1. Senator Cory Booker’s brother Cary co-founded Omni Prep, a charter school forced to close in 2016 due to financial and management issues, poor academic results, and inexperience with early childhood education. Nevertheless, NJ Governor Phil Murphy recently hired him to lead the New Jersey Education Department’s early childhood division at $150,000 a year.
  2. Pennsylvania’s for-profit Chester Community Charter School—the largest brick-and-mortar charter in the commonwealth—enrolls more than 70% of the primary students in the Chester Upland School District, even though just 16.7% of its students are proficient in in English/Language Arts, and only 7% are proficient in math. The state averages are 63% and 45%, respectively.
  3. To offset growing teacher shortages, many districts across the country are hiring retirees, at least as a short-term solution.
  4. According to the Learning Policy Institute and in conjunction with NASSP, 35% of principals stay in their schools for less than two years; just 11% stay on for 10 or more years.
  5. Metaari predicts that game-based learning will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33.2% over the next five years. Revenues are expected to hit $24 billion by 2024.
  6. The National Retail Federation predicts we consumers will spend nearly $26.2 billion–about $696.70 per household—on K-12 back-to-school items this time around.

~ With my many thanks, Carol (www.schoolwisebooks.com)