Charter School 101, part one

Last week, the Alameda Unified School District staff released their report on the ACLC/NCLC charter application, their recommendation?  To deny the petition.   Thanks to Mike McMahon for keeping everyone updated on his excellent Charter Overview page.     So now, it is in the hands of the School Board on Tuesday night to make a decision as to whether to grant or deny the petition. 

Later I will discuss elements of the reasons for denial, but first I wanted to address the commentary written by Jeffrey R. Smith, a math teacher at Encinal High School, who has in the past written many columns — I believe for the Alameda Sun.   I have to say that the past columns I’ve read, I’ve rarely agreed with, but since his column was brought up by just plain dave as:

…full of offensive notions like accountability, efficiency & achievement.

It’s worth examining.   First, the commentary echos the oft repeated mantra of choice and best practices, touting ACLC as having the solutions, but yet acknowledging that students not meeting the profile of an ACLC learner should be shunted off to the public school from whence they came:

…Critics argue that students should be forced to remain at ACLC — in order to drag down ACLC’s academic performance index (API)…

This educator seemed to have missed the Mission statement of ACLC as relayed in their recent application:

The NCLC is an educational model that seeks to create a dynamic learning community by embodying the best practices of teaching and learning in a noncompetitive manner that supports individuals to actively discover their own potential, recognize their own value and worth, and practice responsibility to the community…NCLC is dedicated to a self-directed project-based learning model to achieve its educational goals. To this end, the NCLC provides a safe, connected, and flexible learning community. The program places emphasis on: developing reading, writing, and speaking skills to enhance understanding and effective communication; using the tools of math and science to become aware of how the universe works; and developing an understanding of how government, economics and the social sciences impact individual and global interactions. Based on their knowledge and developmental level, learners design their own goals and life plans including responsibility to others and active citizenship. We embrace the idea that this is an on-going process of continual change and improvement.  [emphasis added]

As written one would assume that ACLC or NCLC would be the ideal place for kids who are, as written by Jeffrey S. “languishing on the couch.”  Those he assume are full of “apathy” or worse are the “educationally timid.”   After all NCLC is looking to maximize the potential of their “learners,” helping them to “recognize their own value and worth.”   Jeffrey S. makes it sound as though those students that end up leaving ACLC do so of their own accord,  while it may be true for some, I doubt it is for all.  I wonder how much “value and worth” the “educationally timid” have after being pressured to “opt out” of ACLC which is left in the hand of those educators at Alameda , Encinal, Chipman, Wood, or Lincoln to pick up the pieces.

In fact, there are several ancedotal tales I have heard and read about individual students being pressured or suggested to opt outof ACLC.  Ostensibly before their test scores begin to make a difference.  Some of the stories have been captured on Mike M.’s website from parents and community members who have written to him offering their support for or opposition to the NCLC petition.  Some samples:

On December 15, one parent had this to say:

…My daughter went to ACLC in the 6th grade and it was an awful the experience. And I was not the only one with that awful experience. At least 4 other 6 graders that I knew of left the school feeling the same way. Kids need structure and discipline and TEACHERS. At ACLC the District has no control to step in and help out. And ACLC’s suggestion of “maybe your child would do better elsewhere” when a student is not performing helps to keep their API up…

On January 4, another parent wrote:

One of my daughters went to ACLC and I found it to be the most disorganized and chaotic learning center I’ve ever beheld. Kids come and go as they want. No one “makes” them go to class. We lost 2 years of learning while my 7th/8th grader daughter sat on couches, chewed gum, goofed off and did not go to class. She asked the counselor (who has since been fired or left, not sure but she’s gone) to rearrange her class schedule so that her classes (as an 8th grader) began at 1 p.m. and went to 3 pm every day. No one ever consulted with me, and when I went down to ask about summer school opportunities, I found out my daughter had essentially been AWOL from school for several months. No phone call, no note home, no parent conference. Her science teacher and sent home an F- grade (lower than an F?) because of xxx’s absence from class but NEVER called me in the entire school year. If I hadn’t gone in, I would not have seen anything until the report card came out — far too late to do anything.
The school supposedly uses peer discipling/review in a democratic process — thus, if a student misbehaves, his peers are supposed to give consequences. Despite missing 4+ months of classes, there was no discipline from the students/peers/ACLC — because no one had tracked her attendance. There was no actual record or follow up.
Disorganization was rampant. No one (from kids to teachers) knew anything, or who was responsible for what, and the kids ran screaming through the main center all day long. The “quiet” area is anything but. Parent-teacher conferences are student-led, and those I attended were the lamest excuse for a student project I have ever seen — very half-hearted and last-minute work, and no consequences from the “facilitator” for insufficient effort (apparently any effort was good enough)…

Another parent on January 5 wrote in to say:

…xxx was a student there from 7th grade on, she dropped out last year as a tenth grader. We had a similar experience as some of the disgruntled parents wrote about. xxx didn’t go to math class for 6 weeks and we didn’t find out until report card time. The school took no action in response to the truancy other than to drop her from the class. The educational philosophy at ACLC is that students should teach themselves to become “learners”. The “facilitators try to create high expectations and are encouraging and flexible with the students, but they don’t really teach much. The kids are supposed to go out and learn for themselves. If the kid is highly motivated and bright, this works great, but if they need structure or just a quiet focused environment, they are out of luck.
Questions I’d like answered-
Parents are routinely told “maybe your kid isn’t a good match here.” (We were told this, I’ve had several other parents tell me that they were also.) Why is this acceptable at ACLC while no other public school could get away with it? Will it be acceptable at NCLC?…

I wonder how many parents (and students) were told that they weren’t a good match for ACLC.   Any child, under that sort of negative reinforcement, would need to have an iron will not to buckle under the pressure to leave.   As we’ve been hearing from parents who love the program, all children learn differently and supposedly ACLC/NCLC is supposed to provide the opportunity for those with a need to learn differently, but what happened to these ACLC students and the many many others who end up opting out of ACLC?

And certainly Jeffrey S.’s wholesale dismissal of those that opt out of ACLC as “educationally timid” does not align with the educational tenets that form the base of ACLC/NCLC’s school day design which is that:

Human beings are designed to learn. Educational best practices support and nurture this innate love of learning.

If all human beings are designed to learn and if ACLC/NCLC supports and nurture this innate love of learning through their best practices then should there be any students opting out of the program?   I’m still not sure how “accountability” was discussed in Jeffrey S.’s column, unless one considers test scores alone as being “accountable.”  But one always has to question whether it is the program that facilitates the test scores or if it is the student him/herself who would have been successful regardless of what school s/he went to.   If you are a self-motivated learner, then you will continue to be a self-motivated learner regardless of your environment or who takes credit for it.

Another puzzling part about Jeffrey S.’s commentary is the heralding of the visit by Jack O’Connell as the definitive seal of approval on why we all should support the NCLC application as well.   As the event itself was organized by a public affairs agency which has an extensive client list of charter school organizations.  Even though I’m sure folks would like us all to believe that upon hearing about how amazing ACLC is Jack O’Connell dropped everything he was doing and said, “I MUST visit this school!”   In fact, it was a carefully coordinated PR effort.   A Florida Senator who chairs their statewide Education Committee remarked:

“Charter schools were a movement,” said [Senator Don] Gaetz, a Republican from Niceville, “but now charter schools are an industry. They have lobbyists — they walk around in thousand-dollar suits, some of them. Some are still struggling, idealistic, mom-and-pop shops, and they need assistance. But the big boys and the mature organizations should be held accountable for how they use public money and how they educate children.”

I have to say I really enjoyed the irony of the first paragraph of the NCLC mission statement, since I have it excerpted for your reading enjoyment anyway, the part about  how this program places an emphasis on:

…developing an understanding of how government, economics and the social sciences impact individual and global interactions…learners design their own goals and life plans including responsibility to others and active citizenship.

I would challenge any ACLC student to select as their next project to do an analysis on how ACLC impacts their own person individual interactions (Encinal students whose AP and foreign language classes they attend) as well as their global interactions (the school district as a whole).   And how that meshes with their “life plans” that include “active citizenship” and “responsibility to others.” 

To be continued…