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Displaying all 4 posts.

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yes">      Robert Valiant

yes">      Smart Money:Ten Things Charter
Schools Won’t Tell You

yes">      Posted on December 10, 2010 by
seattleducation2010| Leave a comment

yes">      From Smart Money:

yes">      Ten Things Charter Schools Won’t
Tell you

yes">      1. We’re no better than public
schools.

yes">      For all the hype about a few
standout schools, charter schools in general aren’t producing better results
than traditional public schools. A national study by the Center for Research on
Education Outcomes at Stanford found that while 17% of charter schools produced
better results than neighborhood public schools, 37% were significantly worse,
and the rest were no different. (Not that public schools are perfect, as many
parents know. See our earlier story, “10 Things Your School District Won’t Tell
You,” for more.)

yes">      A host of other studies on charter
school outcomes have come up with sometimes contradictory results. As with
traditional public schools, there are great charters – and some that aren’t so
great. “There’s a lot of variation within charter schools,” points out Katrina
Bulkley, an associate professor of education at Montclair State University who
studies issues related to school governance. “In fairness to organizations that
are running high-performing schools, many of them are very frustrated with the
range of quality, because they feel that it taints charter schools as a whole,”
Bulkley says.

yes">      2. Our teachers aren’t certified.

yes">      According to data from the National
Center for Education Statistics, charter-school teachers are, on average,
younger and less likely to hold state certification than teachers in traditional
public schools. In a 2000 survey, 92% of public school teachers held state
certification, compared to 79% of charter school teachers. A 2008 survey found
that 32% of charter school teachers were under 30, compared to 17% of
traditional public school teachers. Charter schools often recruit from
organizations like Teach for America that provide non-traditional paths into
the profession, and more-experienced teachers who already have jobs in
traditional public schools may have little incentive to give up the protection
of tenure.

yes">      Relying on relatively untrained,
inexperienced staff may have a real impact in the classroom. “A lot of them
don’t have classroom management skills,” says May Taliaferrow, a charter-school
parent.

yes">      3. Plus, they keep quitting.

yes">      As many as one in four charter
school teachers leave every year, according to a 2007 study by Gary Miron, a
professor of education at Western Michigan University, and other researchers at
the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. That’s about double
the typical teacher turnover rate in traditional public schools. Charter
schools typically pay teachers less than traditional public schools do, and
require longer hours, Miron says. Meanwhile, charter school administrators earn
more than their school-district counterparts, which can also make teachers feel
underpaid, he says. The odds of a teacher leaving the profession altogether are
130% higher at charter schools than traditional public schools, according to a
2010 study by the National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt University.
That study also found that much of this teacher attrition was related to
dissatisfaction with working conditions.

yes">      Higher turnover is inevitable with a
younger staff – and the ability to get rid of ineffective teachers, says Peter
Murphy, a spokesman for the New York Charter Schools Association. “There needs
to be more turnover in district schools,” Murphy says. “Instead, what you have
is this rigid tenure system where teachers are not held accountable, and
children suffer.”

yes">      4. Students with disabilities need
not apply.

yes">      Six-year-old Makala was throwing
regular tantrums in school, so her mother, Latrina Miley, took her for a
psychiatric evaluation, eventually ending up with a district-mandated plan that
stated the girl should be taught in a smaller class where half the students
have special needs. The charter school’s response, Miley says, was to tell her
she could either change her daughter’s educational plan, or change schools. She
moved Makala to a nearby public school – where, she says, teachers have been
more effective at managing her daughter’s behavior issues. The school says it
can’t talk about specific cases.

yes">      Critics say charter schools commonly
“counsel out” children with disabilities. While a few charter schools are specifically
designed to serve students with special needs, the rest tend to have lower
proportions of students with special needs than nearby public schools,
according to a review of multiple studies conducted by the University of
Colorado’s Education and the Public Interest Center. Charter schools also
appear to end up with students whose disabilities are less expensive to manage
than those of public school students. A Boston study, conducted by the
Massachusetts Teachers Association, found that 91% of students with
disabilities in the city’s charter schools were able to be fully included in
standard classrooms, compared to only 33% of students with disabilities in the
traditional public schools.

yes">      5. Separation of church and state?
We found a loophole.

yes">      Charter schools are public schools,
supported by public tax dollars. But among the thousands of charters nationwide
are schools run by Christian organizations as well as Hebrew and Arabic
language academies that blur the line between church and state. “What would not
be tolerated in a regular public school seems to be tolerated when it’s a
charter school,” says Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York
University and the author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School
System.” Even if these schools aren’t explicitly teaching religion, “it’s
potentially segregation by religious preference,” Bulkley says.

yes">      6. We don’t need to tell you where
your tax dollars are going.

yes">      An investigation by Philadelphia’s
City Controller earlier this year uncovered widespread financial mismanagement
among the city’s charter schools, including undisclosed “related party”
transactions where friends and family of school management were paid for
various services, people listed as working full time at more than one school,
individuals writing checks to themselves, and even a $30,000 bill from a beach
resort charged to a school.

yes">      Financial scandals have come to
light in schools around the country, but what’s more troubling, says advocate
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in New York City, is that charter schools
have opposed state audits of their finances. The New York Charter School
Association won a lawsuit against the state comptroller last year, with the
court ruling that the legislature had violated the state constitution when it
directed the comptroller to audit charter schools. Charter schools in the state
are already overseen and audited by at least two other agencies, Murphy says.
“We have never objected to being audited, being overseen, and being held
accountable. In fact, this organization has come out in favor of closing
low-performing charter schools,” he says.

yes">      7. We’ll do anything to recruit more
kids…

yes">      Walking around New York City, it’s
impossible to miss the ads on buses and subways for the Harlem Success
academies, Haimson says. The school is legally required to reach out to at-risk
students, and it has been opening new schools over the past couple of years.
However, some schools elsewhere have gone beyond marketing. A charter school in
Colorado gave out gift cards to families that recruited new students, and
another school in Louisiana gave out cash.

yes">      8. …but we’ll push them out if they
don’t perform.

yes">      The Knowledge is Power Program
(KIPP) schools have been criticized for high rates of student attrition, in
part because it’s the struggling students who are more likely to leave schools
mid-year – so if more students leave charters, that churn could boost a
school’s scores. A KIPP study released in June found students leaving at rates
comparable to the rate at which students leave traditional public schools –
but, according to Miron, that study ignored the fact that KIPP schools don’t
then fill empty slots with other weak, transient students the way traditional
public schools do. “Traditional public schools have to take everybody,” Miron
explains. “Charter schools can determine the number they want to take and when
they want to take them, and then they can close the door.”

yes">      Miron found there was a 19% drop in
enrollment in KIPP schools from grades 6 to 7, and a 24% drop from grades 7 to
8. Some charter schools lose 50% of a cohort each year, Miron says. And in some
cases, students can be explicitly pushed out of a charter school for failing to
meet the school’s academic or behavioral standards – an option that’s not
available to a traditional public school.

yes">      9. Success can be bought.

yes">      Some of the most successful charter
schools are also some of the wealthiest. Harlem Children’s Zone, for example,
had over $193 million in net assets at the end of the 2008-2009 school year,
according to its most recent IRS filing. The organization’s charter schools
spend $12,443 per student in public money and an additional $3,482 that comes
from private fundraising. That additional funding helps pay for 30% more time
in class, according to Marty Lipp, spokesman for the organization.

yes">      It’s great to see schools that have
the resources to spend lavishly to help children succeed, Bulkley says, but
it’s difficult to see how those schools can then be models for traditional
public schools largely constrained by traditional public budgets. “All schools
should get what they need,” Lipp says, but adds, “You give two people $10 and
they spend it different ways, so it’s not simply about money.”

yes">      10. Even great teachers can only do
so much.

yes">      Much of the public debate over
charter schools focuses on teacher performance and the ability to fire
ineffective teachers – something that’s more difficult at a traditional public
school where teachers are typically union members. While it’s true that
teachers represent the most important in-school factor affecting student
performance, out-of-school factors matter more, Ravitch says. “The single
biggest predictor of student performance is family income,” she says. “I
certainly wish it were not so, but it is.” Children from higher-income families
get a huge head start thanks to better nutrition, a larger vocabulary spoken at
home and other factors, she says. The narrative that blames teachers for
problems that are rooted in poverty “is demoralizing teachers by the
thousands,” Ravitch says. “And you don’t improve education by demoralizing the
people who have to do the work every day.”

yes">      about 10 months ago · Delete Post

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yes">      Robert Valiant

yes">      Here is a summary of the Stanford
study of charter schools:

yes">      For Immediate Release

yes">      June 15, 2009

yes">      Contact:

yes">      Susan W olf Larson Communications
(415) 516-5512

yes">      Mira Browne Larson Communications
(415) 793-3543

yes">      NEW STANFORD REPORT FINDS SERIOUS

yes">      QUALITY CHALLENGE IN NATIONAL

yes">      CHARTER SCHOOL SECTOR

yes">      Report Recognizes Robust Demand,
Supply and Exceptional Charters, Faults Quality Controls, Authorizers and
Charter Caps

yes">      Stanford, CA – A new report issued
today by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford
University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s
several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter
schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

yes">      While the report recognized a robust
national demand for more charter schools from parents and local communities, it
found that 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were
significantly better than traditional public schools, while 37 percent of
charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public
school counterparts, with 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no
significant difference.

yes">      The report found that the academic
success of students in charter schools was affected by the individual state
policy environment. States with caps limiting the number of charter schools
reported significantly lower academic results than states without caps limiting
charter growth. States that have the presence of multiple charter school
authorizers also reported lower academic results than states with fewer
authorizers in place. Finally, states with charter legislation allowing for
appeals of previously denied charter school applications saw a small but
significant increase in student performance.

yes">      The Stanford report, entitled,
“Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States,” is the first
detailed national assessment of charter school impacts since its longitudinal,
student-level analysis covers more than 70 percent of the nation’s students
attending charter schools. The peer- reviewed analysis looks at student
achievement growth on state achievement tests in both reading and math with
controls for student demographics and eligibility for program support such as
free or reduced-price lunch and special education. The analysis includes the
most current student achievement data from 15 states and the District of
Columbia and gauges whether students who attend charter schools fare better
than if they would have attended a traditional public school.

yes">      “The issue of quality is the most
pressing problem that the charter school movement faces,” said Dr. Margaret
Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University. “The charter school movement
continues to work hard to remove barriers to charter school entry into the
market, making notable strides to level the playing field and improve access to
facilities funding, but now it needs to equally focus on removing the barriers
to exit, which means closing underperforming schools.”

yes">      The report found several key
positive findings regarding the academic performance of students attending
charter schools. For students that are low income, charter schools had a larger
and more positive effect than for similar students in traditional public
schools. English Language Learner students also reported significantly better
gains in charter schools, while special education students showed similar
results to their traditional public school peers.

yes">      The report also found that students
do better in charter schools over time. While first year charter school
students on average experienced a decline in learning, students in their second
and third years in charter schools saw a significant reversal, experiencing
positive achievement gains.

yes">      The report found that achievement
results varied by states that reported individual data. States with reading and
math gains that were significantly higher for charter school students than
would have occurred in traditional schools included: Arkansas, Colorado
(Denver), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana and Missouri.

yes">      States with reading and math gains
that were either mixed or were not different than their peers in the
traditional public school system included: California, the District of
Columbia, Georgia and North Carolina.

yes">      States with reading and math gains
that were significantly below their peers in the traditional public school
system included: Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas.

yes">      "If the supporters of charter
schools fail to address the quality challenge, they run the risk of having it
addressed for them," said Dr. Raymond. "If the charter school
movement is to flourish, a deliberate and sustained effort to increase the
proportion of high quality schools is essential. The replication of successful
charter school models is one important element of this effort. On the other
side of the equation, however, authorizers, charter school advocates and
policymakers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original
charter school bargain, which is accountability in exchange for
flexibility."

yes">      To download a copy of the full
report and executive summary, visit: http://credo.stanford.edu/

yes">      About CREDO at Stanford University

yes">      CREDO at Stanford University was
established to improve empirical evidence about education reform and student
performance at the primary and secondary levels. CREDO at Stanford University
supports education organizations and policymakers in using reliable research
and program evaluation to assess the performance of education initiatives.
CREDO's valuable insight helps educators and policymakers strengthen their
focus on the results from innovative programs, curricula, policies or
accountability practices. <http://credo.stanford.edu/&gt;

yes">      about 10 months ago · Delete Post

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yes">      Pat Fleming

yes">      Hello. This is really upsetting. It
seems as if there is really nothing we can do. I do know several public school
teachers who would start their own charter school, emphasizing their own
specialty, if they could. But now it appears as if that might not help either.
However, is it possible that the reason charter school learners fair poorer
than public school kids is that the charter school people, who for the most
part, are immune to WASL insanity really don't care to participate? I know if I
had a charter school I would tell the state to shove it and let my kids fail
the irrelevancy then celebrate that. Maybe subversiveness is the answer.
Remember Teaching As A Subversive Activity? Thanks Pat

yes">      about 9 months ago ·

yes">      · Report · Delete Post

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yes">      Robert Valiant

yes">      Here is the latest NEPC study on NYC
charters:

yes">      Adding Up The Spending: Fiscal
Disparities and Philanthropy Among New York City Charter Schools

yes">      by Bruce D. Baker, Richard Ferris

yes">      January 26, 2011

yes">      In prominent Hollywood movies and
even in some research studies, New York City (NYC) charter schools have been held
up as unusually successful. This research brief presents a new study that
analyzes the resources available to those charter schools, and it also looks at
their performance on state standardized tests. The study reaches some
surprising conclusions, some of which include the following:

yes">      • Spending by NYC charter schools
varies widely, and these differences in spending per pupil appear to be driven
primarily by differences in access to private donors. The most well-endowed
charters receive additional private funds exceeding $10,000 per pupil more than
traditional public schools receive. Other charters receive almost no private
donations. (The study’s analysis is based on data from 2006 to 2008 contained
in audited annual financial reports, IRS tax filings of non-profit boards
overseeing charter schools and charter management organizations.)

yes">      • Outcomes also vary widely.
However, there is little or no relationship between spending and test score
outcomes after including appropriate controls. Some high-spending and some
low-spending charters perform well, while others perform quite poorly. The
study also finds that charters are, on average, not outperforming non-charter
publics in NYC.

yes">      • NYC charter schools serve, on
average, far fewer students who are classified as English Learners or who are
very poor. Both groups of students require more resources to teach than do
other students, meaning that charters with lower enrollments of these more
resource-intensive students can devote their funding to other purposes.

yes">      The findings with regard to New York
City Charter Schools may or may not be transferable to other settings across
the country. Certainly, the wealth and philanthropic culture of NYC is unique.
Further, NYC is much larger than other cities and more racially and
socioeconomically diverse as well, creating greater opportunities for
cream-skimming, segregation, and neighborhood selection. But, many other
cities—including Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco—are struggling with
similar issues and adopting comparable policies for mediating within-district
funding equities, while simultaneously the number of charter schools is
increasing. Leaders in these cities would do well to consider carefully the
information and questions raised in this new study.

yes">      Suggested Citation:

yes">      Baker, B.D. & Ferris, R. (2011).
Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy among New York City
Charter Schools. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved
[date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/NYC-charter-disparities.

yes">      about 9 months ago · Delete Post

This is a brief discussion of an
encounter one of our members had at a meeting and some ideas for how to
respond.  Can you help us build a guerilla kit

• 
  

  Stefanie Rysdahl Fuhr ‎Robert Valiant, I went to an accountability
  meeting tonight for my district. When someone stated that their school
  was getting a lot of flack for their CSAP test scores and the students
  they serve, the district guy got up and said that they will soon be
  able to pinpoint the test score that each student had to their teacher.
  So they could pinpoint the math score to the teacher if that student
  had a teacher at another school etc. (I was too vexed to hear him
  completely) But I then raised my hand and stated that another option
  would be to opt out of the test. I think they were ready to tie me to
  the stake. That I would be hurting the school my child attended if I
  did this. One DAC member asked me if I cared about my child's school. .
  . . . It was quite the hostile environment. This district has a lot
  of issues that I can't even begin to understand including huge budget
  cuts. I would be curious to know how much money could be saved by
  cutting data experts, test prep, other tests to tell how one will do
  on the tests, and of course the test itself. I was really shocked at
  how many seemed hostile to opting out of the test, and I mean parents
  in the audience.

  
  

  7 hours ago · Like · 4

  
  
• 
  

   

  
  

  Robert Valiant They have created a world of fear. Fear of loss of
  revenue, fear of job loss, fear of loss of prestige. Opting out is a
  temporary fix, but ultimately we have to end the use of high-stakes
  tests and all of the rewards and punitive actions associated with them.
  Focusing on the errors is a start and may be the most valuable weapon
  we have. There are many technical reasons why the tests should not be
  used for closing schools, firing teachers, etc., but they are not
  easily explained to the lay public. Screw ups like the pineapple
  question, scoring errors and other obvious mistakes are easy to
  understand. Who wants their temperature taken with a faulty
  thermometer, especially if it leads to unneeded medication or other
  treatment.

  
  

  6 hours ago · Like · 4

  
  
• 
  

   

  
  

  Sandra Brevard The response that Stefanie Rysdahl Fuhr describes is
  familiar. The "memo" on how to respond to any mention of opting out
  must have circulated the nation. I suggest exploring some prepared
  statement, some notes, that include questions related to the costs and a
  reminder that we are still living in a democracy, as troublesome as
  opposing ideas are, they must be heard and then, in my purse or pocket,
  I would pull out the results of the Pioneer Institute study, for
  example, on costs and ASK what the costs are. Parents, community
  members, and taxpayers have a right to know the return on investment
  for these initiatives. And I'd have an article related to the quality
  of the tests themselves, as Bob points out, and ASK.

  
  

   

  
  Just a thought .... for those brave souls who stand up.
  

  54 minutes ago · Like

  
  
• 
  

   

  
  

  Robert Valiant Really good ideas, Sandra. We need a guerilla kit
  that people could walk around with, or at least carry to situations
  like Stephanie described. Official looking documents are great for
  stopping blowhards who have NO real answers, just rote responses from
  the party line. I now have made up Dump Duncan business cards that I
  hand out to people with the website for the letter to Obama, but a kit
  makes a lot of sense. Would anyone want to work on this idea?

  
  

KSDC

KSDC is an independent community resource for issues
concerning the KSD and public education in general. Come join in.

We believe that current education policy at the national,
state, and local levels is not consistent with what is known about learning,
instruction, assessment, and the needs of children.yes">  We are concerned about corporate influence on public
education and about over-dependence on standardized testing as a means of measuring
student achievement, teacher quality, and success of schools and school
districts.

Our central purpose is to provide patrons of the Kennewick
School District a source of research-based information on teaching, learning
and assessment to better inform their decisions regarding the district and its
programs.  It is hoped that this
website can also provide a forum for citizens to submit opinion pieces, ask
questions, and make comments about programs affecting children in the district.

Local, Kennewick, WA

http://ksdcitizens.org/about/

Valiant, etc

This site, provided by VALIANT, ETC., is for educators,
trainers, and others who have an interest in improving instruction. We will
provide articles of current interest as well as links to a wide range of topics
that we feel are related to the goal of improving learning for all, especially
the disenfranchised.

National

http://valetc.com

Dump Duncan

This is a grass-roots initiative that grew out of the Dump
Duncan group on Facebook in January 2012.

Dumpduncan.org is non-partisan, non-affiliated, and accepts
NO donations of any kind!

The future of public schools is in jeopardy. Thanks to
federal initiatives like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, schools are
being deluged with high stakes tests. Private interests, aided by the Federal
Government, are attempting to supplant local control, inhibit parental
involvement, and to transfer public funding to the hands of corporate
interests. Public schools, locally controlled, are a cornerstone of our democracy.
Relegating them to corporate-owned test prep factories places our nation at
risk and steals our children’s future.

National

http://dumpduncan.org

Dump Duncan (Facebook)

Help ensure the long-term survival of the greatest public
education system on Earth by signing this open letter to President Obama:

 National

http://dumpduncan.org/

Kennewick School Dostrict Citizens

We are a group of Kennewick School District residents who
believe current education policy at the national, state, and local levels is
not consistent with what is known about learning, instruction, assessment, and
the needs of children.

Local, Kennewick, WA

http://www.facebook.com/KSDCitizens

School District Citizens (Facebook)

LOCAL CONTROL NOW!

Description

SDC brings together grass-roots efforts that address local
public school district policy and management. SDC advocates local control for
public education.

SDC welcomes groups and individuals that are:

- focused on improving public education at the local level.

- engaged in challenging the status quo.

SDC is non-affiliated, non-partisan, and faith neutral. We
wish to support grass roots organizations who seek a voice in public education
for their own various reasons, whatever they may be.

SDC accepts NO donations, NO contributions, and NO
endorsements!

National

http://www.facebook.com/pages/School-District-Citizens/129808317079224?ref=ts

Parents Across America - Tri-Cities 

Regional affiliate of Parents Across America

Regional, Tri-Cities area of SE WA

http://www.facebook.com/groups/listemail/

Public Schools: Seeking Common Ground

This group was formed in an attempt to build a site where
the multitude of education activist groups could come together to share
resources, discuss strategies, and seek common ground.

National

http://www.facebook.com/PublicSchoolsSeekingCommonGround

Elissa Jury

On Money and education -cost of high stakes testing. "Federal Mandates on Local Education:

Costs and Consequences – Yes, it’s a