Heritage Education Review: Holding Schools Accountable—to Parents

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IN THIS EDITION

What to Watch More education spending doesn't mean higher student achievement. Number of the Week The success of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program speaks for itself. Quote of the Week One principal makes the case for meeting students' individual needs. Don't Miss Forbes looks at how Khan Academy is reinventing education.

D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program Is Accountable—to Parents By Rachel Sheffield The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) has helped hundreds of D.C. schoolchildren leave underperforming public schools to attend schools of their parents’ choice. As The Washington Post reported Sunday about the school voucher program: In the District, it’s clear that vouchers have provided many children with an education at well-established private schools that otherwise would have been out of reach, and their parents rave about the opportunity. Interestingly, although the Post’s editorial page has time and again praised DCOSP—defending the scholarship program for low-income families from the Obama Administration’s defunding drive last year—the newsroom suddenly appears bent on branding the scholarship program as “unaccountable.” Sunday’s front-page story loses sight of the big picture and focuses on alleged shortcomings at a couple of the participating private schools. These schools, the great majority of which are highly regarded Catholic programs, are arguably held to a higher level of accountability exactly because parents are empowered with choice. If a school isn’t meeting a student’s needs—and yes, there will be those schools that do not—parents can choose not to enroll their children. READ MORE >> What To Watch More Education Spending Doesn’t Mean Higher Achievement No surprise: increased education spending doesn’t generally mean higher student achievement. But some states spend a lot more for a lot less, while other states, like Florida, provide a strong example of effective reforms.

Number of the Week 89 Percent of D.C. Opportunity Scholarship students that graduated in 2010 and 2011 went on to college. 91 percent of DCOSP students graduate from high school, compared to only 70 percent of their peers from similar backgrounds and compared to the national average high school graduation rate of only 75 percent. See Parental Satisfaction & Program Fact Sheet: D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program 2011-12 and D.C. Voucher Students: Higher Graduation Rates and Other Positive Outcomes   Quote of the Week “School choice recognizes that schools are not all the same any more than students are. Certain students get more from the particular strengths of certain schools. Public education should focus on our society’s basic responsibility to educate each child wherever their individual needs are best met be it at a private, public, charter or community school.” -–Jeff Eiser, principal at St. Clement School in St. Bernard, OH

Don’t Miss Forbes: How Khan Academy Is Reinventing Education Kahn Academy is revolutionizing education through online learning, and “has rapidly become the largest school in the world, at 10 million students strong,” reports Forbes. Read the full story >>

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