Tag: Kojo Nnamdi

A Different March Madness: The DCPS Lottery

Posted on | by Sam

Since last fall, I’ve been working on a new book about a year in the life of the DC public school system(s) — as seen primarily through two schools: one a brand-new charter school, the other a 90-year-old neighborhood school — so I was thrilled to hear that WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi was dedicating a show to the DCPS lottery and various local parents’ reactions to it.

That show aired today. If you’re interested, you can listen here to my observations about the process as well as many other DC parents and representatives from DCPS.

Evaluating Charter Schools

Posted on | by Sam

This morning I appeared on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show. With the DC region at the forefront of the national charter school movement, people want to know why, after a decade of innovation and experimentation, it’s still difficult to evaluate local charters and compare them to traditional public schools.

The framing question for the hour-long show, therefore, was this: “Do charters live up to the claims of their boosters?” You can listen to the show at http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-02-01/evaluating-charter-schools.