There’s a lot going on right now, both at the national and local levels, so let’s get down to it. You can see what we’re reading over at IQEE below the jump.

• Sarah Carr must have had a busy couple of weeks, because she had three very good articles in yesterday’s Times-Pic, one of which discussed the role of neighborhoods and communities in the chartering process. It features a great line describing the thought process of FirstLine Schools’ president, Tony Recasner: “[he] said conversations about rebuilding schools should be integrated with broader conversations about rebuilding neighborhoods.” Carr also paints a fairly hopeful picture, that reformers like Recasner and community groups can really work in concert with each other to improve schools in NOLA.
• The T-P also published an article by Carr about MATCH charter school in Boston using live-in tutors to help with its staffing needs. Most of these tutors are recent college graduates living dormitory-style above the school.
• And to conclude our Sarah Carr round-up, she wrote a fantastic article about young teachers in local schools, detailing the difficulties they face as they enter some of the most demanding schools and classrooms in the city. While these young teachers (many of whom are hired through TfA and teachNOLA) are some of the few willing to work in schools with longer school days and years, the long hours and demanding environments raise some sustainability issues. (I’m working on a more substantive blog post on programs like TfA and teachNOLA and the influx of young out-of-towners they bring to NOLA’s schools.)
• Andy Smarick at the Fordham Institute mentions that last Carr article and provides links to some additional resources addressing the sustainability issues she raised.
• The New York Times has an article about the US Department of Education’s plan to step up enforcement of civil rights laws.
• Back at the Fordham Institute, Andy Smarick is waiting to see exactly what Arne Duncan says in his speech, while Mike Petrilli is not very pleased about using lawsuits to address these issues, as he fears that, for example, simply requiring schools to increase representation of poor and minority students’ representation in AP classes will not address the complicated work of adequately preparing those students for AP classes.
• This November 2009 report from Education Sector is also worth a look-over, as it discusses the issues faced by successful charter management organizations (CMOs) in reproducing their success on a larger scale.
• And finally, a must-read: The folks next door at the Cowen Institute have released the 2010 “State of Public Education in New Orleans” report. On the 18th, they’ll be doing a public briefing on the report at Freeman Auditorium in the Woldenberg Arts Center on Tulane’s Campus.