MAP tests

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 17, 2012 - St. Louis Public Schools have reversed two of the three problems that led to their loss of accreditation from the state and are well on their way to conquering the last one: student achievement.

That was the message brought Tuesday to the State Board of Education meeting in Jefferson City by Superintendent Kelvin Adams and Rick Sullivan, head of the state-appointed Special Administrative Board that took over the city schools in 2007.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: June 9, 2008 - Since opening their doors in 1999 in Kansas City and a few years later in St. Louis, charter schools have continued to claim a growing share of school-age children in these two cities. As of last fall, about 1 in every five students in each city had enrolled in charter schools, a trend cited by some as proof that charters are gaining acceptance and are producing better results than traditional public schools.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Following weeks of English and math drills, tens of thousands of public school students are sweating through another season of Missouri Assessment Program testing. The scores are supposed to help the public figure out, among other things, whether charter schools are as good an investment as traditional public schools.