“A Teacher in Charterland”: True and Sad

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1. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   March 14, 2013 at 11:54 am

   Testing = PROFITS!

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2. Joe Nathan says:

   March 14, 2013 at 1:26 pm

   Here’s a link to a downtown St Paul charter school that brings together hundreds of suburban and urban students. They employ a number of educators and professional artists. http://spcpa.org/

   The daily disparagement of charters that appears here is a mirror image of what some of you complain is happening with district public schools.

   The country has a vast array of public schools that are doing marvelous things with youngsters. Some are district, some are charter.

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   • Bill D. says:

     March 14, 2013 at 3:32 pm

     I agree with you completely. Public schools have no monopoly on education. There are good and bad in all areas. But we should have a level playing field. Don’t have different regulations for public and charters. Be transparent in the funding and where the money goes. I worry about the middle man in charters. Look at our health system and you can see where we are heading in education. Let the best move on and the others fall away whether public, voucher, private, or charter.

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     • Joe Nathan says:

       March 14, 2013 at 9:26 pm

       Bill, we agree completely on the importance of financial transparency. On the issue of rules – most state laws allow a district school to convert a charter. Most district schools don’t want to accept the responsibility for improving results on various assessments that are part of the charter idea.

   • Brian says:

     March 15, 2013 at 9:45 am

     Mr. Nathan, you completely undermine and undercut your argument for fairness towards charter schools when you make this generalized and unprovable statement yourself:

     “Most district schools don’t want to accept the responsibility for improving results on various assessments that are part of the charter idea.”

     You cannot possibly have polled every district school in the country so there is no way that you can honestly make the statement that most of them want to or don’t want to do something.

     How is it that pointing out the failure of this charter school is seen as painting with a broad brush against charter schools but your own negative statements about public schools are OK? That, my fellow citizen, is hypocrisy defined.

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     • Joe Nathan says:

       March 15, 2013 at 9:58 am

       Brian, fair question. I make the assertion because several states allow conversion of district schools to charter public schools. But in those states (such as California and Minnesota) that provide the only to convert, more than 95% of the charters are newly started, rather than conversion of existing district schools.

3. Joe Nathan says:

   March 14, 2013 at 1:30 pm

   Since we are talking about the arts, here’s a story about a young woman who was not especially successful in high school but has gone on to be very successful as artist.

   http://forestlaketimes.com/2012/11/28/once-a-struggling-student-carpender-has-found-her-way/

   Reply
4. Harlan Underhill says:

   March 14, 2013 at 5:34 pm

   You might have mentioned that she broke her word after committing to a regular job, to take the charter job. She sacrificed her integrity to pursue a dream. Granted, she found out she had made a mistake eventually. People do.

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5. Cindy Hatton says:

   March 20, 2013 at 11:26 am

   Testing is also all that matters in public eduction, not just in charters. Instead of being about students and teachers it’s more about funding (money). Teachers and students would be better served by discussing solutions to truly fix the challenges faced in education.

   For decades, public ed has had high schools where the graduation rates have been in the 30-50% range. In the early 80’s I went to high school with kids who were practically illiterate. How does that happen? What can be done to improve the outcomes?

   Sadly it appears this struggle has only caused the standards to be lowered for all students. For instance, lowering the goal for words per minute read from 90 wpm to 60 so more kids will pass the test is lowering expectations and teaching down. Why not teach up by giving more help to those reading only 60 wpm?

   Let the discussion be about real solutions, not pointing fingers at each other.

   Reply