Weekend Reads: Why some efforts to fix low-performing schools fail

  • A tale of two schools — one in Miami and the other in Chicago — that received federal school improvement grants suggests that readiness matters more than money. Politico
  • Conservative school board candidates in Colorado fare poorly on Election Day. Here’s why that matters across America. Chalkbeat
  • And here’s how education policy initiatives fare in other places. The Atlantic
  • The scandal that brought down Chicago’s schools chief could be coming to a superintendent near you. Catalyst
  • The controversy over a list of “Got to Go” students at a Success Academy school in New York reflects broader issues in charter schools. Vox
  • Ben Carson’s vision for school funding reform is “more progressive than anything even Bernie Sanders has proposed.” Vox
  • A Memphis charter school that attracted national attention because its teachers walk students home gets a syndicated TV appearance and $50,000 this week. EllenTube
  • A new study finds that living near affluent neighborhoods is especially damaging for poor boys. The Marshall Project
  • Two bills that are starting points for revisions to No Child Left Behind take different approaches to testing. Politics K-12
  • From least to most likely, here’s an interactive primer on all of the people who might be Los Angeles’ next schools chief. Los Angeles Times
  • Opponents of a successful bond measure in a Dallas suburb warned that new schools would bring poor students. Slate
  • Hundreds of students walk out of Berkeley High School in California to protest a racist incident there. Berkeleyside
  • A father who has experienced the downside of competition in his appliance business weighs in on the growing school marketplace. WBEZ
  • After 20 years around New York City schools, Sol Stern says the big problem facing them is progressive education. City Journal
  • California’s new pre-kindergarten program is open only to children born in the last quarter of the year. The Hechinger Report