Suburban News Publication 11/22/2006 Garth Bishop As the committee studying Columbus Public Schools’ Facilities Master Plan considers new buildings and innovative programs, the spectre of school closings looms over the proceedings. The district has lost almost 3,500 students during the past year, and more losses are expected this year. Last year, Columbus closed 12 school [...]

 NYTimes 11/20/2006 Sam Dillon When President Bush signed his sweeping education law a year into his presidency, it set 2014 as the deadline by which schools were to close the test-score gaps between minority and white students that have persisted since standardized testing began. Now, as Congress prepares to consider reauthorizing the law next year, [...]

 Columbus Dispatch 11/19/2006 Simone Sebastian By her junior year of high school, Alyssa Diersing was looking for the easy way out. She left Westerville South High School to enroll at Life Skills Center of Columbus-North, a charter school that offers potential dropouts a four-hour school day and a fast track to a diploma. A year [...]

 Columbus Dispatch 11/19/2006 Columbus school officials are continuing to look closely at how the district’s buildings are used and whether some should be closed. This is an essential, albeit thankless, task. It also marks a commendable change from times past, when the Columbus Board of Education refused to face the difficult job of school closings [...]

 The Seattle Times 11/16/2006 Bill Gates Special to The Times My wife, Melinda, and I have heard the tragic stories time and again. In Washington and other states, we learn about talented high-school students who don’t fulfill their promise – not because they fail at school, but because our schools fail them. They study hard, [...]