Education Chief to Warn Advocates That Inferior Charter Schools Harm the Effort

[groovedaddy]

The Obama administration has made opening more charter schools a big part of its plans for improving the nation’s education system, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan will warn advocates of the schools on Monday that low-quality institutions are giving their movement a black eye.

“The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist,” Mr. Duncan says in prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver in Washington at the annual gathering of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

In an interview, Mr. Duncan said he would use the address to praise innovations made by high-quality charter schools, urge charter leaders to become more active in weeding out bad apples in their movement and invite the leaders to help out in the administration’s broad effort to remake several thousand of the nation’s worst public schools.

Since 1991, when educators founded the first charter school in Minnesota, 4,600 have opened; they now educate some 1.4 million of the nation’s 50 million public school students, according to Education Department figures. The schools are financed with taxpayer money but operate free of many curricular requirements and other regulations that apply to traditional public schools.

Mr. Duncan’s speech will come at a pivotal moment for the charter school movement. The Obama administration has been working to persuade state legislatures to lift caps on the number of charter schools.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/education/22duncan.html?th&emc=th

[Dinger]

1. Key Point:

Since 1991, when educators founded the first charter school in Minnesota, 4,600 have opened; they now educate some 1.4 million of the nation’s 50 million public school students, according to Education Department figures. The schools are financed with taxpayer money but operate free of many curricular requirements and other regulations that apply to traditional public schools.

How can you measure success or failure without some kind of standard or regulation? I highly suggest charters use the same standard as public schools do, since they are also funded by taxpayer dollars.

[mzteris]

2. they still have to meet

the educational standards and take the same mandated NCLB test...

when it says "curricular requirements" - it means they don't have to use the same lame-ass materials that have been foisted on the rest of the school district and use the same out-dated modes of instruction that most traditional public schools seem to think they have to use (when they really don't.)

[Catshrink]

8. I don't have to use any proscribed curriculum

it all depends on your district and your subject. You object when others paint charter schools with a broad brush but do not hesitate to condemn all "traditional" public schools. Yeah, we get it. You LOVE charter schools. They work for you. How about for once listening to the concerns other people have? If your charter school had to follow the same rules regarding admitting students and providing services to sped kids, financial reporting, etc., I doubt you'd find them so wonderful.

[donco6]

10. That's odd, because most charters use older modes.

One of the most popular - Core Knowledge. This is akin to "Dick and Jane". Yeah, real innovative there.

Another of the biggest - KIPP - is a mini-military academy. Walk in straight lines, don't talk out of turn. They actually paint lines down the hallways to follow when you're walking. This was innovative . . . in 1880.

Most here in Colorado use basal readers. They don't even TRY to differentiate instruction. If you cannot succeed in their model, you are "counseled out." Voila! A high "success" rate for their school.

They don't have to take ELL kids. They don't have to take SPED kids. They just tell them "We don't have the services you really need."

So don't even talk about "out-dated". Charters are resurrecting out-dated as we speak.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Amen

They should also be required to admit any student who wants to attend and not be able to kick kids out whenever they want.

[Dinger]

6. Amen To Your Amen

:thumbsup: :hi:

[mzteris]

3. all inferior schools

- traditionally public - or non-tradionally public - or private - or religious - harm the effort.

[Hannah Bell]

7. harm the charter school effort? how's that?

“The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist”

[donco6]

5. New meta-study shows charters are no "magic bullet"

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University conducted a large-scale analysis of the impact of charter schools on student performance. The center’s data covered 65-70% of the nation’s charter schools. Although results varied by state, 17% of the charter school students have significantly higher math results than their matched twins in comparable traditional public schools (TPS), while 37% had significantly worse results. The CREDO study strengthens the well-established, broader body of evidence showing average charter performance to be equal to, or perhaps lower than, the performance of traditional schools—-a body of evidence that is summarized in this review. The study also presents some state-level analyses concerning policy options; this review points out limitations with those analyses and also explores other policy implications of the report’s findings. The relative strength and comprehensiveness of the data set used for this study, as well as the solid analytic approaches of the researchers, makes this report a useful contribution to the charter school research base. Nevertheless, this review points out some weaknesses and areas for improvement, many of which represent commonplace limitations for this type of study that should be shared in the technical report.

http://epicpolicy.org/thinktank/review-multiple-choice

[MichiganVote]

9. If Charter schools are so great how come I keep getting new enrollees from them in

my public school district?