During the recently concluded session, West Virginia legislators debated the pros and cons of charter schools and ultimately passed a bill during the special session approving a bastardized version of charter schools called innovation zones. The folks at Create West Virginia were particularly strong proponents of the innovation zones/charter schools legislation.
I hope everyone involved reads the new report from the Stanford University Center for Research on Educational Outcomes about the (in)effectiveness of charter schools. The report, which has received a lot of attention nationally, found that 17 percent of charter schools performed significantly better than traditional public schools, 46 percent performed about the same and 37 percent performed significantly worse. While far from dispositive, the report suggests that a lot of charter schools are not only not better, but actually worse, than traditional public schools.
Interestingly, the study was funded by charter school proponents.
22 June 2009. For additional reading and listening:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/education/22duncan.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105461724&ft=1&f=1013
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105461713&ft=1&f=1013
To be clear, Create WV has championed the concept of allowing innovation within schools so that we can better meet the needs of 21st century skill development. That is why we supported the Innovation Zones bill, as a way to open a possible pathway that enables motivated school districts to adopt best practices or develop new ones that will signficantly improve our schools. Note that the Innovation Zones bill requires a vast majority of teachers in that district to approve any innovation before it gets adopted. The IZ bill is probably not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Charter schools are but one way of thinking about academic innovation and improvement. We have not specifically said that charter schools are the way to go, just that it is one model. The Innovation Zones approach provides an opportunity for local teachers, parents and academic administrators to develop improvements in a more open environment based on the best available evidence of what works.
Anyone is invited to join the dialogue on this and other new economy issues at http://www.createwv.com.
I too support the debate over charter schools/innovation zones that Create WV and Senator Wells, for which and whom I have a lot of respect, are advocating, but think two points worthy of making.
First, the discussion needs to be informed by national research like that done by the Stanford University Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, which suggests that something is not working on the charter schools front. By comparison, I watched West Virginia plunge headlong into school consolidation when national research was calling those efforts into question and other states’ school systems were beginning to unwind their previous consolidation efforts (not completely successfully, suggests the latest education research out of the New York City school system).
Second, as a disinterested party, I did not always like the tenor of the charter schools/innovation zones debate, which I happened to witness in both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Education Committee and in the media. It became far too personal with people who raised legitimate concerns labeled anti-innovation. This, I suspect, ultimately caused the bill’s demise at the end of the regular legislative session.
I stand squarely behind the President of the United States on the issue of Charter Schools. I was just listening to the Rev. Al Sharpton and former Speaker Newt Gingrich on NPR – they are traveling the nation together championing education reform. Mr. Sharpton made a great point: The Charter Schools are making the public schools better with increased competition.
Everyone has an opinion on this issue, but what I know is this: When new ideas are brought to the table, they deserve serious reflection. Defending the old ways, has gotten you what you have now. If W.Va is quite content with the status quo of its system – then, so be it. However, after having taught for three years in Asia – where reforms and ideas are greeted at the door with a smile and embrace – let me tell you, W.Va is far from ready for global competition.
I’ll dig in on the Charter School issue – I support it and want more of it. For those of us in the African American community, what has been offered up to us in the past, just simply is not good enough.
Do you really believe that the lazy, complacent public schools are running scared and innovating because of the ineffective charter schools surrounding them?
Read the research piece linked in this post. What we need to do is figure out what makes really good public and charter schools (and there are some) so effective and work to disseminate best practices. Do they use a core knowledge curriculum? Do they use formative assessment? Do their teachers receive merit pay? Is there something about the leadership of their principals? A little bit of all of the above?