Rogerian Dialogue

Kendall O’Neill

Megan Keaton

Eng. 112

9 April 2013

Setting: It is an overcast Wednesday evening. The five of us find ourselves crammed into a doctor’s office waiting to be seen. David Morris, writer for On the Commons magazine has his face buried behind an Education Weekly magazine. Hendrick Smith, head writer and statistic collector for CREDO is focused on his laptop, getting some work in before his is seen by the doctor. Marques, a student at a KIPP program is waiting on his mom to be done with her appointment and gets a head start on his homework for the night. Charles Clark, writer for CQ Research is sitting in the corner doing some light reading while Kendall sits back and observe them all.

Narrator: Like any new experimental process there are those that fail and those that succeed. This is no different in charter schools. Charter schools were originally intended to be an experimental way of learning; if the experiment proved to be affective than those methods were to be passed on to the existing traditional public schools. However, things don’t always work out like they are intended to. Charters are now seen as competition for traditional public school. Some of these experimental schools preform much better than those of their equal counterpart but most of them fail and perform considerably worse than those of their traditional public schools.

Morris gives a sarcastic laugh and directed to no one says: Hahaha yeah, even with all the data we have these people still believe charter schools are the reform the public education needs.

Narrator: This comment has both Marques’ and Smith’s attention. However Morris has their attention for different reasons

Smith to Morris: I couldn’t agree more. I’ve made it my life these past 10 years to study charter schools and compare them to local traditional schools. And let me tell you, the things I have found have not been pretty. Did you know that about 83% of charter schools test either the same or significantly worse than those comparable in the traditional public school system.

Morris: You are telling me. These charter schools are stealing from our neighborhood public schools. They take funding, teachers and students. If you think about it, it is almost as if these charter schools are acting like kudzu. “.. the kudzu like growth of charters and vouchers continues, stealing essential nutrients from the dying public education system.”

Smith: Unfortunately I know all too well. “Despite promising results in a number of states and within certain subgroups, the overall findings of [my] report indicate a disturbing – and far-reaching - subset of poorly performing charter schools.”

Narrator: Marques has been sitting quietly watching as these men bash charter schools, that he believes is the future of what all public education will look like. He is fuming but approaches the conversation calmly.

Marques: I don’t know what you are talking about. I am a 4^th grader at a charter school under the Knowledge Is Power Program, or as we like to call it KIPP. I have been a student there for three years and it is the best school in our neighborhood. People try every semester to get their name in the lottery just to have a chance to attend. It’s a lot of work! We go to school at 7:30 every morning and don’t get out until 5 at night. Everyone has to go to summer school for 3 weeks out of the summer and we have about 2 hours of homework every night. All of this work will be worth it, when I am the first on in my family to attend college. You know, “In 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were seniors in high schools were accepted in to a university or college.”

Morris: I am sorry kid, I didn’t mean to offend you, but your school is the exception.

Smith: Unfortunately Marques, Mr. Morris is right. While it is great that your school is doing so well, only 17% of all charter schools preform at that level. However, I can tell you something that might restore your faith that charter schools are helpful. “In our nationally pooled sample, two subgroups fare better in charters than in the traditional system: student in poverty and ELL students. This is no small feat.” These students are some of the hardest to teach yet charter schools have helped them become better and harder working students.

Marques:  I think that all schools should be like my school that way everyone could have the chance to be the best student possible and get the best grades that they can. I think my school is the best because we get to have fun and sing in class while we learn our multiplication tables. Then we get to use watercolors while reading a story in English. My friends don’t get to do that at their school! I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else!

Narrator: Clark has lost interest in his magazine and has been observing the conversation at a distance. He understands why marques is so passionate about studying hard and possibly being the first of his family to attend college but he also understands how Smith and Morris are skeptical due to the large number of failing charter schools. He is neither for nor against public schools but sees the pros and cons on both sides.

Clark: I don’t mean to be nosey but is it possible you are both correct. Marques I think it is fantastic how excited you are about school and the success they have obtained. However I do understand how both Mr. Smith and Mr. Morris could be hesitant due to the plethora of failing charters. Charters were started to help the public education but the statistics have proven to be too extreme. These charter are either very helpful and do very well or they sink and burn.

Narrator: Kendall has been sitting back watching them with no intention of getting involved however she can’t help but suggest what could be a reasonable compromise.

Kendall: Excuse me, I am sure that I will be called to go back and see my doctor any moment, but I believe charters were originally created as a form of experimental learning. Whatever the charters found to be useful and helped the students was to be passed on to the existing schools to mimic these forms of teaching. I think that if Marques is this passionate and excited about school, then there is no reason other kids can’t be as well. If we used KIPP in our existing public schools then more of our students would have the opportunity to attend college. We can weed out the failing charters, put more effort into the achieving charters and then focus on using these programs in our public schools.

Narrator: Smith and Morris look to each other give each other a slight shoulder raise as to say, well she has a point. Marques’ looks to Kendall with excitement as the possibility of more KIPP schools in his neighborhood, so all of his friends could attend. Because Clark stands in a neutral territory, he nods in Kendall’s direction as to say, yes, of course.

Kendall: All we would have to do is go through CREDO with a fine tooth comb and look at the extremes. We would need to talk to the principles and school boards of those that are doing well. We would want to ask them about how they started, what methods they have found to be the most effective and if they would be willing to share these findings with the public. We would also have to talk to school boards and politicians about those that are performing severely worse and figure out if it would be better to close down the school or move one of the effective programs in. Once we closed the majority of the gap by spreading the effective methods and closing down the ineffective ones we could continue. We would want to start trying to get laws changed so that teachers could have more freedom in the traditional public schools to use these methods. Getting these laws changed would be difficult because the NCLB Act is very strict about how and what needs to be taught. If these bands could be lifted and we could introduce these more intense levels of schooling, I believe that these charter schools could be the reform the public education needs.