

Rethinking Advanced Placement

NY Times By CHRISTOPHER DREW, Published: January 7, 2011

A sweeping redesign of Advanced Placement aims to take the rote out. In biology, that means half the multiple-choice questions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/edlife/09ap-t.html?ref=education

School Vouchers and Student Achievement:

Recent Evidence, Remaining Questions

Cecilia Elena Rouse,Princeton University and NBER

Lisa Barrow, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

August 6, 2008

http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/OP163.pdf

Abstract:

In this article, we review the empirical evidence on the impact of education vouchers on student achievement, and briefly discuss the evidence from other forms of school choice.  The best research to date finds relatively small achievement gains for students offered education vouchers, most of which are not statistically different from zero.  Further, what little evidence exists regarding the potential for public schools to respond to increased competitive pressure generated by vouchers suggests that one should remain wary that large improvements would result from a more comprehensive voucher system.  The evidence from other forms of school choice is also consistent with this conclusion.  Many questions remain unanswered, however, including whether vouchers have longer-run impacts on  outcomes such as graduation rates, college enrollment, or even future wages, and whether vouchers might nevertheless provide a cost neutral alternative to our current system of  public education provision at the elementary and

secondary school level.

Test scores, graduation rates, and school vouchers 
Patrick J. McCloskey, October 20, 2008
Barack Obama says he's keeping an open mind on school vouchers because we need to do whatever works for the kids. STATS asked Patrick McCloskey, author of the forthcoming "The Street Stops Here," a study of Catholic education in Harlem, to look at how the voucher system is being assessed and whether test scores should be seen as the only measure of their success

http://stats.org/stories/2008/tes_scores_vouchers_oct20_08.html

Youth United for Change and the Advancement Project Present

Zero Tolerance in Philadelphia: Denying Educational Opportunities and Creating a Pathway to Prison

DATE: Thursday January 13^th  TIME: 4 pm  LOCATION: Council Caucus Room 401, City Hall

You are cordially invited to a press conference to release our new report entitled Zero Tolerance in Philadelphia: Denying Educational Opportunities and Creating a Pathway to Prison.

The report is co-authored by the Advancement Project and Youth United for Change, and written in consultation with the Education Law Center.