As we have seen again and again in recent years, charter schools have mastered the secret of school success. The most predictable way of getting those highly prized test scores is to have the “right” student body.
Want to learn the tricks?
Kevin Welner of the University of Colorado and the National Education Policy Center reveals here the 12 most effective methods to get high test scores, even to be called “a miracle schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Does the”skimming” described here or the more direct admission requirements of public gifted and talented programs result in a better education for those that are “skimmed”? A worse education for tose left behind? I think the answer to the former question is definitely yes and the latter question is probably yes for secondary students.
This leaves us with the difficult policy question of decided which type of student we will design a school system to give the best education to. I think even for a Rawlsian the answer is not clear.
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TE, Prof. Jeannie Oakes has already answered your questions in her research on the effects of school tracking. There is no evidence that homogenous grouping via tracking produce enhanced achievement for either the elite gifted into the top or the non-elite barreled-up at the bottom. Despite absence of research confirming the benefits of tracking, such policy has been a steadfast practice in education.
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I willcersinly take a look at the research. Is there anything more recent than the early-mid 90’s?
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I have just had a little time to look into this murky issue. This study argues that tracking has important benefits for gifted young mathematicians:
Click to access 200912_Detracking.pdf
I am sympathetic to the conclusions in part because it rings true in light of my family’s experience.
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A very interesting observation, “teachingeconomist.” “Even for a Rawlsian,” you say. Why? Rawls doesn’t specify outcomes does he, only monetary inputs, never a guarantee of anything.
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Rawls argues that any inequality in society must be advantageous to the worst off. Basically that the share of the pie can be smaller if the pie itself is larger because the slices are of unequal size.
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Since NCLB, education has turned into a “game” where the players (district leaders, principals, etc…) are put into positions to either play the game, or lose the game (federal dollars). We are all aware of the punitive damages cause by this faulty policy, where schools that struggle the most get less federal aid (akin to Seinfeld’s Bizzarro World). So, how do you play the game? Easy. Take this example from a few years ago. Schools took a hit on their AYP and ABC if, say, the school’s Algebra I students tested low. So, what administrators were forced to do if they wanted to “be in the game” was to create pseudo classes, and put the lower testing students in those so their low scores wouldn’t count against the school. So, instead of putting that low scorer in an Algebra I class, you’d put him/her in an “Intro to Algebra” course, or a “fundamentals of Algebra” or “Algebra IA” and “Algebra IB” (or any other creative name) and when those students show they could pass an Algebra I EOC, they would get moved into the real Algebra class. It was, and still is, a game.
As far as “gifted” and “talented” programs…you’re really going to put your “gifted” child in a school where half the faculty are certified teachers? Or in the case of North Carolina, NONE of the staff have to be certified (if the current bill passes)?
Sorry, the charter school movement and/or voucher movement does not SOLVE any problems in education. It mearly SHIFTS problems into a for-profit model. Who falls through the cracks? Low-income, high-risk minorities. You know, our poor black kids who need it most. That’s the 800-pound elephant in the room no one likes to talk about.
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Actually I did have a gifted student take courses from “uncertified” teachers. Some were even graduate students.
Are teachers at Sidwell Friends, Phillips Exeter, and the Lab Scools required to be certified? I would send a gifted child to those institutions.
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These are highly-selective private schools. Not charter schools. Heck, Phillips Exeter’s tuition rivals that of Duke University.
Try again.
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You just talked about having uncertified teachers teaching gifted students. If I get to choose the teacher, fine. If I have to send a student to whatever school the school board decides, I do want some assurance of competence.
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Hi Zak,
You mentioned Phillips Exeter.
Funny story. (perhaps not in the ha ha way)
Several years ago I had a colleague who was having all manner of difficulty teaching at the public school. She was a math teacher with very impressive degrees and a resume of math accomplishments that were just plain outstanding, but she had zero classroom management and her teaching “style” (if you could call it that) drove the kids to distraction. Now mind you, she was teaching all gifted/ advanced classes. The principal sent me to “show her how to do this”.
Awkward.
For the entire year several of us worked with her every day.
Although she did improve (and the parents complained less), it was still a mess.
The AP class set her trash can on fire one day.
She left at the end of her second year.
To go to….wait for it…wait for it….
Yep, Phillips Exeter.
Apparently, the move worked out well for her.
I cannot imagine paying a fortune for my kid to have her as their math teacher.
Oh well.
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Maybe she expected kids to actually be interested in the math enough to have self-discipline. In any case, at Phillips Exeter, ALL classes are conduced by the Harkness Method, collaborative problem solving around a table of at most 13 kids plus the teacher. The teacher doesn’t “teach” in the usual way, but evaluates the kids on how well they work together to solve math problems put before them. The math problems are the same for all sections, I think, and can be downloaded at the Phillips web site. YOU wouldn’t pay for your child to be in her math class, but perhaps other parents who know that teaching is actually about encouragement to think rather than classroom management might. That AP calculus class shows how corrupted students have been by their education. My guess is that they didn’t want to think, but just wanted to know how to get the answer for the test. They didn’t recognize true teaching excellence when they saw it. PIty though.
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I have to agree with Harlan that what advanced students want out of a teacher is different from what students who would set a trash can on fire in the classroom want out of a teacher.
The most advanced math students at my local high school routinely choose to take mathematics classes from teachers with little (or more likely no) training in education at our local university. Those students profit from the depth of the courses as well as the deep understanding of mathematics that the faculty and graduate students have.
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HU:
“My guess is that they didn’t want to think, but just wanted to know how to get the answer for the test. They didn’t recognize true teaching excellence when they saw it.”
It would be a guess, because you were not there, did not see her teach, and did not know these kids.
I was.
Wrong on all counts.
BTW:
What she “expected” (by her own admission) is kids who don’t get it the way she teaches it will go to the tutor.
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TE,
You might be real surprised as to who set the trash can on fire.
I was working at a very different type of school then.
Spoiler alert:
Not minority.
Not low income.
Not low achieving.
Not “troubled kids” from” troubled families”.
In fact the number one occupation of the parents at that particular HS was…college professor!
Would you like a list of the colleges those kids would up at?
And, although I am sure you were just trying to help me out, rest assured that I am very familiar with what advanced students (of various demographics) want out of a teacher.
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My children went to an even different type of public school: lots of professors kids but also lots of low income (the elementary school was just under 60% free and reduced price lunch, for example.) Small towns create a much more socially integrated public school systems than the big cities on the coasts.
My general point was that the more advanced the course, the more important content knowledge relative to pedagogy.
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Ang: game, set, and match.
Krazy props.
🙂
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Ang,
She taught for two years at your school. Was she dismissed? If she resigned, would she have been dismissed had she not resigned?
Do you know Joe long she taught at Phillips Exeter?
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Hi Ang. Looks like teachingeconomist proved your point. About a decade ago, I worked at the biggest public high school (that year) in the state. I had been there a couple years, and the turnover was pretty high each year, when a professor from Duke University decided she wanted to “give back to the community” or something and teach English at this particular high-poverty, high-minority school. You want to talk about no classroom management? The kids ate her alive. She ended up quitting with a month or two left of school. She was considered “distinguished” in her field, mind you. Since she was in my hall, I got to know her a little bit, and she was very nice. The problem was, she didn’t have the required “personality” that one needs to work in a school like that. I’ve been teaching around 15 years (7 different high schools, 2 different states), and from my experience, it’s the teachers who have dry personalities or little sense of humor who get eaten up.
Classroom management is not a problem at a prestigious school like Duke. Nor is it a problem at a private school, where they will just get rid of the disruptive child. I worked two years in a private school, and seen it several times. What was funny to me was that the kids they were kicking out, I would have killed to have had at a few of the rougher schools in which I taught.
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As an urban public school teacher and administrator, I had similar experiences with “special ed” students pushed into our urban public school by suburban schools. A variety of the youngsters that were pushed into the program for kids with special needs were 13-16 year old men of color who were typical adolescents, certainly not needing a very, very structured special ed program.
Also had similar experiences with some private schools. One young man kicked out of an exclusive school was a handful but our urban public school helped him a lot. He now is an honored public school district leader.
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The fact is that the author is totally correct in every one of his points. Charter schools do not have to follow most ed code and local regulation, they cherry pick students and parents, they do not deal with behavioral problems, ESL and special ed, especially the moderate to highly disabled. When you use the “Correction Factor” to actually compare them to regular public schools which are not allowed to do any of this charter schools of which only 17% do moderately better than regular public schools now turn out to be “Poor Performers” when properly compared. If you also add the DOE OIG audit of Sept. 2012, DOE-OIG/A02L0002, which is about the total lack of accountability of charter schools in Florida, Arizona and California you have a total loss in charter schools. They cannot stand up to real scrutiny. There are a few charter schools that do well as that is normal, but not many when closely looked at objectively. Do your homework and let us stop them. We are taking on Parent Revolution in L.A. with educating parents, teachers and community. What are you doing today other than talking? It takes action and isn’t education the answer?
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This is a fine summative article by Welner for understanding the charter gaming advantage. Thank you, Kevin, and thank you, Diane, for posting.
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Yes, it really is gaming for charters to set themselves up in an inner city area. Horrors.
It really is gaming for charters to set themselves up in a suburban area where parents are dissatisfied with large traditional high schools; with some seeking a more progressive, personalized approach than is available in a large traditional high school. Again, horrors.
It is incredible gaming for a charter to be set up in a rural area where parents have been forced to send their children 20-30 miles to the nearest school. Again, how it is to allow groups of rural parents to set up a public school, open to all is based on project based learning. Wow, how horrible.
(The above are real examples all over the country of schools that parents and educators dissatisfied with traditional schools have created. The parents think it’s fine and I agree)
Neither charters nor district schools should be allowed to have admissions tests. That should be unacceptable.
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