Charter Schools new study (university, public schools, salary, graduates)
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I will be interested to see what this new study shows when it is published on November 4th. This study focuses on charters that are part of networks rather than single independent charter schools.
The question he raises in the article, is a good one.
Quote:
How much risk and failure are we willing to tolerate to create much better schools for students who don’t have them today? Or, put another way, if I told you there was a way to create 10 outstanding networks of schools for students who lack decent educational options now but that the cost of doing this would be the creation of four lousy networks of schools, would you take the deal?
I will be interested to see what this new study shows when it is published on November 4th. This study focuses on charters that are part of networks rather than single independent charter schools.
The question he raises in the article, is a good one.
You also have to consider what happens to the schools the students come from. One thing people forget is there is reason that charter schools SHOULD be better than their feeder schools. They get the students whose parents care enough to enroll them in a different school (sure, sometimes they get the kids who have been asked to leave other schools but that comes out in the wash as they get kicked out of the charters too.) (FTR, my kids attended a charter school and I used to teach at a charter school.)
My point, however, is you create more than 4 lousy districts because when you strip a district of the kids whose parents care, you make that district worse.
I'm not sure that charters are the answer. At one point I thought they were (hence sending my kids to one and teaching at one). I now see there are two edges to this sword. There are too many charters that are just money making ventures for their owners (I'd be much more comfortable if charters were non-profit but even then there's nothing to stop the owner from paying themselves a hefty salary.). Others are run by people who care but all of them strip local schools of kids whose parents care. So it's not a fair comparison to just compare the ration of good vs. bad charters and ask if it's worth it.
What might be worth it is taking a failing school system and making all the schools charter schools. Then again, without the ability to attract a higher proportion of students with parents who care, charters might turn out to be just as bad as the original schools.
We had an awful experience at a charter school, but I know that it was that individual school (and the individual director), and not a testimony to charter schools in general.
In theory, they should be better because they're schools of choice. Kids don't get randomly assigned there, like the regular public schools; they need to be sought out by the parents. Of course, they can become a cesspool for the kids kicked out of regular schools, like Ivory said (and this was one of the main problems with the charter that we tried, and the disciplinary procedure, or I should say, the lack thereof, was such that those kids were never kicked out or even disciplined in any way).
I think that they have the potential to be a very good thing. Unfortunately, the reality is that large numbers of parents just don't give a hoot, and whether their kids are in a charter or in a regular school doesn't change that.
We had an awful experience at a charter school, but I know that it was that individual school (and the individual director), and not a testimony to charter schools in general.
In theory, they should be better because they're schools of choice. Kids don't get randomly assigned there, like the regular public schools; they need to be sought out by the parents. Of course, they can become a cesspool for the kids kicked out of regular schools, like Ivory said (and this was one of the main problems with the charter that we tried, and the disciplinary procedure, or I should say, the lack thereof, was such that those kids were never kicked out or even disciplined in any way).
I think that they have the potential to be a very good thing. Unfortunately, the reality is that large numbers of parents just don't give a hoot, and whether their kids are in a charter or in a regular school doesn't change that.
Actually, this and related issues tend to describe a lot of students at charter schools. When a kid isn't doing well, or doing up to what his/her parents feel their "potential" is, they look for a solution. Some think it's the school. I have known parents to send their kids who are getting a bit rowdy (drinking, smoking dope, driving tickets, etc) to send their kids to religious schools to "straighten them out". Oftimes, the kids find a similar group of people to hang out with as they did in their previous school. The same with charter schools. A "high academics" charter school is supposed to inspire kids to greater heights. Generally, this does not happen. We have a highly acclaimed K-12 charter in our district. The high school makes many of these "lists" of great high schools. But when I look at where their graduates go to college, well, they're not, for the most part, going to Ivy League schools. They're going to the University of Colorado, or to lower-tier Colorado state colleges for the most part, just like their conterparts at the public schools. Now granted, if my kids' school wasn't working for them, I'd try to figure out why and what to do.
My point, however, is you create more than 4 lousy districts because when you strip a district of the kids whose parents care, you make that district worse.
Not only do the public school lose the academically focused students, but also the funds for that student.
Charter schools are educational laboratories; they are a way of finding solutions to some ongoing problems, but they are not the answer to those problems.
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