Study finds charter schools driven by financial and ideological grounds

[Scuba]

http://bloggingblue.com/2014/04/study-finds-charter-schools-driven-by-financial-and-ideological-grounds-than-by-sound-educations/

Conservatives are all too fond of touting charters schools as an answer to what ails public schools, but according to a report by Gordon Lafer of the Economic Policy Institute, charter schools don’t actually provide higher quality educations to their students but do provide their operators with a financial windfall.

Upon examination, it appears that charter privatization proposals are driven more by financial and ideological grounds than by sound pedagogy: National research shows that charter schools, on average, perform no better than public schools. There is thus no basis for believing that replacing traditional public schools in Milwaukee with privately run charters will result in improved education.

The “blended learning” model of education exemplified by the Rocketship chain of charter schools—often promoted by charter boosters—is predicated on paying minimal attention to anything but math and literacy, and even those subjects are taught by inexperienced teachers carrying out data-driven lesson plans relentlessly focused on test preparation. But evidence from Wisconsin, the country, and the world shows that students receive a better education from experienced teachers offering a broad curriculum that emphasizes curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking, as well as getting the right answers on standardized tests.

Blended-learning schools such as Rocketship are supported by investment banks, hedge funds, and venture capital firms that, in turn, aim to profit from both the construction and, especially, the digital software assigned to students. To fund the growth of such operations, money earmarked for Milwaukee students is diverted to national headquarters and other cities where the company seeks to expand. Furthermore, the very curricular model that Rocketship employs is shaped not simply by what is good for kids but also, in part, by what will generate profits for investors and fuel the company’s ambitious growth plans.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Well, I could've told you that!

[Jefferson23]

2. Yes indeed..and shameful too. K&R

[The Magistrate]

3. 'Charter Schools', Sir, Are Just A Scheme To Put Public Funds In Private Pockets

Talk about 'improving education' is just eyewash for mulcting the municipal and state treasuries. This has been obvious from the start.

[calimary]

16. And to get around the rules and structures and conventions they don't like.

And siphon money away from those entities that really need it in order to fatten their own wallets.

[AngryAmish]

25. Have you heard about the Gulen charter schools?

A Turkish cult runs the most charter schools in the US.

[Frustratedlady]

4. How could anybody think charter schools were for any other reason than money?

They've probably ruined public schools to the point of no return, but it is sure worth a try. I have several teachers in my family and their morale is shot. I wish they could get away from the paperwork/testing and back to honest to goodness teaching that they enjoyed so much.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Charter schools are such a scam, and they lie in their results. I understand that they never count

the dropouts of charters, which of course makes them look better, doesn't it?

[hedda_foil]

6. Sickening.

Just

[mopinko]

7. charter schools, on average, perform no better than public schools

on the things that are tested for.

most GOOD charters, like all good schools, have a well rounded curriculum that does not appear on any standardized tests.
if you cant judge public school kids, or teachers, by standardized tests, you cant turn around and use them to support your objections to charter schools.
srsly

[ancianita]

9. Charter school owners know this. It's just that THEY get public monies and public schools won't.

[mopinko]

12. in illinois, they get the same per pupil.

the disparities come about in the facilities budgets. since many are new schools, they need a building. the public schools have huge capital and maintenance budgets that are separate from the per pupil from the state.

the playing field is not as unlevel as some think, imho.
that said, yes there are evil charters out there. but ya know what? there are plenty of self dealers and double dippers everywhere in our system.
apples to apples and all that.

[ancianita]

20. Patronage, bureaucracies from state capital to district board offices must be THE REFORM TARGETS,

or nothing will change for the public's children.

"Self dealers and double dippers" are not in the classroom. That's just not true, yet there are hints that throwing out that professional baby with the bureaucratic patronage bathwater is okay. Patronage and bureaucracies -- from state capital levels down to district board offices -- will still exist under charter systems. Hit those as the reform targets and re-allocate the money for smaller class sizes and watch achievement go up.

Even worse, charter teachers need not be certified. Just anyone without training -- statistics and data management, developmental learning studies and theory, methods training, education psychology and sociology, test and measure design, curriculum development, special ed and education law -- can "come on down" as long as they have good intentions and a college degree in something -- maybe.

If you're hinting at not having unionized professional force, you're never going to get anything but a transient force of watered down curricula lip service from 'behavior manager' babysitters. You cannot buy into the idea of cheaping out on a professional educator force.

[mopinko]

22. pat quinn has been trying to dump dept of ed district managers

so far, nope.

i dont say anything about teachers. vendors are where the money is here.

as far as teachers unions, i would hope that they could be more active in continuing education, and maintaining the quality in the classroom. we need a new age of unions.
parents and teachers both need a bigger seat at the table

[ancianita]

23. They represent the people. They need to be MOST of the seats at the table. nt

[mopinko]

24. its true, but you know what?

it's hard to get people to put in the time.

worked on parent involvement at my kids school. pulling teeth. local school councils go begging for candidates.

[ancianita]

26. ANYone who takes the time to register but not the time to vote is nuts.

[AllyCat]

11. You can judge by a lot more than standardized tests.

And most of those markers are better indicators. For instance, REPORT CARDS show a student's ability OVER TIME, not just on a day or two of testing when anyone could be having a great day or a bad one. How about performance on science fair projects? Artwork? Musical aptitude? College entrance exams? Essays, writing ability, public service work? There are many things, not just standardized tests, that better show performance of a group of students and the school system that educates them.

The tests are a joke academically (but then who could know for sure since so many are not allowed to see what is on them?), used to punish schools and teachers, and test EVERYONE at the school, not the cherry-picked kids that the charters allow to be "tested".

[mopinko]

13. the selective enrollment high schools do just that.

they take a certain percentage based on scores. after that they filter in you zip code, which gives them both income levels and info on what other schools would be available to the kid.

after that the principal makes some pics.
this is the part where, horror of horror, someone can bring a good candidate to that principal's attention that might otherwise be passed over. might be their elementary principal, a community member, or, horrors, your alderman or worse, the super himself.

my kid was one of those. a misplaced decimal on her attendance records had bumped her off all the lists. thanks to the great prep work that the school had done, we were able to figure out what happened on the last day of admissions.
the recalculated score would have put her in the "must take" class.
a phone call from principal to principal, with a dose of parent praise on top, got the kid accepted on the spot.

such a bad system, i tell ya.

[ancianita]

8. Because corporate school advocates don't believe that teaching humans is as much an art as some

economic pseudo-science. Market values don't educate the whole human. Parents, teachers and anyone connected to them know this.

The momentum still lies with the public, if it will step up and stop further privatization.

[BrotherIvan]

10. Unfortunately, one thing these scions are good at is PR

People are falling for it and all the other devious tactics they are using, like the Parent Trigger movie, Waiting for Superman, and that awful person Michelle Rhee. Bill Gates and other "reformers" have a direct line to the WH and policy makers. If I had a child in school, I would be very angry at what has become of eduction. And I believe that is the point. In public school, your child might not waste the majority of his or her time on tests. At Charter Schools, behavior or learning problems are removed immediately; in a public school, a teacher must deal with over 35 students, including the severe behavior problems students have these days. It's a mess, and the profiteers have stepped into the gap in order to leech off as much as they can.

[KamaAina]

14. At least one charter chain, Imagine, is a giant real-estate scam

Here's how it works: Imagine opens charter schools in Springfield and Shelbyville. The schools rent space from Imagine Real Estate Holdings LLC, or something like that, at an exorbitant rate. The schools then come back to the Board of Ed and plead poverty because of the sky-high rent they're charging themselves! And the Board of Ed (certainly in Springfield ) buys it lock, stock and barrel, and backs the Brink's truck up to Imagine.

[malthaussen]

15. In other news, water is wet.

I wish I had the salesmanship ability to get the funding for one of these "studies."

-- Mal

[LoisB]

17. Well golly, gee; who knew? (add the sarcasm thing)

[nyabingi]

18. The drive by the rich to...

...privatize and make a profit off every aspect of human existence will be the beginning of the end for the species. This country needs new laws governing corporations and their behavior, but we can't expect that change to come from our two-party system in which both major parties accept this fate, albeit to different degrees.

Some things shouldn't be for sale...

[progressoid]

19. Filed under 'Well, duh'.

[Starry Messenger]

21. Too bad no no one listened to teachers who warned where this was going.

Now we're stuck with this shit.