Smaller class sizes, more reading planned THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 9/19/2007 By Simone Sebastian Superintendent Gene Harris outlined her plan last night to improve Columbus students’ test scores — by taking steps such as shrinking middle-school math class sizes and possibly adding a required summer reading program. During a 90-minute presentation to the school board, Harris [...]

The Columbus Dispatch 9/19/2007 By DAVID J. CROSS Columbus City Schools Superintendent Gene Harris this weekend reminded seniors who didn’t graduate with their classmates in June that education is about earning a degree, not about when you walk across a stage. On Saturday, Sept. 15, 146 seniors who did not don the cap and gown [...]

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 9/18/2007 By Robert Vitale Republican mayoral candidate William M. Todd continued his campaign against Columbus schools yesterday, filing a lawsuit that contends the district is shortchanging some of its students. The district spends thousands less per student at some of its schools, the suit says, and that violates the Ohio Constitution’s guarantee [...]

The Washington Post 9/18/2007 By Jay Mathews Washington Post Staff Writer Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham, two of my favorite educational researchers, have inspired me to save the charter school movement with five brilliant if perhaps too far-sighted suggestions for reform. The Washington-based think tank Education Sector www.educationsector.org has just published their paper, “A [...]

More Schools Offer Performance Pay as House Debates Issue By Michael Alison Chandler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 18, 2007; A01 washingtonpost.com A movement gaining momentum in Congress and some school systems in the Washington region and beyond would boost pay for exceptional teachers in high-poverty schools, a departure from salary schedules based on [...]