Category Archives: Achievement

Collaboration or Conflict?

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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→

Video of Macke Raymond’s Presentation on Charters

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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?

Charter Schools: Pros and Cons

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading→

Step Back, Take Stock

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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.

critical-thinking (2)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→

See: FEATURE OF THE WEEK. It is BOLD.

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We have posted a  summary of the new Alachua County, Florida’s Superintendent of Schools 100 Day Report on the FEATURE OF THE WEEK banner of the blog.

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Dr. Owen Roberts was appointed to the superintendent position 3 months ago and has spent the time in an intensive review of the district.  How his vision for the county will be implemented is likely to be another one of those fascinating stories.

 

He addresses testing, funding, school equity, curriculum, early education, brain development, as well as parent and community involvement.  Click on the banner at the top of the Home Page of our blog to track this very bold initiative.  It has  those pieces of colored chalk.   We will update the post as new information becomes available.  Who says public schools cannot be innovative?

Kentucky Considers Adopting Charter Schools

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Kentucky offers us a peek into the process of drafting bills to enable charter schools. billboard-63978_1280

It also helps us understand what is meant by granting greater flexibility to charter schools.  The Pritchard Committee report has side-by-side comparisons of which traditional public schools regulations would change for charters.

Options drawn from other states are presented but not an analysis of the pros and cons for each approach. For example, is it better to have fewer rather than more authorizers?  Are reports of charter vs. traditional public school achievement gains valid? We offer some sources that can enhance the understanding of these issues.Continue reading→

Class Size Violations: Does It Matter?

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FEA Cites Violations of Class Size Amendment in this short video. There are several ‘work arounds’ to avoid the restrictions imposed by a Florida constitutional amendment in 2002. PreK through grade 3 is limited to 18 students.  The limit for grades 4-8 is 22 and for grades 9-12 it is 25 in core subjects like reading, math and science.  The temptation to manipulate the limits is great in order to reduce cost.  Clearly, there is more to this story. Continue reading→

Florida Legislators Hear Testing Uproar

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The Florida Legislature is listening.

 

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The Tampa Bay Times reported today that some testing reform is likely in the next legislative session. The article ‘School testing poised to get scaled back by Florida lawmakers’ cites several tentative proposals for reforming assessment practices in Florida.  Senator John Legg acknowledges that testing has grown for many well intentioned reasons, but ” …one question got waylaid: How is it affecting the students?”

Proposals are surfacing, Continue reading→

Alternative assessments for Students with Disabilities Abolished

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In June, 2014 the U.S.DOE increased reporting requirements for students with disabilities programs.  Both program procedures such as meeting evaluation timelines and student outcome data are now required for federal funding. The U.S.DOE estimates that only 18 states and territories will meet the new standards; 41 states and territories met previous standards. California, Texas and Delaware are in the lowest compliance level.

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A change in assessment policy can have a big impact. Title I Part A regulations have been amended.  Alternative ESEA standards and assessments that are based on disabilities with be phased out. Data such as graduation and suspension rates as well as state assessment scores will be used for Individuals with Disability Act (IDEA) grants.

The acting Assistant Secretary of Special Education stated that less than 10% of 8th graders with IEPs were proficient in reading.  In his announcement of the new requirements, Secretary Arne Duncan said “We must be honest about student performance, so that we can give all students the support and services they need to succeed”.  Federal programs provide $11.5 billion in grants to states that in 2010 served 6,614,000 children.

Slide Show on Privatization of Schools

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 A PRESENTATION BY LWV MIAMI-DADE 

Miami-Dade did a series of presentations on Florida’s school choice study. Their approach was to consider the unmet needs of children from low income areas.  The ability of charter and private, mostly religious schools to meet those needs are considered.md (2)They discussed problems with the conflicting priorities for-profit charter management companies must face when serving ‘low-cost’ children rather than children whose needs are expensive to meet:  e.g. ESE, ELL and students who struggle academically. The accountability system rewards schools whose students score well on state assessment tests.  This makes charter admissions and dismissal policies subject to scrutiny.

The interrelationship between political and financial support has made conflict of interest concerns a public issue.  The need to justify the inability of the private sector to overcome the achievement gap between students from low-income and higher income families has made the public more aware of the need for more efficient and equitable use of tax payer money.

This league’s approach to a discussion of school choice issues may be helpful for others who are planning similar presentations.