The following story from the San Francisco Chronicle highlights not a failure, but a success in public education; a success that has only been achieved by allowing public charter schools to be opened in spite of huge opposition by the monopolistic “education coalition” (non-charter public school advocates).Why would one call the closing of two charter schools a success? Simply put, because the failing schools were closed, and the students will be required to find new schools. Ask yourself, when was the last time a traditional non-charter public school required to close due to academic failure? It doesn’t happen; instead, the state calls them “high priority schools” and gives them more money.
As a society we would be better off if we allowed more choice in education and then held schools truly accountable for providing an education to children; charter schools are one positive development toward that goal.
2 Oakland charter schools ordered to shut down
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2007
(09-19) 22:09 PDT Oakland -- A pair of space-themed Oakland charter schools with roughly 80 students between them must shut down because of substandard instruction and low enrollment, the state Board of Education voted Tuesday, upholding a school district decision.
The Space Exploration Academy high school and the Junior Space Exploration Academy middle school had been open just five months when the Oakland Unified School District decided in February to shut them down.
School officials appealed the decision to the state Board of Education. Tuesday's board vote means today will be the last day the schools can operate.
The schools - which offered classes from sixth through tenth grade - had enrolled far fewer than the 200 students promised, according to district documents.
Classes were also in disarray, said administrators who made unscheduled visits last fall.
"The sixth-grade math instructor did not probe for understanding, explain erroneous answers, or engage nonrespondents," according to a report by Liane Zimny, then the head of the district's charter schools, who visited the schools in November with Kimberly Statham, then the state administrator for Oakland schools.
Zimny reported that the ninth-grade had few books and no textbooks. The task list on the blackboard had a misspelled word - "d-e-f-i-n-a-t-l-y" - and instructed students to do work that was far below grade level, such as writing the word "find" four times in cursive, Zimny wrote.
The science lab was also not operating, and "a large, dirty rag was on the floor of the multipurpose room where students ate lunch," she reported.
In all, both schools failed to fulfill 15 of 33 operating conditions, according to district records.
"We're disappointed," said Camron Gorguinpour, the schools' executive director. "I'm particularly concerned that there was little discussion about the actual merits of our school - especially in light of positive test scores that both of our schools received."
The schools enrolled only two grades last school year: sixth and ninth. State records show that of 29 sixth-graders who took the state's English language-arts test in the spring, 17 percent scored at grade level or above. Of the 15 ninth-graders who took the English test, 47 percent scored at grade level or above.
Gorguinpour, who said he is mystified about why the district tried to close the school before the scores were in, had disputed each of the district's allegations in a February memo. He said the administrators were making snap judgments based on insufficient time observing classes and without giving the school enough time to respond to its requests.
Gorguinpour's Web site says he holds bachelor's degrees in physics and astrophysics from UC Berkeley. The site also describes him as president and co-founder of a Berkeley educational nonprofit group called Space Science Outreach and Research, listed in state records as the schools' sponsoring agency.
The schools' Web site says that NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View is "involved in the development and operation of the Space Exploration Academies," promising professional development programs for its teachers.
Gorguinpour appealed the district's February decision to revoke its charter. On Tuesday, the state Board of Education voted 6-0 to uphold the district's decision.
District officials said they will help the Space Exploration Academies' students find other schools to attend.
2 comments:
The schools you call "failing" actually out-performed all of the neighboring District schools and the District-wide average for 6th and 9th grade Math & English.
Anon,
Please understand, I did not call them failing; that was an accusation made by the local school district and upheld by the State Board of Education. I do not know enough about either school to make any determination about their academic performance.
My point was to highlight the benefit of educational choice and to point out that charter schools are held to a much higher standard than are other public schools.
I am sorry if my comments at the top of the post, before the SF Chronicle story, left any other impression.
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