Valerie Strauss: Charter schools: Is this the way it was supposed to work?

[tonysam]

With Education Secretary Arne Duncan promoting the expansion of publicly funded charter schools as if they had been proven to be the silver bullet for school reform (they haven’t), it seems reasonable to look at what can happen when schools are opened without enough regulation.

The St. Petersburg Times has an instructive story about a fight that the Pinellas County School District is having with Virginia-based Imagine Schools, the nation’s largest commercial charter operator, with 71 schools in 11 states (including Maryland) and Washington, D.C.

What you should know first is that in Florida, for-profit companies can run charter schools, even though charter schools are publicly funded and are, by state law, supposed to be run according to the federal rules for non-profits. Imagine is a for-profit management company, with a real estate arm, Schoolhouse Finance.

The current trouble in Pinellas is over the Central Avenue School in St. Petersburg, one of 17 charter schools Imagine runs in Florida. In 2008-09, it earned the grade of F from state accountability officials for student achievement.

Much more

[mzteris]

1. No, like this:

Peak Preparatory charter school in Dallas sends all its grads to college
12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 11, 2010
By HOLLY K. HACKER / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Peak Preparatory celebrated its first class of graduating seniors with a college signing day, modeled after the event for NCAA-bound athletes.

At Peak Preparatory, we don't ask our kids if they're going to college; we ask where they're going to college," counselor Adisa Ganic told the crowd of students, relatives, teachers and school leaders.

Peak Prep's inaugural graduating class consists of 22 girls and four boys, all Hispanic and most the first in their families to attend college.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-peak_11met.ART.State.Edition1.4ca3ff3.html

[Hannah Bell]

8. el centro = community college. it's housed in a former department store.

here's the entire campus.




being as i happen to know something about community college admissions, let me say for the record: this is no miracle. in fact, most kids who graduate high school can get accepted into a community college, at least provisionally. you think there's no inner city public schools that send a large proportion of their kids to college?

there are. and they have more than 30 students.

[mzteris]

2. are they supposed to work like this?

"FEA has seen a number of scandals since the merger as well. In March 2001, a secretary in the Port Charlotte, Florida, local embezzled $66,000. In October of the same year, long-time Broward Teachers Union president Tony Gentile was arrested on child pornography charges. In order to obtain his resignation as union president, the local union was forced to pay him a "golden parachute" valued at $140,000. In February 2003, $40,000 was embezzled from the St. Lucie County Classroom Teachers Association. And in April 2003, the FBI and Miami police raided the headquarters of the United Teachers of Dade after receiving a tip that president Pat Tornillo had embezzled or misspent millions of dollars in union dues. Critics and supporters worry that the scandals are symbolic of deeper organizational and financial control problems within FEA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Education_Association


or maybe this:

Second Grade Teacher (Dale Chisena, Sr.) - Child Pornography Criminal Charges
In Orange County Florida, a second grade teacher (Dale Chisena, Sr.) was arrested for child pornography charges. Chisena taught second grade at Lovell Elementary School for over 30 years. http://www.floridachildinjurylawyer.com/2010/04/second_grade_teacher_dale_chis.html

how about:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A St. Lucie County teacher who let her kindergartners decide whether an autistic child could remain in class is returning to the classroom.
St. Lucie County school board members unanimously approved teacher Wendy Portillo’s reinstatement Tuesday night. http://www.theautismnews.com/2009/11/11/florida-teacher-suspended-for-autism-vote-reinstated/


or this?

River Ridge teacher accused of improper texting resigns
NEW PORT RICHEY — A special education teacher from River Ridge High School is under criminal investigation for "inappropriate contact" with a male student, Pasco school district officials said Thursday. . . . Borick, who began working for the school district in 2005, was not immediately available for comment. She has been arrested once, in 2006 on a charge of retail theft, according to Pasco County records. That case, which involved $12 of merchandise from a Hudson Publix, was disposed of through pretrial intervention. The Florida Education Practices Commission reprimanded Borick in June over the arrest and fined her $500. http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/teachers/article858245.ece?tpc-e-to=&tpc-e-msg=&tpc-e-from-name=&tpc-e-from-email=&tpc-e-code=&tpc-e-aid=858245


and then there's this.......

Florida teacher gave alcohol to student DUI driver
A teacher at local Oviedo High School resigned after an admission she provided alcohol and a car to a student who was then in a drunken driving accident.
The special education teacher, Meredith Witt, turned in her resignation and admitted to the school's principal she furnished alcohol to at least one student before giving him the keys to her car. The student, 18-year-old Dylan Ferguson, crashed a Honda SUV into two cars around 10PM. He left the scene, but he was later arrested this Monday for DUI charges along with damaged property and leaving the scene. http://www.duiattorney.com/news/6067-florida-teacher-gave-alcohol-to-student-dui-driver



There are hundreds in FLORIDA alone.... I could keep going, you know...

[w4rma]

3. And less regulation and less local power will help schools, how? (nt)

[mzteris]

4. It is "local power"

80% of all charters are LOCAL managed....

"less regulation" - from idiotic "rules and policies" that inhibit actual learning taking place...

[Hannah Bell]

7. not local at all. when national management firms are running them.

your "local" managment is mostly a fraud & confidence trick, from the folks who wrote the book.

finance capital.

charter schools are going to *destroy* local schools.

and i think you actually know this. it's obvious:

1. charter schools draw from all over a district, by lottery, not from neighborhoods. it's the market system.
2. charter schools can be, & are, managed by national or international entities.
3. charter schools can be, & are, closed or moved out of neighborhoods on a regular basis. indeed, their selling point is that they can be "shut down" if they "fail". except that means mom has to find a new school for the kiddies & schlep them there instead. a school that's not likely to be better, sinceabout 80% of charters are no better than, or worse than, the public schools they replaced.
4. charter schools can, & are, staffed by transient low-wage workers who can be fired at will.


goodbye stable neighborhood schools with stable personnel.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. What are the rules and policies that inhibit learning -- and that

charters are able to get around?

if you're going to tell me teachers' unions and tenure, those aren't school rules.

I want cold hard facts, specific details, school by school. Tell me what the specific individual pertinent rules are and how "breaking" them leads to better learning.

Believe me, I understand the outrage and frustration and anger of parents and students when the school systems seem to be failing them. But I want you to tell me, since you're the staunch advocate for charter schools, what it is that is bad policy or bad regulation in a public school that, when abolished in a charter, allows that charter to better educate its students.

Specifics. Not platitudes. Not vague hints or broad generalities. I want specifics that back up your claims.




Tansy Gold

[donco6]

10. There's only ONE "rule" charters consistently ask to be waived.

Teacher Master Agreement.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. Specifics. Details. Explain, please, for those of us who are not teachers.

How would waiving this encourage better learning?

How does having it "inhibit" learning?




TG

[donco6]

12. Nothing to do with learning.

Everything to do with pay scales for teachers, working hours, working conditions, due process, and everything else agreed to between a school district and the teaching staff.

Once the charter eliminates the Master Agreement, all teachers are at-will employees and can be fired for any reason, with no agreed-upon process for appeal. It often caps pay scales so that the charter never has to pay more than $45,000 for a teacher (in states where the state doesn't have a statewide teacher schedule). It's all to the benefit of the school management. And when it's managed by a corporation, the excess funding (i.e. "profit", though it's never called that) gets skimmed off and used in another school somewhere else - even in another state.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Okay, let me get this straight then

The only "rule" that Charter Schools usually/almost always want waived is the one that sets pay scales and working conditions, etc., for the teachers?

How does that affect the ability of students to learn? DOES it affect the ability of the students to learn? If so, does it IMPROVE the students' ability to learn or not?

Obviously, paying teachers less and not having to fund benefits for them would improve the profitability of the school. If that money is spent on books, materials, facilities, that would probably be a good thing, wouldn't it? Where, in fact, is this money spent? Where does it go? Remember, this is taxpayer money that has been removed from the traditional public school system and put into the hands of the charter operators, so we should have a right to know where it's going, shouldn't we?



But what about rules regarding curriculum? Wouldn't those have something to do with learning? And isn't that what the charter school supporters are most vocal about? Don't they claim that charters have more "freedom" to be "innovative" and "try new things"?

Let me pose a hypothetical in an attempt to get some specific details:

If the expectation is that students will come out of the Charter School with a certain level of proficiency in a given subject, say, English, what rules that currently govern the teaching of English in traditional public schools would need to be waived so students can learn English better in the Charter School than in the traditional public school? What specific rules and regulations currently exist in the traditional public schools that need to be changed -- and/or could/would be changed in a charter school -- so students can learn English better?


Sidebar: I was told not too long ago that some students believe the teaching of English is no longer relevant since everyone texts now and no one still spells words like "your" or even "you." And the same with math since everyone has computers to do their math for them and no one actually adds and subtracts, much less multiplies. And the same with science since. . . . . This, of course, raises the question of, is education even necessary any more at all? Or is it simply maintained as yet another funnel to transfer money from the working classes to the idle rich?



Tansy Gold

[donco6]

14. Answers (as best I can)

We've had charters in Colorado from the beginning of the movement, so we have a lot. Charters are allowed to petition for waivers from a number of rules and laws to the Board of Education of their chartering district, or to the State Board of Education if they are a State Institute Charter (a charter not affiliated with any local school district). The one waiver every single charter asks for is release from any Master Agreement between the district and the teachers. They may ask for other waivers, but that's one they never miss.

In waiving from the M.A., I don't know what impact that may have on student learning. When the schedule is truncated at $45k, you're probably going to see less experience in the classroom (once they hit that wall, the teachers start looking for jobs in regular districts where they can continue marching up the schedule.) So that's probably not good.

As far as other things waived - we don't have a state curriculum here, so there's no point in waiving that. They can pick whatever they want - though they still have to administer CSAP tests based on the state standards, so schools such as Montessori get hammered on testing (Montessori in general is not into any type of standardized testing). There just isn't much else to even ask for waivers on here in Colorado. You can't waive Finance Act rules (pupil counts, funding levels, requirements for transfers, etc.)

If the money saved on teachers actually showed up in classroom materials, that would be a good thing. However, often this money is forwarded to capital leases for the school buildings. In some instances, the charter corporation forms a sister corp to handle the real estate side of things. So, in essence, whatever funds don't go to salaries or supplies, go to pay for the rent, which is financed by the charter, so they get to skim profit off of that, too.

Charters in general are not that concerned about specific curriculum components as they are about the pedagogy itself. Take Core Knowledge for example. It covers the same "curriculum" as traditional public schools (algebra 1, geometry, algebra II/Trig, PreCalc), it just comes at it from a very foundational approach. You CAN'T learn this until you know THIS. EVerything is progressive - to the point of absurdity, sometimes. It's pretty rigid, but some parents go for that. Others, like KIPP Academy, also teach the same "curriculum", but instead they focus on the school culture and climate. It's a very rigid disciplinary school. You walk on colored lines down the hallway. There is no talking in the hallway. Strict uniform policy. 3 strikes and you're out rules. So, it's not very often about the curriculum - what kids learn - it's more about the HOW kids learn that creates all these different schools.

You know, as far as the "who needs English anymore" argument - that argument has been around since school began. I really don't see it making much impact today anymore than it did when I was in high school.

[Tansy_Gold]

15. I have to go offline for a couple hours, but I'll be back

I'm in Arizona, where we have a lot of charters as well, and some of the worst. I'm not a teacher, though my son-in-law is and my daughter works for another school district in NJ, where funding is being cut left and right by demon spawn of hell Gov. Christie.

Peace, neighbor,


TG

[Hannah Bell]

6. i can match you that hundred. and let's not forget that charters are still a minority

of schools; their major scandals are disproportionate to their numbers.

because they offer exponentially more opportunities for graft & abuse.

you're posting little $40K embezzlements. that's the best you can find?

i can make a list of multi-million-dollar jobs.

right now the majority of charter schools in philadelphia are under investigation for fraud.

and you're posting stories from FLORIDA. jeb bush about destroyed public education in that state years ago. easy mark, considering jebbie did it on purpose to enable charters.

[Dinger]

5. arne duncan, pffft (nt)