WAMU 88.5 : Metro Connection

Filed Under:

After Charter Schools Close, Parents Race To Find New Placements

By: Kavitha Cardoza // August 19, 2011
  
Play associated audio
comments
School officials throughout the region are considering applying for a waiver of some No Child Left Behind rules after the Department of Education said it would allow such waivers earlier this week.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortinbras/2931835903
School officials throughout the region are considering applying for a waiver of some No Child Left Behind rules after the Department of Education said it would allow such waivers earlier this week.

The D.C. charter school system recently closed several schools, and more than 700 students and their parents have been scrambling to find new placements. Charter school advocates defend the decision to close ineffective schools… they say it's the charters' "tough-love" approach that makes their test scores outshine those of traditional public schools. But parents say in the short term, these decisions often leave them and their children hanging. Education reporter Kavitha Cardoza has the story.

[Music: "Have a Little Faith in Me (Karaoke Version)(In the Style of Joe Cocker)" by The Karaoke Channel from Karaoke - In the Style of Joe Cocker, Vol. 1"

Map of school closures


View D.C. Charter School Closures 2011 in a larger map

Arts & Culture

NPR

Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due

John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.

Food

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Politics

NPR

Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House

Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson.

Technology

NPR

Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use

College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) – and the number is growing.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.