FL charter won't keep poor students. Plans to teach public school teachers how to teach.

[madfloridian]

McKeel charter schools are high-ranking schools, identified as such by the state and rewarded with a state grant of $250,000. They have now applied to teach others how to teach since they are rated so highly.

And there it is. No one is calling them out on the fact that it's easy to be a high-performing school if you send over 12% of your students back to the public schools.

McKeel Academy doing another teachers’ workshop

LAKE PLACID — After hosting a seminar in February, members McKeel Academy of Technology in Lakeland will return Monday to host another seminar at the Heartland Educational Consortium in Lake Placid.

...Black said McKeel Academy of Technology made a proposal to the Florida Department of Education to have a program to pass on best practices to teachers and school administrators. Since McKeel was identified as a high-performing charter school in 2011, it qualified for a $250,000 Florida Department of Education Instructional Best Practices grant to pass best practices to teachers and administrators of schools graded C, D or F.

The program has held workshops in Kissimmee, Riviera Beach, Riverview, Palatka and The Villages. The workshop in Lake Placid hopes to reach peers in DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee counties.

As I said it is easy to score well when you do not have any low performers. They have been sent back to the public schools.

FL charter school gets praise and high ranking..yet sent 12.5% of students back to public schools.

So there you have it...one set of schools getting taxpayer money gets to pick and choose their students, the traditional public schools don't get that luxury. If schools get public money, they should keep the students and work with them.

...School Board member Frank O’Reilly wants district official to start tracking how many students are transferred from charter schools to public schools as a result of their grades, social economic status or behavioral issues. During a work session this morning, O’Reilly read a letter sent by Harold Maready, superintendent of McKeel charter schools, to a parent about their third grader who flunked the FCAT.

“Your child does not meet the criteria to be a McKeel student,” O’Reilly read.

If public schools were to reject students based on their academic performance, then they could be A schools, too, O’Reilly said.

“We must take every child that comes through that door whether we like it or not,” O’Reilly said. ‘‘That is a public school paid by taxpayers’ dollars, and I like to remind Mr. Maready of that.”

Maready admitted they did not keep problem students.

Maready Defends McKeel's Policies

Maready acknowledges students are dismissed for failing the test.

"If we didn't have a waiting list, we would keep them," he said.

McKeel has a waiting list of 4,500 students for 2,500 slots, Maready said.

Students who don't meet McKeel's expectations are transferred to schools within their home districts.

"We are not equipped to serve all kids," Maready said. "Do you keep a child who is failing in your school when you've tried remediation? You look at that and you try to do what's best for the kids. We have limited resources."

Not equipped to serve all kids? Why the hell not? They get taxpayer money, but they only have to serve whom they choose.

It's disturbing to think that they get an award for being a top school when there are so many good public schools around.....schools that do not have the luxury of sending underperforming students anywhere else.

And it is infuriating for them to speak of "training" other teachers who are just as good or better.

[valerief]

1. These for-profit-only factories are such scams!!! nt

[Rod Beauvex]

2. Why don't they just take that $250,000

And spend it on Public Schools? Then we wouldn't need charter schools.

[BrotherIvan]

4. But, but ... profit!

Charter schools are a scam. If your child is below average, they will be kicked out. If your child is gifted, they would do better in a public school with college level classes or AP. It is a scam.

[merrily]

7. It doesn't have to be that way. I have not checked personally, but

someone who called me during Boston's mega campaign for Mayor said that Boston does not permit charter schools to throw out a student who does not perform well. If true, then it's a local matter about which your voice and your activism may matter more than it does on the national level.

[jwirr]

29. Some states require parochial schools to follow state regulations or their children have to do extra

work to get into high schools. And you are right it would not have to be that way but we know that many of the red states will never require that from their charter schools. That means that many students will not have equal education. The results of poor education is more poverty and more unemployment.

[yeoman6987]

27. Aren't Charter schools smaller with smaller class size?

Why would you take an achademic ally gifted student from that environment and put them in an overcrowded public school? Does not make sense from a parents perspective.

[jwirr]

30. Advanced classes that get college credit for their work would be one reason. It would depend on

rather charter schools offer this.

[merrily]

32. Giving tax $$ to private schools doesn't make sense from a taxpayer's perspective.

[world wide wally]

9. That would make too much sense.

You'll notice they don't teach logic in school these days.

[madfloridian]

15. As of 2013 FL charters got 91 million for maintenance...public schools got zero for several years.

I don't have the latest figures for this year

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022774952

Sunday, April 28, 2013 8:41pm

Charter schools will receive $91 million for their construction and maintenance needs, state lawmakers agreed late Sunday.

The figure represents a $36 million increase over last year's allocation. But it falls just short of the $100 million proposed by Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida House.

....The one-time allocation will come out of the Public Education Capital Outlay fund. PECO dollars are generated from the state's gross receipts tax on cable, electric and land-line telephone bills.

...For the past several years, the Legislature has given charter schools an extra boost through the PECO fund. Those dollars used to go to traditional public schools, too. But because fewer people are using land-line phones, the fund has been slowly dwindling. State economists predict it will eventually dry up.

In 2011 charters got 51 million, public schools zero.

It's shameful

[FlatStanley]

3. I don't call them sharter schools for nothing.

[SidDithers]

17. ...

Sid

[FlatStanley]

18. ...

[FlatStanley]

20. Are you a fan of charter schools

Or am I supposed to be? Because you're starting to creep me out.

[SidDithers]

21. Don't you mean "sharter schools"?...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4031732
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1124&pid=7776
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4445057

C'mon, dude. You can stop pretending, again.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4638721

Sid

[FlatStanley]

23. Alright! Somebody else uses my phrase.

[progressoid]

24. Snort.

[SoapBox]

5. This charter crap, swept through to the country like a plague.

And it sucks...

[merrily]

6. The only things the Dems and Repubs seem able to agree on

are the things I don't want to see happening, like private schools, run by private parties for private profit, but funded with public tax money.

[FlatStanley]

19. Don't make the perfect be the enemy of the good (TM).

[merrily]

26. Rahm, is that you?

[FlatStanley]

33. Maybe ...

[world wide wally]

8. Absolutely ludicrous to compare this school to a public school that has no such choice as to kick

out students for underperforming.

I taught 7th and 8the grade Science for 21 years in a public school. You can't imagine how often I wished I could get rid of just one student who disrupted the entire class but we had absolutely no such option. Every year there was at least one of them we just had to deal with and their behavior would influence others negatively so it was exponential. And these schools are eliminating dozens of kids.

So this is pure bullshit.

[bobGandolf]

10. What a joke!

It is the same as comparing private school scores with public.

[bobGandolf]

25. IMO

Charter schools are nothing but an attempt to break teacher unions.

[jwirr]

31. Good point.

[Enthusiast]

11. This is horrible.

[Starry Messenger]

12. Words fail.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. ,

,

[liberal_at_heart]

14. franchised education. Sickening.

[MisterP]

16. "it's not cherry-picking if it's a charter school!"

it's a sign a public school is failing when it can't keep students
it's a good thing if a charter school can't keep students

[lindysalsagal]

22. Charter school teachers are usually uncertified: And paid less without protection from parents

So it takes alot of fools to think the un-certified teachers can or should train those who are certified.

As a matter of fact, I personally know inner city teachers who are tremendous teachers, but their test scores will never show it.

Take those weak, uncertified (and usually inexperienced) charter school teachers and put them into inner city public situations and then they can show us all how it's done.

Idiots.

[jwirr]

28. That is exactly the victory the anti-public school people are looking for. Florida is going to

regret this. Don't we have laws on the books about equal education for all? They may also lose federal funding for some of their students. Charters will also over charge for their services and many have not delivered. This needs to stop.

As to them teaching anyone how to teach? Are there no more colleges that are mainly teachers colleges. Where is the Obama administration on this issue again?