1st draft argumentative essay

Kendall O’Neill

Megan Keaton

Eng 112

22 April 2013

Charter Schools: Helping or Hurting the Public Education System

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes or CREDO proved that the vast majority of charter schools perform at the same level or worse than their traditional counter parts. While these schools continue to fail, they take important resources from the existing public school. The dwindling amount of resources like funding, qualified teachers and eager students cause public schools to teach in worse environments, making charters appear better. The children of today will be the adults of tomorrow and it is imperative that they have a strong education for a hopeful future. Charter schools and traditional public schools are playing a dangerous game of tug-of-war.  Charters continue to receive federal funding while traditional public schools funding has been drastically cut across the nation. In this paper, I will show the appeal of charter schools. I will then show how they are hurting the public education system. Finally, I will show the reader how this can be settled neutrally by keeping the successful charter programs around while filtrating out the weak ones.

Charter schools started about 20 years ago with the first one in Minnesota. They were created as an educational experiment. The teachers didn’t have to follow strict guidelines on what to teach, how to teach it, and how long to spend on a subject. Teachers had the freedom to teach as they saw best fit with the promise of producing high test scores. This freedom gave teachers the ability to try new innovative ways of teaching and teach by exploring through student’s creativity. The only restriction they had was that they had to produce strong results, high test scores, or the charter would end and the school would close. Charters are well liked because they rely on high amounts of community involvement with the community and parents of the students. Parents are consulted with opening, managing and upkeep of the school. Parents are asked to help with school fundraisers and most importantly in the involvement of their child’s every day school work. The downfall and reason all students can’t attend these desirable schools is because there aren’t enough of them. Students who attend these schools have been chosen randomly through a lottery. Most students won’t have the opportunity to attend them even if they have been on the wait list for years. 

“As of 2009, more than 4700 charter schools enrolled over 1.4 million children in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The ranks of charters grow by hundreds each year. Even so, more than 365,000 names linger on the charter school wait lists.” (CREDO) The desire to attend charter schools are higher than ever before. With NCLB Act 2001 parents and students had the opportunity to leave their failing schools or “drop out factories” and attend charter schools or use vouchers to attend better schools that weren’t in their district.  This choice made parents feel as if they were more in control over the education their child would receive.

There are a couple of charter programs that have proved to produce results much higher than those of their traditional schools counterparts. “Those are the ones that capture headlines or show up on 60 minutes: Harlem Academy, KIPP, Achievement First, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, MATCH, and Preuss schools.” (On the Commons) KIPP is a rigorous course that truly challenges kids and produces strong results. KIPP students have an extended school day and go from 7:30 – 5, they attend Saturday school, they attend mandatory summer school for three weeks and they receive two hours of homework a night. (KIPP) “Mathew Di Carlo at the Albert Shanker Institute estimates that the successful charter school year is 2-4 months longer than that of traditional public schools.”(On the Commons) With this extended school year, teachers have more time to focus on their students. They can spend more time on subjects the class may be struggling with and they have more time to focus on individual students. “In 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were seniors in high school were accepted to a university or college.” (KIPP)

The percentage of KIPP students that go off to college in comparison with students that attend the local neighborhood schools shows a vast difference. However most students that will enroll in the KIPP program will not finish it. It is estimated that about 60% of KIPP students will drop out during the course of middle school. (Washington Post) In reality KIPP students drop out more than they finish the program. Even with the number of kids dropping out, KIPP rarely allows students to enter in the 7^th or 8^th grade “…because in the later grades, KIPP students are surrounded only by successful peers who are the most committed to the program.” (Washington Post) KIPP may be able to produce higher test scores and higher percentages for students going off to college but they are false, misguided statistics.

 

While some charters are efficient they most certainty aren’t all efficient. “…17 percent, provide superior education opportunities for their students. Nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from the local public school options and over a third, 37 percent, deliver learning results significantly worse that their students would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools” (CREDO) So, while most of these schools don’t educate better than those of their traditional counter parts, they continue to take important resources the public education system needs. They take large amounts of funding, some of the most dedicated teachers and students nationwide are on a waiting list hoping to gain entry this coming school year.

“While voting to cut $11 billion out of federal education funding for fiscal year 2011 (including cuts in Title 1, the Striving Readers program, literacy, teacher quality, math and science, and education technology, as well as special and vocational and adult education), the U.S House of Representation found the money to maintain charter and choice funding (Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011)(EBSCO Host).” The U.S government opted to cut an unbelievable amount out of public education funding but found money to continue the failing charter program. Writer David Morris for On the Commons magazine said it best when he describes the charter program to that of kudzu. An invasive plant that takes over the preexisting plants and smothers them. “The cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public school; the more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number of charter schools.” (On the Commons) We are essentially hurting ourselves with charters rather than helping.

Teachers are also drawn to charter schools. They are un-unionized so teachers can receive higher pays with rising test scores. The teachers must do more work and teach longer days but they receive help from teacher aides. Teacher aids will sit with struggling students one on one or in small groups to give additional help. They will also help teacher with their lesson plans. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

            So what can we do to help our public education system? Compromising with everyone is the easiest way to settle this long debated topic. We must get ride of the failing charter schools. They cause the most damage to our public education system and they make up 37 percent of all charter schools. We will keep the charter schools that performing the same as the traditional public schools. We can then talk with the U.S Department of Education, school boards, school districts and superintendents and come to a compromise about infiltrating our public schools and existing mediocre charter schools with the programs from our successful charters. This move will be radical and many people will be against it but it will be the best thing for the public education system. With the end of charters and return to traditional public schools, students around the country have the ability to attend these high performing schools without having to be waitlisted or go through the lottery. Also, with the end of charters all the misguided funding can return to traditional public schools. There will be more money for teacher quality, the focus on core subject like math and science and the ability to purchase new equipment and resources. This will be an expensive transformation, however, if higher test scores nationwide can be achieved, money should be no issue.

 

 

 

 

Work Cited:

Harvey, James. "Privatization: A Drain on Public Schools." EBSCO Host. EBSCO Host, Dec. 2011. Web. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=f2230e38-1c2d-4fb0-8244 4e41c3d66554%40sessionmgr198&hid=4&bdata=JnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d#db=a9h&AN=67664426>.

Raymond, Margaret, Dr. Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States Executive Summary. Rep. N.p.: CREDO.stanford.edu, 2009. CREDO.stanford.edu. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY.pdf>.

Clark, Charles S. "Charter Schools Will They Imporove or Hurt Public Education." CQ Research. CQ Press, 20 Dec. 2002. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://library.cqpress.com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002122000&type=hitlist&num=0>.

Morris, David. "After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original Mission." After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original Mission. On the Commons Magazine, 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/after-20-years-charter-schools-stray-their-original-mission>.

Smith, Hendrick. "Schools by School Reform KIPP." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork/sbs/kipp/>.

Strauss, Valerie. "The Answer Sheet -." The Answer Sheet -. The Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

"Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

Toulmin Dialogue

Kendall O’Neill

Megan Keaton

Eng 112

16 April 2013

Cast list:

·         David Morris, writer for On the Commons magazine

·         Hendrick Smith, head writer and statistic collector for CREDO

·         Marques, a 4^th grade student at a KIPP program

·         Charles Clark, writer for CQ Research

·         James Harvey, wrote an article that was published in the Educational Leadership volume 69 issue 4

·         Kendall, a 1^st year college student that has been studying the effects on charter schools on the public education system

Setting:  We are all fishing from a dock at the pond at the local state park. None of us are really paying attention to one another but we are aware of each other’s presence. While we silently fish Marques realizes that he has run out of bait. He turns to Hendrick Smith and asks if he could spare some. Willingly Smith hands Marques a handful of live worms to use. Smith notices Marques’ school uniform with the KIPP logo on the sleeve. Smith glances down and back up again to get a good look at him and asks him how he enjoys attending his KIPP school.

Narrator: The vast majority of charter schools are failing to do what they agreed to when they were given their charters. The failing charters should be closed because the students are not doing better than their traditional public school counterpart, they are not closing when they have proven to perform worse, and they take resources that the public education system needs. It is imperative that they close because it is draining the full potential that the public education system can not reach when its assets are misplaces in this misguided public school reform. People assume that because there are a handful of charter programs that are succeeding that the rest will either catch up or are already performing at a higher level.

Smith: Hey there. My name is Hendrick Smith, I noticed you attend a KIPP school. How do you like it there?

Marques caught off guard by the question clears his throat:  Well it is a lot of work but I don’t mind because my mom says it’s the best school in the city and I should feel lucky to have to opportunity to attend it.

Smith: Oh is that right? Well son, you are lucky to be able to attend a KIPP program but not all charter schools like yours perform nearly as well. It is actually a highly debated topic on whether or not charter schools are the reform that our public education system needs. I am sure you didn’t know but I made it my job to go across the United States and study all of these charter schools to see if they are in fact better than traditional public schools.

Marques: Oh really? Well, what did you find?

Narrator: By this time, everyone is listening to the conversation but they continue to fish silently and listen.

Smith: Well Marques I am not sure if you are going to like this but most charter schools actually have students performing considerable worse than those in their local neighborhood schools. Only 17% of charter schools are efficient like yours.

Kendall a little nervous to jump in to the conversation, hesitantly says: Well Smith, that is just the tip of the iceberg the issue is deeper than just poor performing charters. They are given these charter with the expectation of producing higher test scores and when this experimental way of teaching fails they are to shut the school down so staff, students, and funding can return to the existing public schools.

Smith: That is true Kendall. “The replication of successful school models is one important element of this effort. On the other side of the equation, however, authorizers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain: accountability in exchange for flexibility. When schools consistently fail, they should be closed”

Morris, unable to sit on the sideline and just listen to the conversation jumps in: “ One study for the U.S Department of Education concluded “Charters rarely face sanction (revocation or nonrenewal).” Over the first 20 years about 2.5 percent of charter schools have been closed for academic reasons.”

Harvey: While I have been listening to y’all discuss this, you are forgetting one big issue and that is the misguided funding. During the collapse of the economy budget cuts were experienced everywhere. A large part of that was with public education system. “While voting to cut $11 billion out of federal education funding for fiscal year 2011 (including cuts in Title I, the Striving Readers program, literacy, teacher quality, math and science, and education technology, as well as special and vocational and adult education), the U.S. House of Representatives found the money to maintain charter and choice funding (Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011).”

Kendall: So, our public education system continues to receive less and less, yet our charters continue to receive funding from the government even though they are performing worse?

Morris: “As the cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public schools; the more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number of charter schools.”

Kendall: Harvey, you mentioned that with the budget cuts the public education system experienced poor teacher qualities. Can we not afford to train them properly? Also I read that because some charter schools have rigorous programs, teachers rarely stay for long periods of time. Some charter teachers receive teacher aids that are specialized in guiding these teachers lesson plans and will help with troubled students if the teacher is unqualified or needs assistance. Is it fair to say that if public school teachers had these aids are were in a ‘normal’ teaching environment students at traditional public schools could perform even better than charter school students?

Morris: It is hard to say Kendall. Public education doesn’t receive teacher aids like this so it is hard to compare the two fairly. Perhaps with the closing of charter schools and the transition of these programs into existing public schools we can see the funding move to public schools and have the opportunity to use teacher aids and prepare our teachers more thoroughly.  

Marques: Wait a minute! What are you saying!? With this charter school, I could be the first kid in my family to go to college! You can’t take that opportunity away from me! My school is one of the best in the area and people try year after year to get in.

Smith: That’s true Marques. “As of 2009, more than 4,700 charter schools enrolled 1.4 million children in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The ranks of charters grow by hundreds each year. Even so, more than 365,000 names linger on charter school wait lists after more than fifteen years, there is no doubt that both supply and demand in the charter sector are strong.”

Marques: Plus we get to do interesting things in class that some of my neighbors that don’t go to school with me, don’t get to do. We get to sing songs while doing math problems and paint what we imagine while reading a story. I don’t want to go back and sit in a boring math class and do problem after problem for hours. I love my KIPP school and all of my classmates are doing really well. We look forward to going to school every day.

Clark: Marques is right. I’ve done a great deal of research on charter schools and the ability to use creative methods of teachings in important for the public education system. We get to test which methods students respond to and which methods they don’t. While not all failing charter schools close right away, they need more time to tweak their methods and try it a little bit differently. ““In most transitions, the early years are shaky,” activist Kolderie says. People complained because “the early automobile was slower than the train, or because the first telephone had a range of two miles. We never before had a system of autonomous school.” Not to mention while I was doing my research I interviewed a superintendent and he told me how charter schools have actually forced him to improve his district. He tried to prove to the community that he wasn’t going to fall behind or lose more students to charter school. He did school renovations, cut class sizes so students could get more attention, and sought out parents help in choosing new principles.

Smith: Well Clark, while that is all good and well, what it boils down to is that charter schools just aren’t performing well enough. The facts are simple only 17% of charter perform significantly better while half perform about the same and 37% perform significantly worse.

Harvey: There is also no disputing that while traditional public schools continue to receive less and less funding, teaching conditions and options become worse.

Clark: But there are the programs that work and to end them all would be devastating to the progress that has been made.

Smith: there is no reason to keep the program if not even a quarter of them do what they were intended to.

Marques: If I have to go back to traditional public schools I will be devastated. I am so motivated to continue with the program and if you put me back into regular public schools I don’t know if I will still have that motivation.

Kendall: Unfortunately Marques, it doesn’t seem like there is another way. Charter schools aren’t producing the results they promised to and they are hurting the public education system. Charter schools have had 20 years to prove that this is the reform the education system needs and they have failed. However with the closing of charter schools and the redirection of attention and funding to public school they will be nicer and better than they were when you went to them. Now all that needs to be done is to sit down with the U.S Board of Education and discuss the process of closing down the charters. Notices will need to be sent immediately to the grossly failing population that they will be closed upon the next school year. As far as the successful charters, they will have a year or two to to stay open and discuss the integration of their programs into existing public schools. Notices will be sent to parents telling them that the school their child attends will be closing and how the funding that child bringing back to neighborhood schools will improve it and make it more successful than the charter they will be leaving. Once all the unsuccessful charters are closed and billions of dollars have been dumped back into the public education system, the U.S Department of Education can distribute it to integrate the successful programs in to the public schools, improve teacher quality and focus on arts and science.

Megans Comments on Annotated Bib

The most helpful piece of advice I received was that I wasn’t fully analyzing, rather re summering. I also hadn’t realized I didn’t submit my 5^th annotated bibliography.

The least helpful piece of advice I received, as always were punctuation errors. Not to say that punctuation isn’t important.

Hopefully my question will be answered once you look at the 2^nd submission of these annotated bibs but I want to make sure that I am fully analyzing these instead of just stating my opinion on them.

My plans for revision consist of scratching my entire analysis paragraph and re doing them from scratch. I sat down using Megan’s comments and tried to find the strong and weak argument points, the holes I found and the questions I was left with. It also involved me sitting back down with all 5 of my sources and going through them again.

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.

second draft annotated bibliography

Kendall O’Neill

Megan Keaton

ENG 112

4 March 2012

Smith, Hendrick. "Schools by School Reform KIPP." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork/sbs/kipp/>.

Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a system that some charter schools, especially middle schools follow. It has proven to be very efficient for a number of reasons. KIPP exercises longer schools days and longer school years, students and parents must sign a contracts, the ‘Commitment to Excellence’. Students complete about 2 hours of homework a night and are disciplined in class if not on task. KIPP’s school days are from 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM, they attends Saturday classes and everyone must spend 3 ½ weeks in summer school.  KIPP is a rigorous program and because of that both student and parent must sign a ‘Commitment to Excellence’. This simply says that the parent help the student stay on track, check homework, and they must be involved in the school. The student pledges to work hard on their classwork and homework. Each night a student receives approximately 2 hours of homework on top of the 9 ½ hour school day. Parents are expected to oversee that it gets done and teachers must remain accessible by phone until 9 PM in case a student has a question. If a student fails to complete their homework or acts up in class they become ‘on the bench’. Instead of being sent to the principal’s office they are separated from the rest of the class and forced to sit alone. This way the student never misses out on the lesson but doesn’t enjoy being with his classmates.

This program is so beneficial because it pushes the kids to be the best student they can be, it keeps kids off the streets of their low-income neighborhoods, and it tries to instill hard work in them when they are young. KIPP’s premise is that “students are held with high academic standards – no exceptions, no excuses.” With the extended school day, which keeps KIPP students in class 67% longer than regular public school students, the kids have more time for productivity and less time to spend getting into trouble in their neighborhoods. They attend summer school so that the information they have been learning can be reiterated several times and doesn’t become dormant or forgotten. According to a study, KIPP took in 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were seniors were accepted into college. KIPP expects a lot from its students and students expect a lot from themselves, their school, teachers and parents to support them to get to college and have the tools to be successful.

I’m going to use this paper to show that while all charter schools may not be successful there are a few programs that truly do work. While this program is rigorous it could be the reform that the school system needs across the board.

·         “With a long school day (7:30 to 5 PM), Saturday classes and three and a half weeks of summer school for everyone, KIPP students spend 67% more time in class that regular public schools”

·         “In 2004, 85% of KIPP alumni who were seniors in high school were accepted in to a university or college”

·         “KIPP’s routine includes motivational and educational chants and sons. You will hear the kids chanting their multiplication tables and singing…”

 

Morris, David. "After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original Mission." After 20 Years, Charter Schools Stray From Their Original Mission. On the Commons Magazine, 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/after-20-years-charter-schools-stray-their-original-mission>.

This article came out only a couple months ago when charter schools celebrated its 20 year anniversary since they first one opened in late 1991. The article compares what charter schools were originally intended to do and what they are like now, 20 years later. The article compares the charter system to the invasive plant kudzu. Kudzu is a Japanese weed that grows extremely quick and steals nutrients from other plants as it grows over them, ultimately smothering the original plant. Originally charter schools were created to use experimental teaching methods, if they proved to be effective they were to give the methods to the existing public schools to mimic. However that is far from what has happened. Charters are now seen as a competitor that could replace public education instead of a way of improvement. Charter school numbers continue to grow while public schools begin to close due to lack of funding. “And this cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public schools; the more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number of charter schools.” The article continues by talking about Finland’s educational system saying how it was one of the worst and it managed to turn itself around by doing one simple thing. It made the process of become a teacher more difficult than become a doctor or a lawyer. With the introduction to some of the best teachers students began to excel and climb up the ranking to become one of the top education systems.

            This article shows us that charter schools started as a way to help the public school education but are now hurting it. It focuses on how charter schools have become corrupt rather than the reform the public education needed when charters were first proposed. Charters are run by organizations that are profiting from these schools. Charters are created for experimental learning and even though they are preforming worse than local public schools they aren’t being closed down because of the money investors continue to bring in.

            I’m going to use this article to show how charters schools are exhausting the public education system and if they continue to grow they will deplete the resources the neighborhood public schools need to stay open. 

•           As the cycle feeds on itself. More charters mean less money for public schools; the more public education deteriorates, the greater the popularity and number of charter schools.

•           “Groups of teachers and administrators who wanted to innovate and try new things would band together and little laboratories of education would emerge… the idea was simple: anything valuable culled from these experiments would be copied by the district…”

•           “ And so the kudzu like growth of charters and vouchers continues, stealing essential nutrients from a dying public health education system

 

Clark, Charles S. "Charter Schools Will They Imporove or Hurt Public Education." CQ Research. CQ Press, 20 Dec. 2002. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://library.cqpress.com.ezproxy.cpcc.edu/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2002122000&type=hitlist&num=0>.

This is compiled stack of research that talks about all aspects of charter schools. It touches briefly on all accounts like is it going to hurt the public education, the innovators with the original idea, is it just a passing fad? Piece by piece it takes it breaks it down and remains objective. One section that was focused on was ‘Do charter schools foster innovation and achievement?’ It touches on teachers having the ability to incorporate art and music into teaching math and science, the fact that public schools have to step it up to compete with charter schools and the testing comparison between the two. Since charter schools don’t have to follow any specific guidelines they are free to teach as they see best fit. When the ability to incorporate art and music into core subjects, it becomes more interesting and relatable to students. When this ability to teach how teachers feel best fit, students leave the traditional public schools to attend charter school. When students leave their neighborhood school, the funding goes with them. One superintendent lost only 1.3% of his student population but lost 1 million dollars in funding because of it. He was interviewed and said that his students left but he was going to fight for their return. There is lots of controversy about the testing results between charter and neighborhood schools. While some statistics say that charters aren’t testing worse, others say they are way behind those in the same district. Testing levels in comparison of the two vary from state to state.

            This article touches on a wide variety of topics surrounding the concerns and benefits of charter school. It offers unbiased material and different opinions from both sides of the argument. While it doesn’t delve too deep in any one passage for extended time, it gives every issue some light.

            I am going to use this article to help me form more opinions on these matters while I continue to research. I think this is going to be one of my most helpful sources once I have gone completely through it. It offers me statistics, maps, graphs, and quotes from those directly involved in either the government, school boards or works in a charter school

•           “We’re better because of charters. I hate to say it, but we’re more aware of the importance to what parents say and have become more customer-service oriented… The charter schools stole our students; we will steal them back.”

•           A map showing the amount of charters in every state

•           Snip bits of CREDO (the Center of Research on Education Outcomes) which did a huge study across the U.S comparing charter schools and the local public schools in testing scores.

 

Raymond, Margaret, Dr. Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States Executive Summary. Rep. N.p.: CREDO.stanford.edu, 2009. CREDO.stanford.edu. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY.pdf>.

Center for Research on Education Outcomes or CREDO did a study in 2009 comparing charters schools to traditional public schools in fifteen states and the District of Columbia. CREDO was able to use 70% of charter school students in their analysis on the performance difference between charter and traditional public school (TPS). “The study examined the differences three ways: a pooled nationwide analysis of charter school impacts, a state-by-state analysis of charter school results, and an examination of the performance of charter schools against their local alternatives.” They did this by creating a ‘virtual twin’ meaning they found someone in a charter school and found someone with the same demographics in a TPS and compared their standardized test scores. The finding CREDO produced show that only 17% of charter school students nationwide showed superior testing results compared to their TPS. About half have the same results as their TPS and 37% tested significantly worse. There are several factors that cause results like these like state to state laws, how new the charter is, and the type of student that attends these school. Charters from state to state can have ‘caps’ meaning that there is a limit to the amount of charter schools in that specific state. CREDO found that states that do have caps performed worse than those who did not have caps. Charter schools in the first year have a decline in proficiency and after two or three years begin to have an increase in testing scores. Once CREDO finished this analysis they discovered that schools catering to students in poverty and students learning English as a second language performed significantly better than those of TPS.

            This study that CREDO produced is very important because it is the first of its kind. It has given the argument of charter schools being proficient or not, data to use. This document shows that most of our charter schools are no better than existing public schools but there is a sub group that is flourishing. This document shows that there are different factors across the country that can cause a charter to succeed or fail; those that fail should be closed and those that succeed need to share their research and success.

            I am going to use this document to show how the majority of our charter schools are failing. In my final paper I want to use this is my argument to give evidence that while all charter schools may not be efficient and helpful in their communities some of them are working and some of them are truly helping guide students. I also want to use this document to show the magnitude of even 5 years ago the amount of students wanting to attend charter schools.

•           “As of 2009, more than 4,700 charter schools enrolled 1.4 million children in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The ranks of charters grow by hundreds each year. Even so, more than 365,000 names linger on charter school wait lists after more than fifteen years, there is no doubt that both supply and demand in the charter sector are strong.”

•           “In our nationally pooled sample, two subgroups fare better in charters than in the traditional system: students in poverty and ELL student. This is no small feat.”

•           “Despite promising results in a number of states and within certain subgroups, the overall findings of this report indicate a disturbing – and far-reaching – subset of poorly performing charter schools.”

•           “The replication of successful school models is one important element of this effort. Onthe other side of the equation, however, authorizers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain: accountability in exchange for flexibility. When schools consistently fail, they should be closed.”

workshop reflection annotated bibliography

The advice my group gave me was:

·         Abby said that I needed to focus on my citations and make sure they were done correctly by the time they needed to be turned in. She also mentioned that I should go through the papers one more time and look for grammar errors.

·         Pricilla mentioned that the annotated bib for my source, ‘on the commons’, still needed the most work and I should really focus on editing that one to make it flow better. She said I should “take some out and put some in”

·         Andrew realized that after going through all of my annotated bibs that he had a source that would be helpful to me and recommended that I read ‘Failure of the American Schools’ by Klein              

The most helpful piece of advice I received was how to properly format MLA and set up the top left corner with the name, class, title etc. That was helpful because not only had I not done it properly, I was confused on the order and how to.

It is hard to say what the least helpful piece of advice I received was. Everything that anyone pointed out I needed and helped guide me to a better final draft.

My plans for revision are to focus on my MLA formatting, look over the ‘on the commons’ source and look for the Failure in the American Schools by Klein.