Wednesday, September 10, 2008
School Choice?
In the past 2 decades, public demand and interest in "school choice" in the form of charter schools, magnet schools, schools within a school, academies, and vouchers for private schools has increased. Many believe that our educational system should mirror the business model of free enterprise, therefore with "competition" public schools would not take tax support for granted and provide better services to students. Please share your professional experiences as an "insider" of a non-traditional school model and its effectiveness, or share your opinions about how you anticipate these models will positively or negatively affect your reform efforts as a public school principal. Would you view school choice options differently as a parent than as a school administrator?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
31 comments:
While I am certainly a supporter of public schools, I do believe that part of the reason that public schools have been so static while society has changed so rapidly around them is because they have not faced any real competition. As long as public schools exist as a monopoly with a captive consumer base, then I think the rate of their evolution will always be incredibly slow. While I don't think that competition from private schools, charters and vouchers is the sole solution to fixing our public schools, I do think that introducing an element of competition provides incentive for real change, and may therefore be a piece of the solution.
I agree with Greg that reform has been slow, but I don't think it is due to lack of competition; I believe it is due to the tremendously varying standards for teacher and administrator education.
I don't think schools are enough like businesses for the business model to work. Kids are not products, and issues such as transportation, community support, numbers for allocations, etc. would be awfully hard to keep straight and run efficiently if people were making choices all the time and moving around.
I am not a parent, but I can definitely say that I would view school choice options differently in respect to my child having the resources to be successful (I'm human). However since I don't have kids yet, I do lean towards school choice creating more problems than it solves. If parents move their students from public schools to alternatives then it creates hard feelings on those that are "left behind"-teachers, students, and administrators.
Marcia has me thinking like a parent. I think if schools are functioning as they should be, problems should be solved, not escaped. A parent should be able to go in and share problems with teachers or administrators and work for solutions. If instead, they can just transfer to another school, no one ever works to solve the problems (generally speaking).
I am a parent and as a parent I want the best options for my children. If the public school system is not meeting the needs of my child, I don't want to wait until things get better or look forward to the day when schools change. I want to exercise my option of choice and place my child in an environment conducive to his/her needs. However, as a school administrator, I think school choice perpetuates many of the injustices that we see in our school system. Parents who are informed and have the resources are more likely to take advantage of "school choice" which usually equates to the privileged few.
I agree Christian; parents who are “informed” are more likely to take advantage of school choice. Where does this leave our children who do not have parents who advocate for them? I do not have children, but I would do the same thing for my child if I thought it was warranted. As administrators we are supposed to advocate for all, school vouchers would do nothing more than increase the disparities between the children of our schools. I know we are asked to look at this situation as an administrator and as a parent, but I do not see how this is possible without showing bias from each standpoint.
My school has academies and we used to have a flex schedule for students wanting to take more classes within the school day. Although I can see the usefulness of both of these as a parent, as an administrator I see it creating class levels within the school creating an social elite system. Since other options are available for students, it must be reinforced that those that choose to stay are valuable in their school and efforts must be made to show parents the direction the school is going to help them be successful.
I agree that school choice can cause more injustice in our schools than we already have. I've seen first hand how this happens. We have a brand new charter school in my school district that has become very popular. However, that school is now made up of primarily white students from the upper class. The benefit that I've seen is a reduction in over crowding at our public schools and smaller class sizes. These benefits will allow teachers to focus more on each individual student.
I personally do not think that a voucher system is going to provide the necessary competition to improve schools. I'm not convinced that a voucher system can discern between the privileged that want to send their children to the private school where they are "a legacy" sitting in a class of 15 other students of the same race, and the lower SES family that wants their child to have an academic experience that they truly would not have otherwise.
I agree with Robin that problems must be identified and solved ... it seems like such a simple mentality, however, I have yet to work in a school that seriously solicited parent concerns and then worked towards the change necessary to fix those concerns.
I wonder if parent concerns are not taken into account because of their lack of expertise in the field or are they are seen as a special interest group? While I agree that one positive of vouchers would reduce the class sizes and allow more focus on the individual student, we have to take our teacher caps off and put on our principal caps. As an administrator you are evaluated on how the entire school performs, not the individual student. As a future administrator I will do everything in my power to keep the students who are trying to leave my school as a result of the voucher system. These students will keep test scores high and keep providing the school with parent involvement.
Brad, you are right about parent involvement...it seems likely that the parents that would choose to leave would be the parents who would be able to help create the most change. But as we discussed in Dr. Brown's class, it is highly unlikely that these parents will advocate for changes that do NOT benefit their children. About test scores, as an administrator we do need those students to balance "overall test scores," but realistically if those are the only students performing it is even more likely that their parents would choose to move them. That's why we need to focus on moving our entire schools towards proficiency.
There will always be parents who choose to educate their child in a different setting from the traditional public school. I have a saying that I try to live by which is "control the controllables." As a future administrator, I can only control the programs, curriculum, and instruction in my school. I personally enjoy competition, and I believe that I can turn around a school no matter what the circumstances may be. There are public schools in broken communities across the United States that are performing at high levels because of effective leadership. As an administrator, I will always pay attention to what the magnet and charter schools are offering students, but seek to do it better. I believe we all can create schools where parents want to send their children each day.
Ryan, your point about enjoying competition is an interesting one. I enjoy it too if it is in the right spirit (games, for example). I guess competition can be a good motivator for positive school change--or one factor. Is anything ever so simple?
Your comment made me think about against whom or what should we be competitive in this, excuse the phrase, business.
I know among middle schools in Chapel Hill, some principals were pretty cut-throat about having better scores than the other middle schools. That was not a healthy situation. But if all they were judged on is whether they got better as a school it might not be as bad. Of course, you are still dealing with different populations, so I guess once again it comes back to growth of individuals that we should be comparing and not overall school scores?
I have experienced the magnet school concept as both a teacher and as a parent. My first job as an educator in North Carolina was in a multi-track, year round, AG magnet middle school in Wake County. During my tenure I noticed that since families chose to send their children there, their commitment and willingness to participate in the school community was more palpable. There seemed to be a greater parental investment in childrens’ success, by nature of the choice inherent in school assignment. The antithesis of this was that occasionally, I would encounter a parent who believed their choices extended to the manner in which I ran my classroom. To that end, the parameters of school choice need to be specified for families who send their children to magnet programs.
The children on a certain grade level and track were under the tutelage of a team of four teachers covering Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies. Team based curriculum enabled me to monitor children’s progress across subject areas, and create cross-curricular feedback for intervention and correspondence with parents. In addition, this model provided opportunities to engage in cross-content collaboration, which was of value not only to my professional growth, but also to our students.
Transitioning to a year round academic schedule can be perplexing, however. Although we generally received three weeks off between nine week grading periods, I often spent that time closing out one quarter and preparing for the next, or even the next “school year” without ever feeling like I really got a break. Although multi track year round schools are a very efficient use of facilities, particularly in light of Wake County’s burgeoning student population, the pace can be grueling for staff members.
As a parent, I am grateful to have had the choice to send my own children to a parent participatory elementary magnet school in Raleigh. I was not satisfied that our neighborhood base school was the optimal learning environment for my children. They have both thrived in the magnet program that not only features smaller class sizes but depends upon parent participation to function optimally. Although the road to truly individualized instruction is a long and arduous one, I feel the magnet concept is a positive step toward individualized instruction, and accommodating the needs and interests of individual children and their families.
I am currently working in a school of choice: a charter school. In the area that I work in this charter school answered the prayers of many Latino and African American students who were not being duly served in the district schools.
The local district has always had ill feelings toward the charter school because we serve several low-income families which in turn takes away thousands of Title I dollars from the district.
Nice discussion. I especially like the tension between viewing this issue with an "administrator" hat and a "parent" hat.
A couple links for your reading pleasure. First, a blog post by a relatively conservative education professor who is firmly pro voucher, with a summary of various research studies suggesting that voucher programs have a positive impact on student learning.
Second, a blog post by yours truly that expresses some skepticism about the ability of school choice programs to have any real impact on school improvement.
Enjoy!
It’s not a matter of having a competition, I feel. Providing public “free” (tax paid) education is a governmental responsibility that needs to be met, one way or another. The educational system will work, in one way or another as well. Students will have to go to school, and teachers will have jobs. The education though is not a selection of the child, but a selection of the parents. The parents will decide whether they will send their child to a private school, or a private school. Some countries give specified coupons for education. With those coupons, parents can register their child to a school for which this voucher will be efficient. Some other schools are more expensive, and therefore, you will need to pay the difference between your vouchers equivalent and the price of the school. But the parent has an option to see his tax money being returned to him, and he has the option to choose, what he thinks is best for his / her child. Public free education though is a good that can’t be neglected or faced as non important.
Dr. Graham, I read your post on "Hear Our Voices." You make two very important points that I agree with regarding school choice. First, the idea that competition among schools can be good if the consumers (parents) are well-informed about their child's performance and the performance of other schools. Secondly, we need to provide online student performance data that is available throughout the school year. Parents should be able to track their child's progress at all-times. I also agree that we should provide parents with comparative data for all schools, so that informed choices can be made.
Personally, I would look specifically at the programs and incentives that the nearby charter schools, magnet schools, and private schools are offering that take my students away. Then, through strategic leadership try to offer something better. For example, at my former school, we added an International Baccalaureate program recently which allowed us to attract and keep several students. Ultimately, I believe it all boils down to classroom instruction. There is no program or technological resource that can replace a great teacher. As an administrator, if you recruit good teachers and work with them to constantly seek improvement, the test scores will take care of themselves.
Marios,
I agree with you statement. I cannot afford the 15,000 per child private school for my children, but I could afford to pay the difference. With that said, I do believe there is competition between the public schools. Those of us with school-age children look at where to move in order to have the best public education for them. I personally have gone to the administration to make sure my children were placed in the "right" program within that school.
Teachers teach all students, but parents do look for the best match for them, regardless of income or circumstances.
Some schools do provide data to parents. The parents/I expect it and want to see growth and numbers. We benchmarked every 9 weeks in Cumberland County and we treated it like the real thing. We took the data, tutored, grouped, and tested again.
I previously worked in a public school that was as close to private as you will ever find. Parents and students asked a lot from the staff.
As a teacher, it was stressful; however, as a parent I loved everything about it. I knew my students were being challenged by me and I knew my daughter was being challenged down the hall from me.
My husband and I searched online and checked out the neighborhood before we bought our home when we left MA. With my husband being active duty military and with all the moves, we value what is best for our children and schools do compete for our business.
While researching school vouchers I found a great wikipedia site that offers some good info. Here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_voucher#History
Competition is a healthy thing and school choice definitely makes education competetive. It makes sense to me to have schools work their hardest to be the best. Just like successful businnesses do. However, I also see the potential for increased segregation in our schools as well as financial difficulies for schools that are already struggling.
There is no question that my view of school choice would change if I was a parent. Look at all the parents who work in your various school systems. Where do they send their children?? To the schools right beside them?? To the schools they teach in?? Or to the schools they know have the best reputation for challenging the kids and the best reputation for test scores?? Or finally to the school in their nieghborhood?? Bottom line is they have a choice and they make the decision where to send them. If I had a child, I'd have all these factors to consider, I just don't know which would win.
Like others, I also agree that competition is a healthly thing. It tends to motivate people. Make it a challenge, a game and my students will do pretty much anything. I think adults work pretty much the same way. Having this competiton will force public schools to get better.
At the same time I see the down side. I agree with Jennifer school choice does lend itself to the potential for increased segregation. Parents will listen to their children. They will send them to the schools where their friends are. Or what may be even worse, they will send them to a certain place just because its socially the "right" place to go. Even if its not the school offering the best education. I see potential for abuse of the school choice system.
The comments in Dr. Graham’s post highlighted something that I see often, but hadn’t thought of in the context of school voucher/choice. I absolutely agree that many parents don’t know what to look for when determining whether or not a school is “quality” and meeting their child’s needs. As Suzanne pointed out, we, as educators, certainly have an advantage when it comes to choosing where our “teacher’s kids” attend school AND we often know why we want our children to attend one school over another. I speak often with my neighbors about the issues surrounding education, and while well-intended, well-educated and highly insightful, they are often limited in the criteria and expectations used to “judge” a school - many of which are provided by local media. Many things that I find appalling about their children’s experiences, they simply chalk up to the notion that that’s the way schools work. Thus, I certainly agree that in any system of school choice, whether it be a voucher system or within the district, parents must be educated on how to make wise, sound choices that will benefit their children.
I have to agree with Ryan. While he said that he personally likes competition, I think all school thrive on some form of competition as well. If they didn't then there wouldn't be all this "hoopla" over test scores. While low scores mean a school need to do better, they also make one school looks worse than other and no administrator wants to be "that" school.
Here in lies the agrument for "schools of choice". I don't think it's a parent thing, a teacher thing, but a state thing. The State is not convinced that public schools are sufficient to teach kids. If they did, they would never consider the option of giving the "choice" for parents to send their child/children to these schools.
Like Kris, I worked in a magnet school last year. While it was considered a "school of choice," I can honestly say the staff gave the kids an honest "public school" education. Maybe that was a fallacy at my school, but I think given the vision of the school, there was no real "separation" between the good, the bad, and the gifted.
As with schools of choice, parents were involved for their children and ironically, for those children whose parents weren't as involved. We did have parents who wanted to run teacher's classroom and get the most for THEIR child, but we had to our belief that all children were given the same educational opportunities regardless of social or academic status.
I agree with Robin and Leslie, the issue here is not magnet or charter schools. The issue is how do we change our public schools so that the needs of all students are met? How to we elimante the need or want for schools of choice when we know that public school are concisely preparing tommorrow's leaders.
As administrators we have to look at our school and determine best practices. If a school has none, then they must be created. If there practices that are considered as "best" but are not, then revision is crucial.
I disagree with the statement that parents don't know what a "good school" is. They can see it in the type of assignments their children bring home or are asked to do. If a child brings homework that asks them to color in some lines and they attend a magnet school for the gifted and talented, clearly something is not right. I don't think we can assume parents don't know as much as educators do. We think our schools, or certain schools are "grandiose" in some of their practices, but careful study into these practices may reveal they are not as grand as they appear.
Wow-I sure got a headful by waiting until tonight to do my first blog! Lots of great debate going on regarding choice. If you think about it, the option to move your child forces teachers and administrators to be reflective because the parents that do take thier kids out, or threaten to, are not going quietly. They will be knocking on your door to tell you about you school's shortcomings, so as a leader, you have to consider their opinions. We would all do what we thought was best to 'keep their business' and attempt to meet their child's needs to become academically successful. That is healthy and realistic.
What I truly wonder about is the data - what are the percentages of students in these choice systems who are truly growing is the question, and is individual growth analysis being used or is it whole school data? Also, if you take parents who are that involved and move them to a school where there is higher parent involvement in the process, of course there will be environmental factors that will cause students to be more successful I would even argue that, if you had a school with zero parent involvement, changed nothing about the academic program, and forced those parents to spend a given amount of time at the school learning and working with their children, the whole school's scores would effectively increase. what do you think?
About parent concerns being met:
I think parents concerns are seldomly met because parents go in individually only addressing the concerns for their child. The parents with the most problems in their schools often do not communicate with one another or only address the administration when an incident has occured and they are speaking from a place of anger or resentment. I would be interested to see the outcome of parents joined together more and let the administration know they would be held accountable for their child's education before things went down hell (wow, what a typo, that was supposed to say down hill!! Fruedian slip).
School systems are getting by because theidr customers are allowing them to do so. The students do not know any better and do not have a voice to protest. And I don't know what to say about parents... if they do not demand anything, they will not receive anything more than the educational system is willing to give.
Listen to this. Greece is the only European country that doesn’t have Private Universities. Every time a legislation supporting this goes to the parliament to be voted for, every student is out on the streets protesting, and every student and many professors go on strike, for as long as it take! There were whole semesters lost because of the strikes, but the students keep winning, because they support that college education should be free for everyone, and not just for the ones that manage to score as high as they fortunately did. People in Greece and Cyprus that don’t manage to score as high in order to be admitted in the free state universities are forced to pay for their education. It’s not that people here and there in the USA are not capable or smart… it’s just that “x” percentage from the top is admitted and good luck to the rest of you. The rest have to pursue their education elsewhere, and pay for it. What the Greek students are saying on the streets while protesting is that “If the state feels that there is need for more Universities to cover the needs of its citizens, then it should create more public ones rather than support the creation of private ones”.
Bonita, I agree with your comments regarding the parents need to communicate more effectively. It is a parent's right and responsibility to demand the best education for their children, and there are some organizations that help support parent efforts to do so, as well as established systems within the schools to promote parent feedback and buy-in so that change can become a reality. Not all parents are capable or available to participate in these forums for the benefit of their children, but in this day of technology it seems that there are many alternative to breaking down some of those barriers.
I do not agree that the students have no voice regarding change. If teachers are educating students to think for themselves and supporting their ability to question that which they do not understand, there certainly should be avenues for students to be heard - after all, who has the most to lose if things don't chaage?
As someone who teaches in the public schools but who also just had my first child, I can say that I don't think that I would be willing to take many chances with my daughter's education. Dr. Graham points out that it is harder to "comparison shop" schools than it is with spaghetti sauce because of the lack of quality information about schools. However, if my daughter does not show positive academic growth over the course of a year, that's really all the information I would need to put her into a "better" school.
Post a Comment