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Do you dream of becoming the next big sports star? With athletics paving the way for collegiate scholarships and admissions, a rising number of high schools are creating programs specifically designed to foster athletically skilled students. In fact, in Canada, high schools designed specifically as sports academies are opening their doors – and American charter schools may soon follow suit.

How New Schools Balance Athletics with Academics

Many parents and students have expressed frustration over the demands of developing gifted athleticism alongside the rigors of the high school curriculum. While each school’s fundamental objective is to educate students, many argue that encouraging athleticism, training, and building teamwork also significantly contribute to a student's overall development. While many teens are forced to sacrifice grades to balance a sport's demands, select schools have begun experimenting with new athletic programs to challenge the status quo.

According to the , the Toronto Public Board of Education, Canada's largest educational institution, has created a new basketball academy. At this campus, students with high athletic potential can improve both their physical and intellectual abilities. The academy's curriculum is designed to create a more symbiotic balance between the demands of the sport and academic work. Commonly referred to as “schools of choice” in Canada, these equivalents to America’s charter schools are becoming more popular.

This video looks at the benefits of high school sports.

Are Schools

AP courses, state standardized test scores, and teacher-to-student ratios: these are all measures utilized by parents to judge a public high school’s quality. However, what if parents have been evaluating all the wrong statistics? What if the best way to measure a public high school’s educational quality is by the success its students achieve after they graduate?

While some public high schools will proudly publish the colleges to which their seniors have been accepted, what happens to these students once they enter into the towers of higher education? Has their public high school education properly prepared them for the rigors of college?

All of these answers – and more – can actually be answered through research and data compiled by the .

Measuring a Public High School’s Success

As reported by the , the National Student Clearinghouse manages a database of more than 93 million students enrolled in over 3,300 colleges. While this information was once compiled for student loan purposes, the Clearinghouse has now made this data available for high schools.

Included in the National Student Clearinghouse reports is a bevy of valuable information, such as:

• Institutions of enrollment
• College transfer statistics
• College graduation rates
• Types of degrees earned
• Majors pursued

The conclusions that could be gleaned from these reports are invaluable for both high schools and parents. For example, in the sample report evaluated by the Washington Post, the data showed:

• 76% of

While the Montessori Method has been quite popular in early education, more and more public charter schools from kindergarten through middle school are adopting Maria Montessori’s philosophies as well. In fact, there are more than 300 public schools in the United States that currently utilize the Montessori Method, and specifically, there are 150 Montessori charter schools. In an age of standardized tests and intense academic pressure, it seems that a growing group of parents and children are turning towards the Montessori Method.

What is the Montessori Method?

In a stark contrast to our traditional education model, the Montessori philosophy is a more holistic, individualized approach that places an emphasis on “following the child.” One-age classrooms are replaced by multi-age environments, and the prevalence of paper and textbooks is traded for multi-sensory educational tools. Instead of adhering to strict lesson plans, children are allowed to select their curriculum, spending as much time as needed in mastering the subject matter.

In addition, unlike traditional schools, Montessori schools do not believe in issuing report cards with numbers or grades, as outlined by the (NAMTA). Progress is not measured through quantified numbers, but rather through a “reporting and record keeping system” that details observations made throughout the quarter. Rather than seeing an “A” grade for math or a “B” for science, parents of Montessori students will see qualitative evaluations on the report cards for variables including attitude, sense of order,

During his time in office, President Barack Obama unveiled his proposal for overhauling the No Child Left Behind Act. This is a move of tremendous importance to public education. The NCLB Act was supported by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress when George W. Bush introduced it in 2001, but many education policy workers and politicians have become critical of the law in the years since its passage.

The law has come under attack for several reasons:

• Encourages Teachers to “Teach to the Test.” Critics say that the law has demoralized teachers and forced them to “teach to the test” rather than making instructional decisions based on the best interests of students.

• Encourages States to Dumb Down Standards. Because the standardized tests which are so important to NCLB are based on state standards, the law created what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls a “perverse incentive” for states to make their standards as low as possible, ensuring that a maximum number of students achieve passing scores.

• “Utopian” Goals. The Obama administration, according to the , has called NCLB’s goal that 100% of public school students will achieve proficiency in reading and math “utopian.”

This video looks at some of the issues with No Child Left Behind.

President Obama’s Proposed Changes

To fix the weaknesses of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Obama administration is proposing several changes:

Focus