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race to the race to the top
November 5, 2009
Tisch calls on charters to take on city’s worst high schools
Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch yesterday called on city charter school operators to move away from elementary education and take on the problems of fixing large failing high schools.
Speaking at Hunter College, Tisch said that charter schools have benefited from being the political “darlings” of the city and state, blessed with the most qualified teachers and some of the highest-achieving students. Instead, Tisch said, charter schools need to branch out to serve more struggling high school students, English language learners and special education students.
“It’s really time for charter schools to say to me, ‘I don’t want to just grow my own, I don’t want to operate in this zone where I am the darling,’” Tisch said. “I want them to dig in and say, ‘what can we do to help?’”
Currently, thirteen of the city’s roughly 100 charter schools serve high school students, though more are slated to grow to include ninth through twelfth grade classes.
Tisch was speaking on a panel organized by the group Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century about the future of the city schools post election. The panel also included teachers union head Michael Mulgrew, founder and CEO of Success Charter Network Eva Moskowitz and Democrats for Education Reform director Joe Williams.
Moskowitz disputed the notion that charter schools are given preferential treatment, noting that charter schools receive lower per-pupil funding and do not receive public funds for school buildings. “Everything that the charter schools have has been fought for tooth and nail,” she said.
Under New York State law, charter schools do not receive public funds for school buildings, but in New York City, some of them are given space in district school buildings free of charge.
Tisch has indicated that a plan to convert large failing high schools into charters will be part of the state’s application for federal Race to the Top grants. So far, it’s one of the few concrete proposals state officials have said they’ll include in the application.
During the panel, Williams criticized the pace state officials have taken in promoting the changes that the Race to the Top grants will award. He pointed to other states like California and Colorado, which have been publicly and aggressively plotting their application strategies and proposing legislative changes to conform to the grant program’s draft rules. Williams said that he has yet to see that kind of energy in New York.
“I hope [Tisch] is right that we’re going to have an exciting application,” he said. “I don’t see that happening.”
Tisch took exception to the criticism, arguing, as she has done frequently, that the appointment of education commissioner David Steiner and his deputy John King sends a strong message to federal education officials that New York’s reform plans are aligned with the Obama administration’s goals. Both Steiner and King have been active in issues the federal education department has promoted, including improving teacher quality and training and sparking more growth in charter schools.
Tisch also said that she was confident that the ban on linking student achievement data to teacher tenure decisions, a state law observers speculate may disqualify the state from the competition, would not be renewed after it sunsets in June. “I do not believe there is an appetite legislatively to extend or prolong that law,” Tisch said.
Mulgrew, the president of the teachers union which originally fought for the insertion of the law into the state budget, did not contradict Tisch’s projection.
Tisch drew a line, however, at endorsing a removal of the state’s cap on charter schools, a provision Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for last month and that is among the Race to the Top draft requirements. Tisch echoed comments made by Steiner on the day he was sworn in, saying that the cap has allowed charter schools to expand in the city and state in a thoughtful, measured pace.
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November 5th, 2009 5:47 pm
Interesting.
13% of charters serve high school students. Is that a form of creaming?
High school years comprise 30% of the years from K thru 12.
Kudos to Tisch and Steiner re “thoughtful, measured pace.”
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November 6th, 2009 12:30 am
What is this Tisch/State Ed. secrecy about the RttT application? State Ed. is a governmental agency which wishes to do governmental-type things with governmental funds. So far, everything involved in State Ed.’s work to get a RttT grant has been done secretly - and illegally. Like the consultant work they’ve paid for to get a piece of this (and Gates Foundation) grant money.
With all due respect … no respect is due here. If Tisch, the remainder of the Reegies, and State Ed.’s heavies are so brilliant, why are their plans being kept under wraps? State Ed. hasn’t done anything in the last two decades that wouldn’t have been done better if there had been serious, meaningful public input.
Seems to me this is a great reason for the citizens of NYS to consider opposing NYSED’s RttT application. Seems to me it’s time for us all to demand that Tisch, the remaining Reegies, and State Ed. be forced to come out from under the rock they typically operate under and get into the sunlight. Which is the best disinfectant. What they’ve done, and what they’re doing, could sure use some.
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November 6th, 2009 6:55 am
[...] roadblock (Peoria Journal Star) Ind. — For Mind Trust, star power (Indianapolis Star) N.Y. — Tisch calls on charters to take on city’s worst high schools (Gotham Schools) Wis. — Charter schools are one strategy, not a cure-all (Wisconsin State [...]
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November 6th, 2009 9:53 am
I think Steiner and King are great choices to run the State Department of Education, but one is an academic and the other has run only a handful of schools (albeit incredibly successful schools). It just doesn’t matter how much I like the people they hire, the real question is whether they can execute anything truly innovative within a sprawling bureaucracy like the Department of Education. Education reform is moving to accountability for outcomes, not inputs, so I see no reason to think the feds will be excited by who the Regents hire to run their bureaucracy without any clear idea of what they plan to do, let alone evidence they can succeed. The feds are, however, going to look at states that have taken concrete actions, like eliminating charter caps, allowing student performance to factor into teacher evaluation, enacting pay for performance, etc. Tisch is playing a dangerous game by assuming the charter cap will automatically lift when we get close it and that a law will just sunset. The fact is, we are nearly at the cap, and waiting much longer, given the intertia of politics, may mean a gap of one or more years before new charters start to come on line again. I don’t care how exciting her Race to the Top application is on paper, if I don’t see action backing it up why should I think the feds will approve it.
Also, converting existing schools to charters is very different than creating new charter schools from scratch. If a charter school operator takes over an existing school without the flexibility to hire and fire staff, change the schedule and school year to best meet the needs of students, adopt new programs, and control the school’s budget, there’s little reason to think conversion is going to be much of an improvement. Successful charter operators are rightfully cautious. If Tisch is serious about them taking over failing high schools, she needs to give them all of the autonomy their independent schools have, and then hold them accountable for results. She needs to stop accusing them of failing to step up, when they have been doing admirable work in some of the neediest communities.
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November 6th, 2009 5:30 pm
Well done by Maura Walz on this very interesting and (mostly) encouraging event. I add some perspective (www.nycsa.org/blog/) having also attended the event, in particular to Chancellor Tisch’s remarks about charter schools, which were encouraging. Well, except for the “political darlings” part, which we are hardly considered as such in the Albany statehouse. Great strides have been made by charter schools in the state legislature, thanks mostly to the accomplishments of charter schools themselves which continue to improve student learning and acheivement and which is increasingly recognized. But, as long as we are a competitive challenge to the exsiting district school system and have a stake in the education funding pie, we will never be considered “darlings” and instead must fight “tooth and nail,” as Eva Moskowitz described.
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November 9th, 2009 4:09 pm
[...] Gotham Schools, an independent internet-based news source, reported that “Tisch said that charter schools need to branch out to serve more struggling high school students, English language learners and special education students.” [...]
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November 9th, 2009 9:11 pm
[...] Department powerpoint showing public schools outperforming charter schools, in spite of the “darling” status of charter schools, as described by Chancellor Meryl Tisch, Speaking at Hunter [...]
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