I have an exceptional soft spot, as do many others, for little children. When I hear good news about kids, it is fun to share it.
Category Archives: Achievement
Escape and Segregate or Integrate: Which way forward?
What is the real reason some parents support charter schools? It is an opportunity, they hope, for their children to escape from other children. This attitude has driven a rift in black communities as reported by the New York Times.
Third Grade Retention Law Under Scrutiny
The State Board of Education (SBE) was asking questions about third grade retention policies. The general understanding was that students who scored a ‘level 1’ on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) would be retained unless there was a good cause exemption.
There is more to this than meets the eye.
Judge Supports Third Grade Opt Out Parents
Judge Gievers ruled in favor of parents who claimed that their districts unfairly retained third graders solely because they did not complete the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). The ruling revealed gaping holes in district procedures and in law. The arguments brought into question the reliance on the FSA to determine student competence.
Charters: Deregulation has gone too far!
In a new brief, William Mathis, head of the National Education Policy Center, argues that market based accountability for charter schools just does not work. At first glance, Florida’s policies are better than in some states. There are, however, some fatal flaws.
He makes the case for better oversight and regulation. His recommendations take a national perspective and include these general process requirements:
authorizers, those who approve charter contracts, control the criteria for granting charters and the length of time charters are in effect. Authorizers (in Florida, are the local school boards) must also specify the accountability mechanism for charters, and the state should fund oversight.
The basic difference between Florida’s policy and this recommendation is that in Florida, districts are the authorizer of charters, but they have little control over the criteria charters must meet and little access to information about charter fiscal policies and practices. The State legislature defines criteria for granting charters which are so broad that districts are not able to designate which charters are needed and actually are innovative.
The Florida Department of Education and the State Board of Education hold the reins of power. Thus, oversight is by design, minimal. No one ‘close to the store’ is watching what is going on behind the scenes. Even many charter school oversight boards have little knowledge of school practices. The press and whistleblowers ferret out problems that fester.
The brief also addresses operational policies i.e.:
Governance including budget, admissions procedures, discipline practices, and civil rights protection should be transparent. Annual reports and audits must be publically available and facilities must meet building codes and inspections. Staff background checks should be required.
Again, these recommendations, on the surface, are mostly met in Florida’s charter school policies. Annual audits are required. Admission lotteries for vacant seats are mandated. Monthly budget reports are available. What is missing? Basically two loopholes, aa mile wide, exist. The first problem is that there is no corrective action for fiscal mismanagement that does not reach a crisis level or for lapses in operations that impact which students enroll, retention of teachers, or suspension or dismissal of students.
The second problem is the lack of transparency that for-profit charter management firms enjoy. Budgets of their charter schools lack the detail of where and how money is spent. These companies control the entire budget, but financial records of for-profit privately run companies are shielded from public view. Thus, the public has access to charter school facility costs, for example, but no access to how these costs are generated. In some cases, it is like giving a blank check that may be nearly half of the budget without explanation of where the money ended up.
The one consolation in all of the exposure of charter mismanagement is that it is now becoming part of the public discussion about school choice. Privitizing schools may give the appearance of facilitating innovation, but the reality is too often that it results in the loss of public trust.
The Racial Divide in Charters
Today’s New York Times delves into the divide within communities over charter schools. The NAACP is calling for a moratorium on charters because they are increasing not only the racial divide but also the economic divide. Charters in some cities, particularly cities with fewer charter schools as in Newark, Boston or Washington tend to do better than in cities with many charters, but as the number of charters increases, achievement decreases. The reasons become clear:
Charters are viewed by some parents as an ‘escape’ from schools that must serve children with discipline and other emotional problems. Charter educational programs may be no better than in traditional schools, but ‘problem’ students are either screened out or suspended. Suspension rates are higher in charters and disproportionately impact minority students. Achievement for those who remain may rise giving the appearance of being better.
Opt Out Parents Lawsuit Going Federal?
There is a new and very interesting twist to the Florida opt out lawsuit. Parents whose children were retained in third grade solely because they did not take the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) brought a lawsuit. Some districts retained these children who would otherwise be promoted to fourth grade and others did not. It sounds like a basic fairness issue, but it is more complicated. Who is responsible for this policy, the State or the federal government? If only 16 states require third grade retention, why would the federal law be involved?
This Judge Did A Doubletake
Passing third grade depends in part on the district a child attends. Some parents who opted their children out of the Florida State Assessment were dismayed to learn their children would be held back in third grade. These are not low achieving students based on their grades on report cards. The federal law requires that states administer annual assessments, and the government can penalize states with fewer than 95% of students participating.
Florida had no problem meeting the federal requirements, but some districts decided not to allow students without test scores to advance to fourth grade. Parents could send their children to a summer portfolio session, in some districts, or they could sit an alternative assessment. Parents sued Pasco and Hernando school districts. The Leon County Circuit court heard the arguments on Friday. Judge Gievers was troubled but thought any ruled she made would be immediately appealed.
Today Judge Gievers reconsidered. She will rehear the case next Monday. The children are now enrolled in third grade classes. Maybe next week they will be fourth graders. Something is wrong with this picture. Whatever the policy may be, it should at least be the same for all children in the state.
When is Poor Really Poor?
Which children do charter schools serve? Students are identified based on their demographics including free and reduced lunch (FRL) status. Yet, half the student population in Florida qualifies. FRL status may just mask what is really happening.
Children who qualify for FRL are not all alike. Nearly half of the FRL children, about 950,000 live in deep poverty. The difference is between families of four earning about $47, 000 vs. about $24,000 i.e. those who qualify for reduced cost lunch and those who qualify for free lunch. How many truly poor children attend charters?
Remember the post about Duval County charters? Between 2013 and 2014, the percentage of students classified as economically disadvantaged dropped in most cases about 30%. The reason was a change in the definition of economically disadvantaged by their charters. Skewed enrollment in charters has become a civil rights issue.
In a report from the August 14th New York Times, 14% of all children persistently qualify for free lunch (not reduced cost lunch) over time. A University of Michigan study shows the achievement gap of the persistently poor is a third larger than generally reported by NAEP and other measures. Grouping children in FRL together masks the real achievement gap between lower and higher income groups.
In Florida, 24% of all children fall below the federal poverty level. This includes about 950,000 children below the age of 18. Another 25% qualify for reduced lunch. These are not just statistics. They are real children with lives complicated by the trappings of poverty. If charters are ‘skimming’ students from the public schools, their percentage of students who qualify for free lunch not just for reduced cost lunch, will be much lower.
Charters are supposed to find innovative ways to solve academic problems. They may just be masking them. It is time to take the mask off and see which children are being served.
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ESSA: What does Pam Stewart think?
The U.S. Department of Education wants input to its rules to implement the Every Student Succeed Act. State Education Commissioner Pam Stewart wrote them a letter, a long one. In it she lists her concerns. Her first concern had a familiar ring; under the proposed timeline, it would not be possible to implement the new rules by the beginning of the 2017-18 year. One has to smile, Ms. Stewart is right. She has learned from experience when district superintendents voiced similar complaints about the timeline for implementing the Florida Student Assessment accountability measures two years ago. Stewart’s other concerns are more problematic.
I list them below.