July 27, 2005
More testing at charter schools
Charter school parents in Ohio aren't going to be able to avoid getting bit by the testing bug:
At a time of growing concern around the country about the academic accountability of charter schools, Ohio has mandated a new regime of testing solely for those schools that may force the shutdown of repeated low performers.Under a new state law, Ohio charter schools that meet certain criteria will have to give an extra set of standardized tests at the start and end of each school year, in addition to the regular state assessments given in all public schools.
A subset of those charter schools that miss state-prescribed goals for academic growth for three years in a row must close, under new requirements incorporated into the state budget signed into law late last month. No regular, district-run public schools are subject to the new testing requirements.
Odd. What are these new tests supposed to assess that the state tests aren't measuring? And if charter schools have to show high performance on these exams, why aren't all schools required to do so? The tests will be norm-referenced to boot, so the tests won't show how students do in relation to a standard, but how they do in relation to a large group of examinees.
June 28, 2005
A stampede of new scholars in Harlem
City Journal notes that a cohort from one Harlem charter school is ready - and well-prepared - for the trials and tribulations of middle-school:
Seventy-three kids who entered Sisulu-Walker as kindergarteners in 1999 left as newly minted fifth-grade graduates last week. The school has now educated part of New York’s first small generation of elementary charter-school kids. And the kids have done well...A full 90 percent of those fifth-graders could read at or above grade level this year. By contrast, only 69 percent of the fifth-graders who attended the regular public schools citywide did as well. In math, 77 percent of Sisulu-Walker’s kids scored well, compared with 54 percent of regular public-school kids.
Sisulu is a public school, but not one run by the city. Each New York charter school receives about 70 percent of the public funding that a traditional public school gets. Each school must rent its own space; Sisulu’s kids learn in makeshift classrooms owned by a neighborhood church. Sisulu-Walker chose its inaugural kindergarteners through a citywide lottery, from several hundred five-year-olds whose families had applied. Nearly 90 percent of the kids are poor.
What has Sisulu done that works so well for these kids? According to the NYC Charter School guide, they use the Core Knowledge program. Note here that third- to fifth-graders cover pre-algebra, optics, elements of music, art of the Renaissance, Shakespeare, and Greek and Roman mythology. Not too shabby.
Since we've had a few math-related posts of late, here's what's covered in CK's third-grade math:
Fractions
Recognize fractions to one-tenth
Identify numerator and denominator
Write mixed numbers
Recognize equivalent fractions (for example, 1/2 = 3/6)
Compare fractions with like denominators using the signs <, >, and =Geometry
Identify lines as horizontal, vertical, perpendicular, parallel
Polygons: recognize vertex; identify sides as line segments; identify pentagon, hexagon, and octagon
Identify angles: right angle; four right angles in a square or rectangle
Compute area in square inches and square centimeters
I won't be snarky here and overlap this curriculum with what's required to pass the Praxis I exam. That would just be too mean.
May 20, 2005
A new type of teachers' union
Will a charter school still be a charter school if its teachers are unionized? The discussion is now underway in the Philadelphia area:
...charter teachers are increasingly opting to form unions because of concerns about pay inequities and job security. This trend already has brought collective bargaining to five of this region's 63 charter schools. And teachers at the Russell Byers Charter School in Center City will vote May 26.Some charter advocates say union contracts could undermine charter schools' missions. "It will make them more rigid and more bureaucratic," said Terry M. Moe, a Stanford University professor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in California..."It will make them more like regular public schools and make it more difficult for them to be innovative and flexible," Moe said.
Union officials say contracts are tailored to individual charters' needs and mission statements. And administrators at unionized charters say it's possible to negotiate contracts that do not erode flexibility or jeopardize those missions.
The trend doesn't seem to be spreading.
May 04, 2005
Charter schools going screwy in St. Louis
It's happened before in public schools; now it's happening in charter schools as well:
A local charter school principal has lost her job after accusations she altered state exams. Cheryl Ray was dismissed from the St. Louis Charter Academy's south campus.Ray allegedly ordered teachers to return standardized tests to students so they could complete answers they didn't finish in time. Ray's firing comes just one day after a teacher at the school's north campus was charged with assaulting a third grade student. That teacher resigned Monday.
Presumably, this will be more grist for the "tests force people to cheat" mill. The assault charges, however, suggest that the problems at this school run far deeper than the exams:
A 9-year-old student at St. Louis Charter Academy on Linton says Wendell Goins, a teacher at the school, dragged him across a floor and choked him after another student claimed the nine year old was picking on him...Goins' conduct has been addressed before. "His voice is a little loud and we've instructed him to lower his voice when he is talking to the children", says Reverend Solomon Williams, a Board member...Goins is on administrative leave without pay. As of Monday night he had not turned himself in. His mother, Sandra, a board member at the school, declined to comment.
Note, however, that both Goins and Ray are looking for other work. Would parents have seen such swift justice within the public school system? Doubtful. It remains to be seen if the school's sponsor, University of Missouri-Rolla, will shut the place down; other schools are waiting for similar axes to fall:
A St. Louis charter school will appeal to the state today for what may be its last chance to stay open next year. The Thurgood Marshall Academy has had a rough five years - a board president indicted on felony theft, a principal removed for handcuffing a kindergartner, test scores worse than city schools and, expected this summer, the loss of its sponsor.Now, the school on Goodfellow Boulevard in St. Louis has another shot. Today, it will ask the state Board of Education to sponsor it and its 1,000 students. Without a sponsor, Thurgood will close before next fall. But Missouri education department officials have told the board not to sponsor the troubled school. Advertisement
"The department has reviewed the Thurgood Marshall Academy's application and finds that it is not in compliance" with state law, state staffers wrote in the recommendation to the board. The school didn't submit a curriculum, a three-year financial plan, or a clear description of academic standards, said Jocelyn Strand, the state's chief of charter schools.
Again - while it's sad to see the schools going so poorly, it's good to see schools shut down, or faculty dismissed, when the performance is not adequate.
May 03, 2005
Learning to compete
A Denver School Board member is brutally honest:
Charter schools have lured thousands of students from area public schools by offering incentives and recruiting intensively. "We know we won't have any kids if we don't do it," said Kay Frunzi, who runs Denver's Wyatt-Edison Charter School.Their success has cost district budgets thousands of dollars and forced some principals and school boards to consider how to compete....
School board members and principals are waking up to a market-driven climate, and trying to figure out how to compete. It's critical because in Denver, for example, each student is worth $6,500 in funding to a school. Charters have found niches in the marketplace and have responded to what parents want, said Theresa Pea, a Denver School Board member.
"We (DPS) haven't caught up with that," she said. "We will need to give our principals more training and capacity to handle this. Some of them have never been in the business environment where they have to compete."
Is it any wonder that the charter school movement has caught them off guard? I couldn't find too much on the Wyatt-Edison Charter School online, but they did donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
February 11, 2005
A charter school grows in Brooklyn
New charter schools opening in Brooklyn are taking a no-nonsense, back-to-basics approach:
It was the test scores that first got people outside of Connecticut interested in Amistad Academy, a charter school here. In a city where 31 percent of eighth graders achieved mastery on the state reading test in 2003, 81 percent of Amistad's did. In math, 75 percent of Amistad's eighth graders achieved mastery, compared with 19 percent citywide.
New York City officials, who have been trying a variety of ways to shake up the school system, were so impressed with Amistad's success that they invited its organizer to start charter schools in the city. Three kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools are to open in Brooklyn this fall and two more are to open in 2006...
Amistad, which runs from fifth grade to eighth grade, has a student body that is typical of many inner-city schools. The average student enters two grade levels behind where he or she should be. Eighty-four percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and about 97 percent are black or Hispanic.
So, what's the secret? For one thing, the students work long hours, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., sitting in classes that often last for more than an hour. All stay for after-school activities. In a regular New York City public school, the teachers' contract limits the length of classes, but most charter schools are not subject to the contract.
The curriculum emphasizes basic skills and uses tests every six weeks to determine which students need extra drills. When students are lagging, teachers give them extra help or get their parents involved. If they talk back to a teacher or start a fight, they have to sit at the back of the classroom and are not allowed to speak with other students until their punishment has been served.
The nonunion teaching staff puts in long hours, but teachers said the job is rewarding.
Long hours? Tests every six weeks? Drilling students? Public punishments? Nonunion teachers? Man, if these schools are a success - and I bet they will be - the local educrat community will be having conniptions.
(Via Joanne Jacobs.)
The question of preparedness
Is a charter school in Arizona being honest in turning away poor performers, or are they illegally "cherry-picking" the best students?
An East Valley charter school required by state law to enroll all students in an equitable manner routinely turns away some applicants based on poor test scores. The Heritage Academy in downtown Mesa has boasted above average standardized test results for many years. But the admissions policy at the seventh- through 12th-grade charter school gives Heritage an advantage over other public schools that accept students "as is," regardless of their academic deficiencies.
"If they come here with third-grade skills, that’s what elementary schools are for," Heritage principal Earl Taylor said. "We would say to that parent, ‘Your child is not ready for our school.’ "
Heritage applicants must provide copies of their latest standardized test scores just for a spot on the school’s waiting list, which is filling up fast for the 2005-06 academic year. The school then administers placement tests in math and English proficiency to all applicants and eliminates any student who tests below the seventh-grade level.
Onnie Shekerjian, a member of the Arizona Board for Charter Schools, said the policy might not be legal. "They cannot cherry-pick the students they have in their schools," she said.
Charter school watchdogs said the screening process at Heritage might be fine at a private school that charges tuition. But charter schools operate in Arizona with public money and must accept special-education students and other applicants in a neutral manner similar to school districts.
Interesting. If it's not legal, it's not legal. On the other hand, why should a school be forced to admit someone to their seventh-grade classroom if the student is performing far below that? It might be legal to let that student in, but is it really helpful to the student to enroll them in classes that are far above their level?
Napoleon Pisano, a member of the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens, said any charter school admissions policy that excludes students who do not speak and write English at a certain grade level discriminates against Arizona’s growing immigrant population that is new to English..."You’re not comparing like commodities if the charter school has a screening process," Pisano said. "It definitely sounds discriminatory."
Why is it discriminatory not to admit a student to a school for which they're not prepared? Wouldn't a better idea be to open up a charter school which specifically targets recent immigrants and those who are performing below grade level?
January 09, 2005
Surprising numbers for charter schools
Boston residents and/or supporters of charter schools should be reading a list of very interesting statistics compiled by MATCH School founder Michael Goldstein It's apparently not online; Eduwonk has the full list, and here are a few choice ones:
1. You knew that there continues to be an achievement gap, with race and income as the big predictors. You probably didn't know, however, black and Hispanic students in some suburban districts do better than in others. Framingham and Brookline have 57% and 55% of their African-American kids earning "proficiency" on Grade 10 MCAS math, whereas Newton and Lincoln-Sudbury have just 39%.
2. You're used to Boston Public Schools getting constant criticism. On the same test, black sophomores in Boston earned "proficiency" at a 30% rate, beating the Lexington mark of 25%. Would you say Lexington High's math department is failing? No Child Left Behind was designed, in part, precisely to do this: identify struggling kids in well-regarded suburban schools...
7. When charters started a decade ago, you heard Boston charters would "cream off the white kids", because their parents are more motivated. The DOE 2003 data shows Boston charters serving 70% black students - more than the 47% in the district as a whole.
October 20, 2004
She's the Little Engine That Could
Yahoo! for Joanne Jacobs:
At the start of 2001, I quit my well-paid, high-status, no-heavy-lifting job as a San Jose Mercury News columnist and editorial writer to write a book on a start-up charter school. For awhile now, I've been wondering if I'd ever get the book published. Finally, after interminable delays and dithering, I have a publisher, Palgrave Macmillan. The advance is pathetically small, so if I make any money from the book it will come from royalties, which I'll have to generate by relentless self-promotion. With the help of my blogger buddies, I hope. Anyone who's a close personal friend of Oprah, drop me a line.
Of course, my first job is to finish the manuscript. It's about 90 percent done now, I think. But that last bit can be like the last two minutes of a football game. I'll still be blogging, but perhaps not so comprehensively.
I'm still a bit stunned. I've got a real, big-name publisher. Soon I'll have a deadline (I love deadlines) and School Work: How Two Grumpy Optimists Started a Successful Charter School will have a scheduled publication date and it will happen.
September 20, 2004
When "progressive education" means retaining the status quo
Joanne Jacobs uncovered a brilliantly idiotic op-ed about how our children are too important to risk experimenting with, when "experimenting" is defined as "changing the public school system to something that might work better":
The NAEP data adds to the growing body of evidence that charter-school students do not outperform comparable students in regular public schools and should raise serious questions about continuing to employ charters as a sanction under the No Child Left Behind Act. More importantly in Washington, it should give us pause as we consider whether to approve or reject Referendum 55, on the November ballot, that would establish charter schools in this state.
Proponents of charter schools around the nation are crying foul. They claim that it's too early to compare charter schools to public schools. They claim that the American Federation of Teachers has an agenda. Data like this spurs debate. As it should. Without it, charter-school supporters can avoid serious discussion and continue to insist that charter schools are the solution to the problem.
...while charter-school supporters point to other studies and anecdotal information to show that charter schools can work, vying studies don't demonstrate who is right and who is wrong. They simply demonstrate that the possibility for success of children in charter schools is an unknown. Our children's education is too important to try experiments to see what works best.
Emphases mine. Leaving aside the fact that the authors, Darlene Flynn and James M. Welsh, don't cite too many of the "vying studies" to support their arguments that charter schools cannot work, I find the whole "we can't take chances" approach bizarre. I mean, wasn't the whole theory of "progressive education" that infested public schools in the 1970's built on the assumption that schools should take chances and come up with a Brave New World of education, one that freed children from the horrors of - gasp! - rote memorization? Aren't educrats supposed to be the ones that oppose the status quo, with its accountability measures, adherence to objective standards, test scores, and all those other pesky old-fashioned measures of education?'
But when a truly innovative concept appears, why, it's batten down the hatches! We must protect The Children from "the unknown." Sheesh.
Brian Micklethwait rightly pokes the educrats in their fearful bellies:
...there are a lot of public sector schools where parents would love it if the outcome was an "unknown", instead of the all-too-known that they are instead stuck with.
I think I know what these authors were trying to say with this amazing sentence, but the words they actually used show, I think, how out of touch they must surely be with lots of parents. They've said things like this to their friends and co-educrats so often, to such warm applause, that they truly didn't realise what they'd put. When they talk or write about "experiments", they, and their usual audiences and readerships, see evil right wing monsters inflicting cruel tortures on furry white animals and chucking defenceless kids off an experimental cliff. But lots of others will simply see them turning their backs on the obvious way (experiments) to make progress and to add to the store of human knowledge, in this case to the knowledge of how best to impart knowledge to the next generation.
Emphasis mine, again. It's obvious to us that the "progressive" educators of the past are now the ones most afraid of real progress.
August 24, 2004
Does AFT stand for "Alternatively, for testing"?
In regards to the AFT/Charter school brouhaha of last week, I can't believe I failed to pick up on a very salient point that the Education Intelligence Agency noticed right away:
AFT’s single-minded effort to rid us of charter schools also serves to effectively undermine every argument teachers’ union have made – and are still making – for the poor performance of regular public schools. Here are just a few that immediately spring to mind:
* Judging schools by a single standardized test score is now OK. How often have we heard complaints about politicians, reporters, parents and the public misjudging the performance of public schools on the basis of results released from a single standardized test? It is one of the main talking points in NEA’s campaign against the No Child Left Behind Act, and a 2002 AFT resolution specifically condemns the misuse of standardized test scores in such a way. In the last week, AFT has repeatedly referred to NAEP as the “gold standard” of standardized tests. Very well, now we can apply the gold standard to everyone.
I can't believe I missed this, because it's one of my pet peeves. Even the most vocal of testing critics will leap with both feet on a test score if is supports their point of view, which is hypocritical, to say the least. I hope the AFT realizes that they have in fact given their stamp of approval to judging the US public education system by NAEP scores.
August 23, 2004
Talking out of both sides of his mouth
This description of two candidates for a Washington state Senate race sums up in a nutshell why I'll never vote Democrat:
The high-profile contest to represent the 49th District in the state Senate continues Tuesday with the second of three debates between Republican incumbent Don Carlson and Democratic challenger Craig Pridemore...
Carlson and Pridemore will debate educational issues 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Foster Auditorium at Clark College. Washington State University Chancellor Hal Dengerink will be the moderator...
On education, Carlson and Pridemore have taken different positions on some issues.
Pridemore has called for eliminating the Washington Assessment of Student Learning as a graduation requirement. Carlson, a retired teacher and chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, favors keeping the test as a graduation requirement.
Pridemore has said the standardized test enforces conformity on children, instead of letting their own strengths flourish. Carlson said the test sets a standard that makes a high school diploma signify more than simply attending school for 12 years.
Oh, my, isn't it terrible how we force kids to conform to the English language and learn all those rules of mathematics? Why, we should just allow their own illiterate and innumerate "strengths" to flourish, because we all know if a skill is measurable by a test, it must be bad.
The candidates also differ on charter-school legislation passed this year. Pridemore supports a referendum that would repeal the bill, which would authorize a limited number of publicly funded schools operated by nonprofit organizations. The charter schools will fragment society, Pridemore argues. Carlson voted for the legislation, calling it a worthwhile experiment.
Wait, I thought Pridemore wanted our kids to be boldly nonconformist, to go their own way on their own strengths. But now that Washington state has the option to create new schools for every kind of kid, he's worried about "fragmentation" of society.
"Nonfragmentation without conformity!" - is that his battle cry? You tell me.
All the news that's fit to distort
Well, about 4,593 of you emailed me with the original NYT article that bashed charter schools. And about half again as many emailed me with the follow-up articles bashing NYT reporter Diana Schemo and the AFT.
OK, so I exaggerate on the number of emails. Still, it does seem that the most fiskity stuff happens when I'm out of commission.
Sayeth the NYT:
The findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of the charter school movement, including the Bush administration.
The data shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing about half a year behind students in other public schools in both reading and math. Put another way, only 25 percent of the fourth graders attending charters were proficient in reading and math, against 30 percent who were proficient in reading, and 32 percent in math, at traditional public schools.
Because charter schools are concentrated in cities, often in poor neighborhoods, the researchers also compared urban charters to traditional schools in cities. They looked at low-income children in both settings, and broke down the results by race and ethnicity as well. In virtually all instances, the charter students did worse than their counterparts in regular public schools.
On the other hand, one of the benefits of being out of commission is that everyone's already done the heavy fisking for me:
UnterGeek: What the story doesn’t seem to take into account, however, is the history of the surveyed fourth-graders. Were they in public schools for their third-grade year? Were they significant under-achievers before, and that’s why their parents put them in the charter school? What were the test scores like the previous year? Was there any noticeable improvement over the previous year?
Joanne Jacobs: Most charters are new schools still getting up to speed. Charter teachers often are young and inexperienced, though idealistic. I've seen a lot more troubled than cream-of-the-crop students in charters. But the bottom line is that the charter concept doesn't guarantee that every new school will work; it promises that ineffective schools will improve quickly or shut down. (And here's more linky goodness from her FoxNews column.)
SharkBlog: The national teacher unions are expected to pour millions of dollars (taken out of union dues skimmed from teacher salaries) into Washington state this election to try to defeat our charter school law. Expect to see more anti-charter propaganda from the teacher unions over the next couple of months.
Opinion Journal: It is not unusual for interest groups to issue misleading reports that further their political agenda. And for this reason, newspapers generally ignore them, treat them with great skepticism, or make sure they vet the study with independent observers. Not so in the case of the recently released study of charter schools issued by the American Federation of Teachers, which, after receiving top billing in the right-hand corner of the front page of yesterday's New York Times, was picked up by news media across the country.
The New York Post: The Times claims that the NAEP-based comparison "shows charter school students often doing worse than comparable students in regular public schools." Yet, on key comparisons, especially by students' race, there is no statistically significant difference between the performance of kids in charter schools and traditional public schools. This is especially salient considering how heavily charter schools are patronized by black and Hispanic families. Their kids aren't doing worse in charter schools.
Rod Paige: The New York Times' front-page 'analysis' of charter schools used faulty methodology to come up with a flawed conclusion. In other words, it was wrong. The Times made no distinction between students falling behind and students climbing out of the hole in which they found themselves. The Times grudgingly conceded that 'tracking students over time might present findings more favorable' to charter schools—but that point was buried at the end of the story.
Eduwonk: Most importantly, though, when one controls the grade 4 data for race it turns out there is no statistically significant difference between charter schools and other public schools. But, you'll search in vain in the Times story for that context. In fact, to the contrary, a chart accompanying the story fails to offer readers any significance tests for the numbers they're looking at, inaccurately indicating that there are significant differences by race.
Redline Rants: Simply put, the NYT is wrong. Federal data actually shows no difference between charter schools and traditional schools that serve large populations of disadvantaged and minority students. And studies show students in charter schools often make significant strides in key subjects after transferring out of public schools and attending charter schools for a period of time.
And Jay P. Greene gets the award for best analogy:
The New York Sun: Buried in a new report by the U.S. Department of Education is a comparison claiming to show that charter schools — independently run public schools free from many restrictions — have lower average test scores than regular public schools. A front page New York Times story, put together with the help of America’s second-largest teachers union, recently trumpeted this previously obscure statistic. But the original report buried the finding for a very good reason. Such a broad comparison between charter schools and regular public schools is sheer nonsense. Unlike regular public schools, many charter schools are specifically designed to serve students with low test scores. Denouncing charter schools for having lower-than-average test scores is like denouncing drug rehab clinics for having more drug users than regular hospitals.
Think the Grey Lady will admit they were wrong? Think the Grey Lady will start disclosing what organizations are feeding them data? Think the Grey Lady will start providing links to data so readers can interpret the results for themselves?
I think I'll be grey before that happens...
May 11, 2004
A charter school that demands, and gives, more
Joanne Jacobs comments on the Preuss charter school in San Diego which has the right approach for poor kids - brutality:
The school is an intensive college-preparatory school for low-income students in grades 6-12, most of them minorities and all of them required to prove they would be the first in their families who would graduate from college.
This spring's high-stakes college admission season for the school's first graduating class has given Preuss powerful evidence that it is achieving its ambition...
About two-thirds of the first graduating class gained admission to the University of California system, including its most prestigious campus, Berkeley. Students have been accepted at Dartmouth College, New York University, Spelman College and Claremont McKenna College. All but five of the 55 students in the class won admission to four-year institutions...
Preuss (rhymes with choice) promises its 750 students the kind of education that will allow them to succeed in a college admissions process that makes no concessions for race or ethnicity. It also promises to be an example for schools across the state and country struggling to improve the education of poor, minority students...
One word characterizes Preuss: more. The school year is nearly a month longer. The school day is an hour longer. Classes are intense, scheduled in every-other-day blocks that run for 1 hour, 42 minutes, rather than the typical 55 minutes. Some students return for Saturday-morning sessions.
One senior, David Iaea, who is headed to New York University, says with a nod toward the brutal schedule, "College will be a breeze after Preuss".
Good for Preuss for taking an approach that "makes no concessions for race or ethnicity." As Joanne notes:
Not everyone makes it through. But those who do will be the first in their families to attend college.
April 14, 2004
Will California's charter school teachers soon be unionized?
The California Teacher's Association has their eye on charter school employees:
With major financial backing from the National Education Association, California’s largest teachers’ union has launched an initiative to organize employees in hundreds of charter schools in the state...
For its part, the 2.7 million-member NEA is backing the California effort in the hope that it will yield lessons for union organizers elsewhere. NEA leaders also argue that unionized teachers can play a watchdog role in charter schooling by pushing for greater public accountability, particularly in schools run by for-profit companies...
Although Arizona still has more charter schools than any other state, California now has the highest enrollment, with some 170,000 students in charter schools.
Some California charter leaders are upbeat about the prospect for productive partnerships with unions, pointing to some places where such relationships have already been forged. Others are deeply suspicious of the 335,000-member CTA’s organizing effort, afraid it will bring to charter schools a rules-oriented mentality that they left regular public schools to escape.
March 19, 2004
Big changes in Washington State
A "hotly contested measure" allowing charter schools and overhauls of the state' standardized tests were among the education bills signed by Washington Governor Gary Locke this week:
Perhaps of most interest to schoolchildren and parents will be the changes to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Before House Bill 2195 passed, the class of 2008 faced the prospect of having just one chance to pass the 10th-grade WASL to graduate. The law now allows as many as four more chances to take the test, as well as alternative tests.
"Not everybody performs at their best in a traditional, No. 2 pencil, sweaty-palms testing scenario," said Rep. Joe McDermott, (D-Seattle), who sponsored the measure.
Well, they'd better learn to perform their best in that scenario, at least within five tries. And I want to hear more about these "alternative" tests.
The bill also dumps the listening portion of the test for fourth-, 7th- and 10th-graders, and cancels the planned tests in social studies, arts and physical education. That leaves the existing tests for reading, writing and math, along with an upcoming science exam.
The charter school bill allows for as many as 45 charter schools over the next six years. It also allows districts to convert failing schools into charter schools, and, in extreme cases, would authorize the state superintendent of public instruction to force a failing school to convert.
Sharkblog has been all over the charter school story in Washington.
March 10, 2004
Taking the right turn in Albuquerque
Normally, I'm suspicious of a high school environment that is described as "messy, creative, and open" - too often those buzzwords are euphemisms for "no discipline, no standards, and no objectivity." But not, apparently, in the case of High Tech High charter school in San Diego. That's one of a handful of charter schools funded by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation that are devoted to innovation:
A humanities teacher at the High Tech High charter school in San Diego answered my questions about student achievements there this way: "People always ask how come our students score so high. We don't prep for those tests. We think it's because of what we do every day as a project-based school," Mark Aguirre said.
High Tech High's standardized test scores are in the top 10th of California schools. Its Hispanic and low-income students score in the top 1 percent for those groups statewide. In 2002-2003, High Tech High students scored, on average, 132 points higher on the SAT than the state average. The San Diego charter school opened in 2000, and its entire first graduating class of 48 went to college.
Here's the school handbook, which is refreshingly free of smarmy "mission statements;" the stated rules - behave yourself, treat everyone with respect, don't plagiarize, turn your cellphones off, wear something more substantial than shorts and flipflops, and show up every day - reflect a admirable lack of willingness to let students "express themselves" through obnoxious clothing and behavior.
So how do the students express themselves?
...I recently visited High Tech High to get a sense for how the original school runs. I found the atmosphere to be warm. Students call their teachers by their first names. It has a messy, hard-working, creative, brainstorming feel. Artwork hangs everywhere. Project materials are stacked on file cabinets, tables and beside computers.
High Tech High is a hybrid of a think tank, art studio, and research and development department for high school students. The school is laced with suites of workstations resembling those in a modern office. It offers science, video and art labs, and project and seminar rooms. Each space has a glass wall, so whoever wanders by can see inside.
I saw a student perched on a bench, holding a square of plywood on his lap. Batteries and an apparatus were attached. It was a prototype of an electronic toilet bowl cleaner he'd developed. He had only attended the school for five days.
"Remarkable!" I said. "You already have a product?"
"My group really helped me a lot," he said.
Freshmen at the school invent a product, write a business plan with a cost analysis and a projected market share, and explain the math and science behind the product. Last year, students who came up with the school's five best inventions gave pitches to venture capitalists. One student received a patent and is engaged in manufacturing negotiations.
Mighty impressive. The author of this article, by the way, is Robin Trout, the founder of Albuquerque's proposed MAST charter high school, which was unanimously voted down by Albuquerque's Board of Education members last December:
The mayor has been working since last January on plans for the school to open with its first class of 90 students in August. At capacity, it would serve 360. The mayor intends to appeal the board's rejection to the state education authorities by the Jan. 17 deadline. If his appeal is successful, the Albuquerque board will have to grant a charter and allow the school to open...
One of the reasons board members rejected MAST High School's charter application was because it came from City Hall. Board members said they need the Legislature to clarify whether a municipality can open a charter school...
MAST High supporter Larry Donahue, an Albuquerque businessman, said the charter school is needed to increase the local pool of technically and scientifically skilled workers. He said he's having trouble finding qualified workers in New Mexico for $10 to $12-per-hour jobs and must go elsewhere to fill 20 percent of his jobs...
Jerry Shelton, representing the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education, said his group supports the charter school "as an additional option for a small number of students." He said it would not compete with existing schools.
Board members did not respond to Trout's request for a conversation, but after the meeting member Miguel Acosta said there probably won't be any more discussion.
"We had a conversation," he said, referring to his policy committee's review of the charter application and the board meeting at which it was rejected.
Yep, and those who wanted the school appealed - and won.
State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia on Friday allowed the MAST High School charter proposal to move forward, overruling a decision by the Albuquerque Board of Education in December.
But Garcia also banned City Hall from operating and governing the new math, science and technology school, which was the school board's main objection to the plan.
Garcia ruled MAST High should be allowed to open in August 2005 and predicted it could become Albuquerque's "crown jewel."
Indeed.
February 24, 2004
One charter school's existence hangs in the balance
What happens when a "good" school has "bad" test scores?
It's a Friday like any other here [at the John A. Reisenbach Charter School] - a weekly "Color Day," when students celebrate school spirit by wearing the hues of their floor - orange, green, and blue - rather than their usual oxford shirts and gray pinafores or slacks.
Except, this day, and this month, are like no other. State evaluators who oversee New York charter schools have recommended that Reisenbach be shut, due in part to the school's results on eighth-grade state tests...
The threatened closure has parents and experts both raising questions about a school's less tangible aspects - qualities no standardized test can measure. How, for instance, do you quantify the environment here - the safe, carefully monitored hallways, or the eager confidence of the students?
Well, those things can indeed be quantified. Safe environments will have fewer incidents of violence, disruption, bullying, and the like. There are assessment to measure self-confidence. But the question in my mind is, if the school is safe and kids are confident, why are test scores still low?
Both Craig Cobb and his daughter, Brittan who is a third grader, have fallen in love with Reisenbach.
Like other parents with children at Reisenbach, Mr. Cobb is smitten with the high level of parental involvement. Others rave about the safe, courteous atmosphere, an eighth-grade curriculum that includes reading Shakespeare and newspapers, and extras like drama class and a choir as reasons to keep the school open.
Shakespeare is good, courtesy is good, but I think it's strange that reading newspapers in eighth-grade is considered to be an outstanding part of the curriculum.
There is no doubt that the school has not delivered on its promise to raise test scores...Last year, however, only 13 percent of Reisenbach's eighth-grade class met state standards in English; only 7 percent in math.
Yeah, that's pretty low. How are those eighth-graders reading Shakespeare yet not demonstrating knowledge of the current form of the English language?
...[to some] hard numbers protect a school and should be relied upon. Benjamin Chavis, principal of the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, Calif., is a firm believer in scores, and skeptical of "feel good or other less quantifiable" measures of success.
In 2000, its fourth year, his school nearly had its charter revoked. But by 2001, a year after Dr. Chavis arrived, he'd turned the school around. Now, its scores are among the best in the state. "You can't win by saying, 'This is a safe school,' " he says. "That's a ridiculous argument."
However, the argument that some kids had been at the school only five months before being tested isn't ridiculous. And the school's administrators have offered to resign in order to keep the school open. Parental support is high. Perhaps the school just hasn't had enough time to prove how well it can educate its students:
Some argue schools with low test scores but high community support deserve more time to prove themselves.
In 1998, California's Oakland Charter Academy was in a position similar to Reisenbach's. One of the first charter schools in its district, it squeaked through its first renewal. Test scores were bleak, faculty turnover high. But parents rallied to support the Latino educators who understood their Spanish-speaking children and their community's values. Since then, the school has made modest gains in scores - and received its third renewal.
Update: Fellow blogger, teacher, and all-around tough guy Charles does some investigating. Conclusion? A conditional renewal, perhaps - and no more excuses about those eighth-graders:
It's quite possible a good portion of the 8th grade class in question had been at that school for years, as we shall explain.
We've had a fair bit of experience with charter schools, and a common way for a charter school to get on its feet is for it to start small, then "vertically" expand, adding one grade level per year for one or more years. While it's possible for a school to expand toward the younger grades, by far the most common method of vertical expansion is to grow with the students...
Reisenbach's parents and staff tried a number of arguments to explain away their failing scores, including the fact that "2002 was the first year the school had an eighth-grade class."
It would logically seem that the school only had higher grades, and expanded downward to 8th grade. Thus, when these students were tested for the first time, they got slammed unfairly.
The facts are the precise opposite. The school has served younger students all along, and has expanded vertically as their children graduate each grade. (A quick Google search revealed a pdf report showing the school with 75 seventh graders in 2001. If this school is so universally well-loved by parents, you can bet that a huge chunk of that 75 became the very eighth grade class that tanked in reading and math.)
The "transient students are pulling our scores down" appeal is largely a myth, but makes for a handy excuse.
I should bribe Charles' to catch this kind of stuff (and, you know, do the online research that I skipped) before I post. (I hear he works cheap - for buffalo-chicken sandwiches.)
Also don't miss his post on Diane Ravitch's Left Back, which he gifted me with recently. I'll get to it soon, Charles, I swear...
February 17, 2004
Testing in Milwaukee's voucher schools
There is a number in Milwaukee, and that number is 92:
As the debate over accountability in Milwaukee's choice program rages, a new Public Policy Forum report shows that nearly all of the schools say they administer some form of standardized test.
Ninety-two percent of Milwaukee's voucher schools report that they use a standardized test, according to the forum. The local research firm surveys the choice schools on different issues every year. It asked the schools about standardized tests for the first time this year...
"We were pleasantly surprised that nine out of 10 schools are administering tests," said Emily Van Dunk, the research director at the forum. "I don't think if we had sat down and guessed, we would have thought it would be that high."
But the forum's report also advises that school administrators and policy makers develop a means to publicly report test results, which are often used solely for internal use by the schools.
January 06, 2004
One Shark's fight for charter schools
With all the posting I've been doing about homeschooling in Washington, I should mention SharkBlog's 2004 Resolution - to bring charter schools to his home state (Washington is one of 10 states in which such schools are still illegal). He's got a monster summary of the issues and the players up on his blog.
He's already attended one Seattle School Board meeting and made this statement in support of charter schools. SharkBlog really wants to see success stories like this one brought to Washington (if KIPP can make it "cool to be smart" in Oakland, they can do the same anywhere). Unfortunately, he says the board meeting was a "staged circus"; the board members had already made up their minds to defeat any proposed charter school legislation. This can't be unrelated to the rise in homeschooling in Washington; parents have little choice other than the public school system, and the teaching unions already feel threatened by the homeschooling numbers.
Be sure to check back in on his site and follow his battle against the board members. Go, Shark!
December 08, 2003
Mixed results in Buffalo
The Buffalo (NY) school district plans to create a "network of district-sponsored charter schools." Five charter school are already in existence, but their effectiveness is being described by at least one reporter as "mixed":
A Buffalo News review of pupil performance at existing local charter schools shows dramatically mixed results and indicates that student test scores closely mirror demographic factors like poverty and race - just as they do at traditional public schools. That's also the pattern nationally.
"The best we can say about charter schools is that the jury's still out," said S. Paul Reville, a lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and executive director of the Center for Education Research and Policy...
Buffalo's limited experience with charter schools is marked by strikingly high student achievement at one charter school, above-average results at two others, but low test scores at two inner-city charter schools. The review, however, also shows significant improvement in standardized test scores - even in the schools that have low test results.
Some charter schools have a long row to hoe:
...the King Center Charter School and Stepping Stone Academy Charter School recorded scores far below the average of traditional city schools. Most troubling is their math scores, which were second- and third-worst among all public schools in Erie County. But there was significant improvement.
Those at Stepping Stone reaching English proficiency went from 17 percent to 29 percent within one year, and King Center Charter School's went from 11 percent to 22 percent. The improvement in math was even more dramatic...
The achievement gaps at some charter schools also reflect family background, especially poverty levels...
The enrollment at King Center and Stepping Stone is almost entirely African-American, and the schools draw largely from struggling inner-city neighborhoods. Many of those students previously attended low-performing city schools. While demographics are an explanation for low test scores at King Center and Stepping Stone, there are no excuses for poor performance, said Robert M. Bennett, chancellor of the state Board of Regents.
"I'm concerned," he said. "They have to improve, without question. The reality of the charter system is that we could remove the charter."
Buffalo's parents support the charter school decision:
Many parents and public officials applaud the Buffalo Board of Education's decision last week to establish a system of district-sponsored charter schools...
Lynn Bass is a school psychologist for the Buffalo schools, a member of the parent advisory council that the district formed, and has a son at Tapestry School and a daughter at City Honors School. She feels charter schools make education more personal and responsive.
"The bureaucracy in Buffalo is really, really dysfunctional," she said. "There is a need for reform and a need for us to embrace educational innovation."
Needless to say, the president of that "dyfunctional bureaucracy" sees things differently.
"We're basically saying, "We can't do the job, and we're going to let other people run our schools,' " [Anthony Palano, president of the union that represents Buffalo school principals] said. "What's going to be left in Buffalo are two groups: children of poverty and special-education students. We're going to be fighting for our lives - with inadequate resources - to help kids."
The comment about special education students is meaningful:
When students with moderate or severe disabilities express interest, charter school officials often tell their parents they don't have the staff or resources to serve their children properly...
Joseph A. Gardella Jr., co-chairman of Buffalo's Special Education Advisory Committee and the parent of a severely disabled daughter, feels it's "terrifically irresponsible" that charter schools don't serve all children...
Linda Rubenstein, Buffalo's assistant superintendent for special education, said it may be asking too much to expect small charter schools to provide a full range of special-education services.
The article ends on a fantastic exchange that demonstrates the "high emotions" surrounding the concept of charter schools:
Shortly after the Board of Education vote, Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore called the move "bizarre" and said the BTF will support School Board candidates opposed to the spread of charter schools.
"Phil Rumore should be run out of town on a rail car," [County Executive Joel] Giambra said the next day. "Phil is showing that he's tremendously irresponsible and is part of the problem."
Informed of Giambra's statement, Rumore responded, "I really have no comment, because I always consider the source, and this doesn't dignify a response."
Do people ever get run out of town on rail cars anymore? I mean, Amtrak doesn't service every city. I think they'd be more likely to be punted out via USAir or Hertz Rent-A-Car.
November 17, 2003
Advice for charter schools
Five Florida schools are gearing up to become that state's first charter school system, and charter school expert and author Dr. Joe Nathan offered advice, and warnings:
Nathan said the schools will need to publicize their activities in the community to help familiarize residents with the charter school concept and gain their trust. Another key is to involve parents more in school events and share facilities with local groups, he said.
...He said charter schools thrive because they invert the traditional district hierarchy and make the schools, rather than the administration, the priority. "You've got to give teachers a chance to think, and plan and dream," Nathan said. "It's doable. It's not a dream, it's a reality."
...he also said there "is nothing about a charter school that guarantees success. It's an idea and opportunity, not a guarantee."
Nathan said the schools will have to pace themselves while planning their operations and exercise good bookkeeping. He also cautioned against becoming too focused on standardized test results and not emphasizing school principles with students.