This week’s top education headlines:

• DC schools‘ test-score fantasyland
• Education Nation Summit: NBC Hosts Three-Day Event In New York City
• Logan Square program gets families involved in their children’s education
• Black mark accentuates high school graduation rates
• DC sets bar for firing teachers over performance – Yahoo! News
• DCPS proposes turning River Terrace into special-needs school
• Obama Says He Pays Taxes So Kids in D.C. Public Schools

DC schools‘ test-score fantasyland
Washington Post (blog)
Doug Lemov, a founding managing director of the Uncommon Schools charter network, said a 65 percent proficiency target “feels strange” because it means “we win if 35 percent of our kids fail to meet the standard. It’s just a perverse message.” D.C …

Education Nation Summit: NBC Hosts Three-Day Event In New York City
For the third year, NBC News is hosting a national Education Nation Summit in New York City. The three-day event, Sept. 23-25 will bring together more than 300 of the country’s thought leaders in education, government, business, philanthropy and media.

Logan Square program gets families involved in their children’s education
NBCNews.com
Editor’s note: This story is one in a 10-part series on education solutions featured at the 2012 Education Nation summit in New York on Sept. 23-25. To learn more about these schools and how they made these solutions work, please visit EducationNation …

Black mark accentuates high school graduation rates
allvoices
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Given half a chance, a black mark on education and race in the United States doesn’t appear to be fading soon enough. Although high school graduation rates among U.S. black males improved in 2010, the numbers still fall well short

DC sets bar for firing teachers over performance – Yahoo! News
Tough new teacher evaluations led to a strike this month in Chicago, but in the District of Columbia, such evaluations are “business as usual.” Comprehensive teacher evaluations that take into account student performance are a central part of President Barack Obama’s education policy and of the national school reform movement. They also were a major point of contention in the seven-day long Chicago teachers’ strike, which ended Tuesday.

DCPS proposes turning River Terrace into special-needs school
Washington Post
Chancellor Kaya Henderson offered them a choice Wednesday night at a standing-room-only community meeting, held in the old school’s auditorium.

Obama Says He Pays Taxes So Kids in D.C. Public Schools

“You know, listen, neither of our kids are going to a public school right now in Washington, D.C.,” he responded. “But we pay taxes so that kids who are going to public schools can have good teachers and can succeed.