While this blog is addressing the article noted above, the reality is that something like this needs to be done within the first two weeks of school and again at the mid-term assessment for students.  We are not, as a state or nation throwing everything we have at the educational dilemma in this country. Until parents are completely on board and accountable, we will continue to obtain at best mediocre outcomes as that is what lack of parental involvement produces.

The DATA would really be an eye opener for parents, teachers and students. Imagine if you could actually conversing with parents that were involved and in some way accountable……..not sure what accountability would look like other good student grades,  however, something like tax credits for B and above grades should not be out of the question (wink, wink, nudge, nudge Governor Brow, President Obama, Congress, etc.)  It is also possible that any parent collecting unemployment, food stamps, etc. be required to fill this type of questionnaire out monthly or every two months to demonstrate they are doing more than being at home.

In my very perfect world, mid-term assessment has to involve parents. The parents could use a #2 pencil, an app on a smart phone or an e-mail. The parent could do their assessment at school or have it completed by a particular date much like taxes.   While some questions may appear cynical or a form of entrapment, the reality is all parents should be able to answer each and every question on this assessment.  A parent who can not answer clearly has some room for improvement and this can be addressed in question 19.  This is not an exclusive list, it is a starting point. I believe that 25 questions would not be unreasonable.  I can not wait to see which school district and what Silicon Valley company will take this challenge on.

The assessment for parents would look like this:

(1) What is your library card number? Please write it down.

(2) What was the last book you read? Please write a two paragraph summary.

(3) What is your child’s library card number? Please write it down.

(4) Please write the date of the last time you went to the library with your child.

(5) What is the last book your child read? Please write the title and a brief two paragraph ummary.

(6) What is your favorite TV show?

(7) What is the last movie you watched?

(8) How much time (hours and minutes) does your child spend each day  (a) doing homework    and    (b) studying

(9) How much time (hours and minutes) does your child spend on  (a) the computer (n0n-academic) (b) TV

(10) What subject does your child have the best grade in?

(11) what subject does your child have a weak grade in?

(12) What was the approximate date of last parent/teacher conference?

(13) When was the last time you reviewed your childs work (homework, quizzes and tests) for completeness and grade achievement?

(14) When was the last time you had contact with your child’s school?

(15) What is the name of your child’s teacher (K-6) or home room and last class teacher?

(16) Describe the cover of your child’s agenda book.

(17) When was the last time you signed your child’s agenda book?

(18) Make a list of three things you will do this semester to help your child improve at school:

Be prepared to do a self assessment regarding your parent goals below for any class in which your child receives a grade of C or less.

(a)  I will __________________________ with my child so that they will _________________ in  (subject).

(b) I will __________________________ with my child so that they will _________________ in  (subject).

(c) I will __________________________ with my child so that they will _________________ in  (subject).

(19) Please list any information/resources we can provide to you to help you assist your child in outstanding academic achievement.

(20) Attached please find a calendar for the rest of the school year including PTA meetings, school board meetings and other major events which have effects on your child’s educational success.

In the last 24 hours, many interesting articles, Facebook conversations, phone conversations and real-time face to face talks converged in such a way I really wanted to connect with parents ‘out there’ in the blogosphere.

A friend posted a Facebook question about allowing two 13 year old’s being allowed to go to a street fair ‘unsupervised’ – the responses were all over the board. I wanted to ask how many of the ‘respondents’ were parents, teachers or both a parent and a teacher.  My reasoning is that IF parents really knew what teachers know about teenagers and tweens, there would be many more conversations at dinner table between parents and children, there would be many more family conversations and parents would know a great deal more about their children’s friends AND the parents of said friends.  What parents may think they know about their kid is not nearly what they really know and the question of ‘when is a child old enough to go do X on their own’ becomes more than an issue of trust, rather it becomes an issue of parental confidence with whatever outcomes may happen.  Another parent/teacher friend of mine stated it well – the better you understand risk, the better armed you are to decide what, where, when, how and why your response needs to be X.

All of the conversations listed above do not change a parent wishing to know the risks of letting their child go out into the world alone.  The conversations  add a layer of knowledge and in this case, the fatter the layer the better.  Sadly, at the very time children need parental involvement, parents feel it is time to relinquish the reins and let the children grow up.  Trusting a child became the touch phrase on the Facebook conversation.  Most of the responses had to do with trust obtained and bestowed by a parent.

The trust word became a moment for me to laugh/chortle as I have had parents in conference tell me how much they trust their child and would let said child babysit the younger children in the family while I was hard pressed to find an appropriate way to  state I would not trust the same child to complete a supervised science lab involving matches.  Trust is a perception and it is a perception inherently built on ‘belief’ and the self-reflective quality of a parent having done a great job raising their child.

As a teacher, trust is the perception that 30-34 other children will not be endangered by the behavior of one and the ability to control said behavior of 3o-35 students.  Trust is believing you actually did enough to safe guard everyone in your class room (or on a field trip) because the very last call you ever want to make as a teacher is, “Hello Mr./Mrs.________. This is ___________ and I am at _____________ER with your child.”

Teachers have a different ‘knowledge’ than parental knowledge and it comes into play because unlike any other profession, teachers are given the PRIVILEGE of working with children and often times the parents don’t even know us by name.  Teachers have to earn that trust day in and day out – with parents, but more importantly with students. The trust is so explicit that we are often told more than anyone else by students about their life and only when we have proof or a darn strong feeling that the ‘hypothetical’ discussion taking place is real can we report the issue to parents or social services.  We can ask all manner of questions, suggest other people the student can talk to, services and phone numbers to contact but we are limited in giving opinions.  By law we are mandated reporters and we stress to children that what they tell us falls into this category because we want them to know we care enough to do what is right, no matter what the outcome. Sometimes  the most we can do is recommended to the school psychologist, the administrator, etc. that this child have an appointment. We can not even write our concerns in the cumulative file so we share them with another teacher(s) because each child is so precious to us and we don’t want something to happen.

We, as teachers, try to find the most politically correct way to tell a parent we are worried about their child academically, physically, etc. because even the best PC phrases, stated in front of our principal are not enough to protect us from a lawsuit.  This fine, thin line of trust is stretched because at the end of the day, we want what is best for students and we have to communicate some really scary things to parents.

So, I want to share some of those conversations you should be having with your children because the gut feeling of trust is just not enough. What happens at school pretty much stays at school unless you the parent interact with your child and/or the teacher.  These  conversations are based on very real situations which have happened in classrooms with children age 10 and above. The questions required honest answers and raised alarm bells and parent conversations.   In almost every instance the parents had ‘no idea’ and immediately blamed the teacher for insinuation about their child.

The situations requiring reports to child protective services were the longest, darkest days and nights of my life but it had to be done.  There were things I did not want to know, but I was the receptacle.  There are times when myself and other teacher friends question ourselves about doing enough or not.

When you can discuss the following with your children, YOU the adult are ready to think about the risks out there.

• Discussing the difference of huffing (glue) and the effects of ‘choking’ as cited in the game above.
• Dressing appropriately because you want to – not because your parents ask. Advertising your body and leaving nothing to the imagination generally attracts the wrong type(s) of attention.
• What do drugs do to the brain and body, including alcohol and weed and discussing DNA and for the high schoolers, epigenetics.
• Cutting – because there was a question about going parallel or perpendicular to the wrist for the best effect.
• Being able to use the same clinical voice for uvula (back of palate/throat) and vagina, coelom (pronounced sea-loam, the gut) and  chlamydia, when to say mammary gland and when to say breast, etc. because if I didn’t, the students would not trust me to give information. You can not laugh at these things and being embarrassed does not help a student ask questions.  No matter my opinion on sex or birth control, I need to be able to be informative and direct.
• Having the wisdom to state it is important to get parental advice and/or guidance from the priest, rabbi, etc.  because no teacher knows the ‘answers’, rather we know how to get information and direct students to information.  This is crucial when 10 year olds and above talk to you about oral (rainbow parties) sex versus ‘regular’ sex.  Trust me, what Oprah discussed on TV was actually behind the times with what teachers were dealing with in the classroom.
• A 13-year-old asking me to go to the abortion clinic with them…….and going  because the child asked and the mother was scared and wanted some one there who knew what was going on besides herself .
• Being scared about a parent touching, hitting, pinching, slapping, etc. too much or in the wrong way.  If a child  has questions of behavior from a parent, they may not know when to question it about some one they love and this is what perpetuates abusive relationships and other problems.

So, ignorance is actually not knowing about your child  but trusting them by not asking and having the incredibly difficult conversations your kids often talk about with their teachers.

Stupid is the desire not to know so you don’t have to make difficult decisions as a parent, like what age is okay to let children go do something on their own.

http://blogs.kqed.org/americangraduate/2012/01/20/diane-ravitch-on-kqed-forum/

This past week I was able to listen to Dr. Diane Ravitch being interviewed by Michael Krasney. There was nothing startlingly different in this interview and yet it was bereft of the mention the role parents play in education.  It may well be that parents and inadequate parenting are results related to the effects of poverty, which was clearly covered in this discussion.  Engaged parents, one of the cornerstones of child success – around the world, where there is much more poverty than in America needs to be addressed with the same level of anger the public puts upon teachers for educational results.

Dr. Ravitch was clear in the fact of teachers no longer accepting of the assignation they are what is wrong with American Education and no amount of constant testing will prove otherwise.   Her clarity on this point was so sharp it was able to poke the flimsy balloon of NCLB testing and yet it was not strong enough to raise the ire of the very group who need to be involved. Parents seem to be given a constant free pass to not be part of solution.

William Bennett, who is the other side of the spectrum  of education (test students until you get numbers you like) went on to write about the necessity to have great teachers and backed his writing up with a plethora of statistics. Unfortunately   for Mr. Bennett, he managed to include the below paragraph but not bother to  follow-up on the very real fact that teachers are only SECOND to parents in educational outcomes and success of children.  Mr. Bennett wrote it in such a way as to make the comment not real and/or not noticeable or of any poignancy.

This study shows that, second only to parents, teachers are the most important part of a child’s education. Great teachers make a great difference; poor teachers hurt a child’s life chances. Isn’t that all we need to know to embark upon a serious effort to reward good teachers and encourage poor teachers out of the profession.

There is a world of difference from my own reading, listening and interpreting of professional educator ‘speak’ to the interpretations made by the general public who listen to what is, in effect, marketed at them.   The issue at hand is not what testing does or does not prove, rather the issue is the interpretation.  We as the population of the U.S. can spend our time debating test scores (multiple choice, blue book, anecdotal records, NAEP, state testing and so forth) for ever or we can choose to effect change by placing the same level of expectation upon parents that we place upon teachers. We get to choose where we place our focus.

As long as we are focused on test numbers, we neglect the more important VALUE ADDED issues affecting children – appropriate food, sleep, healthy environment (where they physically live and their community safety), literacy in the home (do the parents even attempt to learn the lingua franca of the country they live in) including adequate reading material, parenting behaviors conducive to student success (schedules, quiet time for homework, consistency, etc.) and the list goes on and on.  By focusing on test scores, which  seem to have changed little over 20 years no matter how much money we put into the machine called education, we miss the really HUGE variable – parents.

The public has done everything it can to demonstrate disdain for teachers and the results are not attractive.  It is time for the public to get past the whipping boy/girl and actual take on the problem with education.  When parents are on board, teachers can effect change in the classroom.

Teacher quality is nothing without parental quality.

While we may each have different political views, we all share the common goal:   an educated populace is one which is more likely to create GDP, more likely to have a healthy populace, less likely to have war and all the other good things which going along with a well-functioning democracy.

So, as the budget for education is getting snipped at the edges or seriously going to the chop shop as it is in California, instead of complaining-DO SOMETHING!  Volunteering never hurt anyone and in this case it seems pretty direct, no middle person to ‘administrate’ and run up costs.  Boost Up some students in your area and boost up how you feel about yourself.

Science teachers have never had it easy in the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Century - teach about the real world, which mainly exists outside the classroom BUT DO IT WITH A TEXTBOOK AND SOME STUFF YOUR BROUGHT INTO THE CLASSROOM.  It is amazing that the subject which most lends itself to being outside was ever brought in although I am sure it had something to do with educational change.

Over the years I have been fortunate to teach near a beach (less than 1 K meters), near a chaparral/mountain area (on school grounds), with a pond, with an outdoor garden including a compost pile and worms and have a mini-zoo experience in a large classroom.  Finding these jobs was difficult as taking children off campus and having them adequately supervised is a challenge; creating a garden takes time and energy; other teachers are scared/threatened by doing something so drastically different (what, the text-book stays in the room??) and so many other dilemmas.  What I found though was these jobs were awesome – my students often did as much physical activity in science (walking, running, skipping, hiking, carrying, schlepping….)as in physical education and they did not complain about it.

I glommed on to Sara Stein The Evolution Book, used Peace Corps experiences and harnessed many parents to make these outings normal, routine and incredibly valuable.  Many students did not know it could be ‘that quiet’ in a park (NYC Central Park) until they were taught how to calm down, find their pulse and relax.

All the while I kind of wondered about the problem of students not seeing enough nature but it was not until Richard Louv wrote Last Child in the Woods that it dawned on me the world was really different and not my imagination as a crazy science teacher with issues about being inside.  Not only was it poor education practice to not have students interact with the real world, it seemed to me there was a true disconnect about using ones senses.  I did not have data other than some test scores which only demonstrate the standards yet there was this underlying feeling that if children were not active outside, not only was education effected, ones state of mind and state of physical health would be also troubled.  It just seemed logical if you never knew what the smell of a fresh orange was or how magical a full moon on the desert floor could be, you would not know what you were missing and could not crave it.

Apparently I was right and the insight was not far off from reality.  The greatest advantage to the research above is that not only can it help effect change in child health, it can improve science education. I would like to think it is never too late to make this planet one worth living on.

While it should be illegal (it is at least immoral) for people to have children (adopt, give birth to, etc.)  and abdicate the education of said child to some one else, the next best thing is to set the expectation high and wide that parents (people who have children) take RESPONSIBILITY and parent.  It has been far too long in coming that our communities demand parent action.  This does not mean helicoptering as that is ‘overparenting’ and does nothing to set boundaries for learning from failures and successes.

It would have never occurred to me a few decades ago that parents needed to be asked and reminded to go to parent conferences, follow through on the progress of their child or actually be told that no one ever died from not watching TV and yet these were all things I had to do my first years of teaching. I was dumbfounded.  How is it my own parents, who both  (one more than 40 miles from home) worked by time I was in middle and high school, figured this out? How is it my parents gave up many a night out or activity to be sure myself and my sister  had library night, were involved in Girl Scouts and all manner of other activities in the community, went to some  free program for kids at the museum, at the local college over the weekend,  volunteered for PTA regularly, checked up on homework being done (we did not even have planners in those dark ages) and followed through on anything lower than a C grade?  Anything less than a C meant two things (1) figure out what you needed help with understanding (2) locate the people/resources (teacher, tutor, classmates parent, book, etc.) to turn the problem around. In retrospect, my parents were nothing short of amazing and driven – they had a desire that their children would do well in the world and lead lives of meaning and purpose.  My parents did not dump tons of money into the situation as we were not wealthy. My parents dumped TIME into the situation.

When I began teaching, PTA did not help the teacher round-up parents and wrangle with the idea of how to follow through on children, although I sure wish the organization had. This would have been the largest difference in the lives of so many children. I took on the burden many times by trying to re-think, re-plan, re-teach, tutor and so forth the students who were lagging behind.  It was never possible to do that much work for 15-20 of my 35 students in lower grades or 75-90 students in upper grades, do my job and have a life – but I tried.

Thankfully amid  all the ‘change’ being made in education, parents have been brought in to the light.  I hope this is the deal changer. It will be many years before we know for certain as a country, however, the research has always shown great parenting conquers much more than a teacher can teach in a school year.

If you are just becoming a teacher – make sure your school puts parents into action. If you already teach, find out what needs to happen to get parents activated at your school.  If you are a student - REMIND YOUR PARENTS TO SUPPORT YOUR BEST EFFORTS.  For all the parents out there thinking this is ‘impossible’ – unplug your TV for six months. None of you will die and your child will be far better for it.

This blog is for parents and it is about parenting. Hopefully it will also let parents into the strange world teachers inhabit and how we think, for good or for bad about things such as rewarding behaviors, grades, expectations, etc.

A huge shoutout and thank you to the teacher who years ago shared the book (I have now forgotten the name of teacher and book and passed book on to an English Teacher colleague years ago…) with me regarding activities for getting students to use items such as a dictionary, thesaurus and other ‘researchy’ types of materials.  I know at the time you could not understand what a science teacher had in mind, but the ideas have been great tools in the war chest over the years.

One of the activities I appropriated was about a thesaurus:  What are all the words BETWEEN hot and cold and how would ‘you’ and your group put them in order? Example: warm, tepid, lukewarm, ice-cold, cold, freezing, exactly 33 degrees F and so forth.  This became a way to start to identify qualitative measurement, how to derive a scale and ultimately how to evaluate qualitative data and explore interpretations.   This activity, and some similar explorations helped many a middle schooler get through the quandaries of data collection.   Over the years, I found this example exemplary for life skills type issues in the classroom such as, “What are the words between deserve and earn?” or “What are the words between want and need?”.  This also worked great with parents in conference.

Over time, my students developed all manner of scales for ‘measuring’ the most outrageous data – kind of like Wired Magazine (the holy grail of how to ‘show’ data along the lines of Edward Tufte Envisioning Information).  Alone, this made science a great deal more fun, in combination with thinking through behaviors, this very simple task opened many a mind.

So, as I read the blog noted above and contemplated the various comments in The San Francisco Chronicle (often comments are better than actual blogs/articles!) I realized this is a task parents could do at home with children.  Not so much to do school work, more so to gain some insight and logic about the world, appreciate the how and why of religion – observing, practicing, believing in/having faith (it does not matter the particular religion) and applying religion to living a meaningful life.

Whether you claim to be the 99% or the 1%, all of us need to better understand in our hearts the difference between deserving and earning something – even a Blackberry for Christmas or the capacity for an inanimate object, Best Buy, to ruin our Christmas.  In addition to the distinct differences of deserve and earn (which has a great deal to do with studying, completing homework and obtaining grades….), want and need could not be more clear after the last five years where the whole world has been assailed by a few people who wanted too much.

As I think back over my experiences (I will post the URL’s to some blogs I have written about these concepts), I can not help but thank my parents for making sure I had the experiences to know the difference of want and need and deserve and earn. Some of these experiences came about via the observation of a minor holiday in Judaism called Chanukah which was raised up to a major holiday via marketing to compete with Christmas in the money sphere, some came about from traveling. Many of these experiences came about from leaving my comfort zone and having to contemplate how I would handle a variety of situations.  Most of my experiences caught me right between the heart and mind, which is never easy, nor can there necessarily be one right, correct, best answer.

If you wish to raise a child with compassion and appreciation, give them the opportunity to experience these words. Neither a dictionary or thesaurus could ever do the words justice merely by being on a page.

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/the-usrp/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/occupy-your-conscience-black-friday-2011/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/leadership-not-just-a-word-beginning-with-letter-l/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/tasting-bitter-roots-sewn-in-a-garden-of-sorrow/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-dumbest-parent-of-all/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/an-odyssey-or-quest-homer-could-be-proud-of-and-for-the-under-grade-12-set-a-grade-paradigm-worthy-of-collegiate-admission/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/the-other-side-being-a-science-teacher-and-getting-in-trouble-for-sending-students-out-for-failing-to-comply-with-lab-rules/

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/cell-phone-fatigue-maturity-sophistication-and-stupidity/

Sometimes even when you watch a magic trick 100 times, you don’t catch the nuance of what is going on and that is what makes magic cool, fun and exciting. Clearly most of us would rather watch Criss Angel, Cirque Du Soleil, etc. than attend a meeting as our brains enjoy this brief time away from reality.  When the artifice of ‘magic’ is used to balance the books, it is still time away from reality. The difference is what happens on Wall St. and in schools should not be ‘magical’ and should not require hundreds of observations to understand. REIT’s, reverse whatevers, funky non-descript mutual funds,  Ponzi Schemes and so forth should not be allowed and yet Wall St. persists in just finding new and different ways to develop mysterious/magical money-making behavior. Alas, so do charter schools.  The magic is in just making something tricky enough to over-ride logic in the brain.  On Wall St. people merely lose money – in charter schools, children lose an education. There is a fair degree of difference.

This morning on NPR I listened to and then read about a  bit of ‘magic’ in  some Mimi-Dade, Florida charter schools and then decided to match up my own past experiences.  I have complained about the absence of special ed services at charter schools since I taught at one and the ‘magical’ absence of services did not appeal to me (my undergrad is speech pathology).  When I addressed the discrepancy (sorry, confidentiality rules do not allow me to use the child’s name), my principal was upset but tried to explain it as a kink that would later get fixed and for now, just focus on test scores. You catch the drift of the experience.

I looked up the NPR piece first and then decided to just do a random search to see if the topic was being covered in the news beyond NPR. NPR is an arbiter of high quality journalism so I always look to support the research and appeal to as many people as possible.

NPR had some interesting information based on some interesting people who had been interviewed.

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143659449/florida-charter-schools-failing-disabled-students

The Florida Department of Education, citing privacy concerns, declined to provide statewide data of students with severe disabilities. But the agency said their analysis shows 86 percent of charter schools statewide had no students with severe disabilities.

It’s a trend repeated in California, Louisiana, New York and Texas, according to researchers from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Harvard University researcher Thomas Hehir calls it a “pattern of exclusion” among charter schools nationally. Hehir was the top special education official during the Clinton administration and played a leading role in rewriting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

He says it comes down to money.

“That is unfortunately what we find in altogether too many places,” Hehir said. “I think that there is a disincentive to enroll these kids because they cost more money to educate.”

The Miami Herald had more and different details:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/25/2471822/two-miami-dade-charter-schools.html

My look at Edjoin.org gave another view. I was looking to see if all the SPED services necessary were being provided to students at charter schools in my area. I know that SPED services are lacking in all the regular public schools, however, the regular public schools educate everyone.   It would seem some one should be monitoring the charter schools in my area and declining payment as was done in Miami-Dade yet the lobbying group named Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools does not believe money should be denied for non-compliance.  This is called the joy of magical thinking without repercussions.

Without these monthly payments, the charter schools will likely struggle to  keep the doors open, said Lynn Norman Teck, a spokeswoman for the Florida  Consortium of Public Charter Schools, a lobbying group and membership  association. She said some Florida charter schools have had compliance issues in  the past, but continued receiving their monthly checks.

“The consortium wants its member schools to do things right,” she said. “But  we don’t feel that funds should be withheld.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/25/2471822/two-miami-dade-charter-schools.html#ixzz1gXOP6yAk

http://www.edjoin.org/searchResults.aspx?countyID=1&districtID=2753  14 December 2011  10:25 AM viewing

SPED open positions with Aspire Public Schools in bay area of N. Ca:

12/7/2011 full-time SPED teacher mild/moderate,  full-time speech pathologist, part-time SPED teacher mild/moderate, 12/6/2011 SPED instructional assistant, 8/2/2011  counseling intern

http://www.edjoin.org/searchResults.aspx?countyID=1&districtID=2802  14 December 2011  10:25 AM viewing

SPED position with KIPP in bay area of N. Ca:

12/6/2011 director of SPED

http://www.edjoin.org/searchResults.aspx?countyID=1&districtID=3059  14 December 2011  10:25 AM viewing

SPED position with Leadership Public Schools in bay area of N. Ca:

10/27/2011 RSP teacher

In Tres’ case, he needs supervision to attend to bodily functions and is cognitively able to perform and function.  He may seem to be on the outer ‘extreme’ of SPED and yet the reality is that charter schools have a special loophole to deny any SPED kid an education (quotes are from NPR):

But there’s a loophole. Where special education students attend school is determined by their Individual Education Plan (IEP). That plan is developed by the student, parents, school officials and therapists.

The IEP team won’t send that student to a charter school that isn’t set up to serve disabled students.

School districts design a systemic plan to educate students with disabilities. Charter schools do not. Their solution is often to refer students back to the traditional public schools — as happened to Tres Whitlock.

If parents choose to decline the IEP, a child can and often does go to a charter school because charter schools have a habit of marketing their magical miracles.  In my experience, SPED students had ‘modified’ IEP’s…..which is kind of like a modified REIT on Wall St.

No, education for ‘all’ in charter schools is not equal nor fair but it is magical (thinking).  When the data is evaluated on an even playing field, even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is able to observe the disparity.

NB: Charter schools are public, not for profit (unless noted as for profit) corporations. They must abide by all local, state and federal education laws and they receive ADA (our tax dollars) to run. Charter schools may do fund-raising and write grants, however this does not make them a magnet school or preclude them to be selective in the students which attend.  Since charter schools do not educate ‘all types’ of children, they are not actually public schools. Charter schools complain as they must rely on district resources so they are not able to comply due to being a small school, etc……if they can not measure up to being a public school and serve all students, they should not be called a public school, no matter how they market themselves.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_19526032

Interestingly, the majority of these students attended schooling, most likely high school in the State of CA which is how they are paying for in state tuition.  WE KNOW what high schools they are coming from as they must list the code for their high school to take the SAT/ACT.   Are some or all school districts (especially high schools)  trying to pawn off their students who were socially promoted?  Is it too scary to find out by demographics (S. Ca, N. Ca., Central Ca., counties, cities, etc.) where these students are coming from and how they making the cut to get into a CSU?  More importantly, when these students are ‘accepted’ to a CSU, which schools is it benefitting by saying these students were accepted to college?

KIPP has finally been more realistic in their release of information regarding students which graduate from a KIPP school http://www.kipp.org/files/dmfile/ExecutiveSummary.pdf  and http://www.kipp.org/files/dmfile/CollegeCompletionReport.pdf  which states the following:

89% of students who attended a KIPP Middle School in the past five years or longer have matriculated to college.

The U.S. National average of students completed college is 31% and KIPP students complete college at a rate of 33%.

KIPP is shooting for a 75% completion of college rate.

This transparency does not apply to all charter schools or school districts as the people in charge of marketing are able to state how many students were accepted to college without noting how much remedial education was required and/or if the students were able to make it through college on academic ability.

Embedded in the report above (I always read for the data, especially when my grad school alma mater is being represented on the cover of the report- Columbia University in NYC) is the true data which is very few students in America graduate college – no matter where they attended the first 12 years of school.   2% greater than the national norm is nice but not enough to actually support the previous claims which KIPP marketed to the public regarding being college ready and actually completing college.

Based on the number of students graduating KIPP schools and attending college versus the national numbers of college graduates, there is not a need to have more than a few handfuls of students graduate college to account for the 2% comparative difference. This is statistically relevant as stated in the report.  Statistically relevant is not the same as ‘living up to the promises made’ via the marketing done by charter schools.

I keep hoping some graduate student will look at the numbers because the data exists.  It is the interpretation of said data which is missing. If the data were good and could be manipulated as such, charter schools would be publishing it.

What garnered my attention was the fact that some one genuinely human and apparently not too wonky took a standardized test to be transparent about why they do/do not support certain boondoggling in education.   This person was willing to share their scores – something which means they have great self-confidence and/or believe in being genuine and authentic in how they posit their beliefs. I am guessing, as it is not indicated in the piece noted above, that the person was not initially looking to see how well the test correlated to the ‘real world’ and this was an after effect. This person did a great deal of reflection – and this made me realize that perhaps this was the latent awakening of the American conscience.

“If I’d been required to take those two tests when I was a 10th grader, my life would almost certainly have been very different. I’d have been told I wasn’t ‘college material,’ would probably have believed it, and looked for work appropriate for the level of ability that the test said I had.

“It makes no sense to me that a test with the potential for shaping a student’s entire future has so little apparent relevance to adult, real-world functioning. Who decided the kind of questions and their level of difficulty? Using what criteria? To whom did they have to defend their decisions? As subject-matter specialists, how qualified were they to make general judgments about the needs of this state’s children in a future they can’t possibly predict? Who set the pass-fail “cut score”? How?”

“I can’t escape the conclusion that decisions about the [state test] in particular and standardized tests in general are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.”

I had thought this was pretty much the end of the article and ‘point taken’. I was not expecting what came next in the way that one does not see a great mystery book or movie unfold and is dumbfounded.

Winerip writes: “As of last night, 658 principals around the state (New York) had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance.”

As otherworldly as it would seem possible, administrators (principals) did something which demonstrated they would no longer follow the common thought pattern of ideologues. Principals would use their own brain to think and reason the data.  Principals would use principled, reasonable thinking – something beyond the comprehension of anyone who has ever been a teacher.   Maybe there is hope as Marion Brady states near the end of this piece. There may actually be a glimmer of  something wonderful beyond compare – a sensibility which does not come from businessmen (most charter school organizations which are not-for-profit CORPORATIONS) or supposed poser educators who think it is so easy.

It is difficult for me not to be cynical and I really would like to see the shroud of darkness removed from the intractableness of NCLB…..could it be as simple as Occupy the Principal’s Office – something teachers have been doing but the rest of the country has been against?