Learning from charter schools - what could that mean?

Related to the previous post on RIDE's big list and what it means for Providence, this July 14 ProJo article contains comments on the implications of this new RIDE classification schema from Superintendent Sue Lusi and School Board President Keith Oliveira, including this insight: 

Providence School Board President Keith Oliveira says it’s time for Providence to look to local charter schools that are moving the academic bar.

“It’s unacceptable that we have so many schools on the list,” he said. “We need to look at those urban schools with high degrees of achievement and parent satisfaction — the charter schools. They are doing something that’s working. It’s about time we consider learning from them.”

Mr. Oliveira, which charter schools are you referring to? A huge amount depends on that answer. If hope that you're thinking about some of our local, independently run charter schools such as ICS, the Learning Community, and, Times2, and Paul Cuffee. I think we have lots to learn from what they're doing - and of course, plenty to learn from other schools in the district including, of course, school on "the list." 

I will keep saying and writing, until I am blue in the face and the fingers, that PPSD already has much of the wisdom and skills needed to change outcomes for young people in our schools. What we lack is the political will that would provide resources and opportunities for effective professional development, site-based management, appropriate support for school leaders, sustained district leadership, lack of disruption from top-down district reorganization. Yes, I am still bitter about last year's school closings and their impact on young people and their schools. To think that there's no connection between that and lack of progress within a number of PPSD school that resulted in these new classifications is ridiculous. 

In addition to all that, collaboration among and between district schools and local charter schools would be great, especially given the high quality of local independent charter schools that surround us. Yes, let's learn from and with them. 

However, I hope that "learn from" doesn't mean "we invite charter chains managed by for-profit operators to take over our school district." That kind of "learning" we can do without. 

The discussion that matters isn't about a lobbying group's PR efforts.

In Providence, it's April break - no school this week for public schools, with the same true for many (all?) surrounding districts. Hope that some of you are not reading this because you're off doing something super fun with your kids. Me, not so much - owning to my month of unusual travel in March, it's a regular work week, with my kids dispatched to various vacation camps, relatives, play-dates, and schemes of self-amusement. This strategy, such as it is, is working out fairly well so far, and allows the opportunity for a quick look back at last week...

...when RI-CAN released a set of school rankings for Rhode Island's schools. Some folks thoughtfully objected to the methodology of and strategy for the rankings, particularly:

• The Learning Community in this eloquent statement
• Tom Hoffman on his Tuttle SVC blog 
• Aaron Regunberg on GoLocalProv.com

I share their concerns and strongly oppose such rankings for the very reason that I strongly oppose any attempt to sum up a student or an educator using a limited set of data, particularly high stakes standardized test scores. RI-CAN's attempt to represent schools with that same limited data misrepresents the necessary complexity of the process of understanding whether and how schools are serving students and their communities effectively. Conversation about gains in education at every possible level need to be based on thoughtful consideration of meaningful and multiple measures employed in ways that enhance learning, growth, and improvement.

And as the Learning Community statement points out, Rhode Island already has Information Works! a strong and more complex data system. If you want data, use that and as you do, resist any urge to assume that there's necessarily a best and a worst. Instead, use your judgment. If you're able to move from one neighborhood or town to another in search of a school that will serve your child well, you need to put in the time to do the real work. Know your child's needs, hopes, dreams, proclivities, and abilities. Visit schools. Talk with multiple current parents and (if possible) students. Consider what value you and your family can add to a school community. Resist anything--a fancy list, hearsay, an isolated incident--that invites you to think that you've really learned anything meaningful from it alone.

And know above all that a school that, by the light of one ranking system, may seem inadequate may instead be serving students similar to your child very effectively. That's certainly the case for our family's experience with the schools that our children have attended. That RI-CAN publicly states that the schools that my children attend are substandard says more to be about the limits of RI-CAN's understanding than the schools themselves, and masks the real complexity and urgency of the fact that many schools and school systems serve some kids well and some not well enough.

Okay, enough. The discussion that matters isn't about a lobbying group's PR efforts. The discussion that matters is how we will to make every school in every neighborhood a powerful, effective, and joyous place for teaching and learning for every child. Onward. 

The Learning Community in the NY Times + PPSD kindergarten registration

Happy new year! Like most of you, I was away holidaying and vacationing, all very lovely and restful-ish (click here for my thoughts from last year on being a parent of three young kids during school vacations). In related news, I'm actually very happy to be back at work. Hope my kids and yours feel similarly about their first day of school in 2012.

I was yet more pleased to read "The Central Falls Success," an op-ed in today's New York Times by Joe Nocera on the great work that The Learning Community is doing in Central Falls. When I, and many others, talk about the need for all kinds of schools (charter, public, independent) to identify challenges in our communities and develop collaborative solutions and ongoing partnerships, THIS is what we're talking about. Kudos to The Learning Community for wider recognition!

And for those of you with names at the start of the alphabet and kids heading toward kindergarten, today's your day! Providence Public Schools kindergarten registration starts today and runs through February 10. Click here for a past Providence Schools and Beyond post on this year's kindergarten registration and visit the district's registration web page here.

PPSD's site also tells us that there's a gathering planned for 1/5. 6:30pm at the Student Registration Center at 325 Ocean Street for incoming kindergarten families - click here for the flier in English and Spanish. The district held a couple other such meetings at the end of last year as well; having informational meetings to help parents get up to speed on the registration process is a new and very welcome thing for PPSD. I am wishing all the best to everyone involved in the process this year.

Learning Community Charter School reaches out to families

"Learning Community charter school takes its message to parents" ran in today's ProJo--it's an overview of the great-sounding community and family outreach work that the Central Falls charter Learning Community , which serves students in K-5 from Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls, is doing. Teachers and staff from the school are intentionally developing a wide range of ways to connect to family members, moving beyond events at the school to outreach in students' neighborhoods.

A few key points about the school's successful family outreach jump out:

1. The school sees family members as an essential asset for accomplishing its goals with students.

2. Cultural competence: school staff members understand families' backgrounds, constraints due to work and family responsibilities, language backgrounds, and possible trepidation toward school, and plan ways to connect with families that overcome those challenges

3. The school has focused profession development for community outreach, building the capacity of staff members to reach outside the school and connect with parents to give them a "toolbox" of options to use.

4. Clearly, the definition of the kind of work that belongs in a teacher and staff member's day isn't rigidly limited, but rather is established by agreement at the school site level. Teachers do what works for their school rather than adhering strictly to a contract imposed systemwide (not knocking unions there--unions and autonomy can and very much should coexist).

I'd love to hear more from any Learning Community educators, staffers, or family members who come across this. I hope that we can find ways for the public school systems of Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls (and elsewhere) to learn from and adapt your methods of community and family engagement. Congratulations on your success!