Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
With critics continuing to battle over education initiative Race to the Top, a program that rewards top-performing schools with financial incentives, many parents instead are opting to send their children to charter schools.In New Orleans, standardized test scores for fourth-, eighth- and- tenth-grade public school students have gone up since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 and devastated the public school system.
And according to a report by theGrio, this may have something to do with the increasing presence of charter schools.
And the success of charter schools has been on the radar for both parents and teachers for a few years now.
Ayanna Taylor, an English major and University of Pennsylvania graduate who chose to teach with Teach for America after graduating from school, landed at a charter school:
"The difference with the charter school was in the efficiency of how the school was managed," says Taylor who worked for North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, N.J., part of the Uncommon Schools Network.
"The organization was very high-performing and well-managed. It makes a difference in your growth as a professional and your daily experiences. My principal was a great manager in my former school, but we still had to deal with bureaucracy and unions that sometimes makes being an effective teacher very difficult. Charter public schools are structured to eliminate those barriers."
Charter school success stories are taking place in traditionally low-performing areas, such as Washington, D.C.; Detroit; and New Orleans. The SEED school in Washington, D.C., for instance, has students enter three grades below their grade level. This year, SEED reported a 100 percent graduation- and- college-acceptance rate.
"The organization was very high-performing and well-managed. It makes a difference in your growth as a professional and your daily experiences. My principal was a great manager in my former school, but we still had to deal with bureaucracy and unions that sometimes makes being an effective teacher very difficult. Charter public schools are structured to eliminate those barriers."
Charter school success stories are taking place in traditionally low-performing areas, such as Washington, D.C.; Detroit; and New Orleans. The SEED school in Washington, D.C., for instance, has students enter three grades below their grade level. This year, SEED reported a 100 percent graduation- and- college-acceptance rate.
In New Orleans, Mays Prep Charter School, founded in 2009 and located in the Desire community, has had a similar experience. Its students, more than 90 percent African American, were underserved and underperforming, and only half of them graduated high school in four years. In the five years since Hurricane Katrina, though, standardized test scores have gone up considerably. According to theGrio, the majority of public schools in the city are now charters.
Another example would be Orleans Parish. In 2005, Newsweek had it as the second worst-performing school district in the state, and in some schools, 30 percent of seniors had dropped out over the course of the year. With students coming out of charter schools in that area now, Leslie Jacobs, a New Orleans education-reform advocate, says that by the end of the 2010-11 academic year, the dropout rate will be less than one-third and more than 70 percent of New Orleans public schools students will attend charter schools.
Randall McKnight, who is now a program director for Teach for America, taught in traditional public schools in New Orleans for two years. He told theGriot that while charters may be a solution to current failing schools, he's not convinced a 'takeover' will serve all parties well:
"I don't think the charter model, like 90 percent charters, is going to be for everybody," McKnight said. "It's not like public schools are failing everywhere."
Bradley agrees, "It's about choice for parents." "And that not only means great charter schools, but that's also traditional district schools, parochial schools and independent schools."
Watch the effect of charter schools after Hurricane Katrina here:
Watch the effect of charter schools after Hurricane Katrina here: