Education Week 11/10/2010 issue

Public Schools Taking Lessons from Charters, p. 1

Proponents of charter schools view the role of these schools as promising research-and-development sites for traditional public schools.  But so far there has not been much cooperation between charter schools and public schools.  In 2009 the U.S. Department of Education spent $6.7 million on grants to encourage charter schools to share what they’ve learned with other schools, and it is hoping to promote the spread of promising charter school practices.  There seems to be some disagreement over how much charter schools have to share, however.  Some of the charter school ionnovations, such as extended school schedules and small school size, had already been introduced in some public schools, for example.

There have been some examples of charter school-public school collaboration.  In a troubled school district in Rhode Island, for example, the district contracted with the charter school to provide professional development for some of its reading teachers.  This collaboration was credited with improved student reading scores for the district.  And a school district in Tacoma, Washington, has borrowed some charter-school practices, resulting in improved test scores.  At one of its high schools, almost one-fourth of its students attend a special school-within-a-school (Lincoln Center) modeled after specific charter schools and incorporating some of their practices.  Lincoln Center is open from 7:30am-5:00pm Monday through Friday, plus two Saturdays a month.  Its academic standards for  students are more rigorous than state standards.  It also is selective in its choice of teachers, picking those with successful classroom experience.  Teachers work extra hours as needed, but they are also compensated for this above and beyond their union contract.

The Tacoma district is working with Harvard University economist Roland Fryer.  Fryer has identified five tenets of successful schools:  investing in human capital, providing extensive tutoring, extending time for learning, creating a culture of high expectations, and using results-based instruction.  The district is working in competition with charter schools, however, not in collaboration with them.  Whether public schools will be able to benefit from charter school innovations seems to depend on whether conditions in a particular district are ripe for collaboration.

[My thoughts:  the bottom line ought to be what practices are most beneficial to students’ learning, not where did they come from.  There should be a free exchange of ideas and an open dialog about what works best.  Students in all schools, charter or traditional, should benefit from successful experimentation.]