GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

1. 

   Esteban Rodriguez

   July 29th, 2010 8:08 am

   From the Daily News

   “If you look at African-American and Hispanics citywide and take into account that charters serve 94% African-American and Hispanics, that probably explains it,” said New York City Charter School Center’s James Merriman.

   Nice one. Blame the black and spanish kids.  How infuriating!

2. 

   Vinicius

   July 29th, 2010 9:08 am

   Let me think this over a bit. Charters were supposed to give the most “disadvantaged” an opportunity to get a “quality” education. I guess I can interpret that as being their whole reason for being. hmmm  So now the charter leaders need a scapegoat. “Let’s blame the children of color who we owe our existence!!!”  The real truth is that  charter school leadership is lacking and is selling everybody a bill of goods. Charter schools are not sustainable without the support of the incompetent politicians.  That is the real tip!

3. 

   ASTRAKA

   July 29th, 2010 9:16 am

   Charter schools are selling snake oil.

4. 

   Tim

   July 29th, 2010 10:50 am

   ‘ “If you look at African-American and Hispanics citywide and take into account that charters serve 94% African-American and Hispanics, that probably explains it,” said New York City Charter School Center’s James Merriman. ‘ 
   I learned the phrase “unmitigated gall” from my union-member 7th grade English teacher at a traditional public school. 

   I would love to hear thoughts from the NYCCSC’s board regarding their president’s comment. 

5. 

   bj

   July 29th, 2010 12:26 pm

   the point is charter school students who are mostly poor black and latino kids still did better than the district as a whole and significantly better than black and latino kids in district schools. I understand that my child’s scores will probably go down, but I still feel confident my child will receive a good education at a charter. I’m happy the bar has been set higher. I’d rather the bar be set high now, than innocent children flunk out of high school or college later on. Maybe now, we’ll have more parent input across the board at charter schools.

6. 

   CharterSchoolTeach

   July 29th, 2010 12:34 pm

   @Astraka: what a staggeringly ignorant thing to say. The drops in charter school numbers were indeed precipitous, however, I’d bet that the proficiency qua the district comparison and overall numbers are well above average.

   A charter school that works (and not all of them do) have success because of a palpable sense of passion and desire to teach in communities with the most need.

   Fact: Bloated union ranks with tenured blase teachers will NEVER fix the problem in high need districts. Successful charters can, have, and will regardless of your hand wringing political “scummery

7. 

   Michael Fiorillo

   July 29th, 2010 1:14 pm

   “A charter school that works ( and not all of them do) have success because of a palpable sense of passion and desire to teach in communities with the most need.”

   Two points:

   1. I hope you are not an English teacher, otherwise your students are at a real disadvantage.

   2. By cherry-picking (charters clearly do not enroll the poorest students), counseling out, and enrolling significantly fewer special needs and ELL students, charters most certainly do not provide enough to “communities with the most need.”

8. 

   CarolineSF

   July 29th, 2010 2:08 pm

   The AP coverage is so lame. The accusations are not that Obama’s education policies aren’t helping low-income students of color — the accusations are that Obama’s education policies will do serious harm to low-income students of color, as well as their communities (by damaging the schools that serve their communities).

   And previously, the AP’s headline on the stories about the civil rights groups blasting Race to the Top used the verb “discuss” — Civil rights groups DISCUSS Obama’s education policy. By comparison, the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss used “skewer” on the same story on her blog. Is the AP getting its staff from Report for America and Copy Edit for America? Pathetic.

9. 

   CharterSchoolTeach

   July 29th, 2010 2:40 pm

   @MF.

   1. That is a trollish comment from the trolliest troll I’ve heard as yet on such a professional blog. You do a disservice to your inadequacy.

   2. I hope you are a UFT acolyte, otherwise you do a disservice to…okay, no snark. Have charter schools done enough? No. Have charter schools done the best job in the most districts with the most need: invariably yes.

   The trouble is that charter school success is hard to replicate without the requisite teacher pool that is willing to put in the work necessary for success. Charter schools need people who want to put in the time to do a job approaching good. An antiquated union will never produce a great school in highest need communities anymore. There will be pockets of good teaching but unsupported systems.

   To discount and disparage a solution that has already had success because of some inadequacies is a classical fallacy of logic that echoes through the halls of time (it was hard for me to avoid a snarky comment here, MF.)

10. 

    SunsetSlope

    July 29th, 2010 2:43 pm

    In the WSJ’s story: “Robert Tobias, a professor at NYU’s Center for Research on Teaching & Learning and the former testing chief in New York City. . . warned that there may be other problems with the test that cannot be fixed by simply changing the point at which a student is termed proficient. ‘Unless you address those issues, you’re proceeding in ignorance,’ he said.”

    What I haven’t seen — yet — is any serious discussion tying this story (Profs’ Koretz & Jennings analysis of NYS assessment results) to basic assumptions of Sec’y Duncan’s RttT or to the calls to link teacher evaluations squarely with data from assessments like these.

    This year, a documentary film about NYC’s Rubber Rooms rubberroommovie.com seems to have been overtaken by events on the ground. Will waitingforsuperman.com suffer the same fate?

11. 

    Michael Fiorillo

    July 29th, 2010 3:04 pm

    CharterSchool,

    In my initial response to your attack on ASTRAKA, I criticized your poor writing and thinking skills. In your attack on me, you neglected to respond to any of the substance in my comment.

    You then proceeded to contradict yourself by first saying that charter schools are not always successful, and then stating that they have “invariably” done “the best job in the most districts with the most need.” Which one is it? It can’t be both simultaneously.

    By the way, is it snarky to point out your poor writing, or to be charitable, poor proofreading skills? After all, you do claim to be a teacher.

    You also neglected to respond to the incontestable facts that:

    1. Charter schools do not serve the same population as the real public schools they leech resources from: they dishonestly state that they serve a population receiving free and reduced-rate school lunch, while neglecting to mention that they have far fewer students who receive free lunch than the local public schools. In other words, they do not serve the poorest students.

    2. Charters have the freedom to discharge students who don’t fit their model, or who threaten their stats, and they use it.

    3. Charters do not enroll comparable numbers of special needs students as real public schools.

    4. Charters do not enroll comparable numbers of ELLs as real public schools.

    Additionally, the final sentence in your next-to-last paragraph - “There will be pockets of good teaching but unsupported systems.” - raises an interesting question: who, exactly is responsible for these “unsupported systems?”

    It couldn’t by any chance be the Mayor, Chancellor and malanthropists who are so intent on expanding a publicly-funded but privately-run school system, could it?

    Sincerely, from Your Trolliest Troll,

    Michael Fiorillo

12. 

    ASTRAKA

    July 29th, 2010 3:30 pm

    Charter_SC:
    Please do not become hysterical. When fiscal transparency in public charter schools becomes the norm, then I will take my comment back. My comment was not meant to be a personal attack against you. If you took it that way, I apologize.

13. 

    Ellen

    July 29th, 2010 4:06 pm

    Eva! Eva! Eva! c’mon Eva… let’s hear it Eva…..yeah Eva……go Eva…….

    Eva?
    James?

    anyone?

14. 

    Gulen Watcher

    July 29th, 2010 8:57 pm

    Publically funded yet privately managed, there is a large amount of fraud and embezzlement associated with Charter schools. It all depends on the integrity, honesty and agenda of the managment company.
    In the USA the Gulen Movement manages over 120 US charter schools under a layer of numerous Gulen Foundations and Institutes. Ever heard of Fethullah Gulen? He is described as the most dangerous Islamic Imman in the world. Gulen lives in exile in the USA (Poconos, PA) he left his native Turkey among accusations of trying to overthrow a secular government.
    Do your research on this 5th grade educated man worth $25 billion and ask yourself if this is right for American children to outsource their education to a foreign entity? http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com

15. 

    Bill

    July 30th, 2010 12:51 am

    I found an article on charter school scandels where a complaint was given to the Arizona State Board of Charter Schools that an adminastrator of Sonoran Science Academy had been given students the answers for AIMS testing. These schools are scamming the system and skewing the numbers to gain more money. This is a huge problem when incentifiying schools with money to get scores. This particular school and the others like I really do not trust. They are part of a greater network of Gulen Owned charter schools. To see what I mean just google search Gulen Charter Schools.

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