Race to the Top

As Arne Duncan came out saying states need to be more charter friendly to get access to some stimulus money, states have been getting their act together. Perhaps Missouri will see the light too!

– Illinois. On Tuesday, April 14th, Duncan kicked off his nationwide “listening tour” in Chicago, saying “business as usual, to be clear, would basically eliminate Illinois from [Race the Top] competition” and citing funding inequity, a limit on the number of charter schools, and marginal efforts to police teacher quality as the biggest areas in need of change. In the wee of hours of June 1st, the Illinois state legislature answered Duncan’s call and ended its session by approving 45 new charter schools for Chicago, 5 of which would reserved for high school dropouts, and an additional 15 charter schools for the rest of the state. As a result, about 13,000 students now on charter school waiting lists or in otherwise low-performing schools will be enrolled in high-quality charters subject to stricter accountability requirements than other Illinois schools.

– Colorado. Gov. Bill Ritter took the unusual step of appointing Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien (a member of the DFER-Colorado advisory board) to serve as “Race To The Top Czar,” to make sure the state was positioned with enough progressive education policies to win the race outright.

– Tennessee. In late May, Duncan said Tennessee would “not be helping its chances” for Race to the Top funds if it continued arbitrary caps limiting the growth of charter schools. This set off a chain of events in which the state legislature held a special session and Democrats were freed to reverse their positions against charter school expansion from their leadership (and given a pass from the Tennessee Education Association), culminating in approval of charter school expansions in six school systems on a lopsided vote of 79-15.

– Rhode Island. On Monday, June 22 at a conference attended by thousands of charter school parents, teachers, and Administrators, Duncan said, in response to a question from the audience, that Rhode Island risked eligibility for Race to the Top funding if it continued to roadblock efforts to establish and equitably fund charter schools. On Friday June 26, just after 2 a.m. the Rhode Island legislature approved a final budget deal that fully restored funding for a system of “mayoral academies” that will serve students attending some of the lowest-performing schools in Providence. The first school, set to open this Fall, will be run by Democracy Prep, a Harlem charter operator. The lottery for slots will be held the first week of July.

– Connecticut. Duncan’s comments regarding Rhode Island rippled out to Connecticut, when on June 26, virtually simultaneous with Rhode Island’s action, Connecticut reversed its decision to cut charter school budgets, and moved toward an agreement that would fully restore charter school funding.

The victory was hailed not only by charter school advocates, but also by those who are working on behalf of statewide school reform efforts, like Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN): “The education reform movement in Connecticut is gratified that this budget averts the tragedy of half-completed public charter schools so that they can continue their work to close Connecticut’s largest-in-the-nation achievement gap.”

– Massachusetts. On Monday, June 29, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville announced that Gov. Deval Patrick will soon introduce legislation to lift the cap on charter schools in school districts in the lowest 10 percent on performance exams. Earlier this year Patrick said he was opposed to lifting the cap on the number of charter schools – proposing instead to increase spending on them in the lowest-performing districts.

– Louisiana. On Thursday, June 25, on the last day of Louisiana’s legislative session, Rep. Walt Leger III, a New Orleans Democrat, introduced legislation lifting the cap on charter schools. The state Education Department’s press release indicated that states that lift caps on charter schools will be viewed more favorably by the federal government in the Race To The Top.

– Indiana. The new state budget approved by the Legislature this week lifted the cap on charter schools and allows student performance to be used in teacher evaluations. Duncan had warned Indiana legislators that a failure to remove obstacles to reform, like charter caps, would jeopardize the state’s standing in the contest. These are encouraging developments.

Charter School Students in MO Doing Better than Others

A recent report done by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Standford University found that Missouri charter schools are, on average, doing better than their peers at traditional public schools. From this national study, only 5 states show higher learning gains for charter school students, and Missouri is one of them.
Missouri charter schools are doing well and the children there are outperforming other students, yet we still only have charter schools in St. Louis and Kansas City. It is reports like these that should force these restrictions to be lifted and allow charter schools to go state wide.
This results are posted in the Kansas City Star.

“The results in the CREDO report are clearly encouraging for Missouri charters, though there are areas for improvement,” said Aaron North, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association.

“Charter schools are not an experiment or a passing trend. They educate 31 percent of all public school students in Kansas City and 26 percent in St. Louis.”

Charter schools are helping thousands of children throughout Missouri get a better education, what would happen if thousands more could???

Charter school Excellence

Hello its me once again. Today I want to talk about how children everyday are being robbed of an education. A school is a place were we go to learn stuff we previously do not know. However in an effort to see who does the best, some schools have become uber competitive in the attempt to reign supreme as the best school in the country. Out of this fierce competition the children who are not as fast learners as the braniacs are left behind. However Charter schools which in a sense are hybrids of schools combine instilling tons of knowledge into a child’s brain while also not being competitive and gradually easing the child through the process of learning in an effort to confirm that the child learns the knowledge and is able to maintain it throughout his or her life.

Is it Jealousy?

I know jealousy is a negative feeling to have, nonetheless, I face it today. I live in Missouri, and while I love and appreciate this amazing place, I know there are states out there with virtues I wish my home state would possess.
This is taken from the Examiner:

Shopping for Charter Schools

February 17, 5:33 AM
by Karin Piper, Colorado Charter Schools Examiner
Is a charter school a good fit for your family? If so, which one in your community may be the best fit?
The Indystar reports on the Charter School Community Fair at the Indianapolis Artsgarden, which allows parents to peruse area charter schools in search of those answers.

Dozens of parents picked up literature and interviewed staff from the 17 alternative public schools in the city, searching for the best matches for their children for the 2009-10 school year.
Sponsored by Mayor Greg Ballard, the first-of-its-kind fair allowed parents to supplement their research on the schools with one-stop shopping convenience.

What a fantastic idea! Answering whether or not a charter school is right for your family or not, may be difficult if you don’t know which one of the 150+ unique charter schools you are speaking of. So why not make a list of what you are looking for in a school?
One parent in the Indystar article says she is searching for “focus on academics but also a broader selection of extracurricular options and a diverse student body.” While another expresses her son's needs for a program strong in math and the arts.
Wish lists are also often inclusive of criteria such as class sizes, student/teacher ratio, scheduling, graduation rates, SAR ratings, academic performance, and so on. Customize the list to suit your child's needs.
To my knowledge, there is not a charter school community fair, such as the one mentioned above, scheduled in Colorado in the near future. But don’t let that discourage you from doing your homework now. Visit the Colorado League of Charter School Finder for the schools near you. It’s a great place to begin your research. You will find that charter schools are like snowflakes, and there are not two which are identical. The goal is to find if and which one is right for your kids.
Remember, regardless of which school you choose (private, traditional, magnet, charter, homeschooling), you are exercising a parent’s right to school choice.

I look forward to the day Missourians statewide can go school-shopping for our children.

Obama's New Education Secretary

President Elect Obama's new choice for Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan,  will hopefully be a breath of fresh air to the education debate in this country.  One person who sent this link to me likened it to Nixon going to China.  I don't know if I would go that far, but Mr. Duncan has been successful with some education reforms in Chicago and seems to be open minded to reforms that include charter school expansion and school choice.  

President Elect Obama has voiced his approval of charter schools and hopefully his Secretary of Education will work at a federal level to see that they can expand and be funded at the same level as their traditional district model counterparts.