An open letter about Charter Schools in the USA

Some people in the United Kingdom are looking closely at charter schools in the USA. I got wind of their interest in importing the charter structure to Britain and I composed the following open letter:

To anyone interested in opening a charter school:

if you go to 1 minute 20 (1:20), you will see the transcription.

The commissioner of education (in Rhode Island) Peter McWalter said to me, "I could have closed this school down the first year, but I had the patience to watch and I've never seen people who had the belief in the maturity of the kid" -- so half of our great work is because the [kids] grew up. In most schools, they don't get to [grow up] -- they get stopped before [they can prove themselves].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdKw1GOIaGQ

11 July 2011

I have worked at three charter schools (elementary, middle and high schools) and I'm a consultant to a start-up school.

I recommend that you speak with Tom vander Ark edReformer.com

Tom Vander Ark
direct: 206.909.8251
email: tom@VARpartners.net
twitter: @tvanderark

and Dr. Abraham S. Fischler TheStudentIsTheClass.com +1 954 262 5376 fischler@nova.edu

In their blogs they both write about the power of the correct approach in the use of the charter school format.

Too many charter schools simply copy a school structure and teaching methods that "worked" 40 years ago. The charter schools that produce long-lasting results (students who have mastered the seven essential skills that Tony Wagner writes about in the Global Achievement Gap) use relationships and projects in their instruction.

Perhaps the most instructive thirty seconds about "how to create effective charter schools" comes from an interview with Dennis Littky of Providence, Rhode Island. (see the link at the start of this letter)

Note the later part of the interview with Littky:

Critics laughed when they saw we had internships. Then they saw that we had the highest attendance rate in the state. We had the lowest drop-out rate in the state. But they really became believers when they see that every kid got accepted to college. Five years later they're still in college or graduated.

... We keep pushing ahead and trying to show that this is a way to help kids get educated.

We outscored the three largest high schools in mathematics and we don't teach a mathematics course. The kids learn to think like mathematicians, to solve problems and use their minds. The scores are not great, but they are moving up.
Colleges are impressed with how articulate and passionate our kids are.

The point is that the test scores were not the result that Littky looked for ... it was what happened to the students.

1) the highest attendance rate in the state.

2) the lowest drop-out rate in the state.

3) every kid got accepted to college.
4) we don't teach a mathematics course.
5) colleges are impressed with how articulate and passionate our kids are.

Peter McWalter's remark is key: The project-based, student-centered charter school with a focus on relationships needs time and delivers results in ways that a standardized test does not reveal.

I hope this information assists you in identifying the positive aspects of charter schools in the USA. There is much that discourages me in the charter school movement in the USA, but there is good work happening at hightechhigh.org and at Littky's BigPicture.org schools.

Sincerely,

Steve McCrea

VisualandActive.com

GuideOnTheSide.com

Curriculum consultant

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

+1 954 646 8246

VisualAndActive@gmail.com

The Secret Behind the Met Center in Rhode Island

Hmm. It sounds like any other school. “High Standards” for most of us means “We use expensive textbooks and expect our students to do onerous homework.” At the Met, the standards are for rigorous work in the student’s area of passion.

“Advisory” for most schools might mean “we have a guidance department” and “we help students find possible careers.” In the Met, the advisory is the class and the classroom. The advisory appears to be the heart of the program. The advisory system links one adult to 15 students and that adult (the “advisor,” but most of us would call that adult the “teacher”) builds a three- or four-year relationship with the student. There are other teachers, but one advisor guides the student through a mix of subjects. The students look at issues in the advisory, focusing on quantitative reasoning (math), empirical evidence (the scientific process) and communication (language arts).

Confused? I was when I first heard of this school’s system. I thought, “How can one teacher teach all subjects?” That’s the wrong question. We should be asking, “In my school, how can a student get a sense of direction when he or she has to deal with at least 5 different teachers each year, 20 teachers through high school? Where is the common thread binding all of these subjects in the student?”

That’s the secret behind the Met. One adult cares about (focuses on) one student at a time. I know at least one school district that claims to teach “one student at a time.” The Met Center actually practices this.

Five pillars of Big Picture Schools

(as interpreted by a math teacher who visited The Met in Providence, RI, part of the Big Picture schools association)

1 Multi-year relationships -- The teacher stays with the same students for three or four years. The teacher teaches more than one subject. In the case of the Met, a high school in Providence, RI, the teacher stays with the students for all four years of high school.

2 The teacher is a facilitator. Teacher = Advisor = “how can I help you?” The teacher coaches the student to choose activities to cover skill areas (language skills, quantitative reasoning, etc.) rather than special subjects, like trigonometry, algebra or chemistry. One of the teacher’s prime activities is finding suitable mentors for the students.

3 Tests are by exhibition. A “stand up” demonstration of understanding is valued above a written test. The students take the state’s standardized tests and other written tests, but the school focuses on the exhibition, which is the product of at least nine weeks of work.

4 Learning through interests – the internships (set up with the teacher) are selected by the student. Academic learning is filtered through the student’s interests.

5 “I’m more than a letter in the alphabet.” Evaluations are made by narratives, not by a letter grade. The teacher can afford time to write two pages of narrative about each student during the grading period because the teacher has only 15 to 20 students to meet with over a nine-week period. (I observed an “advisor” who met with students throughout the class day, asking for updates on on-going projects. This sort of focus can come from a narrow focus of one adult on a small group of students.)

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