It’s never too late to help a struggling student. An amazing new study conducted by the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Lab shows that intense tutoring combined with group behavioral counseling can help high school students with weak math skills, chronic truancy and disciplinary problems improve their performance. The study showed impressive gains. In fact,...

It’s common knowledge that Illinois lags behind other states when it comes to embracing education reforms.  But a new report recently released by the Friedman Foundation shows just how much catching up the state has to do. The 2014 edition of the Foundation’s “The ABCs of School Choice” highlights every school choice program in the...

The state charter school commission is under attack. State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, has contempt for the state charter school commission, even though she voted for its creation more than two years ago. It was on full display the last time Jeanne Nowaczewski – the commission’s executive director – appeared in front of the...

The lowest-performing public school students are the most likely to use and benefit from school choice programs according to a new study on Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program. In fact, 27.9 percent of students who participated in the program were in the bottom fifth of their prior public school’s mathematics test score distribution. These findings fly in...

Charter schools are at the forefront of evaluating teacher effectiveness.