OBAMA'S CHINA:

OBAMA'S CHARTER-SCHOOL CHALLENGE (Ryan Sager, 3/24/09, NY Post)

A new, wide-ranging report from the RAND Corp. last week serves to underscore what we know about charters: They help kids, improving their performance on average and providing some shining success stories all without taking away from traditional public schools.

The RAND study looked at charters in Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, San Diego and the states of Florida, Ohio and Texas. Its most striking finding: Charter-school kids graduate high school and attend college between 7 and 15 percent more often than their traditional public-school counterparts.

That higher graduation and college-attendance rate comes on top of modest test-score bumps that charters have long been shown to produce.

What's more, charters do all this not by "skimming" the brightest students from traditional public schools, as their critics like to contend but by taking in students who are below average and doing a better job educating them.

With charters doing such a good job, what reason could there be for capping their growth? Other than the obvious: Democratic (and, yes, plenty of Republican) legislators doing the unions' bidding.

That Obama is implicitly challenging the unions' power is why school reformers have enjoyed the president's tough talk on topics such as the need for merit pay, moving failed teachers out of the classroom, lengthening the school day and year, etc. On charter "caps" like New York's, Obama was particularly blunt: "That isn't good for our children, our economy or our country."

To be clear: The president's rhetorical support of school reform alone has helped to shift the education debate, putting teachers unions on notice: Even under a Democratic president, they can't safely stick to the status quo. It's also given the cover of the president's enthusiastic support to state and local legislators who'd like to come out strongly in favor of charters.

But it's not enough.

The Advance Path Academy: learning that clicks: An innovative program using computers and self-motivation offers a second chance to potential dropouts. (LA Times, March 21, 2009)

At first, the Advance Path Academy looks more dreary than dramatic: Long institutional tables with computer stations fill a warehouse that previously served as a hide-out where kids smoked marijuana while ditching classes. The 160 students in the academy, mostly juniors and seniors, are divided into two shifts, each shift sitting at the computers for four hours a day. On one wall hangs a blue cap and gown, a constant reminder of the goal. On another is a chart listing all the students, with gold stars representing the number of classes passed.

Green Dot contracts with education company AdvancePath Academics, which provides similar programs in the Glendale, Sacramento and San Bernardino public schools. At Locke, AdvancePath remodeled the warehouse, supplied the course work, which is aligned with California's curriculum, and paid for the computers. Students take their "classes" and some of their tests on the computers, pacing themselves and organizing their time as they wish. Most take one course for four hours a day until they pass. Others split the time among several courses. They consult one of the four teachers when they're stuck; the teachers also grade most of the tests and papers and walk the aisles, prodding students who spend too much time chatting or gazing off into space.

You'd think this would be the educational model least likely to work for these students. How are teenagers who struggled to pass classes taught by flesh-and-blood teachers going to master course work by reading computer screens? The answer comes in conversations with them. One after another, they tell nearly identical stories: They flunked because they seldom went to class. They hid amid the rows of portable buildings, or on rooftops or in closets.

Besides, they say, they weren't learning anything. Instead of instructing them, teachers would hand out work sheets and then ignore them. They didn't get to ask enough questions. With the computer, they're in charge. If they don't understand something, they can click a few steps back. There's always a teacher willing to answer as many questions as they have, working one-on-one or in small groups.

The four-hour school day helps too. Many students hold part-time jobs to help their parents, or have children of their own. Some simply can't stand being in school for a full day. Others do their classwork on home computers, and within weeks pass classes they flunked in years past. Suddenly, they discover their own quick-mindedness. Many have passed eight classes this academic year, more than one a month. For the first time, they also understand the direct correlation between effort and success. The harder and longer they work, the faster they rack up credits.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 24, 2009 7:49 AM