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The Tale of Two Cities

Two articles in today's Washington Post caught BoardBuzz's attention on charter schools. We have discussed the matter here before, but today's articles by Jay Matthews center themselves around two urban districts, New Orleans and Washington, DC. Neither district is unique in the struggle on charter schools, since many urban districts are facing the issue, but both have unconventional governance structures due to years of below-average performance. In New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina hit, Paul Vallas took over the district (Recovery School District) as superintendent and new teachers came from varying backgrounds all over the country to help re-build the district. Today's Post points out that this has led to ruthless tactics at times to keep good teachers but parents seem indifferent on the issue, not really picking a side. Are charter schools the solution for New Orleans? According to Matthews they seem to be helping, but the "regular" schools are still struggling, despite being encouraged to innovate as they get more autonomy from the superintendent. The charter schools in DC have a different story to tell. In the Post's Metro section, Matthews discusses the charter school that is set to close due to low achievement. DC has had charter schools for 12 years with mixed results. Some charters have done well, others have not, some have closed due to poor academic scores, others have not. The 'regular' schools are in the same situation, if you're keeping score. DC is unique because Mayor Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee as the chancellor last year and although there is a charter school board in DC, Ms. Rhee has the authority to act as the policy maker in the district as well as the superintendent. Matthews points out that many studies have concluded, well, inconclusive data. "Nationally, research shows little difference between average test scores for charters and for regular public schools. Experts say the quality of charter schools varies as much as the quality regular schools." So there you have it. Charters will solve all the problems in large, urban districts. We apologize for the sarcasm, but these articles are indicative of the debate at large. If we train all staff members to be innovative, thoughtful, and focused on the students and their successes and get away from the labels so we can work together on solutions, we have a chance at helping our schools. After all, our future is depending on it.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 09, 2008 (boomark / email).