A parent’s choice
How many times have you heard this argument against parental choice in education:
Not all charter/private schools are “better” than public schools?
No kidding?! And I don’t think most school choice advocates would ever try and imply that they are. But that misses the entire point about parental choice in education. Opponents don’t seem to realize that school choice is about a better educational fit for a a unique and individual student. Sure, sometimes you are talking about a failing school or, even worse, a failing school system, and in those situations you need a viable choice for the whole student body. But often times, the choice is about what works best for an individual child.
All children learn differently and have their own unique needs. Just the other day I was working with a 4-year-old on duplicating block models. I (wrongly) made the assumption he would be a tactile learner- wanting to touch and hold the block formation I made to physically examine how it was put together. Instead, he wanted to just leave it on the floor and look while he worked on replicating the pattern himself without touching the blocks I had assembled.
A simple example, sure, but you get the idea- not all kids will want to touch the blocks- not all kids will learn in the same manner- so no one educational environment will work well for all students.
And there are countless other reasons that parents may make different choices in education: location- perhaps a certain school is more convenient to home or work- or operates on more convenient school hours- making the family’s schedule easier and allowing for more family-time. Perhaps a different school offers a specialized program of interest to the parents, such as language immersion.
Whatever the parents’ reasons are, they should be the ones to make that choice. Not a bureaucrat who has never met the individual student or family. No computer system designed to simply assign an appropriate number of students to each school.
We shared this article with you on Friday in our news clips: A step toward school choice (from California’s Appeal-Democrat).
One of the most poignant comments from the editorial comes at the conclusion of the article:
Even if parents prefer their children attend lower-performing charter schools, their choice should prevail. To assert otherwise assumes that arbitrary standards must dictate, rather than parental rights. There may be myriad reasons parents prefer alternative programs. That decision should rest with them, not with bureaucrats or politicians and not with unions.
Exactly. Education advocates often lament the lack of parental involvement in education- and we agree that education does start at home with the parents. But if that’s the case, let’s get parents re-invested in education. Let’s put the decisions back in their hands. Let’s give them the choices, instead of cutting them out of the decision making process.
Monday morning education news
Hope everyone had a great weekend. While some Virginia students are already headed back to school, we’re still about a week away for most families. So as we enjoy the final days of summer, here are a couple quick headlines to start the morning.
- Philadelphia Magazine: Is This the Best School In Philadelphia?: Cynics say urban education is hopeless. With some old-fashioned ideas, North Philly’s KIPP School is proving them wrong.
- iSurf Hopkins: School choice would bring quality - and accountability
- Hartford Courant: School Year Begins Today: Amid Hopes for More Success
- NOLA.com: State: 19 seek charter schools
- WNED-AM 970 News: Hoyt Calls on Paterson to Push School Reform
- Jacksonville.com: Duval charter schools give students new outlooks
Why do families want school choice?
Dan Lips, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, writes on “Why D.C. Families Want School Choice,” in the National Review Online.
Parents understandably want to be sure their children are safe in their schools, and the Heritage Foundation along with the Lexington Institute, published a report examining crime and violence at schools in D.C.
In the NRO article, Mr. Lips writes,
The lack of safety in D.C. public schools has been cited by parents as a main reason why they want to be able to choose their children’s schools. Looking at the numbers of violent or criminal incidents reported at some of the District’s public schools help us see why.
It also helps us understand why the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw scholarships from the 216 students who had recently been admitted to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program was so devastating for their families. According to our analysis, many of these 216 students are now being assigned to attend public schools with high rates of crime and violence. For example, five of these students were assigned to go to Anacostia Senior High, where 60 violent incidents (6.3 per 100 students) were reported, including 47 reports of simple and aggravated assaults. Three students were assigned to go to Ballou Senior High, where 46 violent incidents (2.2 per 100 students) were reported to the police, including 8 robberies (seven involving firearms or knives).
Friday must-reads: Post urges Obama to re-think vouchers and other news
More Friday headlines:
- DC Charter Schools Examiner: D.C. Mayor puts kids in public school and gets school choice at the same time
When D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty took over DCPS a couple of years ago he promised to move his two sons from private to public school. Turns out he stuck to his word although it proved difficult for the press to obtain this information. The reason? Mr. Fenty did what all arrogant politicians do and put his children not in the neighborhood school, West Elementary, at 14th and Farragut Streets that has failed to make AYP for a couple of years, but instead enrolled them at a much better institution, Lafayette Elementary, which is located in Chevy Chase, and whose students score over 90 percent proficient or above in both reading and math.
We think that it is wonderful that Mayor Fenty and his wife were able to make the best choices for educating their sons. But it is beyond frustrating that ALL families don’t have this same choice.
- Appeal Democrat: Our View: A step toward school choice
Even if parents prefer their children attend lower-performing charter schools, their choice should prevail. To assert otherwise assumes that arbitrary standards must dictate, rather than parental rights. There may be myriad reasons parents prefer alternative programs. That decision should rest with them, not with bureaucrats or politicians and not with unions. That’s about to be the case in Los Angeles. Next, we hope, the rest of the state.
I couldn’t put it better myself. Parents’ choices should prevail. Period.
- Washington Post: Beach Reading for Mr. Obama: Useful literature on school vouchers
…we enthusiastically support public school reform and quality charter schools, too. But vouchers are an answer for some children whose options otherwise are bleak. In Washington, they also are part of a carefully designed social-science experiment that may provide useful evidence for all schools on helping low-income children learn. Why would a Democratic administration and Congress want to cut such an experiment short?
That says it all. Let’s make all schools better- let’s make education better. And when something is working, like the DC Opportunity Scholarships, why wouldn’t we all embrace it as positive change for our students?
The online choice
The other day a headline caught my eye- it was about a study of online learning that found it to be more effective than in-class learning. I didn’t get a chance to read it at the time- but it did stand out enough that I mentioned it to my mom- a public school educator in North Carolina. She works in a middle school and had mentioned something about some of their students being on the waiting list for the Virtual Public School Program (something we had actually written about just over a year ago). The VPSP is a great choice for many students in NC, giving them the opportunity to “enroll in online courses, recover missing credits, earn college-level credit or even graduate early.”
As we have noted many times here, school choice isn’t about a public versus private school debate, but about creating a vibrant system of choices and options that work for a diverse student population with a variety of educational needs. My mom works mostly with her schools highly gifted students and sees first-hand every day that one-size does not fit-all in education. (I’m sure that raising two kids also taught her that as well!)
So I’d mentioned this study about online education to her- and she was quite interested, so I set about looking for that article for her.
I found that Matthew Ladner over at the Jay P. Greene Blog had beat me to it, posting about the study yesterday. He references the New York Times story, “Study Finds that Online Learning Beats the Classroom.”
The NY Times story notes that “The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.”
Mr. Ladner adds, “Nine national percentile points is a very large difference in my book. To put that in perspective, the highest scoring state in the country (MA) outscores the lowest (MS) by about 13.4% on the 4th grade reading NAEP.”
We look forward to reviewing this study more, and to finding out how other states- like NC- are already utilizing online learning as a choice for students. If you know of states that have introduced online learning or other online educational programs available, please let us know! More choices- including online choices- can only help to improve education for everyone.
A must read: teacher accountability?
A long article, but well-worth the read. As Joel Klein and New York City struggles to improve the city’s schools, they face an uphill battle (to say the least) with the teachers union.
From The New Yorker: The Rubber Room: The battle over New York City’s worst teachers.
A few highlights (or should we say low-lights?):
Neither the Mayor nor the chancellor is popular in the Rubber Room. “Before Bloomberg and Klein took over, there was no such thing as incompetence,” Brandi Scheiner, standing just under the Manhattan Rubber Room’s “Handle with Care” poster, said recently. Scheiner, who is fifty-six, talks with a raspy Queens accent. Suspended with pay from her job as an elementary-school teacher, she earns more than a hundred thousand dollars a year, and she is, she said, “entitled to every penny of it.” She has been in the Rubber Room for two years. Like most others I encountered there, Scheiner said that she got into teaching because she “loves children.”
“Before Bloomberg and Klein, everyone knew that an incompetent teacher would realize it and leave on their own,” Scheiner said. “There was no need to push anyone out.”
And:
I asked the woman for her reaction to the following statement: “If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances to improve but still does not improve, there’s no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences.”
“That sounds like Klein and his accountability bullshit,” she responded. “We can tell if we’re doing our jobs. We love these children.” After I told her that this was taken from a speech that President Obama made last March, she replied, “Obama wouldn’t say that if he knew the real story.”
It’s definitely an eye-opening read. There are so many wonderful teachers out there, and they too should reject a system that tolerates incompetence and rejects consequences for failure.
Education Rankings- How did my school perform?
It’s back-to-school, and lots of folks have been asking recently about state education rankings and how specific schools in Virginia are performing.
You can look up any school in Virginia- or any school system- to see how it measured up last year on the Virginia Department of Education’s “Virginia School Report Card.”
Choice in L.A. and editorial board support for school choice?
Sorry no new posts yesterday- we were in Richmond most of the day for a wonderful meeting of many of our coalition partners to update everyone on school choice efforts in Virginia. We greatly appreciate everyone taking the time to attend and participate- and a special thank you to those folks who drove several hours to attend the meeting. We did share some updates on Twitter yesterday- if you aren’t following us already, we hope you will check it out!
We do have some very exciting projects that we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks, so we hope you encourage you to stay tuned.
In other news, a few headlines from around the country on the education reform front:
The Press-Register: ACT results show the need for choice
It’s about time that Alabama and Mississippi provided educational alternatives for minorities who live in low-income urban centers.
School choice programs have taken root in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and other cities. In some cities, children from poor families can use publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools. Thirty-nine states have charter schools — independent public schools that have been freed from most bureaucratic regulations.
Polls show most blacks support school choice, including voucher programs. Again, this isn’t surprising, given that many black children are trapped in failing public schools.
The shame is that Alabama and Mississippi are in the minority of states that provide little or no choice for parents. Alabama doesn’t even allow charter schools. Mississippi’s charter school law, which severely restricted charters, expired in July.
Consumer choice drives competition, innovation and quality in the private sector. Parental choice would shake up the education establishment and become a powerful force for change.
Alabama and Mississippi need to unleash that force for the benefit of students who are falling by the wayside in the current system.
The Citizen-Times: Shrink achievement gap through choice in education
Waiting lists are a familiar theme for North Carolina’s public charter schools, which currently remain capped at 100 despite waiting lists reportedly in excess of 15,000 families. While all public charter schools in Buncombe County reached expected growth goals last year, the county still has only three public charters. The Obama administration’s strong endorsement of public charter schools, particularly those targeting the achievement gap, compels North Carolina to demonstrate progressive charter school policies to compete for federal funding. More importantly, the state has a moral obligation to its children, especially those from poor and working-class families.
All in all, it should come as no surprise that North Carolina parents–regardless of race or income–are increasingly concerned about their children’s education. After all, a sound educational system is the cornerstone of a sound economy. Until our state embraces true school reform, you can expect to see a continued push for more parental school choice and quality options for all children in North Carolina.
Los Angeles Times: Vote could open 250 L.A. schools to outside operators
In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses — including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities — to charter groups and other outside operators.
The plan, approved on a 6-1 vote, gives Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run some of the worst-performing schools in the city as well as the newest campuses. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte dissented.
The vote occurred after a tense, nearly four-hour debate during which supporters characterized the resolution as a moral imperative. Foes called it illegal, illogical and improper.
The action signals a historic turning point for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has struggled for decades to boost student achievement. District officials and others have said their ability to achieve more than incremental progress is hindered by the powerful teachers union, whose contract makes it nearly impossible to fire ineffective tenured teachers. Union leaders blame a district bureaucracy that they say fails to include teachers in “top-down reforms.”
“This is about Freedom”
School Choice Virginia Chairman, Delegate Chris Saxman, joined Joe Thomas on WCHV yesterday morning to discuss school choice. The two had a great discussion about education reform and parental choice in education.
If you missed it, you can listen to the segment online here.
Thank you to Joe Thomas for inviting Del. Saxman to appear on your show!
Tune In Tomorrow
School Choice Virginia Chairman, Delegate Chris Saxman, will be a guest on WCHV’s Joe Thomas Show tomorrow morning at about 6:30am. Tune in to hear the discussion on school choice efforts in Virginia!
