An article in the Washington Post describes the high rates of suspension and expulsion at some of DC’s charter schools.
They say they do it to keep the other children safe.
Charter advocates like to say that public schools should learn from their innovative practices. Kicking kids out is not all that innovative. Public schools used to do it years ago; maybe there are still some who do it.
Where do the children go when they are expelled? Where are the schools that are required to accept them?
I thought that charter schools would teach everyone how to deal with problem children, not how to get rid of them. We already knew that routine.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The best part of this strategy is that charters can then turn around and criticize their neighboring public schools for failing to educate the children they expelled.
I am curious- who are the problem children?
We have a CMO in Chicago that charges kids fines for behavioral infractions at their charter schools. They’ve taken in a hefty sum, too, $386,745 in three years: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/noble-street-charter-scho_n_1276100.html
I think there are a lot of things that distinguish trained professional educators from non-educators, but in my obsevations, one of the most salient features seems to be that non-educators tend to be more likely to resort to carrots and sticks.
I’ve worked with a lot of teachers in child care centers who had little or no formal training in education and many focused more on sticks, punitive approaches to classroom management. Several did the same thing as Michelle Rhee, they put tape on children’s mouths. Since they hadn’t studied education and child development, they had no clue about positive guidance, developmentally appropriate practice, how extertnals undermine intrinsic motivation, etc.
When charters were originally planned, did people really think the best people for providing innovative practices in education would be non-educators? Seems eerily similar to expecting zoo animals to be able to start a circus.
The article doesn’t mention specifically the race or gender of the students being expelled or suspended, but many studies have shown minority students suspensions are higher than white children. Yet another area where charter schools fail to succeed. In public school we can’t deny a student an education. Do these charter schools, using public money, make arrangements for these throw away children?
They send them back to the public schools.
Diane
In DC the majority of suspended/expelled charter students are African-American males. They usually appear back in the regular public schools after the official October student count.Others trickle in over the next couple of months. The charters get the per pupil expenditure. The public school doesn’t. In addition, we get a student who may be resentful of his/her new found circumstance and as a bonus no real idea of why they were suspended or expelled. Yes, definitely an “innovative best practice”.
Just like corporations… If they can’t make it, they’re fired: The main reason schools NEVER can be run like businesses! We just find another way to love and reach them!
It seems that removing kids from school is in the water of charter school operators. The Recovery School District in New Orleans (which has the largest percentage of charter schools than any city in the country) suspenses and expels students 10 times the national average.
Hope you don’t mind, but I reposted your statement.
Mind? I am grateful.
This has been an interesting blog and article and conversation.
No one has mentioned that the environment in many schools are creating students who become disenfranchised and angry that they are forced to be in a building where the lessons available are not relevant, and in early childhood the activities are so developmentally inappropriate that all children do not act out.
I am not saying that there are not children with major emotional issues due to a variety of home environment, but if teachers designed their curriculum to truly meet the needs of their students and also had professional resources for those children who needed additional support, I am sure there would be a different picture of the number of children who end up being suspended.
Suspension does nothing to the student except either send him home which for many is not a bad thing, or they are sent to a different school for a short time which does nothing for their learning.
As a pre-k teacher I see a significant number of boys every year who struggle in pre-k. My school and I suspect many other schools are designed towards girls who at an early age have more ability to sit and attend to lessons than boys. There are some school districts who redshirt boys with late birthdays in Kindergarten but this is not the norm.
Classes and instruction need to be designed by those who understand child development.
Punishing a child because he/she is in a toxic environment makes no sense. And it’s creating a sense of failure rather than creating a life long love of learning.
Many of our children are in reality POW’s without the benefit of the Geneva Convention.