School Choice & Charter Schools

I don't think that I've ever come out and stated this before, but I am in favor in school choice, vouchers, scholarships, and whatever else might be out there that gives parents a real choice in deciding what kind of education they want their children to receive.

The one thing I do not agree with, however, at least not the way that Seminole County, Florida has implemented them, is the concept of the charter school. For the uninitiated, let me fill you in on how the charter school is sold around here:

It's supposed to have smaller class sizes. The teachers are supposed to be better equipped, especially when it comes to dealing with some of the more challenging children. There is a strict dress code requiring uniforms. Specially designed teaching methods ensure that the average kid in the charter school will perform better than his counterpart in the traditional public school. But most importantly, everyone, from the principal on down, is supposed to be committed first and foremost to ensuring a top notch education for the kids.

Sounds great, huh? The sad part is that the only part that seems to ring true is the part about the school uniforms - and even then they don't tell you that you must purchase them through the school only with the shirts costing nearly as much as a quality adult polo shirt from a mall department store (oh, and by the way, you'll need at least three per kid unless you want to do laundry every night.)

Me and my other half bought into the spiel after last year's school year ended. The local elementary charter school was right up the street and we, like all other parents, wanted the kids to get the best possible education that they could. We can't afford private school, so we thought that this might be a good, quality alternative. Boy, were we wrong.

We have two kids in elementary school, one currently in second grade; one in third. When they finished up last year, the one going into second grade was reading at a level just above the required first grade level needed to pass; the other was reading at a mid-year third grade level. The youngest was excelling at math and science. The older one struggled some with math but was catching it without too much extra effort. Both could be considered challenging as the older of the two doesn't know how to be quiet and the younger will deliberately defy you, as seven year old boys are wont to do sometimes (I seem to remember having done the same thing more than once.)

So off to charter school they went. We started having problems almost right away. There were the racial bus stop incidents that I mentioned in the past (no response from the school about them). We also discovered that their specially designed reading and math programs were the Success For All, or SFA, programs developed by Johns Hopkins, I believe, as "a better way of teaching kids." We were familiar with SFA because the Seminole County Public Schools, even the traditional ones, use the reading program - the exact same one that the youngest struggled with so much the year before.

Simply put, the reading program uses the "whole language" approach to reading. In other words, instead of using phonics to sound out words the kids are supposed to memorize the words so that they know them by sight. For simple books, like those on a kindergarten or first grade level that's fine. But when you have second grade books using multiple pitcures in place of words because there are too many for the kids to learn in one book, there is something wrong. The third grade books also make heavy use of the little picto-words.

In the traditional public school, however, the teachers were willing to take a little more time to at least attempt to teach a basics of phonics to the kids that were really struggling with the whole language approach. That was the only way that the youngest managed to make it through first grade. Not at the charter school however. They dogmatically stuck to the plan, refusing to deviate even an iota - mainly because the teachers didn't know how to teach phonics, not even a little. As a result, despite everything we were doing (and numerous nights of the the youngest crying that "they won't let me do it like that at school!") the older of the two made exactly zero progress in her reading, luckily she was far enough ahead going into third grade that she didn't need to make any progress. The youngest actually regressed.

Math was no better. Understand now that the traditional public schools around here rejected the SFA math program as it was too far out there even for them. But not the charter school. They stuck to it dogmatically. It was "new math" in all its glory, but with a small twist. In traditional new math (there's an oxymoron), the right answer isn't important, all that matters is the process. And the process is figured out, not by the teacher teaching, but by a bunch of unknowledgeable kids, working in groups, figuring out whatever process they want to use. And that was ok. Except that the charter school used a hybrid approach. New math, with all it's touchy-feely teamwork, for the process; traditional math, with its emphasis on the right answer, for the answer. You would not believe how many times we had to reeducate the third grader on the proper way to solve a problem after her groupmates came up with something completely bizarre. And for the second grader, well even with the explaination from the school as to what they were trying to do with a given assignment, half the time we could not figure out what they were doing. It made absolutely no sense, and I'm not exactly a math dummy!

We also had other quirks that made us wonder about the intent of the school. At the beginning of the year we got home a letter in which the school was offering a bounty for any new student that you could convince to enroll. Later, we got home a letter that gave us more specific details X number of fourth graders are needed, no second graders as we'd have to hire another teacher, and so on. They principal even came out and said that his goal was to increase the number of students because each student added a certain amount of money to the funding (oh, and they had to enroll by a certain date. After that date, tehy weren't going to accept any new enrollments). And he wanted to increase the amount of funding for the school, without increasing the expenses of the school, because it would allow for more and better special events (like the fundraising fair). They ignored the fact that their enrollment drive increased class sizes to one similar to the traditional public school and that virtually none of the extra money wsa to be spent on educating the children!

The staffing was of very poor quality. The principal himself, rather than being interested in educating children, was far more concerned with dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s, along with his precious empire expansion. We met with him several times and never once did he exhibit even the slightest bit of concern about the quality of the education in his school. He did complain about paperwork and had some very, very nice new computer equipment on his desk, however. The teachers were no better. One was suspending for abusing a child - in front of the entire class (she was later allowed to return). The youngest one's teachers used to say that he was uninterested in school, a problem child, this, that and the other, and then would mention in passing that he had a 100 average in the class. It never occured to them that he might be lacking in challenge more than he was in discipline.

A lot of ranting to be sure, but I wanted to make sure that you had the background. In December, we pulled both kids out of the charter school. The older went back to the traditional public school; the younger we enrolled in a private school (after we were able to get a scholarship to help with the costs). The difference is amazing.

When the youngest started at his new school he could barely functionally read and, in second grade mind you, had no idea how to carry the one in math. In one month - with time off for the holidays - he is already back to making progress above his end of the year reading level last year and is now doing math similar to his sister. The staff has been great, the quality of the education has been outstanding, and the kid has responded. He's a very bright kid, but one that had been written off for dumb by the charter school.

His sister, in the traditional public school, is just now starting to progress beyond where she was at the end of last year. Her reading level is still at a mid-year thid grade level. She is finally starting to remember the importance of process in math. She is not a dummy either, but she literally just went through half a year of educational stagnation. If we had the money, we'd have her in the private school also. Maybe if I start making some good money at work....

Last night was very instructive for me though. For Christmas, the youngest got a PlayStation 2. He had been getting addicted to his oldest sister's Grand Theft Auto III, so to try to get him to play something a little more worthwhile, I bought him Metropolismania yesterday. A very interesting game to say the least. The kids are supposed to build a city, but to do so you have to talk to existing residents to get new leads. The game looks cartoony, but is actually pretty deep.

What really hit me as interesting though was that the communication interface is all written, not verbal. So you have to be able to read the words coming across the screen, kind of like a closed captioning. And they're not all easy words. Some of them are pretty challenging.

And the youngest one could now only play the game, he could play it well. He knew how to read most all the words going across the screen. I was completely amazed.

Charter schools are, in my opinion, a failure. They combine all the worst traits of the traditional school system - uninterested administrators, poor teachers, and personal fiefdoms - with unproven and counterproductive teaching methods. Parents should have a choice. But selling abject failure as the greatest thing since sliced bread should not be one of them. The money wasted on the charter school would be far better spent in providing vouchers or scholarships to students so that they can attend a school where they might actually learn something.