A PIONEER FOR CHARTERS…that’s former Michigan Governor John Engler, who recently was honored by Central Michigan University’s renaming of their charter school center after him. Engler has never sat on the sidelines of reform. It never bothered him to ruffle feathers to put students front and center in school improvement. And, he challenged anyone, including the state’s powerful unions at the time who built barricades to thwart reform. Engler did all this not today, when the political environment is more conducive to reform. He was in the vanguard in the 1990s and put charter schools and other reform measures that highlighted the needs of children above all else. CER’s Jeanne Allen spoke at the dedication ceremonies, stressing how Engler’s accomplishments in Michigan, which went beyond charters, spread nationwide. Says Allen: He “pioneered a movement for student-centered funding and transparency for results. His commitment to that idea paved the way for one of the most successful and respected university authorizers in the nation to blossom and has resulted not only in an environment rich in choice and accountability here, but replication of strong charter laws modeled on Michigan’s around the country. It is fitting that his name will be on this center, the gold standard in university authorizers of charter schools.”

LIKE THEIR THINKING. The Washington Post upped themselves in their support for charter schools in a recent editorial by Fred Hiatt. Stating the very rational conclusion that, yes, teachers can be evaluated despite “hard-to-quantify variables,” just like other professions, Hiatt offers an even better way to “sidestep” critics – simply bypass the bureaucracy and go charter. Giving the principal real power to hire and fire staff, as well as make other key decisions for the school, unties the hands of educators to do what they are supposed to do – guide every child to reach his or her potential. Along the way, Hiatt takes on those who cry poverty as a reason children fail. Growing up economically disadvantaged is no excuse for schools to wipe their hands of the responsibility to teach these kids. Hiatt also gets it right that collective bargaining agreements, some hundreds of pages long, handcuff teachers and school staff so they can’t do what’s right for kids. And, he busts the myth that charters cream the top students and perform poorly next to traditional public schools. His editorial highlights the key to charter school success – the balance between freedom and accountability, with decision-making at the school level. “The schools operate inside a clearly defined structure…,” pens Hiatt. “But within that structure, they have freedom — including to attract, evaluate, retain and dismiss teachers as they see fit.”

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. That golden ticket to college, for students who could be locked into a failing school and ending up with a diploma to nowhere, is a central vision of all charter schools. Many charters, including Boys Latin and Friendship, have developed partnerships with post-secondary institutions to help pave the path to university study. KIPP also is leading with its partnership program that most recently attracted the first Ivy to the fold – the University of Pennsylvania. “I have followed and admired KIPP’s work from its beginning in 1994,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said. “It aligns perfectly with my commitment to increase access to higher education at Penn and nationally.” Just another reason why other media outlets, like the Post just did, should examine, why and how charters can create an environment that leads to college success for children who otherwise would be left to languish in schools more interested in growing bureaucratic rules than great minds.

SHOUT OUT TO EWA…for an informative and highly useful conference, Learning from Leaders: What Works for Stories and Schools. Takeaway quote goes to Newark Mayor Corey Booker: “Oversight of the media makes everyone do their job better. We need more light, more substance!” And, that’s why we have Media Bullpen.

THE BIG “E”. Yes, it’s all about the economy, but fueling any nation’s economic well-being is a robust education system, the real “Big E,” of the highest quality. Yet, nary a whisper about education during the grueling GOP campaign for president. In one of her columns during primary season, Jeanne Allen urged candidates – and reporters – to pay heed to the Big E. “In every state and community, education reform is the battle cry for those most afflicted by the nation’s 2,000 failing high schools, and for the approximately 70 percent of kids who are not learning at either national or international benchmarks,” she remarked. Allen queried why candidates don’t “seem to recognize, or discuss this. Where are the media pundits on the candidates’ positions on K-12 education? Is it fatigue? Apathy?” Almost as a follow up, Andy Rotherham recently penned his take on the lack of attention to education by the two nominees, President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney. Party politics is Rotherham’s answer to Allen’s questioning of the brush-off of education. Both candidates have their own political “minefield to walk through,” an aversion to federally led solutions to national education challenges on one hand and the teacher unions on the other. Rotherham and Allen agree that the media “isn’t forcing the conversation,” as it should. For all of you who attend Presidential campaign town hall meetings or are inclined to write an op ed or letter to the editor, demand that both candidates state their goals and role in improving education for all children and that the media pepper each candidate with purposeful questions about this nation’s top issue.

POWER TO LEAD…is one of KIPP’s founding principles and the focus of an Atlantic piece by KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg. Power comes from giving teachers the freedom to do their jobs, but joined at the hip is accountability and willingness to innovate when it comes to teaching children to high standards. As Feinberg explains, “when all these elements are combined — a clear goal and achievable standards, authority at the school level, and flexibility in the classroom — the results are powerful and transformative. A 2010 independent report by Mathematica found that the vast majority of KIPP schools produced academic gains in math and reading that are significant and substantial.” After Feinberg’s struggle in the mid 1990s to implement his idea within the Houston public school system, he must have been smiling brightly as he wrote how the district is “now in the process of infusing flexibility and accountability into their schools,” through Houston’s Apollo 20 program. Houston, we have a solution. Just look at KIPP.

LEFT OUT. That’s the fate of over 500 South Carolina students who would like to enroll in Greenville’s Tech Charter High School, but can’t. Why? School enrollment is strangled by student caps – 105 per grade and 420 for the entire school. These 500 or more kids are denied a top-notch education, as the school wins kudos for graduating all of its students, with all of its students earning entry into college. So, once again, this October a lottery will be held to determine who’s in an excellent school and who’s left out.

A TREND IN SOUTH CAROLINA? Greenville’s Tech Charter High School isn’t the only one in the state hammered down by enrollment caps. The Beaufort County School District and Riverview Charter also wrestled over numbers. A yearlong battle ended with the charter bringing a lawsuit against the district. A recent amendment to the charter is based on the court decision and was unanimously approved by Riverview’s board. The district board is expected to vote today. All the money ($50,000 for the charter and an undisclosed amount by the district) that could have been spent improving classroom education was derailed, most likely due to the school board’s jealousy of the charter’s popularity. Wasting money, and time for kids to learn, in South Carolina.

To help manage this growth, KIPP San Antonio is looking for a Chief Academic Officer to build out the vision for academics, lead, develop, and manage the School Leaders, own the Leadership Pipeline, oversee and integrate assessment and student data, and oversee KIPP Through College. This is an outstanding opportunity for someone who can develop and implement an academic program through our strong School Leaders.

KIPP SA is also on the hunt for a Human Resources Director, Development Director, Real Estate Manager, and LOTS of teachers!

For those unfamiliar with KIPP San Antonio or unfamiliar with San Antonio at large, here are a few Fun Facts to bring you up to speed quickly:

KIPP San Antonio

·         Three schools growing to five…and then more

→  KIPP Aspire Academy (MS)– 2003 – 440 students

→  KIPP University Prep (HS) – 2009  – 240 students, growing to 800

→  KIPP Camino Academy (MS) – 2010 – 220 students, growing to 440

→ KIPP Un Mundo Dual Language Academy (ES) – 2012 (coming) – will grow to 600 students

→  KIPP Esperanza Dual Language Academy (ES) – 2013 (coming) – will grow to 600 students

·         Currently writing strategic plan to lay out the next phase of our continued growth

·         Strengthening School Support Team (central office) – Ryan Hudak providing strong leadership bringing his experience with the Broad Residency, New Schools Venture Fund, and Chicago and DC Public Schools

·         HEB Excellence in Education Small District Finalist 2010

·         Highest attendance in San Antonio – 97.8%

·         Consistently top three highest performing 8^th graders in all of San Antonio

·         KIPP University Prep was Exemplary in its very first year

San Antonio

·         7^th largest city in the United States and one of the top 10 fastest growing

·         Majority minority – 60% Latino

·         For the last 90 years it has been true that the demographics of San Antonio have been a 10-15 year predictor for the demographics of Texas and that the demographics of Texas have been a 20-25 year predictor for the demographics of the United States.  We are at the forefront of the low-income Latino education challenge/opportunity for the state and for the country. What we do will ripple.

·         Right now San Antonio is falling short of its promise – the rapid growth has left many behind (see the attached “Boom with a View” to get a better picture of this)

o   15 of 16 inner-city high schools labeled “drop out factories” by the Johns Hopkins study

o   Regularly in the top three in dropout rate, adult illiteracy, teen births, and diabetes

·         The good news is that the city leaders have collectively committed to taking on inner-city education, including the top business leaders, funders, and politicians

·         San Antonio welcomed Teach for America’s largest founding corps to San Antonio two years ago

·         This is increasingly fertile territory for the expansion of high performing charters!

Quality of Life

·         Very low cost of living (try the cost of living calculator) and very inexpensive homes (see below)    (check out the back yard on the $175K house!)

·         Average temperature:  50 degrees in winter and 80 in the summer- you can be outside all year!

·         Ample state parks in and around San Antonio include 34 miles of linear parks for biking and running throughout the city

·  Consistently ranked among the top in terms of great places to raise kids

·         No. 9 on Forbes.com list of Best Cities for Young Adults

·         2011 ranked in top 15 Hot Cities for Creative Types by Fast Company Magazine

·         No state income tax

$120K in SA translates to:

·         Boston                  $166K

·         San Fran               $205K

·         DC                          $175K

·         Chicago                $146K

·         Philly                     $158K

Be Nice, they say in a new PR campaign. It’s a clever turn of phrase on the motto of the Knowledge is Power Program, the nationwide network that has re-educated thousands of children nationwide who had been failed miserably by conventional public schools. But they are missing something. “Work Hard” is how the motto begins. “Work Hard, Be Nice.” The two phrases go together. Deliberately. That’s what the teachers who now want a break signed up to do – Work Hard. We wonder -is it nice to take a job in a school that you know requires long hours and arduous work, and then go behind the backs of your leadership and fellow teachers and ask a militant national union to come in and rob children of the first opportunity they’ve ever had to learn?

As in most of the charter schools that came before and since KIPP, success comes precisely because of their independence from onerous contracts and the flexibility afforded by the charter to be able to design programs without top down interference. KIPP sets an ambitious path for staff and students – 7:30 to 5:30 every weekday, Saturday work and summer requirements. That’s one key reason their students perform exceptionally well, despite their disadvantages, the same disadvantages that other public schools blame for their own students’ failure.

“Work Hard”? Those teachers who wanted the union have complained to the newspapers that they are working long hours, and that their complaints go unaddressed. They’ve convinced colleagues to seek unionization, but must have forgotten that they chose to work at KIPP. They weren’t assigned there, as happens to so many union teachers in the conventional system. They got on board voluntarily. They could pick from thousands of NY schools that have traditional days/rules/requirements and unions. But they didn’t. They chose KIPP, and so maybe they should choose to leave KIPP, rather than seek to make KIPP like too many other public schools that do everything the same, and fail as a result.

In charter schools that succeed, the adults are focused not on themselves, but on what they can do better – constantly – to meet their performance goals. Unlike the status quo they left, the adults have agreed that student achievement is the reason for schools. That alone should be the driving concern for all complaints. It’s what has made most teachers love being in charters. But they are not for everyone. Clearly.

The teachers unions have been attempting to get their foot in the door in any state where collective bargaining is optional. It’s important to recall that not one charter bill in any state had the support of the unions when it was passed, unless it included their requirements for unionization. A few deals have been struck to ward off their opposition over time, like the rule in New York that says any school that starts with over 250 students is automatically part of the union. Most charters therefore, start with fewer, on purpose. The response by the union is to scatter loyal unionists in charters – to whip up discontent and cause suspicion where there may have been none. Honest people can begin to believe the worst about someone unless they remind themselves about the best.

And so they seek to cajole and convince others that KIPP doesn’t respect its teachers, and launch a campaign to encourage all charter teachers to write KIPP and encourage them to “Be Nice”. How about the kids? Is it nice to change the environment in which students are learning by creating dissension among teachers?   Where is the “Work Hard” part? That seems to be the part that some of the teachers at KIPP didn’t like, and that resulted in their demand for uniformity and protection through a union contract. Is that nice? Nope. That’s called selfish.

As the founder of the union running the Be Nice campaign once said, ”When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” That’s the reality everyone needs to understand. This is about dues, not kids. And that’s the part that’s not nice.

First, Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform says that “A union contract is actually at odds with a charter school.”  “Actually” is the wrong word there.  The more accurate way to say that would be, “could be.”  Why?  Well one example is the unionized and highly sucessful Green Dot Public Schools, another is KIPP Bronx, which has been unionized for some time.  And there are others, good and bad.  What matters is what’s in the contract not unionization per se.

Beyond the quote as printed, what I actually said was that unions and the charter CONCEPT are at odds. Green Dot (Andy’s example) created its own contract, one that works within its model (though results in NYC will be interesting). What KIPP schools are experiencing is the equivalent of a takeover, even disguised as a restructuring, where management will no longer be able to set the tone or culture of their schools. That might work for some teachers who believe their work conditions are the most important aspect of their school, but this move puts students second. This thinking is what brought us the system failure that, to date, un-co-opted charter schools have sought to correct.

Knowledge is power, KIPP’s moniker, might need to be more aptly applied to the parent company’s involvement and understanding of local school issues. The knowledge of what was afoot in two more of their NYC schools to convince teachers there to unionize may have helped them avert the rising mediocrity that will no doubt color this otherwise No Excuses school model. One wonders what campaign was hatched to convince so many KIPPsters that a regulatory environment would be preferable to the freedom they now enjoy.

Union leaders in NYC blogging yesterday provide some clues:

In a letter delivered to co-principals Jeff Li and Melissa Perry this morning, the teachers said that they had decided to unionize in order to secure teacher voice and respect for the work of teachers in their school. We want “to ensure that the [KIPP] motto of ‘team and family’ is realized in the form of mutual respect and validation for the work that is done [by teachers] each day,” they wrote.

The letter stressed that the decision to organize was directly connected to the teachers’ commitment to their students. “[A] strong and committed staff,” the teachers wrote, “is the first step to student achievement.” Unionization, the teachers believe, will help create the conditions for recruiting and retaining such a staff.

“We organized to make sure teachers had a voice, and could speak their minds on educational matters without fearing for their job,” says KIPP AMP teacher Luisa Bonifacio.

“For us,” KIPP AMP teacher Emily Fernandez explains, “unionization is ultimately all about student achievement, and the ability of teachers to best serve students at this crucial middle school time in their education.”

Mutual respect and validation?

Unionization is all about student achievement?

This isn’t the way typical charter teachers talk. In fact, it’s the way union teachers who take jobs in charters talk to their potential prey.

The teachers who signed up in these labor intensive KIPP charters knew when they signed up that long hours were part of the prevailing KIPP philosophy.

The New York Times today quotes KIPP founder David Levin, saying “Just because the school is available to kids at all times, that doesn’t mean that each and every staff member has to be available at all times. We’ve been able to successfully work that out.”

But union organizers believe they shouldn’t be forced to work those long hours. After all, this is the same union that cries over salary differentiation and opposes any performance pay that is tied to student performance and individually awarded to teachers. The move to unionize is a trade of “No Excuses” for kids in favor of “No More Time” for teachers.

I mention in the Times this morning that as long as you have nonessential rules that have more to do with job operations than with student achievement, you are going to have a hard time accomplishing your mission.

The UFT – and its parent, the AFT – has been duplicitous in its support of charters. They often send in loyal teachers to cause dissention, as was the case across the water in New Jersey with successful charters such as the Rutgers-based LEAP more than a year ago. “Don’t you think we work too long for this money?” they ask innocently, and with a tenuous economy and fear in the hearts and minds of anyone who relies on a job for basic sustenance, drinking the union kool-aid may have been a bit easier for the NYC KIPP folks than others might have imagined.

Knowledge is power. Indeed.