Mississippi District and School Ratings Sorted by County - click here. (more…)

Answers to Your Questions About Charter Schools

Q. Why do parents and children in "Successful" districts need public charter schools?

A. For the same reasons parents and children in any district might want a public charter school. Charter schools are not like antibiotics that should be given only to sick children; they are more like a dose of Vitamin C. (more…)

A statistician says if you have one foot in a bucket of scalding water and the other in a bucket of ice, on average you're pretty comfortable. That seems to be the attitude of the people who don't want charter schools near so-called "successful" schools. If there are enough high-scoring students to offset the low-scoring students, on average the school is doing pretty well, and no other options are needed. But what about those students who are not doing well? (more…)

Beyond City Limits: Expanding Public Charter Schools in Rural America, is the latest publication from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Written by David Stuit, PhD, and Sy Doan of Basis Policy Research, this issue brief explores how public charter schools can meet the educational needs of rural communities. (more…)

Charter School FAQ

This Issue Brief describes the general concept of charter schools; specific legislation may differ. (more…)

How Successful Are "Successful" Schools & Districts?

And are they so good that parents don't deserve to choose a better school for their children? (more…)

When a school district is rated Successful by the state, you might be tempted to think it's doing well. But there are twelve districts in our state where at least half the schools are underperforming but the district is rated Successful. Even worse, in two districts, all the schools are rated below Successful, but the district itself is rated Successful. This happens because those districts took their schools from being really awful to being just pretty awful. (more…)

The year 2011 was declared by the Wall Street Journal to be "The Year of School Choice," as twelve states and the District of Columbia gave parents more opportunities to choose the best education for their children. (more…)

How well are we educating children in Mississippi schools?

In many cases, we are doing quite well. Judging by test scores and graduation rates, many students are showing they can compete with the best students in the world. In some instances those are isolated schools, but in many cases, there are entire districts where most of the students are highly successful. (more…)