Virtual learning keeps Christian rock family from Kenosha in the know

Their fans know John and Korey Cooper of Kenosha as two members of the high energy Christian rock band Skillet — make that Christian 

hard rock

band.

But beyond their show biz personas, the Coopers, married 19 years, share the same kinds of concerns other parents do for their children. For them, that includes making sure Alexandria, 12, and Xavier, 11, who have toured with the band since infancy, get a good education.

“With Skillet, we travel all the time. We do 220 days a year,” said Korey. “You never imagined a band would go for 20 years, and that we’d be taking our kids on the road with us.”

Korey said she home schooled Alexandria and Xavier until Alexandria turned 7 and was about to enter third grade. 

By then, Korey said, “It got to be too much of a stress for me to choose a curriculum. I started wondering whether I might be missing something in their education.”

Keep reading here. 

A Guide to Fight for School Choice

The Institute for Justice (IJ) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) issued a jointly-published guide on how lawmakers and activists can push for more school choice in their home states. In their second edition of the “School Choice and State Constituencies: A Guide to Designing School Choice Programs,” authors Richard Komer and Olivia Grady explain the legal hurdles to school choice, due to the Blaine Amendments.

Continue reading here. 

New National Survey Finds Americans Have Dim Outlook on K-12 Education, Want School Choice

(NAPSI)—The majority of Americans of all ages are pessimistic about the direction in which K-12 education is heading today, and most are supportive of expanding school choice options, according to an annual survey conducted by EdChoice and Braun Research, Inc. The 2016 Schooling in America Survey measures the nation’s public opinion and awareness on a range of K-12 education topics and policies, such as school performance, schooling preferences, educational choice reforms and more.

Click here to see what the survey had to say.

 

RightWisconsin honors school choice advocates former Governor Tommy Thompson and Susan Mitchell

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and school choice advocate Susan Mitchell have been honored by RightWisconsin for their work on education reform

Thompson won the 2016 Ronald Reagan award; Mitchell was the recipient of the 2016 Iron Lady award, named in honor of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Read more about the awards and these great advocates of School Choice here.

Op Ed: More school choice will ease social ills

Across the United States, the number of children who are under the age of five is approximately the same as the number who are between age five and 10. Both groups are equal five-year cohorts. 

But in many of our nation’s poor communities, some children unfortunately seem to disappear when they reach elementary school age. Take Durham County, as an example. The most recent Census indicates there are 3,252 fewer five- to 10-year-olds living in Durham than we should expect, given the number of preschool children who live there.

Of course, we know where these children have gone: Next door. Chapel Hill and Orange County have an extra 1,100 elementary-age children, and thousands more reside in Cary and areas of Wake County not far from the Durham County line. 

What force seems to be driving families across the county lines? It’s school assignments. Middle class families flock to the areas with good assigned schools, and they avoid areas where they perceive that schools are bad.

Read more here.

Popular Twitter Chats for Teachers, Every Day (or Night) of the Week

It’s never been easier for educators to collaborate with peers and grow their professional learning networks. Because hundreds of thousands of teachers, administrators and instructional technologists regularly participate in scheduled and “slow” hashtag-based Twitter chats, there is always somebody online who can answer a question, share an idea or recommend a digital resource for an upcoming unit or lesson plan.

Check out the rest of this article from Getting Smart here.