Starving Charters: A new study shows the funding bias against non-traditional schools.
One of the challenges facing charter schools, particularly in California (where we already spend 20% less on education than the national average) is unfair denial of funds. We’ve had two meetings in the last month that have featured a detailed review of our school budget as well as our plans for rolling out new programs. This article sheds a little more light on why we are conservative and careful with our spending.
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The Ruinous Culture We’ve Created in Elementary Schools
Shaun Johnson makes a clear stand on the testing culture that pervades our school system:
“Throughout January and beyond, social studies, science, and other expendable subjects stop. That’s right, they stop, for months at a time. Schools become mobilized as math and reading academies. And no, it’s not this idealized culture of inquiry and intellectual curiosity; students are not reading and discussing literature of their choosing or building mathematical models to simulate concepts.”
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Charter Schools and Student Performance
Now for something more current… Read this fantastic oped piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Peterson. He reviews some of the research that’s out there on the benefits of school choice. He also effectively debunks the faulty studies and falsehoods being used to shake public confidence in charter schools recently. Don’t miss the unique data Peterson presents on how school choice has worked in other countries:
“They discovered that the greater the competition between the public and private sector, the better all students do in math, science and reading. Their findings imply that expanding charters to include 50% of all students would eventually raise American students’ math scores to be competitive with the highest-scoring countries in the world.”
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Where the Bar Ought to Be
Deborah Kenny is the woman behind the amazing group of charter schools known as the Harlem Village Academies. In starting her charter schools, Kenny felt that one thing was more important than all others: quality teaching. “If you had an amazing teacher who was talented and passionate and given the freedom and support to teach well,” she said, “that was just 100 times more important than anything else.”
Don’t miss the five tenets she had in mind when raising her own children, and that represent the core expectations for students at the Harlem Village Academies.
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Let’s Take a Poetry Break
Please check out these 2 exceptional poems written and performed by Sayda Morales a graduate of the first Kipp Charter School in the Bronx. Listen for her tribute to Kipp, “I am from a team and a family helping me climb the mountain to college”. It is our wish that Valley Charter School will be that team, that community, for the young people we are entrusted to teach.
Click Here for “I Am From”
Click Here for “Para Ti, Mi Hija” (“For you, my daughter”)
Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in ‘No Child’ Law
This exciting article, by Sam Dillon from the NY Times, clearly outlines some of the changes to the No Child Left Behind Law being proposed by President Obama and his administration. One of the most exciting changes would be the allocation of federal funds based on districts implementing reforms aimed at remedying problems. Under No Child Left Behind, funds are distributed using measures like the number of students in the district or the number of low income students served. There is no impetus toward change or reform.
“Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation’s 14,000 school districts.”
School Adds Weeding to Reading and Writing
As with all educational topics, school gardens have been the subject of hot debate lately. This article by Kim Severson in the New York Times Dining section, outlines the debate and details the plans for the latest Edible Schoolyard backed by California’s Alice Waters. For those who don’t know, Alice Waters has been a huge champion of the idea that fresh, good food is a right, not a privilege. In many circles she is credited with the increased availability of organic foods in our local markets. The school garden at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn will be the sixth backed by Waters’ Chez Panisse Foundation.
“Teachers will use the garden to give students — 460 children from prekindergarten to the fifth grade — lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science. Administrators hope the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.”
Emotional Training Helps Kids Fight Depression
Evidence is building around the importance of supporting the emotional development of school age children. Check out this NPR piece by Allison Aubrey. In it she explores resilience training in the Middle School years. It appears that helping kids stay positive and focused in an emotionally charged moment not only improves coping skills, it diminishes their chances of becoming depressed by about 50%.
“If a person tends to see small disappointments as catastrophes or failures, they can become depressed or anxious. It’s a common trick our minds can play on us, as children and as adults. But once thoughts are more aligned with reality, emotional responses can change for the better.”
“Race to the Top” Hits Its Stride
With the deadline for Race to the Top Fund applications just 9 days away, California continues to make dramatic changes in favor of meaningful educational reform. Just last week, California passed legislation that would allow “parents to petition, shut down, or convert failing schools, establish a rigorous teacher and principal evaluation system, and let parents move their children out of failing districts.”
Check out Joe Williams’ blog on the the Democrats for Education Reform website for a list of the Race to the Top inspired changes that are sweeping the nation!
L.A. charter schools flex their educational muscles
Check out this week’s L.A. Times for a terrific overview of California Charter Schools and the educational reform movement in California. “Overall, L.A. charter students score significantly higher on standardized tests than their counterparts in traditional schools. But even some of the most strenuous charter advocates are wary of a blanket assumption that charters are superior, in part because they are so different from traditional schools and from one another.”
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