Would a Biden Presidency Mean the End of Charter Schools?

[PaulinVA]

By providing public options, there is a chance we serve more kids better.

I won’t dispute that. I understand money following the child. I’m rethinking.

There is nothing wrong with standardized testing.

Schools and teachers need to be held accountable, but standardized tests plugged into a VAM ( value added measure) does great damage.

The school system in my county used to be nationally recognized for innovation and as a “great” system. The Virginia Standards of Learning were initially supposed to “grade” teachers and schools, but quickly were turned around to grade the kids.

After the SOLs (they are unaware of the irony of that label) are administered, there are still weeks of school left (because the students have to pass to graduate/advance) and there is nothing to do. All instruction is SOL-based. Teachers can’t spend a day in the middle of the year on something the kids are interested in learning because they have to finish all the SOL material.

No one, students, parents or teachers like it, but it’s a state law.

I’m just a little bitter.

 

[JonNC]

After the SOLs (they are unaware of the irony of that label) are administered, there are still weeks of school left (because the students have to pass to graduate/advance) and there is nothing to do. All instruction is SOL-based. Teachers can’t spend a day in the middle of the year on something the kids are interested in learning because they have to finish all the SOL material.

Using standardized tests, as a single datapoint, in determining promotion or retention is, in my view, education malpractice.
While standards are critical, education should be broader than that.
I understand your bitterness.

 

[blackforest]

I’m increasingly convinced that the charter school issue is a microcosm of all divisive issues. We start debating something controversial, i.e. charter schools. If the discussion is civil enough, we realize that we all share some common goals and values.

In this case, we all want children to have an opportunity to get a solid, well-rounded educations. We all want to see taxpayer-funded schools succeed and do their jobs well. And - whoddu thunk? - we all want an end to the teach-to-the-test culture and the injustice it’s doing to teachers, kids, and education at large. If we recognize what goals we share in common, it provides some enlightening perspective, even as we disagree on how to attain them. I’ll end my rant now . . .

 

[Annie]

I think in general, we have too great a reliance on solutions before we do the appropriate examination of problems.

We came up with basal-style reading instruction when we didn’t even have a problem. Then we decided it would be more efficient to consolidate schools. Then we messed with math while continuing to tweak reading. Next was the self-esteem blitz, followed by very detailed outlines for what must be taught along with the tests to go with them, followed by STEM, STEM, STEM.

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In searching for info about Dunbar High in DC, once a premier segregated black school, I ran across this article by Thomas Sowell, in which he says:

Put bluntly, failure attracts more money than success. Politically, failure becomes a reason to demand more money, smaller classes, and more trendy courses and programs, ranging from “black English” to bilingualism and “self-esteem.” Politicians who want to look compassionate and concerned know that voting money for such projects accomplishes that purpose for them and voting against such programs risks charges of mean-spiritedness, if not implications of racism.

While one hears constant cries of underfunding in urban schools, the per-pupil expenditures are very high. Dunbar High School in DC still exists, in a new $128M-dollar facility with all the latest features. It opened the new facility 6 years ago, and is still rated by greatschools.org as lower than average in its state.

 

[blackforest]

Interesting you should mention Thomas Sowell, as I’m curious to check out his new book.

Charter Schools and Their Enemies by Thomas Sowell, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble®

I usually don’t agree with him, but the charter school movement is known for its odd bedfellows.

We came up with basal-style reading instruction when we didn’t even have a problem.

Rewind the clock even more, and you’ll remember replacing phonics with sight-reading, then the awful consequences of that move outlined in the book, Why Johnny Can’t Read.

Here’s an analogy. The software industry employs “usability experts” whose sole job is to come up with features “to improve the user experience.” The trouble is that they run out of improvements to make and start inventing “improvements” that you never wanted. I hold my breath and roll my eyes with every new version of Word.

Some people feel the need to justify their employment by manufacturing “problems” to match their “solutions”. So it goes with the educational bureaucracy. Think about it. Was there public clamor for the Common Core?

 

[Annie]

Rewind the clock even more, and you’ll remember replacing phonics with sight-reading

Yes, that is what I was talking about, John Dewey and his ideas.

Some people feel the need to justify their employment by manufacturing “problems” to match their “solutions”. So it goes with the educational bureaucracy.

So true!

Have you read Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto? Very interesting and an incredible amount of research.

 

[Annie]

The trouble is that they run out of improvements to make and start inventing “improvements” that you never wanted

This explains how they took really great programs you could do anything with and made them into programs in which the results were pre-programmed

 

[blackforest]

Yes, that is what I was talking about, John Dewey and his ideas.

Ah, ok! Our basal readers had both phonics and sight-reading, but I have more homeschool than district school experience. I taught phonics-only in homeschool, and all of my kids are strong readers.

Have you read Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto? Very interesting and an incredible amount of research.

No - I need to read some Gatto again, so maybe I’ll queue that one. He inspired me to homeschool. I love our charter so much, though, and it isn’t guilty of the many educational “sins” that Gatto cites.

 

[JonNC]

Rewind the clock even more, and you’ll remember replacing phonics with sight-reading, then the awful consequences of that move outlined in the book, Why Johnny Can’t Read.

And site reading was replaced with whole language which was replaced by the current iterations called “balanced literacy”

And now, Lucy Calkins says it needs to be “rebalanced”. While this is good, it is about 50 years late.

The reason American children perform so poorly in reading is phonics is not the foundation of reading instruction k-2.