It's no secret that this page strongly supports charter schools. That support is based on the outstanding performance of the best charter schools, on the growing demand from parents and students for more education options and on the vast potential for innovation at these schools.
Charter schools attract excellent young teachers and offer them wide latitude to reach students. The schools pour money into the classroom, not into bureaucracy. Many charters generate impressive results where it matters most: in student performance.
Is there demand? You bet. Statewide enrollment in charter schools has surged from 6,152 students in 2000 to 54,054 this school year — with most of them in Chicago — according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The first charter school in Illinois opened in 1996. Now there are 132 campuses operating under 58 charters.
Illinois has seen that growth even though state law limits how many charter schools can operate here.
There are still not enough top-quality charters to meet demand. That's why there is powerful and widespread support — among parents of CPS students and among other Chicagoans — for more charter schools in Chicago.
A recent Joyce Foundation-Chicago Tribune poll of 1,010 Chicagoans found that 63.7 percent favored making it easier for charters to expand in neighborhoods where there are waits for admission to charter schools, and 67.9 percent said it should be easier for charters to open in neighborhoods with underperforming schools.
This page and other charter supporters have cited one other piece of evidence of demand: an estimate that 19,000 Chicago students are waiting to enroll in a charter school.
That figure has come under challenge.
In a Tribune oped last week, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the argument for more charters is "based on an unsubstantiated, discredited 'waiting list' of 19,000 students."
A report by WBEZ-FM this week said the estimate "significantly overstates demand" because it "counts applications, not students, meaning if a student applies to four schools, he or she is counted four times. It includes kids who have turned down charter seats and are now enrolled in other schools."
The estimate of 19,000 students waiting for a charter school slot comes from Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, a charter advocacy group. The figure is largely based on State Board of Education data on the number of student applications for charters and the number of charter seats available in the 2010-11 school year. The difference between those numbers is an "estimate ... of students who were seeking slots at a charter school who were not served in that school year," Broy says.
He acknowledges that the calculation does not account for how many students file applications to more than one charter school. That would lower the number of students waiting for a charter school.
But the calculation also does not include statistics from several Chicago charter schools that have opened or expanded since the last state assessment was completed. It does not include several charter schools that did not report figures for the 2010-11 school year. It does not include applications that came in after the end of the spring lottery period, in which students are either admitted or wait-listed for the next school year. Those factors would raise the number of students waiting for a charter school.
Broy stands by his calculation. "We feel the 19,000 number is strongly supported and is likely a conservative estimate," he says.
It is an estimate, made in good faith, and open to question and challenge.
Does anyone question the astonishing growth in charter school enrollment in Chicago, in Illinois, in other states? Take a look at the yearly ramp-up in Illinois, according to the chart with this editorial. Some 2.3 million students are attending charters nationally in this school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Demand for great charters — for more and better choices across the public school system — shows no signs of flagging. That's why the Chicago Public Schools system continues to authorize more charters. And why we strongly encourage that growth. No child should have to wait for the opportunity.
US4Charters Source: The thirst for charter schools
Chicagoans understand the grave disadvantages many of this city's children face when they walk through schoolhouse doors. And many of those Chicagoans are speaking up to demand better. Today we offer the first of three editorials based on polling by a unique partnership: the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, a persistently strong voice for education reform, and the Chicago Tribune editorial board. You'll read our editorial board's interpretation of the survey results in these three editorials. And you'll read the Joyce Foundation's interpretation in a commentary by Ellen Alberding, that organization's president. Although we at the Tribune worked with Joyce to design the survey, neither party vetted nor influenced the other's independent conclusions.
This is an exploratory venture for Joyce and for the Tribune: The mutual goal is to gauge Chicagoans' attitudes about their city's schools and how to improve them. To carry out the survey, the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago conducted telephone interviews with 1,010 Chicagoans — 520 parents of Chicago public school students and 490 other Chicagoans — who were asked to grade the schools and weigh in on how they would suggest boosting academic performance.
As a group, these respondents know that schools are the engines of the city's prosperity. That a Chicago which fails to educate its children cannot thrive.
As you'll read, the Chicagoans surveyed tend to be results-oriented and impatient. After watching City Hall launch 18 years of school reform efforts since then-Mayor Richard M. Daley assumed control of the system in 1995, Chicagoans understand the results: A school system once labeled worst in the nation by a U.S. secretary of education has shown some gains. But many of the reform initiatives have flamed out and sputtered back to Earth.
Our overriding conclusion from the survey data: Chicagoans are ready for education reform. Two examples among several: They want the best teachers paid more than their colleagues — and the least effective more quickly dismissed.
Through these 18 years, Chicagoans have heard politicians, school officials, union leaders and parent groups speak about what they would do to fix Chicago public schools. Today, a scientifically selected subset of Chicagoans speaks.
First, the report card:
Overall, 4 in 10 respondents give the schools a barely passing grade of C. Another 2 in 10 grade the system a D. More award an F (8 percent) than an A (7.8 percent.)
That's not a report card any child would want to take home. No wonder the poll shows Chicago is ready for status-quo-rattling reforms that many advocates for better schools, this page included, long have urged. Those reforms include:
More charter schools. More than 6 in 10 respondents (63.7 percent) favor making it easier for charters to expand in neighborhoods where there are currently charter waiting lists. An even larger share, 67.9 percent, say it should be easier for charters to set up shop in neighborhoods with underperforming schools.
A "parent trigger" law. Six in 10 (61.1 percent) favor a law that would empower parents to take control of a persistently failing school.
Tuition vouchers. There's significant support for this concept but also strong opposition: Almost half of the respondents (46.5 percent) support efforts to give tuition vouchers to parents with children in consistently underperforming schools, so those kids can attend parochial or other private schools. But 47.8 percent oppose vouchers. The bottom line: Supporters need to do a better job of selling this idea.
Every day in Chicago, 400,000 kids stow their backpacks, pile into classrooms, and turn their heads toward the teacher at the blackboard. Then teachers inspire them to learn about science, math, English, social studies, art. Or, too often, not.
Every night, parents across the city see the results of what happened in thousands of classrooms: Kids fired up by school or ... bored to distraction. Kids tackling homework or ... goofing off.
Teacher pay,teacher performance
Of all the factors that drive school performance, none is more important than the quality of that teacher at the front of the classroom. Nine in 10 parents polled said they are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their child's teacher. But many Chicagoans are impatient with teachers across the system who aren't performing. The poll finds widespread support for reforms that tie student achievement to how teachers are evaluated, paid and, when necessary, laid off.
• Merit pay. Chicago Teachers Union leaders fought hard against merit pay in negotiations over their current labor contract. Unfortunately, they won. But Chicagoans overwhelmingly support the concept, the poll shows: More than 7 of 10 respondents (72.2 percent) agree that highly effective teachers should be paid more than those whose students make insufficient progress. We strongly agree and hope that school boards throughout the state take notice.
• Making the grade. How long should a low-performing teacher have to significantly improve? More than 6 in 10 respondents (61.7 percent) believe that it is unfair for a student to have a low-rated teacher for more than a year. We strongly agree. If anything, a year is far too long to doom kids to an ineffective teacher. Studies show those teachers hold back student performance. That should prod CPS officials — all school officials — to take a tougher stand on pushing mediocre teachers to leave the system. Termination is a shamefully rare event in Chicago.
Here's a haunting statistic that we cannot repeat too often: Of all the school districts in the U.S., Chicago Public Schools has one of the longest waiting lists for admission to a charter school. There are 19,000 students on the list this year. That number has been rising since 2008, when 13,500 Chicago students languished on the wait list.
Next year, there will be some 23,000 children waiting, Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, tells us.
Take a moment to absorb that number: 23,000 students hoping for a better education than their neighborhood schools can deliver. That's 23,000 students — and their parents — eager for the same opportunity now given to 51,000 children in Chicago, and to tens of thousands of others across the country. All these kids want is the chance for a better education.
Wherever you live: How would you feel, and how forcefully would you demand better, if one of those 23,000 trapped students was your child?
In almost any enterprise other than the public education industry, demand would stimulate supply: More students clamoring for seats in high-performing charters would prompt operators to open or expand their own schools to meet the demand. That's just smart business. But that's not happening in Chicago. Why not?
CPS officials are wary about inflaming passions by approving too many new charters at the same time they're closing neighborhood schools. Sure, we understand the political forces at play. But there's a more urgent consideration: 19,000 students this year, 23,000 next year. And probably more in years to come. These children can't wait — would you ask your child to wait? — until the political heat eases. It won't.  Â
You might chalk that scarcity of charter seats to resistance among Chicagoans to see more charters open in their neighborhoods. Not so. A new Joyce Foundation-Chicago Tribune poll shows strong and widespread support — among parents of CPS students and among other Chicagoans — for unchaining more charters in Chicago.
The poll of 1,010 Chicagoans found:
• More than 6 in 10 respondents (63.7 percent) favor making it easier for charters to expand in neighborhoods where there are currently waiting lists for admission to charter schools.
• An even larger share, 67.9 percent, agree that it should be easier for charters to open in neighborhoods with underperforming schools.
An impressive 6 in 10 (61.1 percent) favor a law that would empower parents to take control of a persistently failing school and hire a nonprofit education provider — usually a charter operator — to manage the school. That's the "parent trigger" law that has shaken the status quo in California. There's a push for such laws in 12 states at the moment, Education Week reports.
Candidate Rahm Emanuel talked up a trigger law in his campaign for mayor, but we haven't heard much since then. Here's a reminder, Mr. Mayor: Chicagoans, CPS parents included, agree with you. Let's see a proposal.
Chicagoans understand that charters are the future of public education in this city. These schools draw excellent young teachers. They funnel money into the classroom, into serving students, not into a school district bureaucracy. And they often reap superior results where it matters: in student performance — not in kowtowing to local politicians.
Districts around the country vie to recruit the best charter operators. Just last week, The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit focused on education reform there, announced a $2 million investment that will launch new networks of charter schools to be run by two high-quality operators based in California, KIPP of San Francisco and Rocketship Education of San Jose.
Chicago? Right now, CPS is blowing a perfect opportunity to lure more top-flight charters here: CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett vows that all the schools slated last week for closing will not house charters.
What a waste of physical resources — schools built with the dollars of Chicago taxpayers, for the benefit of Chicago children.
Make no mistake: The best charter school operators in the country are watching Chicago. Unfortunately, some also are avoiding it. "I wish we spent as much effort recruiting high quality charter operators as we do new businesses," Broy of INCS tells us. "But charter operators say, 'Why should I come to Chicago if Memphis gives me $3,000 more per pupil, I have lower labor costs and the political environment is better?' We don't exactly make the top of the beauty list here."
But Chicago could. One promising development: The Illinois State Charter School Commission took a bold step last week to expand charters. The commission overruled CPS and approved a promising plan by a powerhouse operator, Concept Schools, to open two college prep schools focusing on math and science in the McKinley Park neighborhood and on the North Side. Concept, based in Des Plaines, has a terrific record of running 27 schools across the Midwest, including the prestigious Chicago Math and Science Academy.
The commission's decision is a huge win for charter momentum in Chicago and, most of all, for 1,500 fortunate kids who will attend those high schools.
The decision, the commission's first vote to overrule an obstructionist Illinois district, should send a shudder through CPS and every other school bureaucracy in the state: You can't turn down good charter proposals because of political pressure or any other flimsy excuse. There's a second path to charter approval and state board members aren't shy about reversing wrongheaded local decisions.
We hope this action encourages innovative charter operators around the country to take another look at Chicago.
Chicago could — should — top the list of districts moving aggressively to attract the best charter operators. If CPS wants to boost student achievement, it should unchain the charters. The goal: Not a single empty seat in a charter school, not a single Chicago child trapped on a wait list.
Gulen Charter Schools - Madeline Zavodny - Jobs for US Natives
03.22.2013, horizonparents.blogspot.com
While there is nothing wrong with being Turkish or Turkish American, it is important to know the real facts. And the fact is, Horizon charter schools are comprised of more qualified American teachers than any other race or nationality. Besides, our country was founded on the need to search for something better. Claiming that the schools are Turkish or Gulen schools are un-founded accusations, and I encourage everyone to read www.conceptschools.info from top to bottom to get the real story.
US4Charters Source: Madeline Zavodny - Jobs for US Natives
Officials said the shutdowns would affect 30,000 students, almost all in kindergarten through eighth grade and most now attending poorly performing schools in African-American neighborhoods on the South and West sides where enrollment has sagged in recent years.
Prodded by Emanuel, officials have been working for months to downsize the facility footprint of the district, which they say faces a $1 billion projected deficit next year. "We have resources that are spread much too thin," said Todd Babbitz, the district's chief transformation officer.
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Savings from closing schools, though, won't kick in immediately. Officials estimate school upgrades and enhanced security and other transition costs will add $233 million to expenses in the short term, most of it paid for through bond debt at a time when the district's credit rating has dropped. Some of the increased costs will also be covered by staff cuts from schools that close.
Over the next decade, however, CPS projects savings of $560 million from the closings.
But for many parents and children, Thursday's announcement means only that they're being displaced from familiar neighborhood schools and will face in some cases longer — and scarier — walks to class over busy streets that crisscross competing gang territories.
Outside Overton Elementary in the Bronzeville neighborhood, Jayshawn Vinson, 10, said he was both sad and scared to learn that next year he will be moving to Mollison Elementary, a walk of nearly a mile from his old school, and on busy Martin Luther King Drive.
"People there may be fighting," said the fourth-grader. "They may be shooting. I don't know what will happen in the neighborhood."
The math behind the shutdown announcement is confusing, but it breaks down this way: The district plans to close 52 elementary schools at the end of this school year and another, Attucks in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood, over two years. Another school will lose its high school program.
Separately, 11 facilities were targeted for what in educator-speak is called "co-locations," essentially existing schools put under one roof. Some, but not all, will involve shutting buildings.
In addition, six more poorly performing schools were designated as so-called "turnarounds" where the buildings remain open but the faculty and staff are replaced en masse.
Pressed to hit the total button on the number of facility closings, officials pegged it at 61. That comes to nearly 13 percent of all elementary and middle schools in the district.
Thursday's announcement came as Emanuel was vacationing with his family at a ski area in Utah, a fact not lost on his critics. "Today, a vacationing Mayor Rahm Emanuel is sending our school district into utter chaos," read a statement from the Chicago Teachers Union, which fought the mayor in a seven-day strike last fall.
At City Hall, where things are often measured through the prism of clout, the closing announcements were no different. Outrage was the sentiment from many aldermen whose wards were hit hard by school closings, while those successful at protecting schools had an occasion for chest thumping.
Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, said school officials have tried to ease his concerns over closings and security by offering perks to schools in his ward that will remain open.
"They're talking about giving me (International Baccalaureate) programs, (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs, air conditioning for my schools," he said. "I think they should have been doing these things already. And I don't want to take those things at the stake of somebody losing their life. And I'm telling you, that's what's going to happen. I don't want to take air conditioning and then have somebody's blood on my hands."
On the other side of the ledger was Ald. Danny Solis, 25th, who dispatched an email crowing that "All 25th Ward schools avoid closure!"
The challenges facing CPS are hardly unique. Many big cities are struggling to cope with population declines and tight budgets. Increasingly in recent years, many cities, Chicago among them, have turned to privately run charter schools to offer alternatives to traditional neighborhood facilities.
As a result, school closings have become frequent. But according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, no city over the past decade has come close to the scope of all-at-once closings the Emanuel administration is proposing.
The school closing debate has been running full tilt since November, when Emanuel persuaded state lawmakers to extend a statutory deadline to announce closings for next school year from December to the end of March. To secure that delay, they promised a five-year moratorium on closings afterward.
US4Charters Source: CPS to Close 61 Buildings, Affecting 30,000 Kids
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