“Charter school” … what comes to mind when these words are uttered?
By now, I’ve been looking at the issue of quality and equity in education for the past seven years. So, I’ll have a go at the question I just posed.
Innovation, creativity, performance, dedication, kids from low socio-economic levels (poverty) getting into college. Greater autonomy to hire and fire, as well as to reward.
OK, now, where should I look for a better, more qualified definition?
1. National Education Association http://bit.ly/3QcV4U
Definition
Charter schools are publicly funded elementary or secondary schools that have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools, in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each charter school’s charter.
OK. Now that I’ve got the term, “charter school” defined, let’s look at some research into the effectiveness of a charter school. I’m going to the National Charter School Resource Center. They would be interested in comparing traditional schools and charter schools.
I would anticipate that if a Charter School does not outperform a traditional school, its existence could not be justified. What does the research say?
Research Report: Out of the Debate and Into the Schools http://bit.ly/cTMEVf
Conducted by the American Institutes for Research for the Boston Foundation, this May 2010 report compares disadvantaged students who attend charter and traditional schools in Boston, finding significant improvement among charter students and identifying time spent in school as the critical factor driving academic gains.
Along with additional time spent in school, the report underscores autonomy as a defining structural element in successful schools, particularly in the areas of staffing, scheduling and time, governance and leadership, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and budget.
The report’s authors recommend that policymakers:
grant additional autonomy to all schools, while creating provisions for monitoring outcomes and holding schools accountable for student performance;
increase school time;
allow for more flexible staffing models;
create school-level systems to monitor student
needs;
engage teachers in decisionmaking;
and provide professional development with a focus on building capacity for distributed leadership.
That was a pretty rosy report for charter schools. Let’s get a second opinion.
Let’s leave Boston and the East Coast. If we go all the way to the West Coast, we can find Aspire Public Schools. Let’s let Aspire tell their story:
Oakland, CALIFORNIA – http://bit.ly/fpvOJ9 Aspire Public Schools this week was named one of the world’s 20 most improved school systems by the widely-regarded management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. http://bit.ly/dQUELW
Aspire was one of three public school systems in the United States, along with the Long Beach Unified School District and Boston Public Schools, and the only charter school organization in the nation, to receive this prestigious honor in a global report commissioned by McKinsey.
The report comes on the heels of Aspire’s record 17 schools surpassing California’s measure of a high-performing public school, 800 points, on the 2010 Academic Performance Index (API) Growth results.
Aspire’s overall API score of 824 made it the highest-performing public school system in California serving a majority of high-poverty students, outperforming every school district in the state larger than 20 schools that also serves a majority high-poverty student population.
Currently, 74 percent of Aspire’s students are socio-economically disadvantaged.
About Aspire Public Schools
Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter school management organization, is the highest-performing public school system in California serving predominantly low-income students. Aspire currently operates 30 public charter schools with the goal of preparing urban students for college, which is reflected in their motto of “College for Certain.”
One-hundred percent of Aspire’s class of 2010 was accepted to four-year colleges and universities.
Aspire offers a high-quality education to nearly 10,000 K-12 students in six California communities including East Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Modesto, Oakland, Sacramento and Stockton, with plans to grow to better meet the demand for college-ready students in urban communities.
Visit Aspire Public Schools at www.aspirepublicschools.org.
** Let me wrap-up this blog post by saying that the evidence seems to be clearly suggesting that Aspire has a silver bullet – thy have the secret to success for working with economically disadvantaged students.
If McKinsey & Company found Aspire worthy of global attention, surely educators in the USA should investigate to find out what Aspire is doing that can be replicated throughout the United States.
Looks like US educators no longer have to travel to Finland, China, or Korea. We have our own superstar to aspire to, namely, Aspire…
