May 07, 2008
Charter Schools - Hype or Hope - It's Your Choice
Over at the US News & World Report blog, a rather benign post on the occasion of National Charter Schools Week drew the ire of one "Caroline, San Francisco public school parent, advocate, volunteer and blogger, and charter-school skeptic," who dismissed charter schools as all 'hype' and 'hooey'. Well, Caroline, we believe in charter schools. And we couldn't let the uninformed fall victim to the misinformed, so CER's own Kara Hornung responds:
For the past sixteen years charter schools have been making a difference in the lives of our children. Today, over 4,200 charter schools are operating serving 1.2 million families according to The Center for Education Reform (CER). Contrary to Ms. Caroline's claim that this movement is "all hype and no benefit" I'd like to take a moment to explain why the above-mentioned parent is vying for an option and why so many parents across the country are lining up for better educational opportunities.
Today, the U.S. ranks 21st out of 29 countries in terms of mathematics competency, and only 32 percent of our nation's fourth graders can read at proficiency. And while we funnel more and more money into conventional public schools to "fix" the problems, we still do not see the results. Back in 1992 when the first charter school opened in St. Paul, MN, the idea was simple - create schools that are accountable and innovative. Accountability is the hallmark of charter schools, and to date eleven percent of charter schools that have ever opened have closed. Where's that accountability in the conventional public school system? Innovation #1 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: holding schools accountable for results.
In an "apples-to-apples" comparison between charter schools and their closest traditional public schools with similar demographics, Harvard University found charter school students outpacing their conventional school peers by as much as five percent nationwide. When looking at state-specific assessment data, charters continue to achieve at even higher rates. Innovation #2 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: charter schools achieve!
Charter schools on average are funded at 61 percent of their district counterparts. If you take the time to "Follow the Money" you'll see that public students in charter schools are being shortchanged by politics and the status quo that claims charters are draining money. Innovation #3 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: charters are doing more with less.
Because they are not weighed down by bureaucracy and red tape, charter schools and their teachers are not limited or discouraged from going the extra mile to help students achieve. The well-know Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) has students in school from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, every other Saturday and during the summer. Teachers at many charter schools give their students 24-hour accessibility in case students need extra help. According to CER's Annual Survey of Charter Schools, 32 percent of the nation's charter schools have longer school days, an extended school year or a combination of both. And teachers are compensated based on their performance and willingness to do more. Innovation #4 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: charters treat teachers like the professionals they are by raising expectations and providing them a choice.
Ms. Caroline also raises another great myth about charter schools. She claims that charters don't have to enroll the "dysfunctional, alienated, low-functioning, high-need students from dysfunctional, alienated, low-functioning, high-need families." But in reality charters do not "cherry-pick" the best students from conventional public schools. On the contrary, half of charter school students fall into categories defined as at-risk (51 percent), minority (53 percent) or low-income (54 percent). Given the freedom to work hard, charter schools have dramatically changed the outcomes for students in these categories, giving them second chances and bringing new life to their home and community environments. Innovation #5 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: charters don't throw the baby out with the bath water and just label at-risk children as "dysfunctional" - they find solutions to reach even the hardest-to-teach students.
Are parents really lining up for charter schools? The answer is yes!
In 2001, 61 percent of charter schools had waiting lists. Recent news from Harlem found that even after opening an additional 4 campuses, Harlem Success Academy Charter School could not meet the demand of 3,600 parents vying for only 600 spots in its recent lottery. Classical Academy in Colorado has a waiting list of 6,000 students. Boston's charter schools are in high demand: just a few months ago it was reported that there were 5,649 applications for 1,249 spots across Beantown. Innovation #6 "pioneered" in a charter school that didn't already exist in traditional public schools: creating schools that parents and students want to attend, rather than being forced to because of where they live.
It's for all of these innovative and accountable reasons and more that parents like the one who attended the event on Capitol Hill are opting for educational choices like charter schools. And while there will always be skeptics and defenders of the status quo out there who believe it is all "hooey," we can't deny that charter schools are serving the diverse needs of their students. One size does not fit all, and those who believe there is only one way to think about public education are going against the freedom and right of choice inherent in our country's founding principles. While it may not be the choice for Ms. Caroline, it remains a choice -and ought to be so, according to 78 percent of Americans - for the hundreds of thousands of families glad to have the charter school option, and hundred of thousands more on waiting lists hoping for the same choice.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 29, 2008
Risks and Rewards
Twenty-five years after "A Nation At Risk," the general consensus seems to be that the tide of mediocrity continues to lap at our toes. The Washington Post's Mark Fisher writes that, 25 years later, our school children continue to be underserved by "dumbed-down, boring textbooks; thin courses; inexperienced teachers," resulting in a persistent achievement gap and college-bound students who must be remediated.
"What to do? We've tried all manner of cheap ways to fix the problem, anything we can think of that can be accomplished with existing structures and personnel." Ah, yes - well, what NOT to do. Fisher finds comfort in the one-to-one successes of those who take "end runs around the bureaucracies" to do the right thing, the rigorous thing, for kids.
Perhaps he had in mind Friendship Collegiate Academy, a charter school in Washington, D.C., which was honored by the College Board as one of three "outstanding high schools that have successfully improved the academic environment and helped students achieve equitable access to higher education despite social, economic and cultural challenges."
Friendship Collegiate Academy exemplifies Fisher's one-to-one success - but a success made possible by the implementation of systemic reforms that enable broad 'end runs around the bureaucracy' - reforms that demand both choice and accountability, and put students ahead of systems. Reforms grounded in these "Top Ten" offered on the occasion of CER Newswire's 10th Anniversary.
Posted by Edspresso at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 24, 2008
Looking Back, Looking Forward
George Will reflects on Education Lessons We Left Behind with a history lesson on education and education reform in the 25 years since 'A Nation at Risk,' including: Sen. Moynihan's prescience down the years, the "seismic" Coleman report, the rise of teachers' collective bargaining, the birth of the U.S. Department of Education, Chester Finn's take on No Child Left Behind, and what it's all meant for our nation and our kids. Conclusion: "A nation at risk? Now more than ever. "
Jeanne Allen looks at the twin roles of information and choice in turning back the tide of academic mediocrity in the United States. The most fundamental form of family involvement in children's education is parents' ability to choose their children's school. Informed school choices are enabled by reliable data on school performance. Good school choices are enabled by the availability of good choices in schools. "To do that, we must continue to uncover what works and what does not.... There is work to be done."
Posted by Edspresso at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 23, 2008
Essay Question: Are We Beating Back the Tide?
"'Nation at Risk': The best thing or the worst thing for education?" asks Gregg Toppo in USA Today. Good question, and an interesting article. Toppo reports on some of the policy developments that came in the wake of that report's denouncement of a "rising tide of mediocrity" in education - things like a rise in federal education spending, and what Paul Houston of the American Association of School Administrators denounces as "a cottage industry of national reports by people saying how bad things are." But what about the kids? What's happened to them in the 25 years since "A Nation at Risk" raised the alarm? (A look in on the topic 10 years ago - 15 years after the initial report - offered continued cause for concern.)
So, in a nod to the rigors of AP and the rhetoric of Reagan, we ask:
Are our children better educated now than they were 25 years ago? In your answer, discuss issues such as assessment, accountability, access, choice, funding, teacher quality, curriculum, standards, or other education efforts and issues and their relative relevance to the question.
April 16, 2008
Getting to the Bottom Line
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan has decried, "Money wasted on bureaucracy and 'super-sized' charter school administrative salaries deprives every student in the city of valuable educational resources - including small classes, modern schools, libraries, counselors, nurses and music, art and other vital programs." As if....
Newsflash to Jerry: according to 2007 CER survey respondents, average per pupil public funding for a Philly charter: $7,650; per pupil funding of traditional schools in the City of Brotherly Love: $9,951. But for families wanting to make a better choice for their kids, it's not about the bottom line: in 2007, the waiting list for Philadelphia's underfunded charter schools topped 20,000. Parents are already voting on what's vital, and it's those 20,000 kids who are being deprived - of a choice.
Posted by Edspresso at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 14, 2008
Uniform - or Straightjacket
Jeb Bush exposes the Florida Supreme Court's "tortured reasoning" for striking down Florida's full school choice program on the grounds that the state's constitution requires that public education be ''uniform.'' Bush notes that "if the appellate court's decision was applied 'uniformly' across the spectrum of government spending, it would end funding of dozens of programs that improve the quality of life for millions of Floridians."
This fall, voters will get to rule on the other aspect of the Court's ruling on school choice, the issue of ''indirect support'' of a religious institution, but the uniformity issue probably won't make it to the ballot. As a result, "too many children are not getting the quality education they deserve because they have few choices. As adults, many of them will lack the skills to succeed in the competitive global marketplace, leaving them dependent on government rather than their own abilities. That is the legacy of opponents of school choice."
The straightjacket of "uniformity" remains cinched tight.
Posted by Edspresso at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 11, 2008
Choice Opportunity for Urban Renewal
The Cincinnati Enquirer's Peter Bronson recently reported on a local "mini-population boomlet. While most of the city has been losing families to suburbs that offer more land, newer houses, lower taxes and better schools, this neighborhood is a magnet for young professionals with large, growing families." Why? Because, as one mother put it, the Ohio voucher program provides a true educational option when the neighborhood "failing school barely has an early childhood proficient literacy rate of 50 percent."
It turns out that one antidote to the great sucking sound of families leaving the inner cities in search of the quality of life - and education - the suburbs purport to offer can be (drumroll, please) full school choice. Concludes Bronson, "Ohio saved the vouchers - and now they're saving a proud old neighborhood in Cincinnati."
Posted by Edspresso at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)April 08, 2008
'Risk' Assessment
The essayists over at Cato Unbound this month ask "Can the Schools Be Fixed? 'A Nation at Risk' Twenty-Five Years Later." Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute throws out the first pitch, arguing in part that the report's premise of declining academic achievement was flase, which in turn "set the nation on a school reform crusade that has done more harm than good." Responses will be forthcoming from FLOW co-founder Michael Strong, the Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern, and the American Enterprise Institute's Rick Hess. We look forward to the conversation!
Posted by Edspresso at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 19, 2008
Cheers and Jeers
Passing Eighth Grade Gets a Little Harder in New York City, where students will now be required to pass classes in a few core subject areas and achieve at a "basic level" in English and math. Such minimum requirements, apparently, are viewed by some as policies that "punished children for 'things they really don't have any control over.'" But surely wouldn't such children be punished even more by a system of social promotion that might push them through to graduation, but without sufficient education to turn that diploma into a living and a life?
Posted by Edspresso at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 17, 2008
Single-Minded Focus on Success
Jay Greene, now part the research arm at University of Arkansas, walks us through the accumulating research that illuminates the positive influence charters are having on student achievement and system improvement. Greene reminds us, it's all about giving families choices - choices to opt out, and choices to opt in: "Students learn more when they can choose a charter school. Competition from charter schools also spurs improvement in traditional public schools." Charter founder Jack L. Perry is working to have just impact on young men in Delaware that other charters are having in other states. Research has found that single-sex schools provide an excellent educational option particularly for at-risk boys and girls underserved by the traditional school system, and Perry is working to make that option - one that has been available to affluent families for decades - a reality for more at-risk boys in the First State.
Posted by Edspresso at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 13, 2008
Whose Funeral?
Maureen Downey fancies herself a great observer of politics in Georgia. If only she'd looked at successful action beyond her state's borders before making ridiculous statements about how legislative efforts to give children more quality schools is somehow killing public education.
"A mausoleum for public education" is what she calls the move in the heretofore backwards state of Georgia to create scholarship opportunities for children who are stuck in failing schools. How about the mausoleum that these under-educated kids-turned-grown-ups really go to, especially those who drop out? Has she seen the statistics on the positive correlation between poor education and poverty, unemployment and incarceration?
Ms Downey clearly hasn't read the statistics about how many at-risk, low-income and minority children are being served better by charters in her own state than in traditional public school systems. Instead, she offers a knee-jerk objection to the new commission created to expedite the expansion of such opportunities, and would rather wait for school boards - who squander resources daily on bureaucracy rather than results to - to do something more about education.
She thinks it's all about money, not system change. Maybe she should ask one of the kids stuck in a system barely that graduates 50% of its students, whether they think the system needs to be changed - and if they want to continue to be stuck in it while the local school boards further contemplates rearranging the deck chairs?
Posted by Jeanne Allen at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 11, 2008
Shedding Some Heat to Shed Some Light
The Center for Union Facts has launched a new campaign "to jump-start a conversation" about why union rules make it so hard to oust poorly performing teachers. It reminds me of the Aesop's fable in which the sun and the wind bet who can force a man to take off his coat. The wind blows and blows, causing the man to pull his coat more tightly about him. The sun then takes a turn, beaming down on the man who soon takes off his coat voluntarily. The Center for Union Facts proposes to give the nation's "Top Ten Worst Union-Protected Teachers" $10,000 in 'severance pay' to leave the teaching profession voluntarily, given current union rules that protect their employment seemingly indefinitely, regardless of performance. There's a new spin on incentive pay! Please note, contest rules prohibit anyone from nominating him- or herself.
Posted by Edspresso at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)March 10, 2008
Throw Me the Money
In today's New York Times, interesting articles on teachers unions' disproportional influence in politics and straight-jacketing effect on teachers in the classroom. And of course, that's just the way they want it. To wit: the Seattle Education Association, in its campaign against "vile elements" of NCLB, has recently ratified a motion to stonewall the superintendent's efforts to improve the district's educational system. The union objects to recommendations including "replacing the poorest performing schools with charter schools, creating a principal corps that gives principals power over curriculum, [and] firing 'under-performing' teachers" - all of which apparently run counter to the SEA's own member "teachers' increasing willingness to struggle for quality public education." The SEA members' counter attack for delivering said quality public education centers around contract negotiations aimed at "protecting teachers jobs and fighting for better funding of public schools."
Posted by Edspresso at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)February 25, 2008
Milwaukee's Best
In a recent editorial board meeting with the Milwaukee Journal, Democratic Presidential frontrunner Barack Obama reiterated his support of charter schools but offered skepticism over the value of school vouchers - but "if [vouchers work], whatever my preconception, you do what's best for kids." Vouchers do work, as Dan Lips points out. Ultimately, Obama concludes, "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn. We're losing several generations of kids and something has to be done."
Whitney Tilson offers coverage of the back-peddling follow-up response from Obama's campaign (as well as links to the video and transcript of the Journal's original interview with Obama). Even the United Federation of Teachers, although it's thrown its hat in the ring for Hillary, is trying to recant Obama's words by proxy, even as they denounce his support of merit pay. But based on editorials in the New York Sun and Washington Post this past weekend, they won't be unringing that bell any time soon.
Posted by Edspresso at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)February 19, 2008
Math Wars: In The Trenches
Despite the good work of curriculum watchdogs like NYC HOLD and Mathematically Correct, and the vigilance of concerned parents (see the front page of today's Washington Post), questionable math instructional methods continue to seep into the classroom. Parents watch in dismay as foundational concepts like the times tables are dismissed as "short cuts" in favor of the new-new math "method mix." In one suburb, families who relocated in part based on the local schools' solid reputation are dismayed to find that the wishy-washy curriculum they thought they'd left behind has been selected for adoption next year by their neighborhood Blue Ribbon school. But they're digging in to fight for what's right. For more on the pedagogical battle, check out Barry Garelick on the topic.
Posted by Edspresso at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)February 15, 2008
Humor Me, It's Friday
Discouraging week: I grudgingly agreed to help my fifth grader finish his "All about me" photo presentation before the bus came this morning (what ever happened to book reports?), while the biggest consensus among candidates in our School Board primary on Tuesday was to "go green" by getting rid of Styrofoam lunch trays. As the siren song of home schooling haunts my subconscious, I raise my morning cup o’ joe to Tony Woodlief for his ditty on "Intelligence Designer" Howard Gardner in today’s Wall Street Journal.
February 08, 2008
Don't Blame the Parents
Hats off to Jay Mathews for giving a recent Washington Post poll an insightful analysis. The poll, which asked DC residents what they thought were the biggest problems plaguing DC schools, found that at the top of the list of perceived 'culprits' was parental apathy. Teacher quality was at the bottom of the list. But perceptions aside, Bad Parents Don't Make Bad Schools. Rather "great teaching makes great schools, and once you have a good school, parents become engaged and active." In other words, 'if you build it, they will come.'
Posted by Edspresso at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 23, 2008
A Modest Proposal
In today's Washington Post, Jay Mathews lauds Andrew J. Rotherham's 5 so-called win-win Deals charter schools and politicians can make to push charter school growth and achievement to the next level.
Deal #5 - let the unions into charter schools. Mathews explains, with jaw-dropping candor, why pols will want to jump on-board with this one: "a Democratic president or governor cannot get far without teacher union backing." In other words, Democratic candidates should throw charter schools under the unionization bus to gain teacher union endorsements. And, presumably, the charter movement should allow it in order to continue its move into the mainstream, or otherwise face increasing, ultimately debilitating, push-back from the unions - and the resulting abandonment from politicians.
It's an explicit acquiescence to, if not downright endorsement of, the political machine, and as such a great idea for unions and politicians. But where do the kids fit into this "fair trade" - except as a football for the political and financial aggrandizement of the 'power' players?
Says Rotherman, "teachers unions are the most powerful education interest group at the state and national level. In other words, for charter schools to expand substantially, either the political landscape will have to change a great deal, or they will have to make some accommodations with teachers union leaders."
Fortunately, the political landscape has already changed a great deal in support of school choice and accountability, and to turn back now to the 'safe haven' of unions' political protectionism would be folly indeed.
Posted by Edspresso at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 17, 2008
Funding Virtual Charters: You Do the Math
In recent Associated Press coverage of an appeals court ruling that blocked funding to Wisconsin Virtual Academy, Barbara Stein of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, "objected to the use of tax dollars to support what she called a new form of home schooling.
"'The issue is whether a program where you don't have licensed educators and where you don't have students working directly with other students should be getting fully funded as though it were a quality educational experience,' she said."
Lets turn the New-New Math penchant for trying to morph mathematical algorithms into literary exercises on its ear, and turn Ms. Stein's statement into an equation:
licensed educators + working directly with other students = quality educational experience
Don't think so. Maybe rigorous curriculum + accountability = quality education.
Critics of virtual schools denounce them as "little more than home schooling at taxpayer expense." Gee, what do you know - it's that old "they're draining our resources" chestnut, as if taxpayers are simply supposed to fork over their hard-earned bucks for the edification of tax-spenders, regardless of results. Guess what, folks, what we taxpayers are forking over our cold, hard cash for is the proper education of our (collective) children. If you can't deliver that, get out of the way for those who can. Because can there be any bigger drain on - or abuse of - taxpayer dollars than an undereducated child?
Posted by Edspresso at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 16, 2008
School Choice Showdown on the Editorial Pages
Two interesting commentaries in today's Morning Shots – one an editorial in a Colorado paper on a charter proposal that lost on appeal to the State Board of Education, and the other from Tom Needles, who served as then-Gov. George Voinovich's education adviser at the time Ohio's charter and voucher laws were put in place during the 1990s.
The Colorado editorial, harkening to some imagined "why can't we all just get along" détente among Democratic presidential candidates (that's your first clue), chastises the charter parents' vow to "continue their effort to create an alternative to the local public schools. This is unfortunate. Their efforts would be better placed working within the school system to implement some [of] the laudable educational features they desire."
Although the charter proposal in Colorado would have served a small rural community (the editorial offers the argument: "In a small town such as Ridgway, there simply does not exist a scale of economy to support duplicating educational facilities"), and Mr. Needles' comments regard the 86,000 mostly urban schoolchildren who are exercising choice in Ohio through charters and vouchers, his points get at the real reason why parents continue to fight for educational choices to address districts' shortfalls, even in self-proclaimed "good" districts.
"Critics of school choice either don't understand or are too caught up in their tired arguments to see that at its most fundamental level, school choice became a moral issue.... We understood the simple concept that competition within any industry, including education, is absolutely necessary to guarantee results.... I wish [the education bureaucracy] would stop blaming kids and their families, rather than themselves, for failure.... Here's an idea for all those public school leaders who continue to fight so hard to preserve one of the last monopolies left in America: Join with us to compete so that all ... schools, both public and private, continue to improve."
Because while districts might claim to embrace the goal of providing "the best education possible for our youth," families shouldn't have to wait around, begging at the school house door to be heard, while deaf bureaucrats fail, year after year, to deliver on that goal.
