A reader sent a brief summary of a story in today’s Chicago Tribune. I was unable to read more than the first paragraph because it is behind a paywall. Anyone who wishes to supply greater detail about the story, please send your summary or details. I have read elsewhere that the chain collects hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines every year from poor families for minor infractions.
This is the network with which gubernatorial candidate and hedge fund zillionaire Bruce Rauner is affiliated. If I remember correctly, there is a charter named for him and others named for other wealthy benefactors, like Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker, one of Obama’s fund-raisers and now Secretary of Commerce. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Pritzker); (http://reclaimreform.com/2013/06/09/penny-pritzker-destroys-public-education/).
The reader, Will Dix, writes:
“Today’s Chicago Tribune has a front page story about the Noble Network of Charter Schools, which controls every aspect of its students’ behavior, down to forbidding Cheetos, mandating sitting up straight, or being one minute late for school. Fines are collected after a certain number of infractions, with some students’ (mostly low-income) families paying up to $200 a year to cover them. Obsessive monitoring is justified by the school administration as necessary for good order, but it means there’s no room for just behaving…The priorities seem to be discipline, obedience, and control, which sounds remarkably like prison. In appropriate doses, these qualities make sense, but it seems you can’t turn around at a Noble school without getting fined for something.
“Teachers don’t have much discretion, either, it appears, since they are penalized for lax enforcement. The Trib reports that Noble kicks out well over the charter average of 61 students/thousand each year for disciplinary infractions, which is already way above the CPS average of 5 students/thousand.
“Here’s a link to the full story:
http://eedition.chicagotribune.com/Olive/ODE/ChicagoTribune2/”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow. How does the mayor explain this? :
“But even as many parents have embraced the new schools, there’s little evidence in standardized test results that charters are performing better than traditional schools operated by the Chicago Public Schools system, an examination by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Medill Data Project at Northwestern University has found.
In fact, in 2013, CPS schools had a higher percentage of elementary students who exceeded the standards for state tests for reading and math than the schools that are privately run with Chicago taxpayer funds.
That was true for all CPS-run schools and also just for traditional neighborhood schools, which don’t require admissions tests or offer specialized courses of instruction.”
Why’d he privatize the schools if the measure he uses, test scores, don’t show an advantage?
“Joel Hood, a CPS spokesman, said the average charter high school student’s ACT score was “0.4 points greater” than at other district schools and that charter high schools have better attendance and graduation rates than comparable district-run schools. He said charter elementary students are at least meeting standards on state exams more often than children taking tests at “comparable district-managed schools.”
Oh. I get it. They created all that heartbreak and discord and anguish and chaos to get a 0.4 gain on the ACT.
That makes sense 🙂
http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/push-charter-schools-little-difference-test-scores/mon-04072014-422am
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“Rather than look at the percentage of students exceeding or meeting standards, some experts prefer to calculate average scores on the state tests. By that measure, too, elementary students at charter schools and neighborhood schools in Chicago were in a virtual tie on the reading and math exams last year, the Sun-Times/Medill Data Project analysis found. And the average test scores for charter high schools were only slightly higher than those at the city’s neighborhood high schools.
The analysis included results from 48 traditional CPS schools — almost all of them neighborhood schools — that the city closed after the last school year, citing poor academic performance, declining enrollment and the costs of maintaining aging buildings.
Neither charters nor neighborhood schools require admissions tests. Unlike charter schools, which can draw students from a broad geographic area, neighborhood schools must adhere to CPS’ attendance boundaries.”
Now there’s a fact that you won’t hear on Morning Joe.
Why was this analysis done after Chicago doubled down on the “portfolio model”, anyway?
Seems like the public needed this info in a more timely manner. They could have looked at Cleveland, where the school chief came from, and they might have saved some time and money. Just a thought.
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Is this the article you are referencing? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-charter-noble-discipline-met-20140407,0,3259593.story
Also, there is a great organization that keeps us posted about Chicago schools. http://pureparents.org/?p=21225 Kathy Salzano 630-202-1900
________________________________
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More Chicago charter news in today’s Tribune:
Multiple charter measures spur rally
Advocates heading to Capitol over bills that would curtail autonomy
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah Tribune reporter
Feeling challenged by about a dozen bills under consideration in Springfield, advocates of privately run but publicly funded charter schools are set to descend on the state Capitol for a Tuesday rally.
The Illinois Network of Charter Schools said legislation in play during the current session of the General Assembly represents the strongest opposition the system has faced since the 1996 act authorizing charters in Illinois.
“This is a coordinated attempt to weaken charter authority, to stop charter growth and to limit good charter policy,” said INCS President Andrew Broy, who expects 1,500 parents to participate Tuesday in Springfield.
The raft of legislation under consideration could curtail the autonomy of charter schools in a number of ways. Proposals include eliminating the state commission that can override a school district’s denial of charter applications; establishing controls on administrative costs at charters, including CEO salaries; and preventing charter operators from conducting their own lottery process for admissions.
Additional proposals call for a ban on charters opening in communities where a neighborhood school has closed in the past decade; a requirement that charters, like schools in the Chicago Public Schools system, be administered by Local School Councils; a mandate that funding follows charter students who transfer to district schools; and an effort to force charters to comply with federal and state requirements for special education students and English-language learners.
“There’s never been 12 (bills) in a single session,” Broy said. “The speed with which some of these have passed the House, in less than a week, is also indicative that the environment in Springfield is very challenging right now for charter school operators.”
The stream of bills comes as a moratorium agreed to by INCS and the Chicago Teachers Union on legislation affecting charters comes to an end, Broy said. He also blamed a push by teachers unions statewide in the face of the strong advocacy for charters by Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner.
“Charters are politicized in Springfield in a way that they haven’t been in a while,” Broy said.
There are 145 charter schools in Illinois, 130 of them are in Chicago, according to Broy.
Rod Estvan, education policy analyst for special needs group Access Living, said he thinks that much of the concern about charters is coming from Chicago suburbs, where charter operators hope to expand.
But House Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, an Aurora Democrat sponsoring about half the bills, denied that. She said the legislation to restrict administrative costs of charters was drafted with the help of the CTU, while the Illinois State Board of Education came to her with legislation requiring charters to follow federal requirements for special education and ESL students.
“We’re trying to work with charter schools to keep them transparent and accountable to taxpayers,” she said. “Taxpayers are paying for these entities, and they should have some input.”
The staunchly anti-charter CTU said the schools need more oversight, citing the ethical and financial issues facing the United Neighborhood Organization, a major charter operator in Chicago that is under investigation by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
“What we saw with UNO was that there was widespread loopholes,” said Stacy Davis Gates, CTU’s political director.
“Charter operators are working with very little oversight, and that’s now a problem.”
Tribune reporter Diane Rado contributed. nahmed@tribune.com
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Diane, I don’t know how to email you but here is the full text of the article on Noble Charter Schools in Chicago (Chicago Tribune -April 7, 2014)
Charter school taken to task — for its discipline
Author: Ahmed-Ullah, Noreen S
ProQuest document link
Abstract:
[…]it’s stricter than a zero tolerance-type approach because students are receiving demerits and ultimately being fined for many minor things like dress violations, chewing gum or having energy drinks, having Cheetos.”
Links: Search for the complete article
Full text:
Like many freshmen at a Noble network high school, Morgan Redd was often frustrated with the privately run charter’s strict discipline code.
A self-described class clown, he tried to bend the rules and in turn landed a flurry of detentions for minor offenses like talking out of turn in class and leaving his seat without permission. Now a senior at Noble Street College Prep in West Town, Redd estimates he was hit with about 100 detentions over four years, costing $500 in fines.
But he said paying up and staying at the school was worth it. Being at Noble taught him how to question authority respectfully, how to advocate for his own interests politely, and how to keep his temper in check, he said. Redd is getting ready to graduate and start college in the fall.
A good number of Noble students, however, get tripped up by the tough disciplinary standards. Earlier this year, Chicago Public Schools released statistics showing that charter schools, including those run by Noble, expel students at a rate dramatically higher than district-run schools.
At Noble, which runs 14 campuses throughout the city and is often praised by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, students are issued demerits for misdeeds like not sitting up straight or not wearing a full school uniform — minor issues that would be overlooked in district-run schools. They receive demerits for being as little as a minute or less late to school, having a permanent marker in their possession, or “rowdy or loud behavior.”
And unlike district schools and most other charters, Noble charges fines for disciplinary infractions. Demerits for minor misbehavior can add up quickly — after four, students get a detention, which comes with a $5 fine.
Noble officials and many parents defend the tough disciplinary code, saying it keeps their schools safe and keeps students focused in the classroom.
“You hear the phrase ‘sweat the small stuff’ or ‘the broken window theory,’ ” said Noble Superintendent Michael Milkie. “We absolutely live by that. If you allow a lot of windows to be broken, soon that house is going to turn into one where lots of damage is going on.”
But the disciplinary policies at Noble run counter to district and national efforts to find ways to keep students in the classroom.
The CPS data on expulsion rates came out just a few weeks after the U.S. Department of Education called on school districts to adopt less aggressive disciplinary codes.
Jason Sinocruz, an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Advancement Project, a civil rights group fighting against tough school discipline policies, said that “from what we’ve seen, Noble is the most extreme nationally in terms of profusive monitoring of small stuff, focusing on these very small things, and for the fines they’ve collected.”
“We know it’s very much a zero tolerance-type approach,” Sinocruz said. “In fact it’s stricter than a zero tolerance-type approach because students are receiving demerits and ultimately being fined for many minor things like dress violations, chewing gum or having energy drinks, having Cheetos.”
Charters like Noble have proven attractive to many minority parents who can’t afford private schools but want a safe and academically successful school for their children.
In return, the students are held to a higher standard that if violated, can either get expensive or result in the student being expelled.
At Noble, six detentions in a two-week period results in an out-of-school suspension. For every 13 detentions, students must also pay $140 to attend a discipline class.
For the most part, students at CPS-run schools can get expelled only for serious problems like drugs or gun possession. At Noble schools, students can also face expulsion if they rack up 36 detentions in a school year and repeatedly run afoul of the school’s disciplinary code.
Teachers at Noble are not able to cut students much slack, as they themselves are penalized if they do not enforce rules like those regarding the dress code.
Last year, district-run schools expelled five of every 10,000 students, while charter operators on average kicked out 61 of every 10,000 students, according to CPS. All Noble campuses in that year exceeded the district average, many by a wide margin.
Also last year, about 9 percent of students at district-run schools received suspensions, while at Noble campuses on average nearly 23 percent of all students were suspended, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s data. At district schools, about one-third of the suspensions were in-school, while Noble students serve suspensions off-campus.
Federal officials say overly strict disciplinary polices have created a school-to-prison pipeline and a growing disparity in the number of African-American students who are expelled or kicked out of school compared with their white peers.
In 2012, CPS began dismantling its tough zero tolerance discipline code, emphasizing that principals avoid imposing consequences to behavior that removed students from class and school as much as possible.
But the district has little say over the discipline policy at charters, which are publicly funded but independently operated.
In an effort to change that, district CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said earlier this year that as part of a larger effort to make charter networks more accountable, she wanted to give preference during the process to approve or renew charters to those that agree to align with the district’s limits on punitive measures.
She also said the district could, for example, ask charters to adopt the policy of reducing 10-day suspensions to five.
When Noble’s charter agreement was renewed in February though, there were no discussions about discipline. Milkie said while he’s not familiar with intervention measures like restorative justice and peer juries that are employed by the district in disciplinary matters, he would be willing to sit down and work with CPS up to a point.
“We are supportive of the district and are happy to dialogue with them about continuing to work on reducing expulsions and suspensions,” Milkie said.
“We’re glad that they’re focused on it, but it’s so important to put it in context — if you’re focused on student success, student retention, student achievement in the classroom and outside, you have to look at everything. How do we get the attendance number as high at Noble? How do we get the dropout that low? That safety and culture is super important.”
The average daily attendance of students enrolled in Noble schools is higher than the district’s attendance rate by about two percentage points, and the charter’s dropout rate is lower than that of CPS.
Families critical of the rigorous discipline code at Noble, in addition to complaining about the system of fines, say the focus on minor behavioral issues demoralizes students.
Maria Garay and her husband, both factory workers, said they were paying about $200 a year for detentions, along with fees for behavior management classes and summer makeup courses for each of their two sons at Noble Street College Prep. Garay says her younger son got so demoralized over repeated detentions for what she said were minor infractions that he began skipping school. That caused him to fail academically, she said.
“Parents like myself can’t afford to pay these fines,” Garay said through a translator. Neither of her sons is still at Noble.
Charter critics and teachers at district-run neighborhood schools, where many former Noble students end up after being expelled — sometimes in the middle of the year — accuse charters of pushing out academically and behaviorally troubled students to maintain high graduation and college acceptance rates.
Attrition is difficult to determine; Noble declined to release data on how many students leave its campuses between their freshmen and senior years.
But CPS data show this year’s senior class of 2,262 students at schools in the Noble network is 31 percent smaller than the freshman class four years ago. Over that same period, the senior class at district-run high schools was about 22 percent smaller than the freshman class four years earlier.
Charter officials say they do not encourage students to leave, and also that they work out payment plans for parents for both discipline fines and makeup courses. The fees, said Milkie, who does not use the term fines, are a way to make sure parents are aware of what’s going on with their child and get them involved in correcting bad behavior.
Shawn Brown, a campaign director with student-group VOYCE and a critic of charter schools, said the problem at Noble is two-fold.
“You are a school that targets low-income families. Families can’t afford that level of fines,” Brown said. “The rate of success is not what they’re claiming for the discipline level and stress they’re putting on the children and low-income families.”
Kim Stigler, whose daughter attends a newly opened Noble campus in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, said the charter is challenging her daughter academically. But she questions a discipline code that led her daughter to receive a demerit for saying “Bless you” when a student sneezed in class.
“Overall the discipline, some things I can deal with but other things are out of proportion,” she said. “Some of the kids need the discipline, but when you suspend kids, they’re at home. They’re not learning.”
Noble’s supporters — the school administrators, parents and students who thrive at the school — say the discipline is the key to students’ academic success and a proven path to college.
Milkie, and his wife, Tonya, both former Chicago Public Schools teachers, started Noble in 1999 with one campus. As the network continues to expand by several campuses each year, including two more this fall, Milkie says the rigorous discipline is the cornerstone of school culture.
“When you check the data, the attendance rate at Noble high schools versus district high schools is far better,” Milkie said. “So kids are coming to school. They’re in school far more. To focus on a much, much smaller thing like suspension I think takes away from the big picture.”
Noble employs social workers at each school to address student behavioral issues. That’s not the case at many district-run schools because of budget cuts.
And while the discipline is tough at Noble campuses, deans, teachers and social workers work closely with difficult students, guiding them through anger issues, family problems and counseling them on how to lower their detentions.
The network has students at least once a day practice breathing exercises under a program called “Calm Classroom” to better focus on their work and lower bad behavior. Students also meet with advisers daily to talk grades and discipline.
At the Noble Street campus, dean Maricruz Montero pulls together students most at risk for detention, who then help each other develop a strategy to improve their behavior.
On a recent day, Jose Perez, 18, was pulled out of his classroom to talk with an administrator over a near fight after a soccer game the previous day. Perez admits to having anger issues. He says Montero regularly talks him through problems at home.
Stigler may have criticized the discipline code, but after taking her daughter Keyairra out of the Hansberry campus last year and putting her in a neighborhood high school, within a day her daughter was begging Noble administrators to take her back. She is focused on becoming the first in her family to go to college.
“It was a big wow for me,” Keyairra recalled of her one-day experience at Bogan High School. “Some of the kids had tattoos, and they were being disrespectful to each other and the security guards. There was a fight and a guy got his nose broken. This environment is just safer here.”
Redd’s mom says what separates her from other parents who took their kids out of Noble was that she kept her eye on the long-term prize — what her son would gain out of the challenge.
“I’m so proud of him,” said Pamela Redd. “I’m seeing a maturity in him that he didn’t come in with. Before (if he got disciplined), he’d go up to the teacher and ask why he was getting punished and tell them they were wrong. Now, he’ll ask the teacher, ‘Can I talk to you after class is over?’ He talks it out, more than acts it out.”
———-
nahmed@tribune.com
Credit: By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
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I am a former Noble teacher and a current CPS teacher. Diane, I really have to say, you are wrong on this one. There are some things Noble needs to grow in, sure. But I could actually teach my children at Noble. I can’t at my current school. So much misbehaving, cursing, on phones during class, acting out, disrespect for everyone (teachers, staff and their peers). It is horrible. I am at my school because I believe all kids deserve a great education, but this is ridiculous. I have a teacher in the room next to me that cusses at her kids, and I mean the F word! I walked into a class and saw a kid watching porn on his phone. I almost threw up. This was a normal class period. Parents don’t understand how bad it is. They have an idealizes memory of school and not a real understanding of what is being robbed from their kids simply because of a lack of empowerment of teachers to DO anything. Decide what to teach in your class (nope). Discipline your students (nope). Put in extra hours (nope).
Noble may have been picky, but parents were involved and addresses their kids behavior to avoid that $5 fine. AND students have to earn four demerits within two weeks to get a fine. A simple mistake here and there is no problem.
CPS better wake up. Charters are not the answer, but if CPS is too afraid to see what they are doing right and get on board it will be their undoing.
Not to mention Noble has a feeling of family that I don’t see at my current CPS school. As soon as the bell rings teachers are GONE. At Noble teachers would stay until 6pm almost everyday meeting with kids to make sure they knew the material. At my current school they actually TELL me to leave when the bell rings.
Maybe if you teach in a selective-enrollment school or in a privileged neighborhood, but you can’t go to Humboldt Park, Englewood or Back of The Yards and tell me Noble isn’t a better way to go. Just go visit Gary Comer High School (Noble school in Englewood) and THEN let’s talk.
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