Morning Shots

February 27, 2013

The Rosa Parks statue was unveiled today in Washington D.C. at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

The statue portrays Rosa clutching her purse, reminding observers of the courageous moment when she refused to give up her seat. It is a permanent reminder of the cause she embodied and stood for — freedom.

Freedom is a characteristic that is hallmark to the charter school movement. So how appropriate that citizens in California, when asked to choose a name for a new charter school, chose to name the school “Rosa Parks Academy” in her honor.

February 20, 2013

The latest CREDO report looks at New York City charter school achievement and finds generally positive results.

CREDO research on other cities and states, like the Michigan report released in January, has generally yielded positive results. But perhaps more interesting is the fact that NYC CREDO findings are in line with work done by other researchers studying New York City charter schools. Check out the studies below for more on charter schools in the Big Apple:

• How NYC Charter Schools Affect Achievement:
This study done by Caroline M. Hoxby employs quality charter school research methodology and finds that NYC charter school students will learn more over time than those students who remain in conventional public schools.

• The State of the NYC Charter School Sector:
This report from the New York City Charter School Center gives an in-depth look into the city’s charter schools data, demographics and achievement, and indicates that charter schools continue to be a viable alternative for parents looking to better their children’s education in the Big Apple.

And for those of you scratching your head as to why you’ve heard the acronym CREDO before, it may have been because of a controversial and widely cited national report from 2009. Here’s some background to help you out: All About CREDO.

February 19, 2013

Apparently, all of the poor parents I’ve met all these years are actually stupid. I didn’t know this until I read yet another review of how people actually get into charter schools.

You probably didn’t know this but there’s a bunch of really smart poor folk who know that there are charter schools and school options, who can read and write and spell and who somehow show up to apply and file for school lotteries to get their kids into better schools than their neighborhood schools. They are apparently smarter than the other poor folk because they know that the assigned public school – the one that they are zoned to by zip code — is actually bad, and you wouldn’t know that if you weren’t smart, because you’d be so ill informed that you wouldn’t even know your child couldn’t read or write and you’d have no idea that there was a difference in schools anymore than you know there are nicer ones somewhere or better clothes, or televisions, or stereos or buildings or even jobs.

So these smarter poor folks, who are usually people of color (but not always, if you’re in Appalachia or West Virginia or even East Palo Alto, or Indianapolis) somehow know more than the other poor folks and they know their kids are smart so they get them into other schools.

They are the cream, according to some. And they make it bad for all the others. They take everything before other people can get there. They know to stand in line and wait for school lotteries, and they know about the lotteries, and they know who has the good teachers and who doesn’t and they live with the other poor folks but somehow they are apparently more advantaged because everyone keeps

Read More …

February 11, 2013

The Fordham Institute’s most recent report School Choice Regulations: Red Tape or Red Herring? examines different types of regulations on private school choice programs and how implementation of regulations effects schools’ participation. It’s not surprising that there is a correlation between regulatory burden and school participation in private choice programs. However, when schools were surveyed about their concerns to participate in programs, they cited not enough eligible families as the reason not to participate, not excessive regulations. But, excessive regulations shouldn’t be overlooked.

We’ve seen concerns about excessive regulation in choice programs and charter schools increase over the years and even discussed these increasing rules on The Stossel Show on Fox Business News. The federal government requires a state to sign onto Common Core in order to receive funds, and regulatory creep at the state and local level is putting charter school autonomy and flexibility in danger.

We’ve known for years that the numbers reported by the fed govt of disadvantaged students in charters was wrong. It was wrong because, as we found out through our annual survey, almost 39 percent of charter schools don’t’ participate in the F&RL program, and therefore their students aren’t counted as such. Why don’t they participate? The most prevalent reason why charters do not participate is because they do not have the proper facilities to prepare meals. Twenty-one percent choose not to apply because of the massive amount of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape that is difficult to abide by with fewer administrators. In 2006, 48% of survey respondents chose not to apply for F&RL status because of the amount of paperwork involved.

This report and its findings aren’t shocking to those who have been keeping an eye on regulatory issues, but reiterating the fact that regulations are a

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February 6, 2013

“It is hard to believe that year-after-year, smart, well-intentioned researchers believe they can make national conclusions about charter school performance using uneven data, flawed definitions of poverty and ignoring variations in state charter school laws,” said Jeanne Allen president of The Center for Education Reform (CER).

Yes, CREDO is at it again, using the same virtual twin methods that came under fire in their 2009 report.

In a Wall Street Journal Opinion video, David Feith breaks down — in less than 3 minutes — problems with the numbers in the latest CREDO report, as well as problems with how the report is being interpreted.

January 16, 2013

Huh? There are lots of ridiculously inaccurate things said about charters but this one takes the cake.

“…charters are often not designed with the focus of being responsive to parents…”

That’s funny. I’m not sure how one attracts parents if they are not responsive, but apparently an academic at NYU — and a member of the NY State Board of Regents — thinks otherwise.

Down in Tennessee, The Cornerstone charter school has been in a struggle with the district where it is also running a failed charter. There are rumors about behaviorable tactics being used in the school, including one teacher who took away kids shoes because they were playing with them.

That’s a pretty stupid thing to do under any circumstance, but it hardly has to do with responsiveness to parents, a hallmark of the charter school concept and for which most schools demonstrate huge parental satisfaction.

Here’s Pedro Noguera‘s full quote:
“The kind of reaction you are seeing is not uncommon. There are many communities where that has occurred,” said Pedro Noguera, executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University.

“It’s more likely to happen in charters because charters are often not designed with the focus of being responsive to parents, the community or the culture of
the children.”

Right.

January 9, 2013

No, we don’t have the ability to tell the future, we just know what solid chartering practices look like, and Maine does not have them. Yesterday’s Newswire noted the Governor’s attempts to improve Maine’s charter school law, but we suggested he go further and consider real multiple authorizers not tied to the state.

Which is why news of the rejection of 4 out of 5 brick and mortar charter schools, as well as two virtual charter schools, unfortunately doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

Check out The Essential Guide to Charter School Lawmaking – Model Legislation for States for more on what constitutes an effective charter school law.

A commentary in the Wall Street Journal today, “The Irrational Fear of For-Profits in Education” , could not have come at a better time, as the hearing on the Brockton charter school, run by for-profit provider SABIS, is today in Massachusetts.

The Wall Street Journal piece notes that Americans are fine with privatization in many other areas, like transportation, yet there is an odd bias against for-profits running schools. “Critics charge that for-profits are distracted by the demands of investors, while public systems can focus solely on the children. Yet the vast majority of K-12 spending goes to pay employee benefits and salaries. Meanwhile, school boards and superintendents have accepted crippling benefit obligations and dubious policies to placate employees and community interests.”

The local Massachusetts superintendent, who has been selected as the next state superintendent, falls victim to this bias and has vocally opposed the charter (and was even caught trashing charters on company time). What’s crazy is that SABIS already successfully runs schools elsewhere in The Bay State and is helping “close the achievement gap between its mostly minority student body and white counterparts in the suburbs“.

As the Boston Globe notes, “SABIS has earned the right to expand in Massachusetts” — they should at least be given a fair shot and not be short-changed based on the fact that they operate to make a little change — which according to the academic record here, isn’t just monetary.

December 14, 2012

Earlier this week, Edspresso shared how Brockton, MA’s school super is “Trashing Charters on Company Time.” Now Matt Malone is poised to become Massachusetts’ next Ed Chief. Will his opposition to charters continue in his new role, or will he come to see the light as the former Brockton superintendent, Basan “Buzz” Nembirkow did – the man who led the charge against a strong charter application back in 2008? Check out Buzz’s change of heart on SABIS and for-profit EMOs from a recent Pioneer Institute panel:

“I think it’s an excellent model for all instruction. We use the word differentiated instruction today, but how can you differentiate instruction if you don’t know where the kids are?”

“Class size is a myth; an absolute myth.”

“When I looked at the SABIS model, the instructional model is sound.”

“It’s a whole lot easier to what has always been done and blame somebody else.”

“SABIS has done a good job of taking what works best and putting it together, dealing with training teachers and administrators so there is a unified system.”

“From my perspective on schools, SABIS is a good model.”

Question from Jim Peyser, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Education: “Given the SABIS school in Springfield was a strong school, why wasn’t that good enough for you ”?

Answer from Buzz: “My title was Superintendent of Brockton Public Schools, so right off the bat there’s an enlightened self-interest involved in that…. Basically, the issue was finance and politics. It had nothing to do, or very little to do with the quality of the program.”

“When SABIS came we saw it as a financial threat. Simply as a financial threat. It took money away from us, which was about $4-5 million.

Read More …

December 11, 2012

This is what the Superintendent of Brockton Massachusetts has time to do, when the students in this district, a very heavily minority district barely passing the state’s requirements for performance in any grade, and in most, are below 45% proficiency. SABIS, a proven leader in charter school management that has been praised by media and state officials, is trying to open a charter school for a group of community leaders.  Students at comparable SABIS schools outperform all of Brockton’s performance.  But I guess this guy is just about the money.

by Jeanne Allen