By: Karen Sherwood

Karen Sherwood — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:45:01 +0000

Is there also going to be a way to ensure that the charter schools do outreach to students with poor attendance, behavioral issues, and low academic achievement (although not necessarily special ed or ELL)? Simply checking off certain numbers of special ed or ELL students will not even out the unfair evaluations placed regular public schools. In my high school, for example, there are many diligent and hardworking special ed and ELL students whose excellent progress, allows them to graduate on time and to go on to college and careers. Most of these students come from homes in which there is ample parental support AND in which the parents have working phone numbers. –Phone numbers– So simple, yet so necessary to parent-school contact. In fact, I’d venture a guess that the much vaunted success of many charter schools is due to the fact that they only take students whose parents are motivated and involved enough to attend one or two meetings AND to have a working phone number. Unfortunately, that excludes the students whose parents are too busy, too sick, or perhaps too apathetic to get involved in their children’s education. I think that the older the students are, (14 and up) the more likely it is that the parents will either tune out, allowing their children to deal with their own school issues. My school, which was an excellent, highly respected neighborhood school, now has huge numbers of students, (mainstream as well as special ed and ELL) who cut school (sometimes weeks or months at a time), display rude and disruptive behavior, or just give up- that is, come to class , but do little or no work. When the teachers try to phone their parents, we often find disconnected or non-working numbers, or that the person answering the phone has no idea who the child is. When we do reach the parents, some are concerned and helpful, but many others are as frustrated as we are–they are aware of the child’s problem, but have not yet found a way to solve it. Some are argumentative, even belligerent, defending their child’s bad behavior and blaming the other students, the school, or even the teachers. As a result of these, and other, factors, many high schools students treat their education as an optional activity rather than as their job. With this lack of parental support as well as surprise pregnancies, family emergencies, and even two-month vacations to their homelands (in the middle of the school year), it’s no surprise that so many students take five or six years to graduate or to even acquire enough credits to think of graduating. Are any charter schools coming around to really test their mettle by embracing these students? Of course not! Hence, we will only know the true effectiveness of a charter school if the school will take in the most difficult students–the ones who are disenchanted, alienated, and who don’t really want to be there. They need to take in students whose parents did NOT come to meetings or apply for a lottery or who cannot control their teenage children’s behavior or attendance. Of course it’s a catch-22; the charters can’t consider anyone who didn’t apply, but unfortunately, these challenging students are a huge part of New York City’s student body. If somebody could come up with a solution, we could have true reform, but until then, it’s apples and oranges. Therefore, even if the charters take in some more special ed and ELL students (the ones with involved parents) and manage to provide them with their mandated services, neither the charters nor the DOE will have come up with a solution that will work for all students.

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Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:26:43 +0000

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Comments on: New charter rules focus on community, more changes on way

By: Karen Sherwood

By: Race to alter chartering process means few changes for now | GothamSchools #edu « Parents 4 democratic Schools