LWVeducation
KIPP is reputed to be one of the most successful charter chains. It serves low income minority students. U.S. DOE Secretary Duncan has praised KIPP charters. Gary Chartrand, the Chair of the Florida Board of Education promotes them. It has a ‘no excuses’ policy for behavior as well as high academic expectations for all students. Is KIPP success hype or real? There are some things we need to know; let’s not make hasty judgments. Read about their results.
by Anne-Marie Farmer, LWV Nashville
Nashville Superintendent Register announced a proposal to restructure East Nashville schools making some into charters and rezoning the entire area. It is difficult to believe that the takeover of schools was announced with no input from parents. An uproar ensued. Some negotiation has occurred.
If you do not know about the KIPP charter school management company, read our post: Conflict or Collaboration. The LWV Voter article follows.
A Leaguer knows that consistently sharing information has an impact. Nevertheless, it is reassuring to find evidence that people are listening, reading, and thinking about issues we believe are important. Today the Editor of the Gainesville Sun described his Education on School Reforms. He cites his sources and includes our work. See how he puts together the issues.
The New Year is approaching. Make a resolution to regularly get the message out. Some one will be listening who can help.
District-charter school collaborations are the new buzz words. Like many slogans, it sounds reasonable on the surface. Twenty-one projects were launched by the U.S. Department of Education as an exemplary collaboration competition in 2012. An interim report by a Washington state based research institute reported, however, that only four of the 21 projects had even limited success. Now, the State of Florida is initiating its own project to entice high achieving charter management companies to collaborate with district schools in Florida.
In this post, we review the Center for Reinventing Public Education’s Interim Report District-Charter Collaboration Compact. What is supposed to be mutually beneficial? What do high quality charter management firms have to offer school districts?
‘High quality’ charter management companies are those that Florida hopes will open schools in major cities. Their approaches to teaching and learning are distinctive. Demographic and student retention data from these companies must be closely studied. We have found some interesting data.Continue reading
by Jean Schiffbauer
In tumultuous times, is it possible to define the ‘public interest’ as something more than a compilation of private and powerful commercial concerns? When schools are public in name only, do we the public even know what is being taught or how? We will run a series of posts on curriculum issues facing our schools. Here is our first post by a long time curriculum specialist at a K-12 laboratory school.Continue reading
If you would like to watch the video of Macke Raymond’s speech at the Cleveland Club, you can find it here. She names some states as having very strong authorizing procedures for charters: New York, Tennessee, D.C. and Massachusetts. She stresses the independence of boards. In Florida, some boards, particularly those that contract with for-profit management companies, are not independent. The specific reference to market driven reform is mid way through the Q & A part of her presentation. I have started looking at the strong authorization processes that these states use. Do any of our blog readers from these states have information to share?
Do you have times when you wonder if it is possible to change minds and find a better way? Today I think it is possible. I read a post sent to Diane Ravitch from Stephen Dyer, a policy analyst in Ohio. He went to hear Macke Raymond from the Hoover Institute at Stanford explain her study of charter schools. Near the end of her speech she is quoted as saying that education “is the only industry/sector where the market mechanism just does not work…” Competition does not drive improvement in education.Continue reading
Getting Organized
Have you had trouble sifting through so much information? One of our readers suggested we provide a pro and con chart to help structure the issues we post. Then you can search the blog to find examples, citations, and more information about each topic. Seems like a practical idea. See what you think.
The blog is one month old. We can celebrate a little. Thus far we have had 4500 hits on our site, and our subscriber list is growing. Let people know.
It is also a good time to take a minute and think. Are we contributing useful information on school reform issues? What is helpful? What is missing? Reflect on the following list and make suggestions. I will summarize your suggestions and respond.Continue reading
Need Oversight
by Meredith Machen
This is an updated post of the struggle between the Public Education Commission (PEC) and the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) over proper supervision of charter schools. The PED is not responding to State auditors’ requests for information following a federal investigation of charters there. Continue reading