Assigned Reading

Education Sector’s Kevin Carey has an excellent piece on the current state of educational reform.

Teachers unions, meanwhile, also miscalculated on charters. They largely got away with opposing NCLB by positioning themselves against business interests and a Republican president. Fighting the heroic personae of the Dave Levins and Mike Feinbergs of the world was much harder, because it meant being against the great charter schools that people knew in their bones were making the world a better place. The parallel rise of mayoral reform efforts in heavily Democratic cities like New York and D.C. meant the unions had to engage simultaneously on two rhetorical and policy fronts. Over time, the mayoral control people and the New Schools people got to know one another and figured out that even if their respective approaches to education reform sat at opposite ends of the centralized / decentralized spectrum, they had many common convictions–and enemies. It was only a matter of time before, in the form of people like Michelle Rhee, the two groups would converge.

Sometimes people want to open the door, they just don’t know how far. School leaders in Providencetown, on the Cape, have run into such a dilemma. They believe sex among children is inevitable, and therefore want to make condoms available for free, and without parent permission, in their schools. But at what age should condoms be provided? High schoolers? Middle school kids? Rather than make a tough, subjective decision, P-town officials decided to make condoms available to any kid who asks, including elementary students.

From an AP article:

Provincetown School Board Chairman Peter Grosso says because there is no set age when sexual activity starts, the committee decided not to set an age for condom availability.

And there lies the problem. Sexual activity doesn’t just “start”. Those who engage in sexual activity make the choice to do so. And as responsible adults — parents, teachers, nurses, counselors — we need to be black and white when guiding students toward making the right choices. And for tweens and early teens, some choices are the right choices. They shouldn’t smoke, drink, use drugs, eat too much junk food, drive a car, swim without a lifeguard, or stay up too late. And they shouldn’t have sex.

Providing these kids with condoms is shameful. Doing so without telling parents should be criminal.

East Greenwich is taking a giant step in its efforts to more wisely spend its education dollars. The School Committee voted 4 to 3 to end its relationship with the local union and outsource custodial services.

As one can imagine, unionists are not happy. Supporters came out in full force to disrupt the school committee meeting Tuesday night. Arriving early, they chanted, addressed the audience on their own, and refused to clear the room for the regularly scheduled executive session. According to the website my02818.com, the lone police officer at the meeting called for assistance to ensure the safety of the school committee members as they moved to a separate room for executive session.

After School Committee Chairwoman Jean Ann Guliano announced the vote to go into executive session, no one left. For the next 25 minutes, people got up to speak to the crowd while School Committee members appeared impassive.

Finally, additional police officers appeared and they escorted School Committee members down the hall to the library, followed by a group of chanting, horn-blowing union supporters.

Police stopped the parade at the top of the hallway, prompting renewed chanting. For the next 45 minutes, while the Committee met in closed session, police stood guard and union supporters waited, their numbers growing.

School Committee members in East Greenwich are making tough choices. With huge cuts in state aid, local communities need to be more efficient with tax dollars, and spend the limited funds where it will have the most impact on kids and learning. Privatizing cleaning services is a sensible option. Like busing and cafeteria services, districts can negotiate limited-time contracts through competitive bidding, and quality of service and cost will determine whether these contracts are renewed.

The hostility at last night’s meeting is an example of consequences of the difficult decisions school committee members make on behalf of taxpayers and kids. It appears the members in East Greenwich are up to the task.

Kudos to Commissioner Deborah Gist, who listened to parents and supporters of Highlander Charter, and granted it a three-year extension. While Highlander has areas in which growth is needed, the school has been outperforming Providence schools, and deserves to remain open as a positive choice for city students.

Sunday’s Providence Journal featured a front page story about a partnership between the city of East Providence and Bradley Hospital. The program establishes classrooms in neighborhood schools for students with significant needs who would otherwise be bused to Bradley. The article’s author, Alisha Pina, celebrates the program as a win for everyone. Children go to school with their siblings and friends in the neighborhood, and the district realizes substantial financial savings in these troubled times.

Classroom teachers will tell you they are supportive but cautious of such programs, and for good reason. We should make every effort to educate kids in their neighborhood schools, and as federal law requires, do so in least restrictive environments. But we cannot succeed without significant special education support.

Budget cuts have left districts looking for new ways to save money. “Mainstreaming” of children with special needs has at times been instituted to cut costs. Placing children with special needs in regular classrooms with minimal support will save plenty of money, but is a disservice to all children in the classroom. Without the support of special education professionals, special needs students will require a significant amount of the classroom teacher’s time, depriving other students of the attention they need.

Most classroom teachers would champion an integrated program with the proper support to ensure all students succeed. When full-time co-teaching becomes part-time, or when districts replace special education teachers with instructional assistants, the mainstream model becomes one of cost savings rather than providing what is best for kids.

The Bradley partnership in East Providence sounds good. A significant number of professionals, both from Bradley Hospital and the district, are included in the model. Parents and classroom teachers should be vigilant in ensuring the district maintains the full-time support needed.

Nowhere in Pina’s long article did we learn the opinions of any East Providence classroom teachers. Because of this, we should remain cautious.

Gregory Kane, columnist for the Washington Examiner, ends his most recent column this way:

When will critics of charter schools just be honest and admit that they just don’t want them to work?

Exactly. No one expects every charter to work. Some will fail, while many, like Chicago’s Urban Prep, will be wildly successful. The failure of many, but not all, of our urban public schools suggests we need to find alternative ways to educate children. Charter schools provide those alternatives.

Most who oppose charters do so not out of any concern for the children, but for the employees. For the most part, they are union supporters. Otherwise, charter opponents would be just as critical of the failing public schools.

The implication is that because charter schools don’t work, then we shouldn’t have them. What the charter school bashers don’t realize is that if this logic applies to charter schools, then it applies to failing public schools that aren’t charter schools as well. They clearly aren’t working; that’s why proponents of charter schools support charter schools in the first place.

Protecting the status quo means hoping charters will fail.

The Growing Readers Initiative is an excellent example of the positive impact charters can have on public schools. This program is a collaborative effort between The Learning Community and Central Falls Public Schools.

The Growing Readers Initiative is a professional development partnership between an urban school district and a charter school – one of the few examples nationally of such collaboration. The Learning Community, a K–8 charter school founded in 2004, has developed a coordinated program to build strong readers in the early grades. Through the Growing Readers Initiative, teachers, coaches, specialists, and administrators from the charter school are working alongside their 
colleagues in the neighboring Central Falls School District to share best 
practices teacher-to-teacher, share 
systems of support and data analysis, and encourage a team approach to 
student achievement.

The collaborative approach, and its initial results, are shared in the current issue of Voices in Urban Education, published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown.

Surprising was the RI Future post headline Victory for Central Falls teachers! when they agreed to Dr. Gallo’s transformation model last month. This was the very same model the teachers union had rejected back in February that resulted in the mass firing.

But there doesn’t seem to be any victory post over at RI Future concerning the contract agreed to yesterday by East Providence teachers. Approved by more than 3 to 1, the contract makes permanent the salary cuts and healthcare contributions enacted by the school committee early last year. Teachers also agreed to longer school days, longer school years, and in increase in class size at the secondary level.

Could it be that the teachers, in general, understand the financial woes of the city? Or that the majority of the union membership did not support the hardline position of its leadership. Perhaps, the East Providence teachers saw what happened at Central Falls high school, and realized concessions were worth job security.

Regardless, the teachers in EP did the right thing. The paychecks may be a little lighter, but in these tough economic times, it’s much better than none at all.

The idiocy in California seems to be never-ending. While the state faces a real threat of bankruptcy, Los Angeles Unified school board is more interested in the governing of Arizona. Apparently it believes the Arizona immigration law is wrong, and passed a resolution condemning the law. But, of course, there’s more. According to a Fox News report, a school district spokesman said:

The Board of Education directed the Superintendent to ensure that LAUSD civics and history classes discuss the recent laws enacted in Arizona in the context of the American values of unity, diversity, and Equal Protection for all.

The board wants the Arizona law taught in the same way slavery, Jim Crowe laws, and anti-semitism is taught in civics classes. The board also directed the superintendent to “curtail contracts with Arizona-based businesses and district travel to the state.”

Los Angeles schools are some of the most troubled in the country. The board should stay focused on its mission, and not be distracted by personal politics.