Michiganders are welcoming a first-in-the-nation — a public charter school that trains high-schoolers for careers in the aviation industry.
And youths in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City are being instructed on the importance of civic responsibility and leadership at Democracy Preparatory Charter School.
Whether these schools produce the next Sarah Palin or Benjamin O. Davis Jr., commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen,won`t be known for years to come, but they definitely reflect the latest trend in the 20-year-old charter-school movement: specialization.
While many of the first-generation charter schools mimicked their public counterparts in structure and scope, many of the second-generation schools are tailor-made, according to subject matter or populations or moral goals.
"The movement is beginning to expand and grow as parents figure out that public charters are doing a great deal in closing the achievement gap and offering options that public schools don`t," said Peter Groff, executive director of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The West Michigan Aviation Academy, which opens in September, is the brainchild of philanthropist Dick DeVos, a school-voucher supporter who paired his passion for flying with tuition-free education. Students will undertake four years of the rigors of traditional academic courses — and lengthier school calendars.
But what works in Harlem and in Grand Rapids, Mich., might not work elsewhere, advocates said, so the best approach to growing the charter movement rests in the hands of parents and their communities, and the marketplace.
"It will be interesting to see if businesses try to grow their own work force to figure out where the next Bill Gates will come from," said Mr. Groff, who served until recently in the Obama administration`s Education Department.
The Obama administration`s role in school reform is the subject of a heated debate among school-choice advocates.
Some say the winners of the Education Departments Race to the Top grants were decided on the basis of how friendly states were to unions and the losers were American children.
"I upset my colleagues in the movement," said Jeanne Allen, executive director of the Center for Education Reform. "But this `race` was about whether you had buy-in from unions."
She cited Louisiana and Colorado, reform-minded states that have laws to encourage charter growth, but lost out, and states including Maryland that overregulate charters and "impede growth," but won.
New Orleans, whose schools were ravaged five years ago by Hurricane Katrina, has heavily relied on charter schools to rebuild its public education system. The city was rated No. 1 in the Fordham Institute`s just-released rankings on how reform-friendly a school district is.
"The Race to the Top is not pushing [charter-school] growth," said Mrs. Allen, elaborating that the charter movement is growing "despite all the troubles and travails."
Mr. Groff disagrees. He says the White House "has been critical to the growth of charter schools."
"When you look at states that received Race to the Top funds, 15 raised their caps on charter schools," said Mr. Groff. "The administration has been critical to the growth of charter schools."
There are an estimated 5,000 charter schools with an estimated 1.65 million students and waiting lists that average 239 children per charter, according to the Center for Education Reform`s website. Many of them are cookie-cutter schools that replicate traditional schools and fail for the same reasons as regular public schools — poor management and financial oversight.
Mr. Groff said charter-school advocates should focus more on the quality rather than the quantity of schools, and added that he favored "smart growth."
Because charter schools operate outside the public school bureaucracy, he and Mrs. Allen said, laws and policies should be designed to encourage good charter schools to flourish.
"Low performers should be shut down or moved in a new direction," Mr. Groff said.
In some states and the District of Columbia, there are charter networks like KIPP, Aspire, Friendship and Civic Builders, while thousands of other charters are independent schools.
Civic Builders, for example, is a network that took over an aging Episcopal vestry in Harlem and in less than a year transformed it into Democracy Preparatory Charter School for civic-minded students.
Anthony Bradley: Teachers unions, civil rights groups protect failed schools
Teachers unions, like the National Education Association, and many civil rights organizations inadvertently sabotage the potential of black males by perpetuating failed educational visions.
Black males will never achieve academic success until black parents are financially empowered to opt out of failed public schools.
The American public education system is failing many groups, but none more miserably than black males. The numbers are shocking.
The Schott Foundation recently reported that only 47 percent of black males graduate from high school on time, compared to 78 percent of white male students. This revelation is beyond disturbing because it exposes the fact that many public schools serve as major catalysts for the desolation of unemployment and incarceration that lies in many black boys` future.
The way urban city school districts fail black males is more disconcerting considering that black professionals are in charge. Urban districts are among the worst at graduating black males: Detroit, 27 percent; Philadelphia, 28 percent; New York, 28 percent; and St. Louis, 38 percent.
There are surely many reasons for such failure, and family breakdown must rank high among them. Schools may be powerless to transform black family life, but they should not be left off the hook for turning in a dismal performance.
Special interests at fault
In a recent interview, Steve Perry, principal and founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., placed the blame for the black achievement gap at the feet of the partnerships between the teachers unions and the NAACP, "a civil-rights relic."
The places where black students excel, Perry says, are those where students have access to choice.
Sadly the NAACP and the NEA have long undermined the push for low-income black parents to exercise freedom to choose the best schools as a national norm.
For example, even with mounting evidence demonstrating that single-sex education for blacks males from low-income households represents one of the best opportunities for graduation, the NEA petitioned the Department of Education in 2004 to prevent single-sex options from becoming nationally normative, balking because "the creation of an artificial single-sex environment (will) ill prepare students for life in the real world."
What?
The Eagle Academy for Young Men, a charter school in the Bronx comprised of primarily black and Latino students, the first all-male public school in New York City in 30 years, boasts a high school graduation rate of 82 percent. This summer, Chicago`s Urban Prep Charter Academy, with a 100 percent graduation rate, graduated a class of 107 black male students all of whom are attending college in the fall.
The NEA exists, it seems, only to overfund failed systems and the nonperformance-based salaries of adults at the expense of black students.
Nothing prepares black males for life in the real world like graduating from high school and attending college, yet the NEA consistently lobbies against parent choices that lead to black male success.
Civil-rights groups including the NAACP, the National Urban League, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, recently released a joint statement objecting to the Obama administration`s education reform proposal, which includes the closing of failing schools, increasing use of charter schools, and other common sense moves toward choice and accountability in education. These groups reject Obama`s so-called "extensive reliance on charter schools."
New, more options needed
Even though there is overwhelming evidence supporting the success of charter schools for children from low-income households, the civil rights groups resist the opportunity for parents to exercise freedom to choose those schools.
Perry highlights the cost of such blindness, observing "that our nation`s urban public schools have prepared more children for poverty, the penitentiary, and premature pregnancy than they did for college."
Even though charter schools, vouchers, and tax-credit programs reflect some progress, black parents need new and creative options that empower them with absolute freedom to choose the best schools.
School closings, faith-based options, "mass firings" and "home schools" are all important components of rescuing black males from the betrayal of teachers unions and civil rights groups that refuse to acknowledge the dignity of low-income parents by blunting their right to choose what is best for their children.
As long as teachers unions have influence in the black community and in institutions pledged to black empowerment, and black parents are not financially empowered to opt out of failing public schools, black males are doomed.
Anthony Bradley is associate professor of theology at The King`s College in New York City and a research fellow at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids. E-mail comments to letters@detnews.com.
Governance is THE job of Charter Boards, and the MACSB
offers a framework for Board governance that will put you in command of your Academy while keeping you out of the trenches.
This model, which we title "Leadership Governance", is accurately based on the proven Policy
Governance model (created by John Carver) which we have successfully tailored for Michigan Charter Boards.
The MACSB offers an efficient and informative presentation on Leadership Governance. Contact us for further information or to arrange a presentation to your Board.
Effective boards take full and final accountability for their districts
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have walked about in the daylight with a lamp, seeking an honest man. If alive today, he might instead be seeking accountable school boards.
Whether there to serve and govern a traditional district or a charter academy (also a Michigan public school), school boards sometimes fall short of the performance we should expect of public officials entrusted with such important responsibilities.
Why? Here are but a few reasons ...
Because boards sometimes believe they are there to loyally support and defend the way things are — regardless of district or charter school performance.
Because boards sometimes believe they are just "volunteers" who really can`t do much under such circumstance.
Because boards sometimes believe they are there to actually help run the operation, and end up lending an uninformed hand not much appreciated by those paid to do so.
Because those who engage in the "training" of board members typically focus on the protocols of office rather than the essentials of good governance, leading to the danger of emphasizing process over purpose and substance.
Because boards have not developed a sound understanding of the governance versus management distinction and why it is so essential to school success.
Even though a school board may fall short of fully accountable governance, the public often accepts the status quo. Yet the public isn`t really much at fault. How can the public demand board accountability if history doesn`t reveal what it should look like, or the board itself does not have a solid understanding of its governance responsibilities?
Fortunately, there is an effective means for righting the ship that needs righting. To that end, we suggest boards take the following steps:
Officially adopt a substantive job description — it all starts there!
Since governing boards, unlike other types (advisory, etc.), hold ultimate authority for the organization, a school board`s job description should look something like this:
"To make sure the school district or charter school is working as expected and as deserved by the public!"
This job description, or one similar, focuses on the essence of governance — to take full and final local accountability for the performance of the district or charter school.
Carry out that job by establishing (in concert with management) clear expectations for performance — encompassing, at a minimum, the areas of:
student achievement
management priorities
governance protocols
Codify these expectations in concise and written form, monitor performance along the way and continually assess the outcomes.
Avoid the temptation to meddle in administrative matters.
When a board follows this road map, it demonstrates accountability for its own performance and, more important, for the overall performance of the district or charter school it governs.
Regardless of any disagreement with the preceding observations and suggestions, perhaps all might agree it is time to fully recognize that school boards are in fact and by legal design the final point of education accountability at the local level.
Given their position, either by election (traditional districts) or appointment (charters), board members should be expected to show responsible leadership by governing effectively and standing ready to be held accountable for doing so.
Boards that govern well do so not by making countless final decisions that demonstrate their authority, but rather by serving as the leadership source that provides the overall vision, direction and accountability for public education at the local level. Such leadership is a true service to Michigan public school students and families.
Bob Glees is the Executive Governance Consultant for the Michigan Association of Charter School Boards. He is a former elected school board member and has also held a number of executive positions in Michigan`s public sector. MACSB can assist conventional and charter school boards on implementing and carrying out an accountable school governance model. For more information, please call 517-819-4777 or e-mail info@MACSB.org.
Time to Look at Ourselves
Vol. 2
No. 6
When Charter Boards set written performance expectations,
the major focus should always be in the area of Student Achievement,
although
establishing expectations in the Management area is also important
because it
speaks to issues of prudent and ethical administrative actions.
But the “expectations” model for governance
promoted by the
MACSB has a special feature that helps Board focus on an often
overlooked
area….the performance of the Board itself!
Most Boards seldom engage in any form of
true introspection,
usually because there are no standards or criteria to measure against.But MACSB offers a practical way to make it
happen.It is done by establishing written
expectations for Board performance and assessing performance against
those
expectations.
In this area, a Board establishes
expectations for itself in the following categories:
Governance Approach & Style
Meeting Agenda/Protocol
Board President
Board Code of Conduct
Board Committees
Governance Education
Administrator Relations
These expectations are not a substitute for
or redundant to
Board bylaws.They are quite different
(but complementary) in that they address topics directly related to
“governance”rather than structure.And these performance expectations are also
monitored and self-assessed by the Board based on internal survey of
individual
Board members.
Performance reports and assessments in this
area are
typically produced two times a year, each covering about half of the
expectations categories.Again, Boards
can conduct these assessments on their own or tap into the MACSB
automated
reporting system that produces the survey documents for completion by
each
Board member and then compiles the results for Board deliberation.
An important by-product of these Board
performance
expectations is that they also serve as a helpful screening process for
selecting Board
candidates.Rather than expect
candidates to face the traditional tasks of “figuring out” what
membership
means and wading through the 1,000 page policy manual that current
members have
long forgotten, candidates see the written, Board-developed standards
that show
how your Board intends to operate.
Board expectations also help preclude
membership by those
with strange or unknown agendas.They
know what is expected and what isn’t!In
other words, candidates and current members can substantively determine
if
there is likely a good “fit”…kind of a Match.com for member recruitment.
The value of this approach cannot be
overstated.Continuity of the Board’s
governance style is
essential to effective performance.And
many Boards have paid the price for arrival of a member with delusions
of
individual authority, especially when coupled with a hidden agenda and
no real
knowledge of how the Board operates.
In future Board Bits issues we will provide
examples of how
Boards can address a variety of issues and decisions based on the
governance philosophy
that underlies the MACSB Leadership Governance model.
Need To Find A New ESP?
Thought about changing ESPs but you're not sure how?
We have a complete ESP selection package including the bid, analysis and selection processes. Click Here, send us a email and we`ll come to you with the details!
Want to Find Out How to REALLY Evaluate Your ESP?
So you've got an ESP that you think is doing a pretty good job...Are you sure?
Evaluating your ESP is a year-round job! But first...you have to set the criteria through your Board`s EXPECTATIONS. Want to know more? Click Here, send us a email and we`ll come to you with the details of the Who, What, When, Where and Why of managing your ESP
Charter Board Member Code Training
A list of "things to remember" as you serve on your Charter School Board!
The Charter Board burden...accountability for school success!
Read the recently developed MACSB Position Paper on board Accountability and the need for good governance
Governance is THE job of Charter Boards, and the MACSB
offers a framework for Board governance that will put you in command of your Academy while keeping you out of the trenches.
