A post today describes how BASIS charter schools screen out low-performing students. This comment refers to a similar practice in Néw Hampshire. This is the exact opposite of what charters were supposed to do: the original intention, long forgotten, was to enroll the neediest students and to help public schools by finding new ways to help struggling students succeed:
“We have a charter school here in NH called the academy of science and design that does the same thing. They state on their website that if you are not in the gifted program at your public school and a participant in first robotics or destination imagination you will most likely not succeed at their school. They also ask you to take an entrance exam. If you don’t score an 80 or above, your parents must meet admin for counseling. If parents refuse counseling they must sign something saying they refused. What a joke. They defend these practices by saying that it’s all part of the school’s mission. Why are they allowed to cherry pick like this? Of course, they have the highest test scores in the state which makes the ignorant masses think charters are superior to public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“the original intention, long forgotten, was to enroll the neediest students and to help public schools by finding new ways to help struggling students succeed”
This right here is exactly what makes me so proud of my child’s independent, community-based public charter school in Queens. I hear so much anti-charter talk and myths which are nearly impossible to dispel. The reason is because so many rotten apples ruin the whole barrel. There are many different kinds of charter schools, but they all get lumped under one umbrella. But those that have been built to specifically serve children who are traditionally underserved- they get left out in the cold.
One of the very frustrating things about excellent public charter schools, like the ones in Western Queens where I live, is that they’re held to the same unrealistic standards as all district public schools. Even worse, the threat of low test scores closing our schools is real and we have to fight for charter our renewal despite those low scores. Our scores might never be that high, because we seek out a large percentage of ELL and special needs students, new immigrant families, families with economic hardships and experiencing homelessness. AND we backfill at every grade level.
We may one day find a new, innovative way to teach all kinds of children; students who learn in different ways, and at a different pace. But how on earth can anyone implement these innovations, much less share them with traditional public schools, if we are spending half of our year preparing for tests? And worrying that our charter won’t get renewed?
I often find myself stuck in the middle of the testing debates, only because charter schools are often used as examples of what’s wrong with public education. And I hate to hear disparaging remarks thrown at charters that might not deserve it. Standardized testing needs to be overhauled for every public institution. I feel lucky that I had a choice in where to send my child to school, because of the great charter schools in my area. But to be honest, the consequences of high-stakes testing can be felt no matter where you go.
Amanda,
I agree that is isn’t fair to lump all charters together. I think the problem is that most high profile charter advocates, use the failing test scores at traditional public schools as a reason charters are needed.
If all charters back-filled, didn’t counsel out students and had a demographic similar to public schools surrounding it, I think people would have less of an issue with charters.
Traditional neighborhood public schools are also used as examples of what’s wrong with education. If your school is a good school, it should be able to stay open despite low test scores. However, one of the arguments for charters is that low performing school will be closed.
I have friends at charter with much smaller class sizes and a very different demographic than any other public school in the area (despite the fact that it is written into the law that charters are supposed to reflect the same % of income levels as their surrounding area), but they won’t acknowledge that those factors affect test scores.
Amanda, after charter advocates won deregulation and created huge loopholes in oversight, the corporate take-over of charters was inevitable. Did we learn anything from the Age of Hostile Takeovers in the 80s? Apparently not. The chance to make money was obvious to the already-thriving education management business.
I am at least grateful that NYS recognized the threat and put some controls in place to contain the profiteers, but we are still left with the Moskowitz charter empire and many other charters that are unsucessful both finacially and academically.
Charters are held to the same unrealistic expectations as public schools because they’re the ones who bragged that they could do more with less. They’re the ones who came up with the whole “failing” rhetoric regarding public schools. They’re the ones who made it all about the test scores. Were you speaking out against that when it was directed toward public schools? If not, well, sorry, but you made your bed. No, not all charters are corporate type charters, but you all benefited from the corporate-sponsored rise of charters. And now you want to cry because those corporate charters are eating your lunch too? What did you think would happen?
No I didn’t speak out against it when the rhetoric was blasted at public schools, because I’m sure, at the time, I was IN one of those public schools. The whole movement began in the 80s and 90s, and it wasn’t originally driven by the big corporate machines aiming to make a profit. But like everything else in the world, people will try to make money wherever they can and exploit an idea meant to do good rather than tear apart the public education system.
Now, I do rail against the “failing” rhetoric for public district and public charters, because I know that the ones paying the price for this incredulous idea of accountability are the teachers who work so hard withe the little they have, and the students that are chewing their finger nails over the agony of test pressure.
The reason I defend certain charters is because I appreciate that we had a CHOICE in where we sent my child. Somewhere I felt that she would thrive, as compared to somewhere I felt she would fade into the background.
Amanda, you are fortunate to have found a good and humane charter school for your child.
However, please keep in mind the following:
1. Try as you might to have us think otherwise, charters are not public schools; they are private entities that receive public funds. The boilerplate language in the 1998 law which refers to them as public schools is negated by how the law actually structures them, how they operate and how they really think of themselves (public rhetoric notwithstanding).
Since they are not public schools, their funding with tax dollars, along with other subsidies they receive, diverts money from public education. That’s a cruel, zero-sum fact, well understood by those who so relentlessly promote them, and intended to be so.
I’m not not saying this to guilt trip you or any other charter school parent, because you have the inalienable right to seek what’s best for your child. But that’s part of the sinister genius of the so-called reformers: they’ve created a dynamic whereby choking off resources to the public schools, while pushing charters, then becomes the rationale and incentive for what they call “choice.”
What they call choice is a competitive system among parents in which the operative dynamic is “I’ve got mine, you get yours.” In the case of some charter co-locations – where vulnerable children are displaced – that can shamefully devolve into, “To get mine, I’ll take yours.”
The system has been set up to encourage this, as it’s extremely divisive, pitting against each other people who should be working together for the shared interests of educating their children. That’s a feature, not a bug.
In this tightly-controlled “debate” about reform, choice is somehow never allowed to include the right of people to send their children to excellent, adequately-funded and resourced neighborhood public schools, K-12.
2. Your small, independent, humanistic charter school (I teach in a NYC high school in Western Queens, and there’s a charter similar to the one you describe a block away from us) is ultimately an outlier. It will be allowed to continue along, until it isn’t, and starts facing all kinds of financial and punitive administrative headwinds. Independent charter schools are the camel’s nose under the tent, something that can be pointed to in answer to the proliferation of soulless charter chains, which are the intended future of this sector.
Don’t think for a moment that, once the public schools are hopelessly relegated to an ever-shrinking, ever-scapegoated rump system, that small, independent charters like yours won’t be next in line.
Your child/children will hopefully be fortunate enough to get through, but eventually the mom-and-pop charters will have the rug pulled out from under them, and will face either closings, mergers or consolidations.
By that time, it will be too late to resurrect the public schools, and the wreckage of this Social Darwinist orgy will be all around us.
WHY couldn’t a school like yours be included in a district, instead of being a charter? One of the problems I have with charters is the duplication of services–administration and buildings in particular. And how do kids get admitted into your school? Are there a lot of hoops to jump through that make it hard for many parents? What about uniform requirements? My sister has her kids at a charter like yours, and they love it, and while I’m glad for them, I’m frustrated that the reason that these charters are appealing is because they don’t have to jump through the insane hoops that we public schools do, and get all of the good press, even though most of what charters do is what good public schools have been doing all along.
I would like statistical proof backing up your allegations. It’s very easy to be an armchair umpire when you aren’t dealing with all the facts. The few Charter Schools who are not appropriate do NOT represent all of us.
“And I hate to hear disparaging remarks thrown at charters that might not deserve it.”
The key to understanding that statement is the word “might”. Although I might lose 50lbs in the next week, more likely than not it’s not going to happen.
Might can be a 1:1,000,000 chance!
Reblogged this on donotmalignme and commented:
Inherently discriminatory in nature. How is it that New Hampshire gets away with this? Is it in part because our governor turns a blind eye to the needs of children and the voices of its citizens and appoints those who know nothing about education, but plenty about business and lobbying to the state BOE? We need recall elections in New Hampshire. Now.
New Hampshire’s Governor, Maggie Hassan, is the spouse of the principal of Phillips Exeter academy, one of the most elite prep schools in the country. I don’t think she’s too concerned about equalizing educational opportunities for all children.
So it’s basically a public-funded private school …
Yup! Gross ain’t it?
Umm, not at all. New Hampshire has the lowest funded charter schools in the entire country, receiving only 38% per student of what the home district would receive to educate that same child. The home district tax dollars for educating students (which comes from property taxes in New Hampshire) stays with the town and only the state portion goes with the students. The school mentioned uses all used textbooks for example including 18 year old books in German classes. They fundraise year round just to meet operating costs. So far from a private school.
Exactly Jon.
The resegregation process is absolutely favored by the charter laws and it is having an intended effect on enrollments in public schools, especially in low income neighborhoods already subjected to defacto segregation. District boundary rigging–red lining districts through the collusion of financial institutions, the real estate industry, and insurance companies and metro officials is common along with the practice of concentrating low income housing in the same districts, then pouring in support for social service agencies that help to “contain” the segregated populations.
As if the admissions policies weren’t bad enough, they also give preference to and make exceptions for the siblings of currently enrolled students and the children of the school’s founders.
“the children of the school’s founders.”
I love how there’s absolutely no recognition that they’re publicly-funded. None. No duty or responsibility to the public whatsoever.
Every single NH Charter does the same, if you were driving from Portsmouth to Nashua daily to bring one child to school (over an hour each way) it makes sense that you would want your other children in the same school if it were a good fit. The school was founded almost ten years ago so the founders are all older without children of school age, but why shouldn’t founders who started a school be able to assure their children are offered enrollment?
Well Ohio charter schools are basically unregulated so anything goes;
Here’s a Cleveland charter that is exclusively for gifted students:
“Cleveland taxpayers are now contributing some of their property taxes to Menlo Park Academy — a West Park charter school for gifted students that hopes to add more Cleveland students if it can move to a building closer to downtown.
The school board voted Tuesday to partner with the highly-rated elementary school and add it to the list of charter schools that share a portion of the Issue 107 school levy that voters passed in 2012”
Luckily, Cleveland still has public schools to act as a safety net for the “schools of choice”.
I think back to how ed reform was marketed in this state and they sold it as “improving public schools”. We’re still waiting for that part, 17 years later. What it really means is “abandoning public schools”. Existing public schools are always dead last in ed reform priorities. The only time public schools are mentioned is during “testing season”
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/12/split_vote_gives_cleveland_sch.html
Chiara, I’ve been looking into a few Ohio charter schools lately because we have an initiative in my area that has, unfortunately, attracted the attention of a charter school manager with ties to several (very bad apparently) Cleveland charter schools. Just want to say, I am appalled by what happens in your state! Best wishes to you. Keep up the good fight!
Who’d want to attend a charter school? Answer: deceived parents…
One reason parents like charter schools is that charter schools “counsel out” students with behavioral and emotional issues and send them back to the district public schools.
Untrue propaganda. Both Yvonne & Linda. If you want to know about Charter Schools talk to someone working in one and not someone with an agenda against another group…Sounds like you’ve both got an axe to grind….I’m not interested in false accusations.
Frank,
Do you work in a charter school?
Duane
Frank,it’s time for you to look at the statistics.
All, repeat, ALL of the charter chains that get unending hype for the “miracles” they work, have tremendous student attrition rates.
Now, the public schools have high attrition rates, too, but in the public schools, students who leave are replaced by others, unlike Success Academies, KIPP, and Uncommon Schools, where they are not. Thus, those deceptively high graduation and college acceptance rates they claim.
We have a great resource in this state, Know Your Charter:
“Pay their teachers 40 percent less than districts – even though they incur savings by not having to pay to bus students. Those costs are covered by local school districts;”
40 per cent less.
Wages would probably be be lower than that if public school teachers in Ohio weren’t unionized. The union teachers are propping up wages for the non-union teachers, because the charters have to compete for employees. I wonder if they’re feeling “empowered” with 40% less in wages?
http://knowyourcharter.com/2015/04/21/money-for-ohios-charter-schools-more-than-meets-the-eye/
This is blatantly untrue! My son attends here, and did not do DI or robotics. He did not score above an 80, and we didn’t have to be “counseled”. You should do better research,..by the way I have two other students who attended a public school.
Anyone can go to the academy of science and design website and see the admission policy documents clearly stating the “4 criteria for admission” which include a demonstrated interest in math and science as evidenced by participation in robotics, DI, or a host of other programs that mostly only highly motivated kids participate in. It also clearly states that you must take a math test and that parents must meet with admin if the score is below a certain threshold. You are the one who is blatantly lying.
https://drive.google.com/a/asdnh.org/folderview?id=0BzEv30J-9BakZGI5ODUzMjMtM2U2YS00ZDY4LTlmNjEtZjg3MDVjNzE0MDFh&usp=drive_web&hl=en2E1NS00YjdmLTgwYjItMTRiZTMxMDZiYTky&hl=en&tid=0BzEv30J-9BakM2Q2MjhjMTYtY2E1NS00YjdmLTgwYjItMTRiZTMxMDZiYTky
Click on the first document in the above link to see all the admission criteria. I live in the area. This is an abuse of my tax dollars and needs to stop.
I shouldn’t have said that you are lying. I should have said that it is you who is saying things that are blatantly untrue.
Ron, not lying or untrue. Follow the admission timeline since you seem so unclear. Admission lottery publicly held January 31, enrollment offers made April 1, PLACEMENT exam only for those offered enrollment taken May 9th. How do you think the placement exam which is taken AFTER enroment is offered and accepted is used to not accept students? Why don’t you call the school as a person just asking about applying for a child and get the facts first hand?
Placement test Ron, not enrollment test. The document you link to says one or more of the following and one option is the applicant fills out the survey indicating they like science and/or math. As a school that specializes in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) this does not seem like an absurd request at all. The placement exam is after enrollment, not used for enrollment.
Ron,
I also have two children who attend this school and agree that you are misinformed. As a school that specializes in STEM of course they try and make sure the applicant is interested in STEM, but one of the options is the survey where the applicant just says they are interested. The exam is a PLACEMENT exam not an entrance exam, the lottery was held January 31st, the enrollment offers made April 1st and the PLACEMENT exam is May 9th so not sure how the argument that it is used to weed out applicants is true since the only people taking this exam have already been offered and accepted enrollment. Records are not received from current schools for ASD until the summer before the student begins, again AFTER they have been offered and accepted enrollment. I would have let your misinformation go, but calling the other parent a liar forced me to call you out since you clearly did not do any accurate research before name calling. Why don’t you call the school and speak to admissions and ask questions without saying that you have no interest in sending a student, ask if they would take your child with an IEP or 504, that they are not good students etc and see what the response is. I 100% guarantee that they tell you as a public school that you have every right to apply and tell you the steps to apply to the school. NH Charter schools are the lowest funded in the entire country, receiving less than 40% per student that the town receives.
Renee, are you a middle class, college-educated parent? Sometimes those kinds of rules are in place to discourage parents who aren’t like you. It doesn’t take much to discourage the parents of kids you don’t want while the ones you do want get encouraged. Unfortunately, that happens all too often, and the parents of truly at-risk kids are unlikely to pursue something for their child that doesn’t seem welcoming.
EXACTLY!!!
Frank,
Are you a charter school employee?
Thanks,
Duane
(I posted this above but didn’t know if you would see it.
Nh mom, why are you ignoring the documents I posted a link to from the school’s website?? Do they not clearly state that the parents of students scoring below a certain level on the math test must meet with admin? Do they not clearly state that the school can expell any student not doing well? You don’t seem to understand the issue at hand.
The academy for science and design takes tax dollars, my tax dollars, away from public schools and gives them to what is essentially a private school that can exclude whomever they wish. This is illegal. Public schools cannot exclude students, period.
I’m sure you love being able to separate your children from the unwashed masses, you just can’t be doing it with my money.
Just curious, what benefit, other than not being around low-achieving students, do you think asd is providing for your children?
Well, my 9th grader is taking the AP Physics exam the first week in May. What other school prepares students to take AP exams that early in high school? I have 3 sons, 2 attend ASD because they showed an interest in STEM related classes from first grade. My third son is not a good fit for the school, and though some parents force children who are not a good fit to attend, I would never do that. I actually work for another school district and think that district has excellent schools, I chose to send my older two children to a Charter school because it is the only way for them to take advanced STEM related courses before college. My town would give them a couple of these courses in high school, but at ASD they begin high school level courses in middle school which allows them to take college dual enrollment courses (which the parents pay for by the way) by sophomore year of high school along with the traditional high school requirements. I see both sides of the charter argument, though I wish more people did as well. ASD has many students who are children of traditional public school teachers because they want a STEM based education. They would all agree that the schools they work at are also excellent schools, but not always the best fit for every child. My holder child who attends ASD is also special needs and they worked with his plan from his prior school when he began with some accommodations for him. The documents you are referring to have not been updated in some time, why are you ignoring the very clear timeline on the website regarding when the placement test is given and to who (only to applicants who have been offered enrollment and accepted enrollment). Perhaps reading the admission page would help clear your confusion. Also, in New Hampshire the town funds stay with the town and do not follow the students to charter schools, which is why they are funded at less than 50% of traditional public school students. Yes, they do receive the state portion, but it is actually LESS expensive for the state and town to educate students at charter schools in NH. https://sites.google.com/a/asdnh.org/public/admissions
On vacation right now in Arizona. I was passing a charter as the students were coming out. There was not a brown or black face in the crowd!!!
IN Tucson (and probably Phoenix metro) BASIS does not build their schools in the brown face parts of town. They build in the affluent areas.
There is a school in NC that employs similar measures. I have heard of children being on notice that they would be expelled if they didn’t submit signed documentation proving they were engaged in the required amount of activities per week (it increases with grade) No surprise that, based on the test results by demographic, this school has little to none low-income students.
This wouldn’t bother me if this same school didn’t make a point to mention how their school is a high achieving school.
http://questcharter.org/
“Quest Academy is designed to promote academic excellence and substantial extracurricular involvement in athletics or performance in fine arts. This activity does not equate with religious or youth activities and includes professional instruction outside of the home.
So what does high-intensity training outside the classroom mean? Your child needs to be in an activity for the given amount of hours designated by grade each week. Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, Gymnastics, Swimming, Soccer, Tennis, Tae-Kwon-Do, Horseback Riding, Football, Baseball/Softball, Basketball, Golf, Ballet/Dance, Piano, and Acting/Theater are all activities which fall under our mission. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Indian Princess, Indian Guides, Choir, Church Youth Group, and Art Classes do not fall under our Mission Statement.”
Wow, that is unbelievable! Basically Quest Academy used to be a private school for the kids whose parents were paying for high level gymnastics training — similar to all the profiles of the young Olympic gymnasts and ice skaters we’ve all seen during broadcasts. But then became a charter so that all those parents didn’t have to worry about paying for private school on top of the expense of hiring private coaching. “Quest Academy evolved from a private school known as the Helen Paesler School. In 1993, the Helen Paesler School opened to accommodate the rigorous training schedule of the gymnasts participating in the Gymcarolina competitive team program. The goal was to provide a high quality education that would be flexible to the demands placed on these children in pursuit of their chosen interests.” Later it says that a requirement is “PROFESSIONAL” instruction outside the home. So basically if you can’t afford to pay a professional coach, your child isn’t eligible for the lottery.
Here’s another nugget from the academy of science and design (ASD) academic policy documents:
JKF – ASD Academic Probation Policy
ASD reserves the right to remove any student not making satisfactory academic progress. The board charges the Director with establishing procedures to identify, monitor and implement this policy.
Again, why are they allowed to do this? Clearly in violation of state law.
I wonder if the “robotics” part was just a cover for the “gifted” part. In other words, making it a specialty school for “robotics” get them past state law that would have questioned a school that was admitting solely on “gifted”. They have to have some specialty educational “mission”, something that isn’t offered in public schools because that’s the (ostensible) reason for their existence.
It’s not difficult to get around state law, particularly loosey-goosey charter laws. They’re easily getting around “nonprofit” by setting up different entities and contracting out. “Nonprofit” will be all but meaningless in 10 years. All it will mean is “tax exempt”.
Well, since First Robotics is a program that does not begin until high school and the Academy for Science and Design receives the most applicants from students applying for grades 6 & 7, clearly this poster is incredibly misinformed.
““Nonprofit” will be all but meaningless in 10 years.”
NO!, Chiara, it’s already meaningless.
The students need (and parents want) the students attending to actually graduate from school, not just attend until they age out. Students need to receive mastery in each class to move to the next level (80% or above) or retake the course the following year, which does happen (my son needed to retake physics in 8th grade after not getting an 80 or better in 7th grade at this school). They did not kick him out, he just needed to take the class again. I have never in my 5 years as a parent heard of a student being asked to leave the school, a friend of my sons in face failed every single class for two years and remained until his parents realized a kid who had no interest in STEM wasn’t going to succeed in a STEM based school.
Joan d, failing students until they drop out is exactly what asd specializes in. You really don’t get it.
Joan d, DI starts at age 5.
I don’t know if you-all saw this- big loss for Arne Duncan’s teacher ranking system:
“Gov. Bill Haslam has signed into law a bill that will prevent student growth on tests from being used to revoke or not renew a teacher’s license — undoing a controversial education policy his administration had advanced just last summer.
The governor’s signature, which came Tuesday, follows the Tennessee General Assembly’s overwhelming approval this month of House Bill 1375 / Senate Bill 2240, sponsored by Republicans Rep. John Forgety and Sen. Jim Tracy, which cleared the House by a unanimous 88-0 vote and the Senate by a 26-6 vote.”
That marked a major repudiation of a policy the Tennessee Board of Education in August adopted — at Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman’s recommendation — to link license renewal and advancement to a teacher’s composite evaluation score as well as data collected from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which measures the learning gains of students.”
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/04/24/haslam-signs-bill-undoing-controversial-teacher-license-policy/8121885/
There were 13 students in the BASIS Oro Valley, AZ charter school graduating class in 2014. Needless to say, they made the state’s best school list and topped the US News and World Report. The real public high school around the corner, CDO, has 1600 students and was ranked 408th in the US News and World report.
What was class 2014’s student enrollment for gr 9 four years ago? Was it 13 or higher?
So this is a way to separate the strivers with talent from their peers who would slow down their progress. What’s wrong with that?
If parents of superior children are not wealthy enough to be able to enroll their children in private schools, why should they not be able to use public tax monies to send their children to a school where they won’t have to take classes and socialize with those other lesser children?
“Lesser Children?” Please don’t send your kids to my school. We would not have very pleasant Parent/Teacher conferences. All children are important..not just yours! I am appalled.
“Please don’t send your kids to my school.”
You own a school??
Please tell us what and where “your” school is, and include a link that shows the percentage of students receiving free lunch (not free and reduced-fee lunch, but free lunch), special education students and English language learners. Please also include the attrition rate, and whether students who leave are replaced.
Until then, I’ve no choice but to assume you’re giving us the usual bogus charter school talking points.
Frank Le Rose’s response?
Crickets.
If you want to get a feel for how pro-charter the Obama Administration was, look at where they went and what they do after they leave.
This is the org of one of them. Read it. It is 100% charter promotion. The only time public schools are mentioned is when they’re pushing testing in public schools.
I don’t even think they see the bias. This is a “movement” bubble, and it’s scary that it has so captured government. We need to get some people in who aren’t part of this club.
https://twitter.com/edu_post
Ledyard Charter School in Lebanon, NH is a circus. Teachers are inexperienced, students are mostly facing social/emotional problems that go unaddressed, and students simply ‘graduate’ so that they can meet requirements of their charter – increased local high school graduation rates. This also provides an easy avenue for local public schools to expel certain students, which provides them with less disciplinary issues and (likely) increased test scores. Win-win, right? However, this completely undermines the value of a high school degree, and augments the ‘look the other way’ problem that schools love to maintain.
Charter school conversations usually revolve around communities of color and corporate-style education reform, but I think its important to focus on the accountability (or lack thereof) aspect and the metrics we use to measure these types of schools: high-stakes testing and graduation rates are two of the most common, yet most misleading metrics. I’d have less to say about the charter devolution if it were measured on some other metric. As a public school teacher in a city, I get the students that ‘didn’t fit’ and I know that there is nothing special going on inside these schools.
While the original intention of charter schools – spaces to try innovative practices with limited accountability / more flexibility – is noble, it is becoming clear that they have become labs of self-promotion for individuals, labs of profit for corporations, and labs of oppression for students with the most needs. These schools are doing our country NO FAVORS, under the guise of SUCCESSFUL REFORM. Ugh!
Maybe they ‘cherry-pick’ so they can gear their programs to the other ‘special ed’ students…the ones who are gifted learners and are held back when made to crawl at the speed of the slowest learner.
Maybe, schools like this are not pretending to educate everyone.
Maybe, we need schools, charter or otherwise, where there are no more that 12 to 18 kids in a class, and the teachers are experts at assessing and meeting the needs of students who learn at a slower rate or in a different way.
just saying…
I have no problem with what you suggest Susan as long as those schools do not receive public monies. Let them succeed or fail in the vaunted “market” of for profit training, oops I mean education.
Duane…agreed! BUT I believe there is a need for careful planning to meet the needs of ALL special kids in a school.
I had the dilemma when my eldest son entered middle school. His 6th grade teacher had left his advanced ‘group’ to its own devices. The 3 other kids were eventually top math scholars at MIT, but Jeff was on his own. Luckily his best friend, who was in that group, was a genius, and he helped him. I did not know about this, somehow… I missed it!
In the middle school, he was assigned to the ‘Above’ classes where top performance earned a seat, but he fell behind in math. His teacher, and the guidance counsellor recommended he go to the ON_Level class… I allowed this to happen, knowing who was in those classes…because you see, I was a sub intuit school, and knew every single one of the 400 kids, had known them when I subbed locally when they were in elementary school. Great kids, nice kids, but I also knew what my son, who could read at 2 years of age, could do… if not math… my own weakness..
By the second week, my son complained that they were still working nott he same math that they began 2 weeks ago, because too many students still could not do the work.
I fought to get him back in the A classes, and got him a tutor.
He never looked back, eventually graduating high school at the top of his class, and going on to NY State University at Cornel, then on to Cornel Med, to Yale as an intern and toHarvard for his fellowship in cardiology.
In the end, both my sons went on to top universities; it is true that much of their learning and motivation came our family who valued learning, I felt that their public schools did a good job. That same system which was third in NYS when my sons were students, has failed 3 years in a row; 70,000 students have diminished to 17,000 and the majority of residents send their kids to religious private schools. Leaving the public school bereft of funds, as budgets go down.
Public schools worked. They could have continued to work without austerity budgets and a planned assault. They needed some thought… about past policies that affected learning. They needed smaller classes, especially if classes contained a mix of all abilities.
Look, I taught in the days when there was a 6-1 and a 6-12, and I once found myself in 7-12 because I had moved. My parents would never go to the school and say, “hey, she is very unhappy at the pace of learning.”
Next year, the school figured it out from my teacher recommendations, my grades and the final exams. I was in 8-1, which also contained the art students; I went on to major in Art and literature in high school and college, and took master’s in these subjects, too. I was a mess in math, and was allowed to finish with algebra, instead of calculus, after trigonometry was unfathomable to me.
I think we need to meet the needs of all students,
I saw a HUGE change come about when issues of esteem and ‘inclusiveness’ put all learners together. The teacher now had to plan on many levels, and with no help, had to manage student-led groups… not unlike the ones that failed my son in grade 6.
I got go turn the sausages. Wish I had been able to join you in Chicago.. It would have been great to talk with you!
High results like that will also make veteran WaPo reporter Jay Mathews think you have a great school.
Which ignores the fact that ANY school that is selective enough and can get high-scoring students to apply will have, uh, high scores.
As far as I know, we’ so far have had exactly zero schools, public or private or charter, who have been able to take ALL of the kids in a traditional low-income neighborhood (rural or urban) and get them ALL to have stupendously high scores without pushing out the low-achievers. Don’t pretend that KIPP or BASIS or Moskiwitz academies take all the kids in any neighborhood because that’s simply not true.
Reblogged this on Naked Teaching and commented:
More abuse of public money. Stop the hemorrhage now.
I have to speak up on the incredibly incorrect statements regarding the Academy for Science and Design. They have a PLACEMENT test, not an enrollment test. The lottery is held January 31st and is public and recorded, every single applicant is in the lottery, enrollment offers were made April 1st based on this list (they receive hundreds of applications each year) and the placement exam (which only applicants who have already been offered enrollment take) is May 9th. The only families met with in person are high school applicants and this is to insure that they can graduate in a reasonable amount of time, there is a 5 year high school math requirement for example (algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, pre-calc and calculus) so making sure the applicant is aware of this is clearly important. As a STEM based charter school with a rigorous academic program it is not for every student, yet every applicant has the exact same chances of being offered enrollment. I have other children who do not attend because a school specializing in STEM is not a good fit.
Joan, you just don’t get it. You can’t use public dollars to fund a school that can fail low achieving students and say goodbye to them. Public schools are stuck with these kids until they are 21. Let me know when asd is forced to take kids who flunked out of public school. If asd gets public dollars they need to play by the same rules that public schools do, regardless of their “mission”.
Let’s really make it fair, Joan. Let’s dump all the kids from Nashua north and south who don’t have an 80% or above average and dump them into asd and see what happens to your test scores.
So charter founders and promoters offer the certificate called CPS(Cherry Picking Scheme) for hedge fund managers and future billionaires who are thinking of opening charcoal-mining business in education… One problem arise: Gold in charcoal-mine is not clean. It’s very toxic, and highly radiated.