Al Sharpton and Joel Klein, pictured here at the National Press Club June 11 (along with former Colo. Gov. Roy Romer) visited our editorial board shortly after their press conference. Their campaign, to press the national candidates to pay attention to education deficits, is a good one. Oddly, however, it’s a long shot. To date, the candidates have mostly ignored the issue.

What struck me during the board meeting was the number of references to “boys” during the discussion (unprompted by me, except for one question). The academic problems of boys are unique, they said. Klein pointed to significant gender literacy gaps within every race and ethnicity in New York City. As a result, the city has pushed hard to launch single-sex education experiments. He singled out Excellence Charter School, a favorite of mine, in Bed-Sty, that’s been rocking the test scores. Here’s one story Andy Rotherham and I wrote about charters that included Excellence and an editorial I wrote about Excellence.

Tags: charters, klein

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