Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

[Jeff Bigler <jcb@mit.edu>]

On 7/9/2012 11:39 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
> Again, I'll say what I said to Marty - Do you guys make this up as you go along? 

As a matter of fact, yes, I do gather evidence and draw my own
conclusions as I go along, and yes, I do make up my own email messages
as I go along.  Doesn't everyone?

> The lottery is over the entire district. In Providence the ethnic makeup is essentially 25 percent each of white, Hispanic, black, and Asian. The school we partner with mirrors that mix - with a slight preponderance of blacks - probably because it is located next to what was a few years ago a predominantly black housing project. I would guess that there was a greater awareness of the existence of the school and hence a larger number of entries in the lottery. That housing project has recently transitioned to a Hispanic majority so I would expect that that in a few years that will be reflected in the lottery as well. Again, as I said to Marty, a student may be suspended from the school for behavior problems but not deported to another school - it may be a charter, but it is still part of the public school system.

OK.  Here's some data for the case study (which, as I understand it, is
the euphemism for anecdotal evidence in the scientific world) of the
charter school I taught in the year before last.

The charter school I taught in, Salem Academy Charter School (SACS) is
considered its own district; from what I can tell, this seems to be the
way things are done in Massachusetts.  I looked up the NCLB report cards
for several charter schools in MA, and the enrollment and demographic
numbers are the same for the school as for the district.

For SACS, the "sending district" (the city of Salem) was required to bus
students to the charter school from within city limits according to the
same rules.  The school was publicly funded on a per capita basis.  The
proportion of students in the charter school equaled the proportion of
the city's school budget that was allocated to the charter school.
Supplemental outside funding came from donors, applying for grants, etc.

Massachusetts laws require charter schools to allow students from
anywhere in the state, but prohibit students from out-of-state.  The
student population of SACS is about 75% students from Salem, and about
25% from the neighboring city of Lynn (where I teach now).  Salem is a
small city of 40,000.  Lynn is a medium-sized city of 90,000.

> From the NCLB report cards for all three districts:

                                 Salem    Lynn    SACS    Wtd. Ave.
Minority (non-white) students     43%      75%     48%      51%
English as a second language      24%      53%     21%      31%
Low-income students               55%      79%     42%      61%

(Wtd. Ave. is a 75%/25% weighted average of Salem/Lynn, the student pool
that SACS is drawn from.)

> What evidence do you have that anyone "gamed" the lottery? That is quite a charge to make without some kind of evidence - even anecdotal.

At SACS, it did not appear that there was any "gaming" of the lottery
itself.  The lottery had four stages.  In order, they were:  1.
applicants from Salem who had sibling(s) at SACS.  2. applicants from
other cities and towns who had sibling(s) at SACS.  3. applicants from
Salem who did not have siblings at SACS.  4. all other applicants.

Where I think the differences in demographics come from is that the
school is marketed and advertised as an academically superior
alternative to the neighborhood schools.  The marketing and advertising
is, logically, done in places where they are likely to reach parents who
value academic achievement and want their children to have better
academics than the neighborhood schools can provide.  SACS expects
parents to be more involved in their children's education than the
neighborhood schools do, so they pre-select for parents who place a
higher value on academics and have the time and inclination to be more
involved with the school.  I believe this is why SACS has a smaller
percentage of low-income students and smaller percentage of ESL students
than either of the neighborhood districts where the students come from.

I never saw SACS formally expel students, though students were regularly
suspended for infractions that varied from cell phone use to bullying to
vandalism.  There were students who left the school after being advised
that the school did not look like a good fit, and that they were more
likely to be successful in another setting.  So while the school may not
have kicked students out, they were able to get rid of students who did
not pull their own weight by advising the parents that the student was
unlikely to make it to graduation if he continued at SACS.

Because SACS required passing at least 70% of the benchmarks for a
course in order to pass the course, and the high schools in Salem and
Lynn require a minimum grade of 60% to pass, students who failed classes
at SACS with a grade above 60% could transfer to one of the neighborhood
high schools and receive academic credit for having passed those
courses.  This provided a path out of the school for the students who
were in danger of not graduating in four years.

While most of my experience with charter schools comes from SACS, I have
looked into other area charter schools.  Several years prior, I had
accepted a physics position at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School
(MVRCS), which is widely acclaimed as one of the early successful
charter schools in eastern Massachusetts (opened in 1998).  After nine
days of professional development with the faculty and staff prior to the
opening of school, it was clear to me for many reasons that the school
was a bad fit for me.  When I described several of my best (in terms of
student engagement and outcome) hands-on, participatory lessons, I
received a cold response of, "well, you couldn't do something like that
here".  After discussing my concerns at length with the head and
assistant head of school, I resigned.  The following year, I interviewed
at Prospect Hill Academy.  I passed the first two interviews and taught
an "audition" lesson for them.  However, discussions with the head of
school over the content of the "audition" lesson made it clear that her
priorities regarding what and how her students learned were much like
those at MVCRS, and the school would be a poor fit for me.

I really wanted to believe in the charter school model.  At the 2010 AP
Annual Conference (APAC), I argued for the charter school model with
teachers from neighborhood schools who were quoting the "party line"
from their unions, spewing misinformation about how charter schools are
funded.  While I would make the same arguments today, I am no longer a
champion of the charter school movement as it currently exists in the
US.  As I described in my previous post, the charter schools seem to be
turning out students with high test scores who can't do much other than
what was on the tests.  Plus [danger: prejudiced statement ahead] I've
found that the teachers and administrators at the charter schools I've
dealt with seem to be fundamentalist Stepford educators.  In their
opinion, everything the school does is Exactly The Way Teaching Should
Be, and anyone who wants do do something else Just Doesn't Understand
Why Our Way Is Better.  They turn out students who can get _into_
college, but they are ultimately not interested in discussions of how to
ensure that their students can _stay_ in college and ultimately earn a
degree.  [end of prejudiced statement].

-- 
Jeff Bigler
Lynn English HS; Lynn, MA, USA
"Magic" is what we call Science before we understand it.