Who Needs to Learn from Whom? What Public Schools can Teach Charter Schools About Teaching All Students. The New York Times published a story about what public schools can learn fro charter schools. But the most important lesson is to be careful which students are admitted.
The role of charter schools in public education continues to be a subject of heated debate. The House of Representatives recently passed a bi-partisan bill that would provide additional sources of funding for charter schools. At the same time they rejected rules that would require charter schools to report teacher attrition rates, student discipline data, and enrollment data. They also rejected conflict of interest guidelines for charters.
Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, is visiting a charter school in New York City today “to rip Mayor de Blasio over charter schools.” He has repeatedly said that de Blasio’s skepticism about charters is a “war on kids.” The very same day the New York Times published a story on the “chasm” between public and charter schools. The story, which mentions the school that Cantor is planning to visit, spins a story about how charter schools should be “test kitchens for practices that could be exported into the traditional schools.” It praises two charter schools (Kings Collegiate Charter School and Bronx Charter School for Excellence) that share their insights with two neighboring public schools (Middle School for Art and Philosophy and P.S. 085 Great Expectations).
But the numbers raise some questions. The school that Cantor visited today, the Bronx Charter School for Excellence, serves 72% fewer English Language Learners and 55% fewer special needs students than its neighbor, P.S. 085. The charter school serves exactly zero of the highest need special education students– while over 16% of the public school’s students are highest need special education. And the charter school has a student population that is over 210% more economically privileged, as measured by the New York City Department of Education’s economic need index, than the public school’s.
The other charter to public school comparison shows the same pattern. The Times claimed, “it too, served large numbers of low-income black students, many from the same neighborhoods.” This is inaccurate. King Collegiate serves a student population that is 35% more economically privileged than the Middle School for Art and Philosophy, as measured by the New York City Department of Education’s economic need index. The charter school has 95% fewer English Language Learners and 55% fewer special needs students than the public school. The charter has exactly zero of the highest need special education students while, in the co-located public school, over 11% of the student population consists of the highest need special education students. Even with these advantages only 12% of the 8th graders who graduate from the charter school stayed on-track in credit accumulation in 9th grade versus 80% of the public schools students.
Of course, the teachers at these schools should continue to collaborate and share ideas with one another. But what is not OK is the big lie that is being told about the relative success of the schools. If there is a war being waged on kids, as Cantor has claimed, it is the charter schools and their supporters who are waging war on English Language Learners, on students with special needs, and on poor students.
The data show that the biggest ingredient of the charter school recipe is that they educate students with greater incoming advantages than public schools. Many also kick out students who don’t do well on tests. This is not a lesson we want public schools to learn. We want our public schools to teach every single child. We do not need charter schools to know that schools that serve more privileged groups of student have higher test scores.
The skepticism that de De Blasio has expressed about charters is well earned. As long as charter schools as a sector refuse to educate the neediest students, they are best viewed as the mechanism for ultimately sorting all of the neediest students into the educational equivalents of Bantustans. Those Bantustans will be called “public schools.” As long as charter school interest groups are able to get politicians to vote against transparency for charter schools we will never be able to hold them to the mission of public education– which is to educate every single child.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The secret of constant test prep?
Except we already know their secrets: cherry pick and “counsel out” kids who might hurt test scores; narrow the curriculum to exclude almost all enrichment subjects and focus on test prep. Prevent teachers from unionizing and treat them like low value interchangeable parts. This keeps profits and pedagogical obsequiousness high. After all any idiot can do test drills it’s not teaching. So much for charter school secrets. Ninjas please.
SSS!
Selective Student Secret!
I am the co-founder of the ASD Nest Program, a highly successful PUBLIC school inclusion program for children with autism, now being hosted by 31 schools with about 750 children with autism. Almost all of them are able to keep up with (or surpass) their typically developing peers, and, amazingly enough, can expect to graduate high school with a Regents diploma. Results like these are unprecedented for this population.
The Nest program was launched in 2003 in District 15 in Brooklyn when Carmen Farina was the district superintendent, and expanded across the city in 2005 when she was the deputy chancellor. The program was developed in collaboration with Hunter College and NYU’s Steinhardt School, which provided training and guidance.
This program is an example of what typical neighborhood public schools can do when allowed/encouraged to serve their most challenging children, and given the resources to do so. It has better results than almost all private schools, and the only excellent private schools for children with autism are not inclusive. Here’s the NYU web site: Steinhardt.nyu.edu/asdnest.
The ASD Nest Program is PROOF that traditional public schools, if given the requisite resources and support, can do amazing things for ALL children in MOST neighborhood schools.
Thanks for the background.
Great story, but it contradicts the narrative, so it won’t be in the NYTimes.
The only time public schools may be mentioned is when making unfavorable comparisons to charter schools.
Just like the only people who oppose the privatization of public schools are teachers unions.
These are the rules of the “debate”
Dianne, this is a sizzling indictment!
But more importantly, are you taking care of yourself?
Cantor comes to NYC to continue skewering our weak mayor for his charter doubts even tho he capitulated and gave privatizers all they want. Charters have become a wedge issue to undermine Dems and finish career of DeB. The NYT today projected good news on city charters, that they are more successful than the publics while teaching the same demographics, so they must have a lot to teach the publics, just as charters were intended to do when started 20 yrs ago, so all’s in order, etc., a very big lie. No major media outlet will contradict this big lie. Diane’s blog is the most consequential outlet now for public school advocates, a landmark of 12mil hits, but still can’t nullify advocacy punch of network/cable TV, daily newspapers, or right-wing talk-radio. An option for public advocates is a political boycott of Dems in 14 and 16. 5% of electorate boycotting Dems can stop their careers in many close elections.The Dems are vulnerable to a liberal boycott at the polls, which the NYTIMES today reported vis a vis Cuomo’s fear he alienated his party’s left. NYT reports Working Families Party is rethinking endorsement of Cuomo, but wonder if this is a ploy to exact some small item from Cuomo or if the WFP is ready for a fight.
If Democrats don’t realize they now sound exactly like Eric Cantor they may be too stupid to re-elect.
Is this where they wanted to end up when they climbed onboard the Milton Freidman train? Because that’s where they ended up. There is no “liberal” or “Democratic” ed reform. Cantor sounds the same as Duncan and Cuomo, and Cantor didn’t move Left. Democrats simply adopted the entire GOP ed agenda. There is no difference.
Teachers are being punished by the Ohio Republican representatives in the statehouse. Plunderbund, today, asked Ohioans to counter the Michelle Rhee contingent, with opposition testimony concerning teacher evaluations. In Ohio, the only hope for public education, is a Democratic house or senate.
At the federal level, the executive branch is among the enemies of education but, Democratic Supreme Court appointments are imperative. In the legislative branch, at least one Ohio Democratic candidate includes support for public education, in his platform, Kundrata, running against Chabot.
but what about the supreme court? we can’t risk giving them another corporate/right wing nomination.
Will the NY Times disclose the financial interests related to the bankrupt ConnectEDU, Gates foundation, New Market Education Partners, and other “corporate reforms”? The dots are connected on a silver platter for investigative reporters who are not tied to the NY Times, Gates, etc.
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/04/29/connectedu-follows-gates-foundation-grant-with-ch-11-bankruptcy/
“ConnectEDU’s top creditor is New Market Education Partners, a Maryland-based venture capital firm investing in education innovations. ConnectEDU says it owes New Market $1 million. Other creditors include The New York Times Co. and AOL.”
A war on kids? Gee, I thought that ideas like cutting funding to SNAP ran more along those lines. Eric Cantor has some pair handing out blame for who cares about kids least.
According to his bio, Eric Cantor attended The Collegiate School which is a prep school.
So another public school scold who didn’t attend one but delivers stern lectures to people who actually use them.
I’d love to see the stats on how many in Congress attended public schools.
This article was full of holes… and full of messages that reinforce misperceptions about the “competition” between public schools and for profit charters. This post underscores a few that stood out for me: http://waynegersen.com/2014/05/12/charter-chasm/
That’s excellent. We should get that to see the light of day. Thanks.
Well done, Diane. I see it all the time in my public school. You are spot on.
Bankrupt ConnectEDU Creditor – NY Times
http://info.connectedu.com/blog/?Tag=Texas+Education+Agency
“(Boston, MA) June 27, 2012 – The Texas Education Agency has announced the selection of Boston-based education technology provider ConnectEDU as their partner in the development and deployment of the ‘Online College and Career Preparation Resource Site’. During the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature, lawmakers appropriated funds for the creation of a statewide online college and career readiness portal to provide online college preparation assistance to students, parents, and high school counselors. After an extensive and competitive open bidding process, the Texas Education Agency selected ConnectEDU to build, maintain and promote the portal to nearly 2.5 million middle and high school students throughout Texas.”
Follow the billions that are funneled from classrooms to shareholders and corporations including the NY Times. Fincial conflicts of interest via state and federal contracts with Gates support are rarely dislosed in the NY Times and other media outlets.
Examples include: NY Times as a creditor and Margaret Spellings as a shareholder in financial support of the bankrupt ConnectEDU database.
ConnectEDU Bankruptcy Petition –
The NYT=a thoroughly discredited institution.
The NYT article also left out the salient fact that Kings Collegiate also has very high student suspension and attrition rates; hopefully not something our district schools can “learn” from charters in order to compete on test scores.
http://www.edwize.org/middle-school-charters-suspending-their-way-to-the-top
Leonie Haimson
Who’s learning from whom? I read the KIPP creed, Work Hard, Be Nice, and KIPP founders readily admitted that they heavily copied teaching strategies from master public school teachers Harriet Ball in Houston and Rafe Esquith of Los Angeles.
I just finished reading this article, shook my head at all the inaccuracies, mis-characterizations, lies of omission – no mention of the extreme rate of attrition for one driving up test scores, also dubious testing conditions with little or no oversight and a thick-as-thieves attitude towards outside oversight, all equals higher test scores occasionally, but even then the charters can’t outperform actual public schools.
Search Javier C. Hernandez, class of Harvard 2008 – Bloomberg acolyte – what do we expect??
The New York Times should be ashamed, again.
My favorite line begins… “A primary rationale for the creation of charter schools…” and ends with utter garbage. The primary rational is…privatize our public schools.
Who is this guy’s editor?
The Waltons or Gates’
The lesson for public schools is: How can we also receive public funding without having to follow the over abundance of regulations placed on public schools. This seems to work for charter schools.
Public school teachers face charges, if they falsify student grades but, if a state superintendent changes and inflates the grade of a charter school, he faces no indictment.
That seems like a valuable avoidance lesson that charter proponents could teach.
Has state law been codified to establish equal punishments for doctoring grades, in charters and public schools? Different accountability standards and private vs. public entity issues, make me curious.
Diane,
Thank you for sharing the true secrets of charters. Usually when I talk to pro-charter friends and point out your arguments, they admit you’re right.
The impact that Andrew (I won’t call him “Governor” anymore) Cuomo’s charter school edict will have on our public schools in NYC will be severe. The public schools will lose funding and space as more of the resources go towards making room for these privately run enterprises.
And many, many of these charter schools will take advantage of this haven.
I’m really beginning to fear the worst, here. What a terrible thing to do to our city.
ANGEL OF DEATH: The title of this article is ironic because according to NY’s original 1998 Charter School Act, the very reason charters were first created was to employ alternatives to focus on the needs of “at risk” students in order to replicate solutions across the larger system.
But the definition of “at risk” immediately became fluid, as charters filled up with kids of savvy parents. The charters avoided the most at-risk kids in droves, allowing them to post gains because learning time was less impeded.
This cannibalizes district schools, leaving them with all the “most” at-risk kids, making progress got even slower. I teach in these schools, there are myriad non-academic obstacles to learning that are not being addressed.
So it’s more ironic that the left refuses to discuss policy fixes to socioeconomic disparity because the right is now proposing “trigger laws” that make it worse, punishing public schools that need the most support. Instead they’re saying they can be displaced by more charters, which will just increase the concentration of the most at-risk kids in the remaining schools, a dangerous idea if you ask me.
As was the case with many states, Idaho first admitted charter schools into the public school system as incubators of innovation and experimentation, with the intent that the pedagogical best practices arising from innovation and experimentation would be widely shared with schools throughout the entire state system. However, such sharing of information was never mandated by law, and the notion rather quickly disappeared from meaningful analyses and discussion of the purpose of charter schools in Idaho.
For some charter schools in Idaho, sharing curriculum, practices, policies, etc. is impossible without violating contractual agreements and copyright law. At one time, 11 charter schools in Idaho employed the proprietary Harbor School Method, paying for the privilege with an annual fee of $50,000 taxpayer dollars handed over to Rebecca Stallcop, who presently operates with members of her family four Harbor Method public charter schools.
The curriculum, practices, and policies of Idaho’s largest virtual charter schools are also shielded from dissemination by contractual agreements and copyright law. Though ostensibly operated by a non-profit organization (as required by Idaho law), the Idaho Virtual Academy is managed and operated, stem to stern, by K12, Inc. Likewise with the INSPIRE Connections Academy, which is managed and operated by a division of Pearson.
They are cash cows.
It sounds like charters are keeping “best practices” secret to make more money, but the truth is they don’t actually have a silver bullet we don’t know about. They are pretending they have solutions to convince politicians to let them open more charters. But there have been many current and former charter teachers who revealed the reasons for their relative success:
1. hire great teachers willing to make intense commitments, work them to the bone, repeat process next year as teachers ‘burn out’ or are fired. I was recruited by Success and read their literature myself.
2. require an application to the lottery – this weeds out the most at-risk students whose parents were not savvy enough to know about the school and follow through on an application
3. focus on test scores – drill and kill, teach to test, increase Math and ELA
4. extend school day and year (some charters spend two extra weeks on rigid ‘routines and procedures’ with students before school even begins)
5. spend extra on kids thanks to private funding streams (which are also huge tax shelters)
6. persuade struggling kids to go to other schools
Well said, but in the end, to the “cherry-pickers,” our children are data points.
Charter Schools are terrible to their teachers. I have been a teacher in 2 of them. In the past 6 years, I have been very mistreated, my life has been threatened while I was pregnant, the student faced 0 consequences. It is a butts in seats business. There is too much blame, too little money, and (for many) greedy management companies. Unfortunately, due to the lack of jobs in my area, I have to stay in an abusive environment. Where I teach, the teachers do not get supplies, we are limited to 250 copies a month (which means 1 piece of paper per student per month, very little technology, low pay, high priced insurance, students are allowed to threaten us, the owner makes us come in on ice days (when most if not all districts in the state are closed), he treats us terribly, makes us work after hours for free, and if we ever ask for anything-it will be taken out of our pay. However, if we do not play the “politics” game, we are let go. We are on a low income area so the kids do not come to us with supplies and are often way below grade level. Now the state has begun to publish our eveluations (which are based on test score and other factors). We are at an unfair advantage, with no support systems, which means it keeps us there with little hope of finding employment elsewhere.
On top of it, This management company brings in roughly 150,000 a month. I do not understand how “for profit” schools are entitled to state and federal funding. It is a scam.