School choice serves all kids—one flavor at a time

Imagine walking into a store offering 31 flavors of ice cream but being told you can only order vanilla or chocolate.

The metaphor works for a charter school mom, cross-posting as a pundit, celebrated by a policy wonk and echoed in the Show-Me state. 

Choosing only a few options off a big menu is a lot like what parents of special-needs students often face.

As the father of five special-needs students, I watched a progressive and supportive school district force one of my daughters into the following choice—either waive your rights to ESL support, or disqualify yourself from interscholastic athletics. Why this Hobson's dilemma? The magnet school for ESL didn't allow students from across the district to try out for their sports teams.

Fortunately I got a job at a great charter school, my daughter enrolled and competed on four sports teams without losing ESL support. That's a choice that worked out well.

On the other hand, Lexie Weck, a special needs student in Arizona, has lost her choice to attend a supportive private school because the Supreme Court of the state ruled that the voucher program that supported Lexie's enrollment violates the state constitution—analysis at GoBash.org.

Home educators, charter school advocates, private school parents, and political conservatives understand a basic principle: The government can give us nothing that didn't belong to us in the first place. As in:

• All public funds—produced by taxes, not by some mysterious government account
  
• Educational Choice—has been the parents' prerogative from time out of mind
  
• Personal rights—are protected by the government, but endowed by a Creator
  

and so on...

If vouchers are unconstitutional, then change the constitution.

If vouchers alienate the Teachers Unions, then abandon the unions.

If vouchers serve students and families well, then find ways to make them sustainable and equitable so that more students will have more excellent choices and the invisible hand of the marketplace will make all schools better.

Otherwise, why even offer 31 flavors?

Demythologizer in Chief?

If you didn't have time to watch President Obama respond to online questions this week, you might have missed a quick but important response when asked to define charter schools. Kudos to President Obama and Arne Duncan for getting the substance right. The President's response, in addition to being smooth, unscripted, and on point, also revealed that the President is aware of the many illegitimate criticisms about our schools. Let's summarize his definition and adopt this as a 30-second manifesto of the charter school movement in 2009. If these seven truth could permeate the public consciousness, the charter school movement could begin to be evaluated for what it is, not smeared and feared for what its not.

The National Alliance has posted the full text on their blog, but here's my summary linked to relevant quotes.

Charter Schools:

1. are public schools.
   
2. are laboratories of innovation who partner with an authorizer institution
   
3. must meet state standards and regulations—with flexibility
   
4. produce high results
   
5. are non-selective—not cherry picking students
   
6. are in high demand
   
7. must perform or face closure

Quotes from the President:

1—“in most states you now have a mechanism where you set up a public school -- so this is not private schools, these are public schools receiving public dollars”

2—“but they have a charter that allows them to experiment and try new things…and typically, they're partnering up with some sort of non-for-profit institution.”

3—“They are still going to have to meet all the various requirements of a state-mandated curriculum; they're still subject to the same rules and regulations and accountability….but they've got some flexibility in terms of how they design it. Oftentimes they are getting parents to participate in new ways in the school. So they become laboratories of new and creative learning.”

4—“Now, there are some charter schools that are doing a great job, and you are seeing huge increases in student performance.”

5—“One last point I want to make about these charters -- they're non-selective, so it's not a situation where they're just cherry-picking the kids who are already getting the highest grades; they've got to admit anybody.”

6—“And typically there are long waiting lines, so they use some sort of lottery to admit them.”

7—“Some of them are doing great work, huge progress and great innovation; and there's some charters that haven't worked out so well. And just like bad -- or regular schools, they need to be shut down if they're not doing a good job.”

 

 

Colorado Charter Schools Week is Coming SOON!

March 30-April 2 is Colorado Charter Schools Week. The Colorado League of Charter Schools has organized a week of events at the state capitol in Denver. There will be capitol tours and speakers on the capitol steps. Groups of charter school children and parents will rally with legislators who support charter schools in a main event on April 2nd at 11:30 a.m.

Cynic Alert! A great new idea from a teacher's union!

DISCLAIMER: I am openly opposed to the political and legal self-protection practiced by the AFT and NEA, even though I have held membership in both those organizations: Unions have done many good things for workers, teachers, and society generally. I will not throw out the baby even though there is a lot of stinky bath water that deserves draining.

Now, on to the cynicism. In response to the aggressive and antagonistic posture that Chancellor Michelle Rhee of Washington D.C. has adopted towards the education establishment, the Washington Teachers Union has proposed a new contract and school leadership strategy called United for for DC Kids.

Some of the elements include:

• An expedited process to dismiss underperforming teachers. (but don't put too much stock in the "expedited", "dismiss" or "underperforming" language.
  
• A commitment to pay-for-performance. (so long as the pay is a lot more and the performance levels are very accessible.
  
• Support for research-based innovation
  

Here was the most laughable or disturbing component on the union's website:

"The Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) has submitted a bold and progressive teacher contract proposal to District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). If implemented, the elements in this proposal will dramatically improve teaching and learning in our schools."

Why does it take a new contract proposal to improve teaching and learning in our schools? The unions, at local and national levels, consistently elevate the importance of classroom teachers. In this, they are correct. But their support for teachers is totally asymmetrical. If excellent teachers are the salvation of teachers, then poor teachers are equally the damnation of learning. I'll bet you never hear a union leader say that!

Here's a truth: teacher evaluation and dismissal is enormously complex and highly localized. Principals are not great at evaluation and dismissal in part because the teacher unions have intentionally limited their power. As a charter school principal, I am just about as proud  of my performance at helping ineffective teachers move on as the great teachers I have hired and retained. Teachers' unions are not interested in giving principals more responsibility/authority, but in giving teachers more protection.

More on teacher evaluation in a future post...

The Merit Pay Chorus is Swelling...

Sorry to borrow a tired Obama campaign metaphor, but the President's recent speech on education did add another powerful voice to the wave of interest for alternative/merit pay (or strategic compensation) as we are calling it at the Classical Academy. Karin Piper, an active charter school proponent and observer adds her voice in a post titled Bring On Merit Pay! at her charter school examiner. As we have written here, here, here, here, and here, the charter school community is leading the way on teacher pay innovation. The traditional public school system is locked, glued, strapped, and immobilized in every other way by the slavish teacher union devotion to equity. Merit pay isn't a quick fix, but those who dismiss it prematurely are stuck defending a system that's demonstrably broken.

We appreciate that larger systems such as Denver Public Schools and Jeffco are experimenting with merit pay, but even their best or promised efforts are still deeply compromised by the existing union power structure. To truly test merit pay in public education takes a charter school. As Karin says, bring it on!

 

Asperger's #2 Emotional Vulnerability

This is the second in a series of posts about traits that I experienced as a student with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). If you don't know much about AS, there are lots of great books and websites out there. I'll pull together a resource list at the end of the series.

Lesson #2: My Emotions Undermine Me

Intellectually, I can be a survivor.  Emotionally, I am often the first one “voted off the island.” I may present a flat affect most of the time, but that is only an attempt to keep control on the most erratic aspect of my personality.  I have learned that emotional control is prized by every teacher in every classroom–the cardinal sin of our school culture is to lose emotional control.  My inflexibility and insecurity mean I live in constant fear of catastrophic failure.  As Karen Williams observed, “Children with AS rarely seem relaxed and are easily overwhelmed when things are not as their rigid views dictate.”  Living with the constant fear of the next embarrassing failure can be incapacitating.  This is partly why the incidence of depression and suicide is elevated for individuals with Asperger’s.  Given the Hobson’s choice of keeping emotions unexpressed and succumbing to depression and self-injury, many Aspies accept the social stigma of losing composure and social status.  This is why so many of us with Asperger’s embody “fragile vulnerability and a pathetic childishness.”  Because I am so vulnerable, I need you to assertively protect me from emotional assault, and the consequences of my own emotional frailty.

1.           Provide a quick exit.  If I feel trapped in a situation where my emotional state is spiraling downward, I must have a safe and guaranteed exit.  Give me a code word, a permanent pass, or a “get out of class free” card.  No matter how important the academic or social lesson may be, there is absolutely no way I will learn or retain anything if I am frantic to preserve my composure.  Robert Sylwester points out that emotional safety must precede learning.  Psychologists know it too.  If I fear my social/emotional safety, learning is already forfeit.  Please don’t sacrifice my emotional identity for a lost cause.  Let me retreat and learn another day.

2.           Designate a safe haven.  Depending on the school environment, I might need a quiet corner of the classroom, a special chair, or removal to a resource room, counseling center or library chair.  Pre-determine the acceptable locations, in a cascade order and teach me the order.  “Go to the resource room first.  If it is empty, go to the library.   If Mrs. Grey is not there, wait in the front office.”  Assure me that I will not be penalized or punished for going to my safe haven.  Protect me from ridicule or stigma by explaining to my classmates that I am permitted and encouraged to manage my learning needs by relocating when necessary.

3.           Protect me from emotional injury.  In the emotional herd called school, I am the weak and crippled.  Other students can sense and see my vulnerability, and at their worst, they act like emotional predators–attacking my weakness.  They mock me subtly, to avoid detection, but I’m too literal to get it–so they escalate the insults and sarcasm until I break down or you break in.  In most cases, you discern the pattern before I do.  If you tolerate the bullying, or worse yet, participate in it yourself, you make it clear that I am fair game.  Please do the opposite.  I’m the endangered species in your class, deserving and needing your protection.  I’m not confident or sophisticated enough to guard myself.  I’m counting on you.

 

More Secrets to Charter School Success

In Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America, by Jay Mathews (Algonquin Books, 329 pp., $14.95), Mr. Mathews chronicles the success of David Levin and Michael Feinberg in created the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) model that has turned into the most successful model for charter replication.

It is interesting to note that one of the main reasons for charter legislation was the hope that charters would create successful educational strategies that could be scaled in non-charter public schools. While KIPP has been extremely successful, few districts have attempted to replicate the model. This brings up an interesting question for society. If we have a proven model for success in educating students where non-charter schools have failed, then why aren't non-charter public schools replicating the model?

Asperger's #1 Brittle Intelligence

This is the first in a series of posts about traits that I experienced as a student with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). If you don't know much about AS, there are lots of great books and websites out there. Thanks to anyone who arrived at this blog after attending the session today.

In brief, AS is a pervasive developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. It looks similar to high-functioning autism, but is a distinct diagnosis. The number of cases of diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome has been rising consistently for the last two decades.  Here's a primer on one trait common to people with AS—normal or above average intelligence with narrow interests:

====================

My intelligence is brittle.  It may be strong, but my knowledge is inflexible.  I may know more facts and details about a subject than even you do, but that does not mean I comprehend them.  Like the Star Trek android Data and his antecedent Mr. Spock, I combine voluminous informational capacity with spectacular emotional ignorance [immaturity].  I think and learn in ways that are so rigid they become irrational.  I may know every math fact on the timed test, but if you change the color of the paper on which it is printed, I lose composure and can’t concentrate.  My speech seems unusually adult, because I hear and mimic phrases and intonations perfectly.  Then, when I go off script, my literal thinking and failure to grasp idioms make me seem like an English language learner who lost his phrasebook.  Not only can I not think “outside the box”, I spend most of my time trying to figure out the box.  There is safety and predictability in the box.  If I can only figure out the size, texture, social rules, schedules and dozens of other characteristics that govern the box called your classroom then maybe I can get through another day without a major meltdown.  If not, watch out.  Fortunately, there are specific strategies you can use to scaffold my brittle intelligence:

1.                     Use concrete language.  I misunderstand abstractions, allusions and idioms.  They distract and confuse me.  If you must, explain them to me in literal terms and check to see if I can translate them into useful understanding.

2.                     Incorporate visuals.  I am so literal that the symbolism of language can escape me.  Adding visuals–drawings, flow charts, maps, or pictures will amplify and consolidate my comprehension.

3.                     Be consistent.  I crave sameness.  I invest so much energy figuring out how to navigate your expectations, homework formats, lesson style and classroom management that I will give up and withdraw if you change things up.  What may seem boring and predictable to you is life support to me.  I appreciate repetition and redundancy–they give me the confidence I desperately need.

California Charter Conference Day 2

We had a great day at the California Charter Schools Association annual conference. Brian Carpenter was busy as well with several sessions. The three of us jumped out for lunch and had a great conversation about the next generation of charter school governance. Brian is one of the great authors and explainers of the charter school movement, and TCA is an example of the kind of good governance that Brian preaches.

Our sessions on Life Cycle Leadership, Strategic Compensation, and Asperger's Syndrome were well received. Participants were especially impressed with the role teachers played in developing the compensation model we use at TCA.

Tomorrow, we tackle the dreaded Triangle of Tension. How can charter schools balance facility costs, teacher salaries, and low class sizes? That's the topic for tomorrow.

California Conference Day Starts With a Little Hitch

After a three hour delay at the airport, we made it to the California Charter Conference. The delay did give us time to do a little work at the airport before getting on the plane, but it also meant missing lunch and one of the sessions (not one we were going to present).

I did make a good session on financial measures and charter schools. The interesting thing is that it promised a tool kit, which really wasn't the kind of tool kit that I expected, but it did give some suggestions for what a financial scorecard could look like for a charter school.

The good news is that our school meets all of the financial measures they proposed. So, now I'm thinking about what a financial scorecard might look like for The Classical Academy. You might want to think about what a scorecard would look like for your school.

We are now up and getting ready for our ten minute walk to the conference center and a light breakfast before the day's presentations begin. We'll have three sessions today--all in the afternoon, so it will be a busy and crazy afternoon.

One hope is that our strategic compensation session and our model can help The Classical Academy gain a portion of the Federal Grant money to support merit pay systems. We believe that our system can greatly benefit charters and later school districts around the U.S. A.

Merit Pay? New York says "No Thanks"

I came across an interesting tidbit while reading a survey of teacher contracts in New York State. As many are aware, the New York model is a mixture of strength (the Regent's exam system) and appalling lows (the policy of holding bad teachers in "rubber rooms" where they can collect checks while doing no instruction.

So I was interested to read in a survey conducted for the New York State School Boards Association the following: 

• Is compensation for teachers in any way based on performance? N= 517 
  

Yes 7 (1.4%) 
No 510 (98.6%) 

• In light of the No Child Left Behind Act, does the district use any type of incentive to attract highly qualified teachers? N= 514  
  

Yes 27 (5.3%) 
No 487 (94.7%) 

So if you are looking for a healthy body, 98.6 is still a good number. But if you are looking for a healthy teacher compensation model that honors excellent performance and attracts the best teachers, stay away from New York!

Obama Loves Charters--Vouchers, Not So Much

President Obama, personally and through his surrogate Arne Duncan, has come out strongly in favor of charter school.

Duncan proposes 20 "enterprise zones" for charter schools.

Obama supports charter schools and merit pay (which is really only thriving in the charter school environment). As charter advocates, we welcome their support and top cover.

However, the current spending bill making its way to the president for signature contains a possible poison pill. It includes language that would eviscerate the public school voucher system in Washington D.C. This places President Obama on the horns of a delicious dilemma. If he signs the bill into law, he will slash the funds used by two students to attend Sidwell Friends school, the elite private academy where his daughters attend. If he refuses to sign he angers the Democrat Party majority that included the rider in the legislation. This is not a trivial decision.

If choice is right for charter schools, why not vouchers? If we have a trillion dollars to spend stimulating the economy through grants and earmarks, why not stimulate the economy by giving more students the superior education offered by many charter and private schools?

California Charter Conference 2009 and The Classical Academy

We will be in California the next few days presenting on behalf of our school, The Classical Academy. TCA is the largest brick and mortar charter in Colorado, and we've learned some things in the school's eleven year history.

TCA has successful athletic teams, an outstanding music program, had an average ACT score of almost 25 this past year.

TCA has over 1,500 elementary students on three campuses that feed the junior high and high school.

TCA has also implemented a strong merit pay (we call it strategic compensation) system for teachers.

TCA is innovative in Charlotte Mason style education, which is unique in the public school world. We are currently piloting a program with only 16 children in first grade classrooms, which will expande to grades 2 and 3 over the next few years.

The school also has successfully issued over $50 million in bonds to build its facilities, including a dual enrollment program that will begin in the fall with Pikes Peak Community College (on their land). This innovative program will provide a K-14 education all on one site if parents choose that direction.

As we've evolved and grown, we've also faced the challenges of life cycle processes. The school began as a sort of "mom and pop" organization largely run by a few administrators and a lot of volunteers. We've had to work through a lot of growing pains to figure out what it means to be a school of 2,600+ FTE (over 2,800 planned for next year). So we understand a lot about the necessary changes as well as the importance of good board governance through that growth.

We'll bring these insights to California in our four sessions as we assist the charter community nationwide to provide high quality education to our kids.

The Reasons Merit Pay Will Work

President Obama has again come out in favor of merit pay. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes grant money for merit pay. Here is why merit pay will work and how it will work best.

Merit pay will work because:

1. It rewards those who perform
2. People are motivated in part by financial compensation

Merit pay will work if:

1. It rewards the right outcomes
2. It ignores checkbox mentality

How do you know if you are rewarding the right outcomes? Some of this varies by school and some will be consistent across schools.

For example, academic achievement is a basic. It's fundamental. All schools should require this. However, this is not enough. In fact, a good merit system also eliminates those who don't meet the basic requirements. Therefore, academic achievement cannot be a primary component of merit. Merit must fit under the umbrella of strategic goals.

Because development of character is so important to academic achievement. It is likely that some elements of good character should be part of the merit pay system.

Things that should not be part of merit pay are:

• Additional degrees
• Licensing or certification

Instead we need to add things that some might call subjective such as student engagement and student learning. Test scores alone cannot measure this and so the fears about merit pay being tied only to standardized test results is real and appropriate. A recent article in Education Week noted that many charter school teachers do not have advanced degrees or licensing, but almost double the number of charter teachers attended top universities and colleges for their degrees. While this doesn't guarantee results, it may prove as a more valuable indicator of future success.

If applied correctly and strategically merit pay will work. It will require the courage to set a base pay that requires that teachers to help their students learn and that provides additional rewards for additional improvement or above normal involvement in training students to achieve more. If merit pay becomes an excuse to get an additional degree or to reward other activities that do not produce desired outcomes, then it will fail.

What is the Secret to running an effective charter school?

Secret is a funny word. Sometimes secrets aren't really that secret, but are really just a combination of obvious statements put together in one place.

How about this for a list?

• An engaging teaching staff
• Good financial management and oversight
• A rational board that maintains a strategic direction
• A supportive parent community
• An administrative staff that supports the mission
• A cooperative authorizer
  

Students learn when they are engaged. The school thrives when it's not constantly worried about going out of business. A rational board can strategize and ignore the peripheral. Supportive parents find ways to support their children and the school, even when they don't agree with everything that happens. An administrative staff that realizes its role as a support team for the engaging teaching staff doesn't exist for itself. A good authorizer will understand and support the school, even if it isn't "charter friendly."

Some of these elements are more or less important at various stages of the charter's growth and development, but all are there and helpful at all stages to one degree or another.

Charter High Schools are Three Times Better than Typical Public High Schools

I guess that headline is a little unfair, but it probably got your attention. Attention, or at least positive attention, is not something that charter schools get enough of. Charter schools make up only 5% of high schools nationwide, but 18% of the top 100 high schools chosen by U.S. News and World Report were charter high schools. That's over three times their percentage of the population. Now, will other charters and other public schools learn from these high quality charters, what is their secret?

Gates Advocates Revising Caps

Bill Gates recently summarized his foundation's work with innovative school models.

Here are some interesting findings.

New schools performed better than existing schools.
Schools work better when principals can pick teachers.
Schools that take more radical steps to improve culture work better.

He also said that states should revise caps on the number of charter schools.

If the Gates' Foundation's results are any indication, then it should show public schools that they need to work to radically change the way they do business, and it should motivate charters to continue to create environments where great teaching occurs.

Information taken from the February 4, 2009 edition of Education Week.