District Administration - September 2009 - (Page 33)

I’ve ever heard about this is attributed to Yvonne Chan, the founder of the first conversion charter school in California. She said, “I’m always asked, ‘When are we going to see ripples from your innovation?’” and she said, “You can’t see ripples if the lake is frozen.” I think that makes a very good point—that many districts, even those that have created charter schools, refuse to draw on any lessons learned there. The Project for School Innovation in Boston, which was actually created by a charter school, is a good example of the two-way street that we ought to see. It brings educators together from the charter schools and from the traditional public school system to share best practices. What are the characteristics of the school districts that have best negotiated a successful partnership with charter schools? Most of the administration’s effort is directed at the state level rather than at the district level. The point of leverage for them is the state funding through the ARRA, and they’ve made it clear that openness to charters and lifting the artificial constraints on their growth should be a key part of any reform package that is proposed for those funds. I think the real pressure on districts is coming not from Washington but from parents, because in so many cities you’re seeing so many parents make the choice to put their kids in a charter school. That can be ignored only up to a point. they can move toward the top, but you have really strict accountability for the ones at the bottom. Secretary Duncan recently urged charter leaders to join an effort to turn around 5,000 of the lowest-performing schools. By including the charter school movement in this ambitious project, is he asking the movement to be something that it really isn’t? I think the real pressure on districts is coming not from Washington but from parents. How do you see the recent report by Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States, impacting your work? Leadership is absolutely crucial. A superintendent, school board and other top officials who see charters as a threat to their turf are going to react by calcifying what they’re already doing, rather than by trying to respond in a creative way. You see the right kind of response in a number of places. For example, Joel Klein has aggressively courted the best charter operators in the country to come to New York and open schools, and he said that he wants New York to be a Silicon Valley for charter schools. But he’s then used the power of their example to motivate reform more broadly throughout the system. Similarly, here in D.C., Michelle Rhee said that the fact there are excellent charter schools in some of the toughest parts of the city is something she can use as an example to her own troops to say that we can’t make excuses because of the part of town that kids live in or the baggage they might bring from home. Do you see pressure being placed on school districts to be more open to charters now that the Obama administration has come out so strongly in their favor? www.DistrictAdministration.com NS: We’ve raised some questions about the methodology in that study, which we think may accentuate the negative a little too much. Where can our readers find those questions? NS: He said in that speech that he was asking us to move a little bit out of our comfort zone. I think it’s a challenge we’re very willing to grapple with. Folks who operate our best charter schools go into the business because they care deeply about kids who are being served badly by their existing school settings. The typical pattern is that charters have opened in cities where those dysfunctional schools are located, and they’ve given those kids another opportunity. We have to make sure that the charter folks who take on this challenge can start their programs at the new site with integrity, that they will have control over staffing, and that they will have control over how money is spent and how long the day is and what the calendar looks like and all these other factors that have led to the success of their own models. Are there enough administrators and teachers willing to get on board with an expanded charter school movement? liccharters.org]. The release that we issued on the day the study came out covers most of the issues we raised. Everything we know about charter research says that there is a group of exceptionally high-performing schools at the top, there is a large group that is in the middle and generally moving up, and there is a band of schools at the bottom that should be closed yesterday. That is the charter model—that you replicate and allow to flourish the ones that are doing great things for kids. You have to provide supports, and create a level playing field, and give every opportunity to the ones in the middle so that NS: They are on our Web site [www.pub- NS: Human capital is a big challenge for us if you just consider the number of schools we need to open at current rates. What gives me hope is that I know there are legions of actual and potential teachers and leaders who are interested in professional opportunities that working in a charter school can provide. There are a lot of good people who will want to work in an environment that is more professionally satisfying and really has the opportunity for success ahead. —Don Parker-Burgard www.DistrictAdministration.com Read more of our conversation with Nelson Smith. September 2009 33 http://www.publiccharters.org http://www.publiccharters.org http://www.DistrictAdministration.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2009

District Administration - September 2009
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Health Update
Curriculum Update
Stimulus Monitor
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Administrator Roles Shift with the Times
Turning Around Schools in Need
Global Learning
Managing Generational Diversity
New Products
Professional Opinion
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Books
Tech Disruptions
Online Edge

District Administration - September 2009