I don’t know when this site became such a hotbed for charter hate, but I’m getting irritated enough at general ignorance that I’m going to have to write some things I’ll probably regret later.
If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ll remember the days when I was a bona-fide Charter Hater. You’ll remember I only took my current job because I wanted to move to Denver and a charter with a surprise opening was the only math job still hiring, and you might remember all the nasty things I wrote about charters before I deleted that post.
If you’re my current boss, you’ll remember the 45 minutes you spent with me on the phone last spring, convincing me that my charter criticisms were unfounded and that it wouldn’t hurt me to come see for myself.
If you are one of my college or grad school professors, you’ll remember the days I used to write epic anti-charter papers, listing the reasons they promote inequality. If you were in my classes, you’ll remember the day I startled everyone by confidently pronouncing that we should have 100% of kids in public schools, and how I didn’t support even the existence of private schools or charters. From where I sit now, I can see my Diane Ravitch collection on my bookshelf, beckoning me back.
To be clear, most of my views have not changed. I still believe it’s wrong to expel any student, with the exception only being for students who pose an extreme threat of violence. I still believe that any sort of special application process makes a school’s population inherently better off than a school without an application process would be. I still believe that plenty of charters do disgustingly inappropriate things to make their numbers look better. I still believe that retaining students in the same grade is only good for a school’s graduation statistics and is not good for children. I still believe that schools should rarely be shut down, and should never be shut down based solely on test scores. I still believe that there are plenty of fantastic things happening in public schools and plenty of terrible things happening in charters.
But what I’ve stopped believing is that everything is black and white. Like I’ve always known there were bad things happening in some public schools, I’m now willing to allow that there are great things happening in some charters. I’ve realized that education is not a Disney movie, and we don’t have to have Good Guy verses a Bad Guy all the time. There is nuance in these arguments, and it’s okay to admit to both problems and possibilities. I have also realized that every charter school is different, even those under the same network name in the same city. There is no such thing as “what charters do” just like there is no such thing as “what public schools do”.
At my charter, we automatically accept every fifth grader from the neighborhood school, which is being shut down. Only two of those kids didn’t come, and it takes more work to opt out of our school and find somewhere else to go than to just show up here. I’ll admit that there’d still be the application-bias problem for the other seats at my school, but Denver switched its process this year so that EVERY SINGLE FIFTH GRADER enters THE SAME LOTTERY for ALL SCHOOLS (public, charter, magnet) and DPS places kids into the schools they preference randomly. There’s no way to game the system, jump through hoops, or hold a million wait-list spots to get the best school. Active parents are furious because they’ve lost their advantage. You’re just as likely to place into my charter by preferencing it through dumb luck as through months of research.
We also have not yet expelled a child. Even the kids who beat up an adult and locked him in a closet last year are still here, and they’re doing wonderfully. If a child meets Denver Public School’s criteria for expulsion, we are required to forward the information to them and let them decide whether the kid should be expelled, but it’s the exact same process and criteria that every other DPS school uses.
While I still have issues with my charter and with my charter network, those were my two loudest complaints before I took my job, and it turns out they don’t even apply here. I was wrong, and I’m ready to admit it publicly here.
So I’m just asking that everyone stops and thinks before they jump on the anti-charter bandwagon. Admit that there are good things about some charters just like there are bad things about some public schools. Realize that some great things are happening in some charter classrooms, and sometimes they’re actually being caused by great teachers and not just by the Charter-ness of the school. (Relax and re-read, because I was careful to include the word “some” three times in that last sentence so you wouldn’t have a hissy fit.) At least consider that innovation at some charters might be contributing some valuable things to the education landscape. And for goodness sake, allow me to say that the process of widespread collaboration and idea-sharing is a good thing without hyperventilating because you think I just wrote a blank check for the Charter Takeover.
Thanks. If you still want to debate, I’m always up for it here or at mathinaz @ ymail . com . But if you still just want to make this a blind Us Versus Them fight, I reserve the right to go into a rage of irritation at you. I’m really over that whole thing now.
mathinaz
I like this level-headed perspective. I was initially indifferent towards charters but became increasingly frustrated in the past year by the lack of best practices sharing- using charters as innovative labs rather than replacement schools. I was also upset by what I perceive to be a third year brain drain of TFA 3rd years to Charters, which leave the placement schools forced to replace an established teacher with a new recruit over and over and over… I felt that to “jump ship” to a charter would be to give up on my failing, placement school. At the same time, I currently feel compelled to research some charters first hand to gain greater perspective.
Do you think it’s necessary to actually teach at a charter to know what it’s like or can you glean enough of the experience by observing different charter classroom learning environments and interviewing those educators? I’m torn btw what to do next year… Any advice?