Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Failing Charter Schools in Memphis

In Memphis, we're having a lot of discussions about schools that are in the bottom 5% of the 1,700 schools in Tennessee.  The state, since it won the Race to the Top grant, has decided that they way to "fix" the problem of the bottom 5% schools is to select a few and either operate those schools from the state level or farm out those schools to charter operations.  So that's the Achievement School District plan.

Because charter schools are the answer to lifting schools out of the bottom 5%?

Well, except for the three failing charter schools that have landed in the bottom 5%.  It turns out that the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering, Memphis Consortium of Business and Law, and Memphis School of Excellence have moved around some of the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Until this year, only children from low-performing schools or low-performing children were eligible to enroll in charter schools.  So after attracting students from a number of Title I MCS schools, these charter operators have succeeded in becoming failing schools themselves.

The Tennesse Charter Schools Association lists 29 charter schools in operation Memphis and Shelby County (Shelby County really only has 1) for the 2012-13 school year.  This article states that of the 41 charter schools in Tennessee, 25 of them were in Memphis during the 2011-12 school year.

Of the 25 charter schools operating in Memphis last year, 3 are failing - that means over 10% of charter schools in Memphis are failing - and are eligible for takeover by the state or other charter operators.  This should be shocking.

Now comes news of intellectual honesty from the head of the ASD.  Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman recruited fellow TFA-alum Chris Barbic from heading a charter school district in Houston (which he founded) to head up the newly-forming Achievement School District.

These three failing charters have come to Mr. Barbic's attention since they fall into the bottom 5%.  And he thinks something should be done about it!  Jane Roberts writes, "Because the schools are in the bottom 5 percent, 'the district needs to take a strong look at closing these schools,' Barbic said."  So it's not just traditional public schools in the bottom 5% that should be closed, the same rule should apply to charters in that group.

Mr. Barbic even has some advice - the Shelby County School Board should close the schools over next summer, but make the decision early enough that the kids can find their places in other schools (meeting optional school deadlines, charter/private schools admission deadlines, etc.).

We know that the state will grant any and all appeals of charter school application denials by local schools boards, but if a state government education official tells you that the state will not fight you if you try to close failing charter schools - do it!  This is a financial stewardship issue - that has to do with the unwise transfer of public funds to private entities that are not able to fulfill their obligation to the taxpayer.  This is also an issue of moral obligation to the children that these charters claimed they could serve better than traditional public schools.

Last night, Mr. Barbic told a room of parents that he could make the case that the bottom 5% of schools in Tennessee are among the worst in the country.  Today, the paper reports his statement that the state government will not prevent the Shelby County School Board from taking direct action on these three failing charter schools.  Time for direct action, Shelby County School Board.

9 comments:

  1. I came home from my high school this evening and opened my e-mail to read my Diane Ravitch posts. I am so glad to hear we have a blogger in Memphis!

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    1. Thanks for the support. Please tell your friends.

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    2. Just found out about this blog today. This is great! I've been reading different articles on line (from places other than Memphis), and have been shocked by this charter school mess. I'm a proponent of public schools,and this is my 26th year working for public schools, so charters have always concerned me with their claims. Thanks for putting this info out there!

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  2. I second Merrie's comment. I'm so happy you've started an education blog about Memphis.

    As for closing the schools, I'm really not all for closing schools, even charter schools, just based on test scores. I know these scores are hard data, and other measures are less objective, but I question the ability of standardized tests to measure the quality of a student's education, and for that reason I question the use of standardized test data as the sole metric for closing down a school.

    I'd like to know more about these students and the way the teachers in the schools work with them: Are they accepting the lowest students (which many charters avoid in order to have high test scores) and, instead of test-prepping them, are they working with them on remedial skills, skills which will not be measured on a grade level test?

    I have more questions than answers, but I would like people to think twice before closing any school and creating additional chaos in the life of a student (whose life is undoubtedly already filled with much chaos).

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    1. Thanks for the support. Please tell your friends.

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    2. And I'm glad for some intellectual honesty from the other (non-ASD) side. Yes, if you don't believe in closing schools, then you don't believe in closing schools.

      That said, I draw a distinction between charter schools and traditional public schools. In terms of the financial investment by our government in private entities, if they're not doing the job, then I don't have the same difficulty in shutting them down. For traditional public schools, on the other hand, I don't buy the turnaround models that require the mass firing of the existing teaching staff and starting fresh. So I actually do support closing failing charter schools, but working from within (with increased resources, and very focused interventions with the children) in under-performing traditional public schools.

      At this point, I feel like we're stuck with the testing. But more on that soon.

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  3. By the way, I'd love for you to do some digging on Aspire Public Schools, one of the charters which will take over two schools in Memphis next year. I've learned a lot about them, and what I've learned is stomach-turning. I'll go into it more if you're interested.

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    1. Looking into it. I'll have to come up with an email address to correspond . . .

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    2. I've also read about Aspire, and it made me sick as well. It disgusts me that they think they can do better. I've spent too much time in the schools with the teachers and students, and I'm amazed every day with what teachers are doing for kids. They are not only teachers, but also social workers, mothers, psychologists, and tutors. The teachers are there for the kids when a family member is murdered over the weekend, or abuses them, and when they haven't eaten since lunch the day before at school. I'm so sick of hearing about test scores I could scream, and to say with a straight face that all kids will be in the top quartile amazes me. That's some really fuzzy math, and there is just no logic in it. I have 2 kids from the same gene pool, and they are NOT alike, but all of a sudden 100,000 kids in MCS will be all alike.

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