Teach for America visit

I spent yesterday morning at the orientation at St. John's University for the 550 new Teach for America corps members who will be teaching in NYC this fall. It was really inspirational seeing such a large, diverse group of bright, eager people committed to giving low-income minority kids a great education! (And I didn't realize TFA had grown so large -- according to its web site, "3,500 corps members are teaching in over 1,000 schools in 22 regions across the country.")

The event was a panel of 8-9 people that included UFT President Randi Weingarten and Eva Moskowitz, the courageous former head of the Education Committee of the NY City Council, who is now leading the new Harlem Success Charter School. I was hoping to see some fireworks, but was disappointed...

It was the first time I'd seen Randi in person and it was sobering -- she's very skilled at what she does. By the time she was finished with her comments, she'd led the audience to believe that she LIKES charter schools and is in favor of quickly removing incompetent teachers and paying more to teachers in the toughest schools -- AND NOBODY CALLED HER ON ANY OF THIS NONSENSE!!!!

It was also very sobering to hear questions from the corps members about charter schools. Based on three questioners and the widespread applause following their questions (statements, really), it was clear that large numbers of these corps members: a) have no clue regarding the facts about charter schools; and b) are skeptical if not outright hostile to them -- and this from an audience that should be our sweet spot! They will learn fast, but folks, we have A LOT of work to do!

Democrats Deserve the Blame for Failing Our Inner City Schools - and Our Kids

Holy cow! This is AWESOME!!!!

In both Baltimore and Detroit, most of those Democrats are black who are supposed to be exercising black power to improve conditions for black folks.

Instead, today’s black Democrats in places like Baltimore and Detroit seem to have their lips permanently sutured to the rump of the Democratic Party jackass. If there is a clash between, say, the Democrats’ commitment to teachers’ unions and educational improvement for black folks, Democrats will choose teachers’ unions.

Black Democrats seem powerless to stop them.

And:

Maryland -- with the Democratic-dominated legislature whose Democratic legislators claim they are committed to good education for black kids -- didn’t pass a law allowing charter schools to be established until 2003. The main hamstring was opposition from teachers’ unions. Black folks committed to true black political power would have called the Democrats on their slobbering servility to teachers’ unions long ago.

Instead, we get black politicians who play the blacker-than-thou card on the matter of charter schools. Remember what happened to Dave Bing several years ago?

Bing is a former National Basketball Association All-Star who now owns an automobile supply company in Detroit. He teamed with a white businessman named Robert Thompson, who wanted to donate $200 million to the city of Detroit to establish charter schools. Two things happened.

A black member of Detroit’s city council gave Bing a “Sambo” award and called him a sell-out.

Detroit’s political leaders turned down Thompson’s offer.

In places like Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., black Democrats have failed to deliver when it comes to educating poor black kids. They seem to have forgotten what Stokely Carmichael meant when he shouted “Black Power!” 40 years ago in Greenwood, Miss.

Or maybe they never knew.

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Commentary: Democrats Deserve the Blame for Failing Our Inner City Schools – and Our Kids

Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2006
By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com (Kane's bio: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/authors/10002)

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/kane629

In late April, Wade Henderson, the executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, made the mistake of trying to portray Baltimore’s wreck of a public school system as a partisan, Democrats vs. Republicans issue.

He later recanted. Wise choice.

But before he did, Henderson told a room full of black folks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University that Maryland’s Republican governor was trying to take over Baltimore schools. Then he told them about how teachers in predominantly-white Baltimore County schools are better than those in predominantly-black Baltimore schools and about disparities in the availability of advanced placement courses between the two systems.

Here’s what Henderson failed to mention: schools in Baltimore County and in Baltimore are run by Democrats. Maryland’s legislature, which funds both systems, has been a Democratic body for decades.

Any failures of Baltimore’s school system -- which, according to a Manhattan Institute study, graduates only 48 percent of its students and only 39 percent of its black male students -- have to be blamed on the political party that’s run the system for years.

That would be Democrats.

In the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Black Power movement in the United States, there is no clearer indication of black power’s failure than in urban school systems like Baltimore’s that are run by Democrats. Washington, D. C. schools are some of the worst in the country. Democrats run D.C.

It's nice to see the data supporting the very favorable trends underway in NYC, thanks to Bloomberg, Klein and the Gates Foundation, among others.

The chancellor also said that because of a computer glitch, last year's citywide graduation rate was five points higher than previously reported — the highest on-time graduation rate in more than two decades. Mr. Klein said that 58.2 percent of the class of 2005 graduated on time...

The 15 small schools posted 73 percent graduation rates this year, Mr. Klein said. He and other advocates of small schools cheered the numbers as a signal of better graduation results in the future as more than 150 small schools begin to graduate students...

Fourteen of the 15 small schools that reported results were created with financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Open Society Institute.

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June 30, 2006

Graduation Rate Improving, Schools Chancellor Says

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/nyregion/30graduation.html

In signs that New York City's historically abysmal high school graduation rates are on a solid upswing, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein reported strong numbers yesterday for the senior classes at 15 of the new small high schools that are a centerpiece of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's effort to revamp the school system.

Faso Presses Issue of Charter Schools, Saying Spitzer Failed To Take a Stand

I think Spitzer is going to make a great governor -- especially if he really gets behind genuine school reform:
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Faso Presses Issue of Charter Schools, Saying Spitzer Failed To Take a Stand

The New York Sun, June 27, 2006

BY JACOB GERSHMAN

The Republican Party's candidate for governor of New York, John Faso, is faulting his Democratic opponent, Eliot Spitzer, for not taking a more vocal stand in favor of charter schools.

Mr. Faso, a former assemblyman running on a conservative platform, is accusing New York's attorney general of being missing in action at a critical point for the charter school movement - when lawmakers last week were considering a bill backed by Governor Pataki that would have more than doubled the number of such schools allowed in the state.

"He's been rather quiescent," Mr. Faso told The New York Sun. "He himself said you don't accomplish anything by whispering. Those who care about academic achievement in the state should be out there beating the drums supporting charter schools."...

Mr. Spitzer has said he supports charter schools, which receive public funding but operate independently of local school boards, but says he has concerns about their financial impact on school districts.

A spokeswoman for the Spitzer campaign, Christine Anderson, said Mr. Spitzer favors a higher cap, but "only in the context of addressing the legitimate concerns of those districts upstate that have a high percentage of their enrollment in charter schools."...

The Spitzer campaign would not say how Mr. Spitzer would address the concerns of the school districts, though state lawmakers have floated bills that would give those most affected extra money.

The campaign would not say how many more charter schools Mr. Spitzer thinks ought to be authorized.

Union Seeks Rule Change For Schools

Charter schools have to be VERY careful here -- if we give our opponents even a few situations like this, however unrepresentative, they'll use them to get legislation passed that will effectively get all of our schools unionized (which would destroy them)...
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Union Seeks Rule Change For Schools

BY DEBORAH KOLBEN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 28, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/35185

The head of the city's teachers union is latching onto a recent spate of firings at a Brooklyn charter school to push Albany to make it easier for teachers at charter schools to join the union.

After the Williamsburg Charter School fired three teachers, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, stepped in. She fired off letters yesterday to the school's CEO, to the city's schools chancellor, Joel Klein, and to the state Department of Education.

In a letter to the school, Ms. Weingarten said that she was "appalled" that administrators would terminate the teachers' contracts after they attempted to organize to seek better wages and benefits.

The NYT editorial page has this exactly right:
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Graduation in the Eye of the Beholder

June 24, 2006

NYT Editorial

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/opinion/24sat2.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials&oref=slogin

Erratic record-keeping that varies from state to state makes it impossible for Americans to find out how schools in one place stack up against schools elsewhere. That is true for even the most basic comparisons. The No Child Left Behind Act, passed by Congress four years ago, was supposed to change all that by forcing states to file clear and accurate school performance information with the federal government in exchange for education dollars. But despite a lot of rhetoric to the contrary, the national record-keeping effort is still a mess.

In some ways, things have gotten worse. States are manipulating school data to avoid unflattering comparisons and to elude the scrutiny of the Department of Education, which is charged by law with enforcing new federal requirements.

Right now, the government can't even tell how many American students are dropping out of high school — which is a crucial indicator of how well the schools are doing their jobs...

Kristof, as usual, nails it right on the head. The Chinese are kicking our butts -- and will continue to do so, I fear, because we won't learn from them and do some obvious things...

China educates 20 percent of the world's students with 2 percent of the world's education resources. And the report finds many potential lessons in China's rigorous math and science programs.

Yet, there isn't any magic to it. One reason Chinese students learn more math and science than Americans is that they work harder at it. They spend twice as many hours studying, in school and out, as Americans.

Chinese students, for example, must do several hours of homework each day during their summer vacation, which lasts just two months. In contrast, American students have to spend each September relearning what they forgot over the summer.

China's government has developed a solid national curriculum, so that nearly all high school students study advanced biology and calculus. In contrast, only 13 percent of American high school pupils study calculus, and fewer than 18 percent take advanced biology.

----------------------------
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/opinion/27Kristof.html?hp

June 27, 2006

Op-Ed Columnist

Chinese Medicine for American Schools

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

SHANGHAI

Visitors to China are always astonished by the new highways and skyscrapers, and by the endless construction projects that make China's national bird the crane.

But the investments in China's modernization that are most impressive of all are in human capital. The blunt fact is that many young Chinese in cities like Shanghai or Beijing get a better elementary and high school education than Americans do. That's a reality that should embarrass us and stir us to seek lessons from China.

On this trip I brought with me a specialist on American third-grade education — my third-grade daughter. Together we sat in on third-grade classes in urban Shanghai and in a rural village near the Great Wall. In math, science and foreign languages, the Chinese students were far ahead...

EdWeek report on graduation rates

To get the EdWeek report on graduation rates, which was the basis for the front page USA Today article I sent out last week, as well as state-by-state report, you can go to: http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/06/22/index.html

While the failure to get the charter cap in NY State lifted this legislative session was not a surprise, it is still a complete, total, utter disgrace. Shame, shame!
-------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/nyregion/24albany.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

June 24, 2006

Legislature Deals Setback to Mayor in Declining to Allow More Charter Schools

By JENNIFER MEDINA

ALBANY, June 23 — As the smoke cleared in Albany, the Bloomberg administration's push to create more charter schools, a plan that was strongly backed by the governor, fell short. So did a plan to send millions of dollars to programs for needy families. And a proposal to allow early retirement for public workers.

For Gov. George E. Pataki, the biggest loss was the Legislature's refusal to lift the cap on charter schools. But it was an even bigger setback for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He has made charter schools a top priority in his bid to revamp the city school system and has vowed to open as many as 75 more by the end of his term.

Earlier this year, the state reached its cap of 100 charter schools, so Mr. Pataki proposed increasing the number allowed statewide by 150.

And in Albany, where the saying goes that nothing is done until everything is done, Mr. Pataki tied his charter school plan with other programs in a last-ditch effort to get the Legislature to go along.

In the end, they all sank.

The city will be unable to open any of the planned charter schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein had so fervently sought. The defeat is even more stinging, given that Mayor Bloomberg had helped raise more than $41 million for the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence, a nonprofit group designed to help the city's 47 existing charters.

The final flurry of activity surrounding charter schools punctuated a contentious debate among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who are divided in their support for the privately run and publicly financed schools...

Kozol the stooge

I've always been a little muted in my criticism of Jonathan Kozol because, while I felt he was misguided in his view that simply spending a lot more money would somehow fix our schools (all evidence to the contrary), at least he wasn't doing children any direct harm.

I take it back. In light of his email below, in which he outlines the organization he's forming to try to kill NCLB entirely, I now think he's a dangerous crackpot who will cause this country's most vulnerable children immeasurable harm. He writes about "the murderous impact of the NCLB legislation" and "our efforts with the goal of mobilizing educators to resist the testing mania and directly challenge Congress, possibly by a march on Washington, at the time when NCLB comes up for reauthorization in 2007."

Doesn't Kozol realize that, while NCLB may have some warts and need to be tweaked, it's the best thing that's ever happened to disadvantaged children?! For the first time, school systems can no longer sweep these children under the rug and are FINALLY being measured, which is the first requirement of accountability.

Kozol may well understand this, but it's now clear to me that he is a stooge for the unions, masquerading as a researcher and advocate. Yeah, he's an advocate all right -- but for the ADULTS in the system, not the children!

---------------------------
FROM JONATHAN KOZOL:

An Update, Bulletin, and Manifesto
?to the Education Activists who have asked me:
?Where do we go next??

June 16, 2006

Dear

This is to report that, at long last, the network of activists in education that I?ve been assembling from the thousands of teachers and advocates for children who turned out for massive rallies while I was on that grueling six-month book-tour for The Shame of the Nation?as well as the many local groups of teachers organized to fight racism and inequality and the murderous impact of the NCLB legislation?is now up and running.

We?re using the name Education Action and will soon set up a website but, for now, I hope that you?ll feel free to contact us at our e-mail, EducationActionInfo@gmail.com <javascript:parent.ComposeTo('EducationActionInfo@gmail.com');>

By the start of August, we?ll be operating out of a house we?ve purchased for this purpose (16 Lowell St, Cambridge, MA 02138) in which we hope to gather groups of teachers, activists, especially the leaders of these groups, for strategy sessions in which we can link our efforts with the goal of mobilizing educators to resist the testing mania and directly challenge Congress, possibly by a march on Washington, at the time when NCLB comes up for reauthorization in 2007.

We are already in contact with our close friends at Rethinking Schools, with dozens of local action groups like Teachers for Social Justice in San Francisco, with dynamic African-American religious groups that share our goals, with activist white denominations, and with some of the NEA and AFT affiliates?in particular, the activist caucuses within both unions?such as those in Oakland, Miami, and Los Angeles. But we want to extend these contacts rapidly in order to create what one of our friends who is the leader of a major union local calls ?a massive wave of noncompliance.?

My close co-worker, Nayad Abrahamian, who is based in Cambridge, will be the contact person for this mobilizing effort, along with Rachel Becker, Erin Osborne, and a group of other activists and educators who are determined that we turn the growing, but too often muted and frustrated discontent with NCLB?and the racist policies and privatizing forces that are threatening the very soul of public education?into a series of national actions that are explicitly political in the same tradition as the civil rights upheavals of the early 1960s.

We want to pull in youth affiliates as well and are working with high school kids and countless college groups that are burning with a sense of shame and indignation at the stupid and destructive education policies of state and federal autocrats. We want the passionate voices of these young folks to be heard. College students tell us they are tired of so many ?feel-good? conferences where everyone wrings their hands about injustice but offers them nothing more than risk-free ?service projects? that cannot affect the sources of injustice. They?ve asked us for a mobilizing focus that can unify their isolated efforts. We are writing to you now to ask for your suggestions as to how we ought to give a realistic answer to these students.

IMPORTANT: When I say we're 'up and running,' I mean that Education Action, as a framework and an organizing structure for our efforts, is in place. I do not mean that our goals and strategies are set in stone. We are still wide-open to proposals from you, and other organizational leaders we?re in touch with, to rethink our plans according to your own experience and judgment. We?d also like to broaden our initial organizing structure by asking if you?ll serve, to the degree that?s possible for you, as part of our national board of organizers and advisors. We don?t want to duplicate the efforts strong groups are already making. And the last thing on our minds is to compete with any group already in existence.? (Political struggles ever since the 1960s have been plagued with problems based on ?turf mentality.? We want to be certain to avoid this.)
Tell us how you feel about our plans and how you think they ought to be expanded or improved. How closely can we link our efforts with your own? Do you believe that NCLB can be stopped, or at least dramatically contested, by the methods we propose?

Let us hear from you! We want to be in touch.


In the struggle,

Jonathan Kozol
for Education Action

Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

WOW!!!!! This is BIG!!! Warren Buffett just announced (in the cover story of the latest Fortune magazine, written by long-time Buffett friend and legendary reporter Carol Loomis) that he is giving away, starting NOW (not, as was his previous plan, upon his death), 85% of his stock in Berkshire Hathaway, 5/6ths of which will go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (which, in my opinion, is the most amazing foundation in the world).

I am SO THRILLED about Buffett's new approach, as there will be immeasurable benefit to millions of Africans dying needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria and millions of mostly inner-city schoolchildren in the United States, who are being consigned to miserable lives due to horribly failing, bureaucratic, dysfunctional, unaccountable public school systems in their cities.

In my email on philanthropy a week or so ago, I cited both Buffett and Gates as philanthropic examplars and wrote: "I think that 100 years from now, Bill Gates will be remembered more for his philanthropic accomplishments than for his business ones. I think every person who’s been fortunate enough to accumulate extreme wealth should want a similar legacy." I now think that Buffett too may well be remembered by future generations as one of the all-time most important philanthropists.

Three cheers for both Buffett and Gates!!!

Here's my favorite part of Carol Loomis's interview with Buffett:

Well, when we got married in 1952, I told Susie I was going to be rich. That wasn't going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills in the right place at the right time.

I was wired at birth to allocate capital and was lucky enough to have people around me early on - my parents and teachers and Susie - who helped me to make the most of that.

In any case, Susie didn't get very excited when I told her we were going to get rich. She either didn't care or didn't believe me - probably both, in fact. But to the extent we did amass wealth, we were totally in sync about what to do with it - and that was to give it back to society.

In that, we agreed with Andrew Carnegie, who said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society. In my case, the ability to allocate capital would have had little utility unless I lived in a rich, populous country in which enormous quantities of marketable securities were traded and were sometimes ridiculously mispriced. And fortunately for me, that describes the U.S. in the second half of the last century.

Certainly neither Susie nor I ever thought we should pass huge amounts of money along to our children. Our kids are great. But I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up and the opportunities they have for education, including what they learn at home - I would say it's neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money.

In effect, they've had a gigantic headstart in a society that aspires to be a meritocracy. Dynastic mega-wealth would further tilt the playing field that we ought to be trying instead to level.

And I really want to draw attention to this, which mirrors my thinking as well:

And frankly, I have some small hopes that what I'm doing might encourage other very rich people thinking about philanthropy to decide they didn't necessarily have to set up their own foundations but could look around for the best of those that were up and running and available to handle their money.

People do that all the time with their investments. They put their money with people they think are going to do a better job than they could. There's some real merit to extending that thought to your wealth, rather than setting up something to be run after your death by a bunch of old business cronies or a staff that eventually comes to dictate the agenda.

Some version of this plan I've got is not a crazy thing for some of the next 20 people who are going to die with $1 billion or more to adopt themselves. One problem most rich people have is that they're old, with contemporaries who are not at their peak years and who don't have much time ahead of them. I'm lucky in that respect in that I can turn to younger people.

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Warren Buffett gives away his fortune

FORTUNE EXCLUSIVE: The world's second richest man - who's now worth $44 billion - tells editor-at-large Carol Loomis he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

By Carol J. Loomis, FORTUNE editor-at-large

June 25, 2006: 1:42 PM EDT

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm

NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - We were sitting in a Manhattan living room on a spring afternoon, and Warren Buffett had a Cherry Coke in his hand as usual. But this unremarkable scene was about to take a surprising turn.

"Brace yourself," Buffett warned with a grin. He then described a momentous change in his thinking. Within months, he said, he would begin to give away his Berkshire Hathaway fortune, then and now worth well over $40 billion.

This news was indeed stunning. Buffett, 75, has for decades said his wealth would go to philanthropy but has just as steadily indicated the handoff would be made at his death. Now he was revising the timetable.

"I know what I want to do," he said, "and it makes sense to get going." On that spring day his plan was uncertain in some of its details; today it is essentially complete. And it is typical Buffett: rational, original, breaking the mold of how extremely rich people donate money.

Last-ditch Effort Set to Lift Cap on Schools

This article lays out the last-minute horse trading that's going on. Joel Klein said it perfectly last week: "It's beyond comprehension to me that the charter cap wouldn't get lifted. The test scores are good, the parents want it, Mayor Bloomberg and I want it..."
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Last-ditch Effort Set to Lift Cap on Schools

BY JACOB GERSHMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 22, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/34873

ALBANY - With time running out before the end of session, an effort to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state has been resuscitated during negotiations between legislative leaders and Governor Pataki, sources said.

The emergence of charter schools as a dark horse in the flurry of last-minute bargaining here has come as a surprise to supporters of the schools, who had written off a victory this session and assumed the Legislature would take it up next year.

While those familiar with negotiations say the Democrat-controlled Assembly has not softened its opposition to an expansion of the schools, sources say charter schools could play a key role in a complicated end-of-session compromise made up of many parts and involving billions of dollars.

"It's being discussed as part of the negotiations, and the ball is in the air," a legislative source said.

Breathing life into the schools is Mr. Pataki, who is said to be hungry for a triumph on school choice, an issue that could be an important plank in his policy platform should he mount a campaign for president.

Mr. Pataki is focusing budget talks on charter schools, having secured a deal from lawmakers to expand the state's criminal DNA databank, an issue he had been pressing hard in recent days...

NYS charter school cap not dead yet! Contact your legislator!

The cap list for charter schools in NY state looked to be completely dead as recently as a few days ago, but apparently Pataki is still pushing it (three cheers for him!) and a deal could be struck as the current legislative session goes into overtime.

Negotiations that began as the annual "budget clean-up bill" with some additional health and environmental spending took on a more complex and contentious tone Thursday, lawmakers said.

Pataki brought lifting a cap on charter schools to the table, while legislative leaders sought to add funding for nursing homes, health programs and New York City, lawmakers said.

Lawmakers were grudgingly preparing for a long haul that could take them into next week despite Thursday's end of the scheduled six-month session.

So if you live in New York, don't just sit there! Contact your legislator! Here's an email from the Center for Education Reform with details on how to do so:

ACT NOW: Contact Your Legislator to Support Raising Charter School Cap

Dear Charter School Supporters:

New York State Charter Schools need your help TODAY!

The New York State Assembly has a final opportunity to increase the number of charter schools possible in New York State.

As part of final budget negotiations occurring this afternoon, the possibility exists that the legislature can include language that will allow additional innovative and accountable public charter schools to open.

You have an opportunity to work with Governor Pataki to encourage your legislator to support this important legislation. If the legislature fails to act today, this measure will die until next year.

Please visit CER’s Grassroots Action Center to send an email, fax, or even call your legislators to voice your support of lifting the cap on charter schools in New York State!

If you have trouble reaching this page, visit our website and click on the Grassroots Action Center button on the left side of the page. From there you can enter your zip code or select your state.

It is critical that you make your voice heard TODAY!

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Billion dollar deal eludes Legislature, Pataki

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Last updated: 9:56 p.m., Thursday, June 22, 2006 http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=493262&category=New%20Yor

ALBANY -- The Legislature ended its scheduled 2006 session Thursday without agreeing on a multibillion deal with Gov. George Pataki. They will try again Friday to agree on the complex deal that could link property tax rebate checks, expand charter schools, provide a retirement incentive for state workers and increase funding for health programs and nursing homes. Negotiations that had been scheduled to end Wednesday night dragged on through Thursday. The Senate then abruptly ended its evening session to return Friday morning. The Assembly had already planned to add an extra day to the session. "I'm optimistic we're going to have closure tomorrow and complete a session with more progress on criminal justice and government reform in decades," said Sen. Nicholas Spano, a Westchester Republican...

Charter schools joining mainstream

I wasn't aware of this development, as every charter school I've ever seen serves a low-income minority student body:

While charters are still most popular in big cities and among low-achieving students, they're starting to take root in bedroom communities and affluent suburbs, creating stiff competition for regular public schools and drawing students from highly regarded private schools as well.

I have mixed, though overall positive feelings about this development. The mixed part has to do with the question, "Why does a well-off community need a charter school? Let's focus our efforts on more schools for the neediest students." Also, to the extent that there's a cap on the number of schools, it can be a zero-sum game (e.g., a school in an affluent community denies a poor community a school).

That being said, there are LOTS of communities with lousy schools -- they're not all in inner cities -- plus, more importantly, the best way to deepen and broaden the support for charter schools is if the great majority of middle class Americans sees a benefit from them as well.

----------------------

Charter schools joining mainstream

HIGH SCORES, SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM DRAWING INTEREST IN AFFLUENT SUBURBS By Dana Hull

San Jose Mercury News

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/14859166.htm

A decade ago, charter schools existed largely on the fringes. Many were start-ups operating out of rented church basements -- alternatives to failing urban schools that struggled to teach the basics.

Now more than 200,000 California students are enrolled in 574 charters -- independently operated public schools that have wide latitude in what they teach and how they teach it.

While charters are still most popular in big cities and among low-achieving students, they're starting to take root in bedroom communities and affluent suburbs, creating stiff competition for regular public schools and drawing students from highly regarded private schools as well...

Democrats for (School) Choice

Clint Bolick is exactly right about the changes occurring in the Democratic Party and the reasons for it. There's still a LOOOOOONG road ahead of us however, and choice is only part of the solution. We also have to focus on reforming the existing system, where the overwhelming majority of children will be educated for the forseeable future, by, among many other things, attracting better teachers and principals into the system, evaluating them carefully and then holding the accountable for results by lavishly rewarding the best ones and quickly getting rid of the worst ones.

Another factor inducing a more supportive or tolerant attitude toward school choice among Democrats is that they are running out of viable alternatives. The U.S. Department of Education reported recently that three million children are attending chronically failing schools -- that is, schools that have failed to satisfy minimal state standards for at least six consecutive years.

Under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, children in schools failing to make adequate progress are entitled to transfer to better-performing public schools within the district. Trouble is, the number of children eligible to transfer vastly exceeds the number of seats available in the better public schools. In Los Angeles, for example, only two of every 1,000 children in failing schools have transferred.

For Democrats who truly believe in social justice, that presents a terrible dilemma: Either forcing children to remain in schools where they have little prospect for a bright future, or enlisting private schools in a rescue mission. Democrats are increasingly unwilling to forsake the neediest children.

--------------------

Democrats for (School) Choice

By CLINT BOLICK
June 22, 2006; Page A17, WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115094333229787159.html?mod=opinion_main_featured_stories_hs

Phoenix

When the Arizona legislature concludes its 2006 session in a few days, it will set a record for school-choice legislation by enacting four new or expanded programs allowing disadvantaged children to attend private schools. Even more remarkable: The programs were enacted in a state with a Democratic governor.

Yet Arizona is not an aberration. Already in 2006, a new Iowa corporate scholarship tax credit bill was signed into law by Gov. Tom Vilsack; and in Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill increasing the Milwaukee voucher program by 50%. Gov. Ed Rendell may expand Pennsylvania's corporate scholarship tax credit program, as he did last year. Messrs. Vilsack, Doyle and Rendell are all Democrats.

And last year, hell froze over: Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed the inclusion of private schools in a rescue effort for over 300,000 children displaced from their schools by Hurricane Katrina. As a result, tens of thousands of kids are attending private schools using federal funds, amounting to the largest (albeit temporary) voucher program ever enacted. Before that, a voucher program for the District of Columbia was established with support from Democratic Mayor Anthony Williams and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Joseph Lieberman.

What gives?

Filling the Civic Gap

It's hilarious to see the contortions the author of this article (from the San Francisco Weekly) goes through to try to do a hatchet job on Don Fisher -- a truly great American who was the first major backer of KIPP (and remains so to this day). He has done so many amazing things with his fortune -- which, to the author's credit, is well documented in this article -- and KIPP is doing such great things that the best the author can come up with is the charge that he's a union buster and that, as a society, "we haven't really thought out what happens when we give up our democratic powers to a growing army of ideological philanthropists."

This is particularly silly:

if KIPP is any guide, these magnanimous magnates are at the vanguard of a trend that may shrink the portion of public life that's subject to public input...

...it's also easy to imagine an end game in which KIPP and other charter academies supplant regular public schools. As the chain grows, for example, it will hire more and more teachers, whose job includes spending summers recruiting more and more kids. The increased student population will mean hiring more teachers, whose salaries are paid by the state. (A 2000 state ballot proposition backed by Fisher, venture capitalist John Doerr, NetFlix founder Reed Hastings, and the California Teachers Association now requires school districts to provide free facilities to charter schools when they recruit new students.) And more teachers means more recruiting.

As this snowball effect keeps rolling, and as more kids shift to charter schools — the Fisher-backed chain is now contemplating a new S.F. high school — the San Francisco Unified School District will be compelled to close ever more publicly run schools.

The city's school system might thus transform dramatically without a single vote having been cast.

Maybe this change will work out for the best.

"MAYBE"?! We should be celebrating this trend! And the idea that this development is occurring without public vote or input is exactly the OPPOSITE of the truth. In fact, it's hard for me to think of ANYTHING that's been MORE subject to public debate, legislative approval, scrutiny by the media, etc. than charter schools!

I hesitated to send out this article because it's so biased and ridiculous, but I think it's important that we understand what our critics are saying, so that we can be prepared to rebut this nonsense.
--------------------

Filling the Civic Gap
Meet Donald Fisher, the private billionaire with unprecedented sway over ordinary San Franciscans' lives
By Matt Smith, San Francisco Weekly
http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-06-21/news/feature_print.html

It's three hours into the last day of school at KIPP Bayview Academy, a nonprofit, 160-student, fifth-and-sixth-grade charter school run out of a former Catholic elementary just over the hill from Candlestick Park. But there's no noisy, school's-out scrum in the hallways. Instead, students are in class giving year-end presentations, finishing assignments, and otherwise exploiting every last minute of class time.

The silence makes it easy to hear the soft voice of 12-year-old Markia, who, like most of her classmates, comes from the poor, predominantly black neighborhood surrounding the school. She stands in the hallway pondering her future out loud.

"I'm thinking about Thacher," says Markia, referring to an exclusive Ojai, Calif., boarding school at which the horse-to-student ratio is three to five, "and Exeter," she adds, in reference to Phillips Exeter Academy, the elite New Hampshire boarding school traditionally associated with Harvard.

Considering Markia's milieu, her bold aspirations don't seem far-fetched. She recently got back from a class field trip to Thacher. KIPP Bayview's eight-hour school days and incessant pro-college message, and the whirlwind energy of Molly Wood, the school's 32-year-old Stanford MBA principal, are all geared toward getting kids to think, realistically, about places like Exeter.

KIPP Bayview is one of 52 such schools around the country (including six in the Bay Area) supported by $46 million in donations and organizational advice from retired Gap Inc. founder Donald Fisher — philanthropist, social idealist, and political campaign donor extraordinaire.

Educational Supplements

It's not surprising that private alternatives are springing up, giving the increasing demands of the world economy, combined with the multidecade stagnation of the quality of our public schools.

Millions of American children no longer have the time to kick a ball around after school because they're already late for an appointment with the math tutor or a "study skills" lesson or cognitive skills training or Spanish immersion or "reading comprehension support" or academic enrichment of one sort of another.

--------------------

Educational Supplements

By MEGHAN COX GURDON
June 16, 2006; Page W11, WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115042420945582101.html?mod=taste_primary_hs

Back in the 1980s, when Japanese financiers gobbled up U.S. companies like so many Pacmen, Americans became unnerved. Japanese society seemed scarily focused: The discipline in schools was so brutal that a tardy child might be crushed to death by the doors slamming shut precisely on time. We heard about juku, cram schools where Japanese children went each afternoon after regular classes for three hours more of academic drilling; Saturdays, too.

Americans joked about how we'd all be carrying yen in our wallets someday, but we could comfort ourselves -- and people did -- by saying that at least our children were individuals. American childhood was to be enjoyed, not grimly marched through with joyless eyes fixed on getting into the Ivy League.

Ah, but will you look at us now? We're building a juku system of our own. Millions of American children no longer have the time to kick a ball around after school because they're already late for an appointment with the math tutor or a "study skills" lesson or cognitive skills training or Spanish immersion or "reading comprehension support" or academic enrichment of one sort of another...

Big-city schools struggle

It's great to see this study made the front page of the USA Today -- it's so critical that a bright and steady light shines on the catastrophic failure of many of our urban school districts. We in the school reform movement often take it for granted that most people -- certainly most leaders in business, politics, etc -- understand this, but, shockingly, MOST DON'T. And there's a simple reason: this crisis DOESN'T AFFECT THEM -- at least not directly, since their kids are in private schools or they have the means to live in communities with decent schools. (By the way, kudos to the Gates Foundation for funding this study! And if anyone has a copy of it, please email it to me.)
-----------------------
Big-city schools struggle

Low graduation rates may also be a national problem, study finds

By Greg Toppo
USA TODAY, 6/21/06

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060621/1a_lede21.art.htm

WASHINGTON — Students in a handful of big-city school districts have a less than 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with their peers, and a few cities graduate far fewer than half each spring, according to research released on Tuesday.

Fourteen urban school districts have on-time graduation rates lower than 50%; they include Detroit, Baltimore, New York, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Houston.

The findings present a bleak picture and are sure to generate controversy as lawmakers and others push to keep U.S. students competitive globally.

While the basic finding that the nation's overall graduation rate is about 70% is not new, the study suggests that graduation rates are much lower than previously reported in many states. It also could bring the dropout debate to the local level, because it allows anyone with Internet access to view with unprecedented detail data on the nation's 12,000 school districts.

Among the nation's 50 largest districts, the study finds, three graduate fewer than 40%: Detroit (21.7%), Baltimore (38.5%) and New York City (38.9%)...

The small schools debate

Following up on my questioning of whether the push for small schools make sense, see this web chat and article below. It's good to see that the Gates Foundation really get it:

Marie Groark, a spokeswoman for the Gates Foundation, which is underwriting improvement efforts in more than 1,600 high schools, did not disagree.

“We see really great results with our new small schools, but our existing schools have been slower to improve,” she said, referring to large existing high schools that have been restructured into small schools or learning communities.

“We do know size is not a panacea for improving high school outcomes,” Ms. Groark said. “It requires a focus on personalization, on ensuring kids won’t fall through the cracks, increasing expectations for all, and on improving instruction and curriculum so that the classroom is a lively, engaging, thought-provoking experience for kids.”

Taking a big failing school and splitting it into a bunch of smaller schools doesn't make a lot of sense, but doing what the Gates Foundation is support in NYC makes total sense: creating NEW small schools (rather than new big schools).
----------------------

LIVE CHAT: The Small Schools Debate

When: Wed., June 21, 3 p.m.

Where: http://enews.edweek.org/GoNow/a15864a149017a387543994a1

Join us for a live Web chat to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of establishing smaller schools.

Spurred by major donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private and public funding sources, school districts in New York City, Chicago, Houston, and other cities are replacing large high schools with smaller, more personal learning environments for students. Advocates for smaller schools argue that the more personal learning environments will lead to better student behavior, improved working conditions for teachers, and higher academic achievement.

But one recently-released study suggests that when it comes to high school size, smaller might not be better. The Michigan State University study, which was presented last month at a conference sponsored by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, raises questions about high-profile efforts taking root across the country to reshape the nation’s high schools into smaller learning environments

The chat guests--Education Week Assistant Managing Editor Caroline Hendrie and Associate Editor Debra Viadero--have been covering the school-size issue closely for years.

Join us for this informative chat:

http://www.edweek-chat.org

----------------------

Study Questions Push for Smaller High Schools

Downsizing seen as unlikely to benefit types of students targeted by reforms.

By Debra Viadero

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/07/39size.h25.html?levelId=1000

Washington

When it comes to high school size, smaller might not be better, concludes a national study by researchers from Michigan State University.

The study, which was presented May 22 at a conference sponsored by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, raises questions about high-profile efforts taking root across the country to reshape the nation’s high schools.

Spurred by major donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private and public funding sources, school districts in New York City, Chicago, Houston, and other cities are replacing large high schools with smaller, more personal learning environments for students.

But Barbara Schneider, the study’s lead researcher, said her data suggest those efforts are misguided.

“In an effort like this, you are dismantling large high schools and putting money into creating small high schools,” Ms. Schneider, an education professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said in an interview. “We can’t afford to continue down this path without serious and rigorous assessment of this thing.”

Charter school foes act like children

Hear, hear!

With just four working days to go in the legislative session, Assembly Dems are blaming the ad campaign for setting back their efforts to broker a compromise. But the real problem is that too many lawmakers are under the sway of old-school educrats, especially the teachers union, who want to keep their monopoly on public funds and resent being shown up by the competition.

It's not too late to do the right thing for the kids.

-----------------------

Charter school foes act like children NY Daily News editorial, 6/17/06 http://www.nydailynews.com/06-17-2006/news/ideas_opinions/story/427294p-360382c.html

Assembly Democrats have seized on a new and particularly lame excuse for blocking the expansion of charter schools: Their feelings are hurt. Speaker Sheldon Silver and his members got bent out of shape when a group called Parents for Public Charter Schools spent a million bucks on TV and radio ads exposing the anti-charter politics of three Assembly members - Ron Canestrari of Albany, Susan John of Rochester and Francine DelMonte of Niagara Falls. The spots feature testimonials by angry charter school moms and accuse the pols of wanting to "cap our children's future" - a fair enough statement, since the three lawmakers have supported keeping the limit of just 100 such schools in all New York State. Note that the three pols represent cities with failing public schools. Their constituents - especially low-income, minority families - are lining up by the thousands to enroll their kids in independently run, publicly funded charters which are the only affordable option available to them. And standardized test scores confirm that charter schools in general deliver superior educations...

This is AWESOME!

-----------------------

Teach for America surges in popularity

Motivation varies for recent grads hoping to teach disadvantaged

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/06/17/teach.america.ap/index.html

(AP) -- It's the strongest job market in years for new college graduates, with salaries and perks rising accordingly. But one of the country's hottest recruiters this spring promised low wages, exhausting labor and only a brief break before the work begins.

Teach for America is surging in popularity. At sites around the country, the 17-year-old nonprofit organization has begun training about 2,400 recent graduates for two-year teaching stints in disadvantaged schools, nearly triple the figure in 2000. Nearly 19,000 college seniors applied -- and more than four in five were turned down. At Notre Dame, Spelman, Dartmouth and Yale, more than 10 percent of seniors applied.

TFA has come a long way since founder Wendy Kopp used fliers to recruit her first corps of 500 teachers, a year after outlining the idea in her 1989 Princeton senior thesis...

Just-released charter school data

The state just released the test score data for charter schools in New York and, as a group, they're knocking the cover off the ball!  Will this make a difference in getting the charter cap lifted?  We'll see...

--------------------

NY STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT’S ANNUAL CHARTER SCHOOL REPORT

SHOWS WHY CAP SHOULD BE LIFTED

 

Academic Achievement Data Show Charter Schools Outperforming Districts

            The State Education Department’s Annual Report on charter schools, to be reviewed today by the Board of Regents, “clearly demonstrates that public charter schools are improving student achievement and that more should be made available to children,” said Bill Phillips, President of the New York Charter Schools Association. 

The report consists of data on charter schools compiled State Education Department, including academic performance data on state elementary and middle school exams for English Language Arts and mathematics.  The test data, when compared to the same data for the respective school districts in which the charter schools are located, shows that a majority of charter schools in 2004-05 outperformed their districts on each of these four exams.  This trend in charter school performance was identified by the department in its comprehensive five-year report on charter schools released in 2003.

A comparison of the state’s charter schools’ 2004-05 test scores with their host district’s average, drawn from today’s Annual Report (Tables 4-7), is provided below.

“The state legislature has all the evidence it needs from this report to warrant lifting the cap on new public charter schools,” Phillips said.  “Governor Pataki should not allow them to spend even more taxpayer money on their way out of town this week without this charter cap being lifted.” 

The Association also urged Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver follow through on his assurance that decisions regarding charter schools “will be made on the merits,” as his spokesman said to the New York Daily News last week. 

Phillips pointed out that the state legislature and governor provided $17.4 billion in state aid to public schools this session, more than $1.1 billion above last year, along with $12 billion in capital bonding authority for New York City schools.

-###-

Comparison of test scores for charter schools and their districts of location, 2004-05
Data source: 2004-2005 Annual Report on the Status of Charter Schools in New York State. The report is available at http://www.regents.nysed.gov/2006Meetings/June2006/0606emscvesida2.htm
Grade 4 - ELA
# of instances in which charter school test scores are higher: 20
# of instances in which district test scores are higher: 18
Charter School and District of Location	Level 3	Level 4	Total
Amber Charter School	43.1	6.9	50
NYC CSD #4	43.1	9	52.1
Ark Community Charter School	38.9	0	38.9
Troy City School District	44.3	9.6	53.9
Beginning with Children Charter School	50	30.4	80.4
NYC CSD#14	47.5	12.6	60.1
Bronx Charter School for the Arts	44.7	13.2	57.9
NYC CSD #8	41.9	7.1	49
Brooklyn Charter School	58.1	9.7	67.8
NYC CSD #14	47.5	12.6	60.1
Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School	26.9	3	29.9
NYC CSD #16	37.6	8.6	46.2
Buffalo United Charter School	58	10	68
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Carl C. Icahn Charter School	75.9	10.3	86.2
NYC CSD #9	39.2	8.4	47.6
Central NY Charter School for Math & Science (CLOSED)	35.2	5.6	40.8
Syracuse City School District	41.3	9.5	50.8
Charter School for Applied Technologies	45.6	10.7	56.3
Kenmore-Tonawanda Union Free School District	56.7	17.7	N/A
Buffalo City School District*	32.9	6.3	39.2
Charter School of Science and Technology (CLOSED)	31.3	2.6	33.9
Rochester City School District	46.9	10.4	57.3
Child Development Ctr. of the Hamptons Charter School	37.5	0	37.5
Wainscott Union Free School District**	-	-	-
COMMUNITY Charter School	30.2	2.3	32.5
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Community Partnership Charter School	36.4	15.9	52.3
NYC CSD #13	42.5	10.6	53.1
Enterprise Charter School	32.6	4.3	36.9
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School	44.7	10.5	55.2
Rochester City School District	46.9	10.4	57.3
Explore Charter School	53.7	7.3	61
NYC CSD #17	42	9.6	51.6
Family Life Academy Charter School	35	2.5	37.5
NYC CSD #9	39.2	8.4	47.6
Genesee Community Charter School	54.8	29	83.8
Rochester City School District	46.9	10.4	57.3
Global Concepts Charter School	41.9	2.3	44.2
Lackawanna City School District	42.4	7.3	49.7
Harbor Science and Arts Charter School	60.7	14.3	75
NYC CSD #4	43.1	9	52.1
Harlem Day Charter School	64.7	35.3	100
NYC CSD #4	43.1	9	52.1
Harriet Tubman Charter School	45	7.5	52.5
NYC CSD#9	39.2	8.4	47.6
International Charter School of Schenectady	63	9.3	72.3
Schenectady City School District	45.4	8.3	53.7
King Center Charter School	41.2	17.6	58.8
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Merrick Academy – Queens Public Charter School	50.7	19.2	69.9
NYC CSD#29	47.5	11.9	59.4
New Covenant Charter School	37.1	1.9	39
Albany City School District	42.4	10.7	53.1
Our World Neighborhood Charter School	52.1	19.7	71.8
NYC CSD #30	50.3	17.8	68.1
Pinnacle Charter School (baseline)	15.8	2.6	18.4
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Renaissance Charter School	52.2	43.5	95.7
NYC CSD#30	50.3	17.8	68.1
Riverhead Charter School	57.9	5.3	63.2
Riverhead Central School District	51.6	19.8	71.4
Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School (CLOSED)	43.3	6	49.3
Rochester City School District	46.9	10.4	57.3
Roosevelt Children’s Academy Charter School	67.6	19.7	87.3
Roosevelt Union Free School District	57.1	26.8	83.9
Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem	53.6	5.8	59.4
NYC CSD#3	45.7	17.9	63.6
South Buffalo Charter School	53.2	6.3	59.5
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Southside Academy Charter School	35.3	8.8	44.1
Syracuse City School District	41.3	9.5	50.8
Stepping Stone Academy Charter School (TO BE CLOSED)	15.9	4.5	20.4
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Tapestry Charter School	33.3	50	83.3
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
Westminster Community Charter School	49.1	3.6	52.7
Buffalo City School District	32.9	6.3	39.2
** too few students to report (per the Regents report).

 

Grade 4 - Math
# of instances in which charter school test scores are higher: 27
# of instances in which district test scores are higher: 10
Charter School and District of Location	Level 3	Level 4	Total
Amber Charter School	49.2	13.6	62.8
NYC CSD # 4	50.7	24.9	75.6
Ark Community Charter School	64.7	17.6	82.3
Troy City School District	56.8	20.4	77.2
Beginning with Children Charter School	67.3	24.5	91.8
NYC CSD# 14	45.9	30.7	76.6
Brooklyn Charter School	72.4	6.9	79.3
NYC CSD # 14	46.8	18.5	65.3
Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School	52.3	3.1	55.4
NYC CSD # 16	46.8	18.5	65.3
Buffalo United Charter School	40	34	74
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Carl C. Icahn Charter School	34.5	65.5	100
NYC CSD # 9	47.9	14.9	62.8
Central NY Charter School for Math & Science (CLOSED)	54.4	32.4	86.8
Syracuse City School District	51.4	17.6	69
Charter School for Applied Technologies	51	33.3	84.3
Kenmore-Tonawanda Union Free School District	44.9	43.7	N/A
Buffalo City School District*	50.6	15.9	66.5
Charter School of Science and Technology (CLOSED)	42.5	3.8	46.3
Rochester City School District	53.4	19.4	72.8
Child Development Ctr. of the Hamptons Charter School	55.6	22.2	77.8
Wainscott Union Free School District**	-	-
COMMUNITY Charter School	36.4	20.5	56.9
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Community Partnership Charter School	48.9	35.6	84.5
NYC CSD # 13	45.2	22.8	68
Enterprise Charter School	56.5	17.4	73.9
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School	56.8	27	83.8
Rochester City School District	53.4	19.4	72.8
Explore Charter School	75	12.5	87.5
NYC CSD # 17	43.3	38.9	82.2
Family Life Academy Charter School	43.9	0	43.9
NYC CSD #9	47.9	14.9	62.8
Genesee Community Charter School	46.9	43.8	90.7
Rochester City School District	53.4	19.4	72.8
Global Concepts Charter School	46.3	14.6	60.9
Lackawanna City School District	51.9	20.1	72
Harbor Science and Arts Charter School	60.7	25	85.7
NYC CSD # 4	50.7	24.9	75.6
Harriet Tubman Charter School	52.6	13.2	65.8
NYC CSD# 9	47.9	14.9	62.8
Harlem Day Charter School	61.1	33.3	94.4
NYC CSD #4	50.7	24.9	75.6
International Charter School of Schenectady	80.4	19.6	100
Schenectady City School District	51.7	22.7	74.4
King Center Charter School	29.4	58.8	88.2
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Merrick Academy – Queens Public Charter School	49.3	25.4	74.7
NYC CSD# 29	50.7	23.9	74.6
New Covenant Charter School	50.5	23.7	74.2
Albany City School District	51.5	21	72.5
Our World Neighborhood Charter School	50	45.8	95.8
NYC CSD # 30	46.7	35.2	81.9
Pinnacle Charter School (baseline)	55.6	2.8	58.4
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Renaissance Charter School	60	32	92
NYC CSD# 30	46.7	35.2	81.9
Riverhead Charter School	63.2	15.8	79
Riverhead Central School District	47.7	37.1	84.8
Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School (CLOSED)	53.8	20	73.8
Rochester City School District	53.4	19.4	72.8
Roosevelt Children’s Academy Charter School	56.2	35.6	91.8
Roosevelt Union Free School District	47.4	35.2	82.6
Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem	52.4	36.5	88.9
NYC CSD# 3	46.4	37	83.4
South Buffalo Charter School	57.7	32.1	89.8
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Southside Academy Charter School	58.3	5.6	63.9
Syracuse City School District	51.4	17.6	69
Stepping Stone Academy Charter School (TO BE CLOSED)	29.5	4.5	34
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Tapestry Charter School	58.3	41.7	100
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
Westminster Community Charter School	59.6	29.8	89.4
Buffalo City School District	50.6	15.9	66.5
** too few students to report (per the Regents report).

 

Grade 8 - ELA
# of instances in which charter school test scores are higher: 10
# of instances in which district test scores are higher: 5
Charter School and District of Location	Level 3	Level 4	Total
Beginning with Children Charter School	34.1	2.4	36.5
NYC CSD#14	22.3	2.2	24.5
Bronx Preparatory Charter School	57.7	0	57.7
NYC CSD#9	18.6	1.4	20
Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School (baseline)	13.6	0	13.6
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1
Charter School for Applied Technologies	27.3	0	27.3
Kenmore-Tonawanda CSD	50.6	8.9	N/A
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1
Charter School of Science and Technology (CLOSED)	14.7	1	15.7
Rochester City School District	15.8	1.7	17.5
Enterprise Charter School	16.3	0	16.3
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1
Harbor Science and Arts Charter School	33.3	0	33.3
NYC CSD #4	19	1.9	20.9
John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School	8.3	0	8.3
NYC CSD#2	43.9	12.3	56.2
KIPP Academy Charter School	61.2	10.2	71.4
NYC CSD#7	10.3	0.5	10.8
Renaissance Charter School	48	4	52
NYC CSD#30	33.1	6.4	39.5
Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School (CLOSED)	29.2	0	29.2
Rochester City School District	15.8	1.7	17.5
South Buffalo Charter School	34.7	8.2	42.9
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1
Stepping Stone Academy Charter School (TO BE CLOSED)	20	0	20
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1
Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School	34.9	2.4	37.3
Syracuse City School District	19.8	2.5	22.3
Westminster Community Charter School	47.2	3.8	51
Buffalo City School District	22.1	4	26.1

 

Grade 8 - Math
# of instances in which charter school test scores are higher: 10
# of instances in which district test scores are higher: 5
Charter School and District of Location	Level 3	Level 4	Total
Beginning with Children Charter School	51.1	31.1	82.2
NYC CSD #14	33.3	3.9	37.2
Bronx Preparatory Charter School	50.9	1.9	52.8
NYC CSD #9	20.6	0.9	21.5
Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School (baseline)	14.8	0	14.8
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3
Charter School for Applied Technologies	39.8	0	39.8
Kenmore-Tonawanda Central School District	59.7	7.9	N/A
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3
Charter School of Science and Technology (CLOSED)	16	0	16
Rochester City School District	18.7	0.6	19.3
Enterprise Charter School	8.3	0	8.3
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3
Harbor Science and Arts Charter School	48.1	0	48.1
NYC CSD #4	25.2	2.2	27.4
John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School	0	0	0
NYC CSD #2	49.1	15.7	64.8
KIPP Academy Charter School	87.5	4.2	91.7
NYC CSD#7	18.6	0.6	19.2
Renaissance Charter School	55.1	4.1	59.2
NYC CSD#30	37.4	6.9	44.3
Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School (CLOSED)	18.2	0	18.2
Rochester City School District	18.7	0.6	19.3
South Buffalo Charter School	55.1	0	55.1
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3
Stepping Stone Academy Charter School (TO BE CLOSED)	25	0	25
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3
Syracuse Academy of Science Charter School	32.9	1.3	34.2
Syracuse City School District	19.8	1	20.8
Westminster Community Charter School	62.3	1.9	64.2
Buffalo City School District	23.1	1.2	24.3