Ontario would need a maverick to accomplish what Governor Bush has in his state.  Here in Ontario, rather than a maverick, we have a political party that is in bed with the public sector unions, and their favourites are of course the teachers’ unions.  Our Ed. Minister, Liz Sandals (sp?) who has a masters in math, won’t even attempt to clean up the grade school math curricula which, along with many teachers with poor numeracy skills are the root cause of so many children doing poorly in math.  It makes one think that the whole system from Ontario’s politicians to all educrats simply see our children as a ways and means to make a lot of money, and educating them isn’t even a thought!

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG
\http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/26/editorial-bashes-jeb-bushs-education-reform-efforts/


http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/jeb-bush-education-2016-95401.html

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/08/20/honesty-is-such-a-lonely-word-jeb-bush-lacks-credibility-again/

Jeb Bush reforms are a disaster for Florida and the USA. It is the opposite of what successful nations do. He is a shill for corporate “lets see how much public money we can steal” reform.

Part 1

The five steps are an overview of attempts from the top to change the academic outcomes of students. Hence, there is wide variations in mapping and designing the details from the five steps to the realities on the ground. - the schools. The students become the victims of the top stakeholders where the students are talked about in the third person, discussions take place within separate silos rather than looking at the whole picture, but more importantly the students become the political footballs to be tossed back and forth between the camps of “No choice” and “Choice for all”. Where are the parents? Depending on social-income status, they are left up to their own devices as it has been in the historical past to decide based on faulty sets of knowledge but more importantly, are given false and misleading information and knowledge by the very education stakeholders, who professed to have the best interests of the students’ education..

When choice came along in Florida, it is very popular with all parents at all income levels. In particular, with parents whose children are experiencing learning difficulties. Choice empowers parents to enact change for the benefit of their children, just it has for the parents having high social-income status. If they did not like the public school down the road, they had the means to work around the school and do other things that would improved their children’s education and outcomes. Why indeed send children to school, if your child is not steadily progressing in learning?  Parents on the higher social-income ladder are bless with two things. The first is having the means to work around the structure of a given school system and the second, lies within the cultural beliefs of the education systems and is embedded in the structure that are based on the social-income rankings of students and families. Ergo, the parents of higher income to the highest are given a free pass by the education establishment, that they have the ability, the means and the knowledge sets to know what is suitable fit for their children and education.

However it all starts to change as one goes down the social-income ladder. In the second link of Doug’s - “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has built his political career on a relentless drive to improve public schools – or, as he likes to put it, to help all children achieve their “God-given potential.” The Bush family certainly believes all children should achieved to their full academic potential, because the Bush family from one generation to the next, have a few dyslexics in their family tree. The Bush family has always had the means to provide the services to ensure their dyslexic children reach average or above reading levels, based on the latest advances and knowledge in reading remediation. However it all changes as one goes down the income-ladder because they do not have the means nor the power nor the knowledge sets to deal with the 21st century educator who are telling the parents, their children are slow learners. Learn to live with it.

When choice came to Florida, for the first time parents became empower to change things for their children, and they no longer had to put up with the cultural beliefs such as low-income parents have poor parental abilities.  In another article, to which there is quite a few of them of late, is called - “FLORIDA: Stop blaming poor parents, empower them with school choice.”

“There has long been a troubling attitude in our society about low-income parents. Put bluntly, it goes like this: Poor people make poor parents.

Of course, folks in proper circles usually don’t come right out and say it, which is what made the recent comments by state Sen. David Simmons so stunning.

When asked by the media about the parent empowerment bill, Sen. Simmons responded: “Let’s face it, the parents are the very people who haven’t been involved in their own children’s lives so as to cause the school to improve. What kind of credibility do you give to the parents in those kinds of circumstances?”  http://charterpulse.com/2013/04/24/florida-stop-blaming-poor-parents-empower-them-with-school-choice/

Part 2

See what I mean by the cultural belief embedded in the education model rooted in the 19th century?  “If a school fails year after year, the judgment of those running the school should not be challenged by the parents of the children the school is failing.

The people responsible for the failure are competent, but the parents are not. They can’t be trusted with decisions about changing school management because they will get bamboozled into turning their school over to some nefarious profiteer. And during the process, they will squabble amongst themselves and create discord in the community. So take away their power to act, and reduce them to hoping that this next time around those who have consistently failed their children will somehow get their acts together. If they don’t, then so be it. If the unions block the removal of ineffective teachers, so be it. After all, it’s the parents fault. Let’s face it.”

The article concludes - “Those vested in the current system attack choice. They throw out buzz words like privatizing education or corporate reformers or destroying public education.

But this is what they don’t want people to know. The reason there are a growing number of charter schools, the reason for the long waiting lists, the reason why vouchers are so coveted, is because parents want them. And of course the only intellectually honest rebuttal to that demand is that these parents don’t know what is best for their children.”

In Canada, not only do the public education establishment not want choice, but they don’t want options for children with the learning difficulties that would allow them to steadily progress and achieved to reach their full potential academically speaking. What is really ironic in Canada, the education establishment will state on one hand, it is far too expensive to educate children with learning difficulties and on the other hand, blame the students with learning difficulties for diverting scarce resources and funding away from the regular classroom. Crazy eh? Because in the end, children with the low levels of the 3 Rs, the children with learning difficulties are the ones’ who received a third-rate education in highly resource classrooms, but are denied the tools to access the resources that would allow steady progress and learning to take place. The parents of the higher incomes are the only ones that have the means to the other options other than the public schools.

Choice in Canada, would begin a revolution into knocking down the cultural beliefs based on the social-income ladder that are embedded in the Canadian public education model.  A model where they are constantly reinforcing 19th century mind set and imposed it in the 21st century.

An example, to which I regretted reading this morning. Perhaps it might be the next fad in the public schools, so the public schools can continued to keep the locks on the access doors to SE services. This one really irks me, because it implies that LD and dyslexia can be faked. Its only a vision problem…....really??  Most parents with the means, figure it out, and go straight to private services instead of waiting for the school to do something about the reading deficits of their children.
http://lethbridgeherald.com/news/local-news/2013/10/learning-disabilities-in-young-children-actually-could-be-vision-problem/

I think Canada`s outdated silence,complacency and tolerance of l.d.children having to live without life changing instruction for their reading and spelling problems and an insistence on giving it to them early is a daily form of child abuse.Every child can learn with the availability of the research and teachers need to be trained in it.
The discrepancy model which has been refuted for years,wait till grade 3 to intervene, is a joke.
Whatever you do,don`t send money to the Learning Disabilities Association,they`re PATHETIC!

I was at the event and his leadership and knowledge of how and where to sail that boat is something I am happy I was there to witness.

I have felt very sad since then because if it weren`t for Malkin`s organization there isn`t even a $&^@$ beep on the screen!

The only thing we hear is,Doug,“give me the money”!

Bev,with our small population,the politicians,even if there was a good one,at the provincial level are hostages of the Unions,they can`t win without them so we`re doomed.
It has to be a federal push the way it is in the U.S..

I am incline to agree Joanne, that in Canada it must be a federal push.  For some of the kids they are protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and as adults I have seen far too many stories in the national and local news of discrimination directed at the individuals. What lies underneath as it stands today, the public education system only has to delivered education services, and I shall repeat, the education establishment do not have to ensure that children have good literacy/numeracy skills and a basic education with the required set of knowledge/skills when they leave grade 12. There is no legal requirement.

At the federal level in Canada, the education establishment is firmly embedded within the federal levels and as well within the corporations in the context of collaborating with corporations who are either companies selling education products or have charity arms striving in areas of literacy or working on behalf of a segment of the population that the public schools that have not been served well by the public education system. Ergo, nothing changes in Canada that would reform the provincial education system on teacher training, educational practices/policies and instructional methods of the schools.

As for the remarks - “The discrepancy model which has been refuted for years,wait till grade 3 to intervene, is a joke.
Whatever you do,don`t send money to the Learning Disabilities Association,they`re PATHETIC!”

I am in agreement, although I did not understand when you brought it up a few years ago on the Canadian LD associations. I do now, because they really do not want the reading instruction of the variants on whole language to change to one that will ensure over 95 % of children will have good reading skills. Nor do they want changes to the current practices and policies of the public schools that would altered the fundamental progress of students in the areas of the 3 Rs. Or otherwise, the provincial LD associations would be a constant pain in the backside of the public education establishment and as well be a hell on wheels directing their wrath towards the literacy organizations inside and outside of the public education system to change their instructional practices, to one that would served all the population to reach high levels in literacy and numeracy and by extension the common knowledge sets to navigate in the 21st century knowledge.

I believed if the population of Canada, and I mean virtually all of them, should have a good set of literacy and numeracy skills regardless of education levels that are commonly held by the people, so the political players would no longer be able to play their political games upon the people and they would have to clean up their act or be force out of office or out of their jobs. I am just amazed when I read the comments and editorials - and more so when it comes to public education.

Why the federal arm of Canada, have not stepped in as the American counterparts is beyond me, knowing full well that the education of youth is key to Canada’s future and standard of living.

As for the discrepancy model - the real ironic part, is that the majority of children who are dyslexic - having the reading and writing difficulties do not meet the qualifications in accessing SE services, because they are not seen as having any difficulties at all. This set of children have other cognitive skills, that allows them to memorized the printed words of textbooks and they literally have no choice to do so, because the instructional methods of guessing words within the context makes no sense to them in grade 1. It is no coincidence that it is at the grade 3 mark that intervention takes place supposedly.

I swear it is done by the education establishment for the expressed purpose to limit access to SE services because SE services is not part of the basic education services that the public education system has been legally authorized to delivered to the masses.

The advent of education choice in the United States, is pretty amazing to see or read about. I am thinking of the parent story that I was reading the other week, where in Kindergarten, the public school was insisting that the child has some type of mental disorder in response to the parent’s questions on her child’s learning. The following year she enrolled her child in a private school via through the voucher program. The parent is no longer hearing mental disorder, but rather what most parents should be hearing in the public schools but are not. Her child is progressing nicely and is very happy. By the way, the parent is low-income, but I read the same stories from all levels of income.

Education choice, empowers the parents, and it is the last thing that the public education establishment wants.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

In a major new study from Australia, reported in TES, the findinga re basically this:

When you control for SES, private schools do no better than public schools. Paul Greyson at york has been saying this for years.

The study basically found that pretty much all difference in achievement comes down to SES and the home life of children. Schools make almost no difference, public or private.

They say in the story, this will come as a major blow to the reform movement.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6371649

Doug’s link is an example of the shenanigans within the public education system on a national and global level. My feelers were a twitching since it came from Australia, the land where the public education establishment have up to 2007, denied that learning disabilities and dyslexia existed.. Also in the land from Down-Under, the the public education system has always been very much on a higher level of progressive pedagogy where it is all about the social-income - the lower it is - not much can be done in the schools. However, there is choice in Australia that has largely benefited the middle-class and up, and as such, what will come below is a lesson of the middle-class leaving the pubic schools for a private school.

But first, the study in question was very hard to find, and of course it is safely behind the pay window. Imagine public money that paid for the study, and they keep it behind the pay window, to prevent scrutiny from prying eyes. The prying eyes of parents would probably be shocked to find out what is being billed as in Doug’s link - “Taking into account variables such as wealth and parental education, researchers found that there was little statistical difference in the academic achievement of children from similar backgrounds whether they went to a private or a state-funded school.”  - is actually a false billing.

In another article - “But Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham in England, disputed the study’s conclusion that private schooling does little to improve educational chances.

“This is good research, but not good advice,” he said. “This looks to me like an attempt to explain the differences (in attainment) between private and state schools. There is a big difference in outcomes, although this can be explained by the difference in (schools’) intake.

“This is interesting from a research point of view, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the independent schools do have the best results.”
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6371662

Another article that gives a bit more detail on the study - http://thehoopla.com.au/go-private-schooling/

I could not find the actual abstract - and this will have to do - Does school type affect academic achievement in young children? Evidence from Australia
http://www.growingupinaustralia.gov.au/conf/2013/abstracts.html

What is evident - desperate times (as more students leave the Australia public education system), calls for desperate measures to stemmed the flow. “Conventional wisdom and some existing research holds that private schooling enables children to achieve better academic results. If this is true, schools in the independent sector provide an educational model to which public schools should aspire and parents who are willing and able to pay for a private education may improve their child’s educational attainment.”

What won’t the public education establishment do, to ensure that external SES variables will always be used to educate children and ergo, repeat the class structure. Another article dealing with the same study, “Our finding seems to suggest that ‘nature’ provides a more consistent role than ‘nurture’ at affecting children’s cognitive outcome in this young age group.’‘
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/private-schools-no-guarantee-of-higher-naplan-scores-study-finds-20131012-2vf63.html#ixzz2jR9P6xD6

Given that approximately 20 % of the human population are born with near-perfect cognitive processes, and given that the 20 % of this population can be found in all schools and at all income levels - why ruin a good narrative rooted in the 19th century and immersed in the biases, misconceptions and beliefs of the era - and introduced cognitive science to disprove the study findings, that private school is no better than public schools.

Meanwhile, there is another mountain of studies, that do conclude the private school educators does a superior job in improving the cognitive processes of their students despite using the same type of pedagogy and instructional practices. However, just like everything else when it comes the public educational theorists, they do not want 21st century cognitive science to enter the public school nor do they want to broaden their educators knowledge and training that the cognitive processes of the students.  like everything else must be given training and practice along with effective instructional practices. But alas, the public education system really only want to teach to the 20 % of their students who have the near perfect cognitive processes. Otherwise, it be too much work, effort and time to bring the other 80 % up to speed…...........

Is it any wonder why the 5 steps were introduced by Jeb Bush? 

In the last link - it may have the wrong link

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/private-schools-no-guarantee-of-higher-naplan-scores-study-finds-20131012-2vf63.html

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

The push back is private schools get better results. Of course they do the point of the article is that WHEN CONTROLLED FOR SES there is no public private difference.

Of course the study authors hint that this will not change private school enrolement because people have other snob reasons to go to elite private schools, you know rub elbows with the future elite, improve their accent,  or in some cases religious reasons because they don’t want their children to actually choose religion, they need to be indoctrinated from an early age or religion will soon die out.

An Ontario success story-
A school at DSBN-Dewitt Carter P.S.
A low SES sector school.
We did grade 1 whole class instruction in the R+ program.
Look at this year`s EQAO scores.

Your thinking is flawed Doug.The reason for failure is flawed pedagogical instruction.The kids can have a chance and do better.
What did this cost?
A $350.00 teacher curriculum,$30.00 per child workbooks,$17.00 per child readers,$1.00 per child magnets,$4.00 per child magnetic board.
All items are reusable except for the workbooks.
Figure it out!The cost of illiteracy versus much more success and an awareness of how to read and spell that you carry within you forever.

My my Doug, are you inferring that intelligence is linked to income - the higher the income? Or would that be the other chestnut of 19th century origins - that intelligence is fixed and there is nothing one can do? 

Reread the study - that is if one wants to pay for it. I have no interest in it because it is another faulty study based on false assumptions and misconceptions on intelligence that leads to conclusions that falls nicely within the public education theorists and the education stakeholders that public is good and private is bad. Another study, declaring one way or another, that the moon is made up of cheese, and its a matter of time to convince the majority of the non-believers to believed that the moon is made up of cheese.

One thing the public education stakeholders have always danced upon, turning the students and parents into victims of the private agendas of the education stakeholders is one where people truly believed that they have no right to object to the policies and actions of the public schools, because they believed what was told to them by the education stakeholders that they have no right to questioned the policies/practices of the schools, based on their social-income ranking. The lower it is, the less able one can questioned the school or school board.

You really ought to get out and expand your world Doug. Interesting theories and discussions on the go, of the declining quality and services in the public realm and why the people who used the services are not objecting.

The other chestnut of only snobby people of wealth send their children to private schools. Well, I live among the wealthy to the not so wealthy to the farmers to the ones with lower incomes. Funny thing, during the summer time the wealthy parents treated their kids exactly the same way as other parents. They were put to work, painting fences and doing odd jobs like mowing the grass and then out to play with the other children who did not have butlers answering their doors. Parents will always work for the best interests of their children, and it always helps to have the means to do so. In my day, it was not all that bad being stuck in the local public schools, because we were given the skills and knowledge that allowed us to hang out with the wealthy kids. Quite the experience to attend a dinner where the butler is present, and get complimented on one’s table’s manners and the parent would point to their son, you could learned a lot from her on table manners.  And all one had, was the old black and white movies, the lessons on etiquette by the teachers and whatever your mother taught you.

As for the low income who are clamouring for charter schools?  Escaping the unruly public schools is sharing top billing to improving academic outcomes for their children. Some of the stories I have read, quite frankly I don’t blame parents for writing off public schools, and going for something better that are not willing to write off their children as the public schools are so willing to do and they start early.

I should have mentioned the first year of grade 1 instruction took place in 2011.It took those kids a few years to get to Grade 3 obviously but the effect speaks for itself.

Doug, it is true that “when controlled for SES there is no public private difference.”  But I don’t think that means what you think it means.

The wealthy do better in school, and one of the reasons is that they cluster into private schools.  The poor do badly in school, and one of the reasons is that they cluster into failing public schools - except that they don’t do it by choice.

For example, poor students in Regent Park are herded into a dreadful school where only a third of grade 3 kids read at grade level, and only a quarter can do grade level math.  http://eqaoweb.eqao.com/eqaoweborgprofile/profile.aspx?_Mident=3199&Lang=E

The TDSB strictly segregates those poorer students from successful schools a few blocks away in Cabbagetown, where middle-class students obtain middle-class educations.  Similarly, those middle-class students might be able to step up to better schools if they had vouchers.

So yes, there is a correlation between SES and educational outcome.  But it is the RESULT of educational policy, and cannot be used as a causal excuse for poor school performance in poor neighbourhoods.

Lack of publicly-funded school choice is a grotesque affront to social equity.

pobod

You are totally wrong Tom which in why the TES report says “this will come as a blow to the world wide reform mevement ” for a reason.

The poor in Regent Park do not do badly because of the building or the teachers or the admin or the pedagogy or the curriculum. The poor do badly BECAUSE THEY ARE POOR.

The poor have many more hurdles in their lane than others.

The study is saying - almost nothing of what happens at school, any school affects achievement outcomes.

Achievement outcomes are determined by SES and the home life of the children.

Of course there are OTHER reasons to go to private schools including snob reasons and religious reasons but achievement- no, it doesn’t make any difference as the voucher failure in Milwaukee proves.

The affluent do not do well due to the schools they attend. They do well because they are affluent period.

Sadly that`s what they told the founder of Pathways to Education at Queens Park.
You don`t fool us,‘the soft bigotry of low expectations”.

You`re looking for excuses,lots of them.
Yes,your friends with Premier Wynne,she sings the same song.

TES report?  The study was not conducted by the TES who are a web resource for the educators and a job hunting agency.

And you are wrong about what the study has concluded, and I tried to outlined it in my previous post. However, why don’t you pay for it, and ascertain it for yourself. Just another study paid and brought for by the players who don’t want educational choice for the children. And really, Doug it is Australia who is the last country to come into the 21st century, denying for at least 100 years - no such thing as LD or dyslexia, until the year 2007. Oh yes, the study data comes from the health data and the reason I mentioned it because there is a reason why the minimum wage is $16.00 a hour. Everyone in Australia needs to purchase private insurance for the bells and whistles that are not covered in the public health system. The average monthly private insurance premium for a family of 4, is now at the $400 mark.  Before you go and sing the praises of a study that happens to agree with your loaded biases - check out the country it originates in. Be grateful that you are sitting in Ontario,  because there is big differences between Canada and Australia when it comes to their education system.

The affluent do well at the public schools they attend for a few reasons. 1. Parents who are professionals know how to spell and use this word - SUE. Principals will do almost anything to appease this set of parents. 2. Parents whose children are having difficulty, will not wait around for the school to do something, they go out and buy the services. 3. Parents who are not happy with the school for other reasons such as bullying, are the parents who might move to a new location, another school other then public or even homeschool might be an option. 4. Affluent parents are apt to donate large sums of monies to keep the public school bluff and polished. School boards loves this type of parents so they can give the gears to the middle-class parents who are not so big on giving out large sums of monies.

It is why, school districts have school zones that prevents lower income students from entering the halls of the high-income schools, and if not school zones, other conditions that creates barriers that make it impossible for other kids to take advantage. Affluent parents will not taxed the SE services in the schools, and to be honest Doug, any affluent parent will tell you, you don’t wait around for the school to do something nor do you wait around for 2 to 3 years when it is your kid.

But the little game the public education establishment has been playing on the affluent is about to go the other way around in Canada. Quite a few affluent parents who had the wool pulled over their eyes over the progress of their LD children. They have been paying out the big dollars in the last few years of high school, for the children to attend a private LD school, to upgrade the basic skills in the 3 Rs and math and science and all the knowledge gaps.  Not only the LD parents, but as well as other affluent parents with a mix bag of concerns - they too have had the wool pulled over their eyes. They are not happy campers, especially when they have to pay top dollar to the private tutors at the post-secondary level.

The affluent parents especially in Ontario, BC and Alberta are not going to remain silent as they once did in the past. The affluent Canadian parents might be worse than their American counterparts when it comes to lawsuits. Especially the ones, who believed that students have rights over and above the rights of the education stakeholders and their self-serving agendas.

pobod

The “soft bigotry of low expectations” baloney is getting pretty stale since the charters and vouchers are doing no better than the public schools. Milwaukee is the failed experiment in vouchers. KIPP just bombed the common core tests. Their grads don’t graduate university.

The evidence is mounting that poverty is the issue,

not pedagogy or curriculum or unions or teacher training or lack of merit pay or technology or testing….. none of these are showing any ability to move the yard sticks. They are failures because they misdiagnose the problem and therefore fail to apply the necessary adjustments.

Gosh Doug.  I’m sure you are right.  But here’s the NYC official assessment of one of the KIPP schools.  http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/3F917247-E289-4DAB-8BC3-1DA70B20B5FC/0/KIPPAcademy0809.pdf

I’ve been to that part of the Bronx, and it isn’t a nice place.  There is real, grinding poverty.  Those kids should be doomed, hopeless, tragic write-offs.

But as NYC reports:  “98% of 8th graders scored at Level 3 or Level 4 in ELA.  96% scored at Level 3 or Level 4 in Math.”

Across New York State, only 31% of kids met that level of proficiency.  http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/grades-3-8-assessment-results-2013.html

pobod

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/08/nyc-charters-bomb-on-common-core-tests/

Here you go Tom. KIPP scored worse than public schools with similar conditions and far less money. Dave Levin himself is concerned the kids he puts in university to not finish and get degrees.

You`re giving us the Ravitch perspective?
It holds no ground other than the status quo.

Doug,you make stuff up!

http://www.kipp.org/results/mathematica-study/mathematica-2013-report

pobod

http://www.people.trentu.ca/cathybruce/

The jig is up for KIPP. Time to compete on a level playing field.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-thompson/will-common-core-force-ch_b_3787177.html

Notwithstanding the notorious charter reputation for exclusions of SE, ELL behavioural kids, spending often $5000 more per student, Charters have basically nothing to show for it across the USA. It is no good to say “look at this miracle charter” same can be done for public schools. The big picture is - they are not worth the effort.

most have hunkered down now to saying how much public money can we get to line our own pockets in CMOs or even individual schools that pay principal huge salaries to do only as well as the local PS.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-islam/charter-schools-cure-or-c_b_4066245.html

Give it a rest Doug, charter schools have been around for 20 years, and they are not going away any time soon. Waiting lists for the majority of them and vouchers - the private schools are experiencing waiting lists. Not enough of a seat quota to match the demand.

As for the articles against charter schools - they never do look at the public schools and suggest solutions. And what is up with the Canadian link - it doesn’t match charter school but another set of questionable studies and research. One is about the use of white boards in the classroom. And here I thought a white board is a tool, that needed no further study than the old blackboards.

If the Canadian link is the evidence to opposed the Kipp link Doug, you are going to need the actual studies. As usual, the studies and even an abstract is not up for viewing when it comes to the Canadian studies by the education researchers financed by public monies by the public education establishment. As for the Kipp study, its very true that charter schools actually do improved the bottom line for students in math. If you want to Doug, go check out what the American parents are saying.

Speaking about, there was this curious study on grade 1 students on the Canadian link, how grade 1 students figure out 1/2 and two 1/4. I have a tale to tell, which is the truth. The only areas in math my kid was doing well was in the geometry and data management units. She was acing the material. I got told off proper for teaching her bad things - that two 1/4 equals one 1/2. I taught her the old way like I was taught but not in grade 1 as they are today. If you asked me a bit too young to understand why two 1/4 equals one 1/2, without basic division and fractions in place. So I took the easy route, and used the quarters, the 50 cents pieces buried in our treasure chest and some loonies.  She did her homework on her own which was very rare, and left me with the useless busy work of cutting and pasting, since her was having major difficulties in cutting straight. As I was finishing off the cut and paste special, she comes downstairs, proudly answering the dumb why questions. She wrote, Two 1/4 pieces always equals one 1/2 piece and that is a LAW. I got into trouble, because I taught her the banned knowledge of what are fundamentally laws of arithmetic. Of course, I did asked the teacher - can you tell me what is so wrong about my daughter’s answer? She could not answer….........priceless. One of the rare moments when math homework was not a holy nightmare.

Doug, do you even bother to read the articles you cite?  Because they are strong endorsements of Charter schools.

The ‘criticisms’ are harmless.  For example, Islam & Crego consider it damning that “500 charter schools have closed since the Stanford study of 2009 which gave the movement mixed reviews.”  That’s not a bad thing, it is wonderful that 500 poorly-performing charter schools have closed their doors.  Would that 500 poorly-performing traditional public schools also close their doors, but that never happens.

And the upside is huge:  “three to four years experience in a KIPP program translated into an 11 month gain in math and science, eight months in reading, and 14 months in science.”

Keep posting them Doug.

pobod

read the whole thing Tom. Conclusion charters just not worth it.

Had to laugh at Doug’s response, but sadly it is typical among the public school proponents - the over generalization and at all costs avoid the evidence of the whole picture. So, I went searching for a story of the life of a public school versus the charter school, within the context of schools, do have their good points along with the bad points.

Never thought to be so surprised that in my little search, I found more positive results on charter schools and zero positive results regarding public schools. Given I only went 5 pages deep, and it became obvious there was two types of articles. The one type by the public school proponents trying to get their messages out that charter schools are evil (over-generalization) but clearly negative to everything regarding charter schools. However, most of the articles of the above type rarely mentioned the public schools as an attractive alternative accenting their positive elements. All one reads are the negative impacts that charter schools have on public schools, and a boat load of excuses why children do not achieved or learn. 

The second type I found was on the charter schools accenting the positive, displaying many elements of what constitutes a day in a charter student’s life, and often on former public schools that the public school district was going to close and/or were failing to provide a quality education. This type of story, it is the comments that are of great interest, because the proponents of public schools will take over the comment section, attack those who praised the charter school based on the facts outlined in the story, list the same reasons as Doug does why charter schools are evil, and overall the public school proponents act as victims, without ever acknowledging the facts in the story that the public school(s) was not doing its job - and that is ensuring that the students were learning and progressing.

A Washington Post article on a 2013 speech made by Arne on Charter Schools - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/07/03/arne-duncan-praises-slaps-charter-schools/

I learned a new phrase for parents -  concerned/functional parent or motivated/functional parent. It is in the comments from educators. This phrase is directed at the low-income parents and I find it very disrespectful and insulting to parents. No wonder the charter schools in the low-income neighourhoods are a hit with parent when parents are constantly being dis by the pubic educators as their concerns for their children are dismissed by the schools.

1. http://www.pressherald.com/news/charter-school-helps-turn-a-life-around_2013-08-02.html

2. ” For years, public schools in Cleveland had some of the worst test scores in America; only 7 percent of their students went on to college.

But a unique partnership between traditional schools and high-performing charter schools is turning that around.”  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57586766/

3. This one is the best one to show you what I am trying to expressed and show the hypocrisy of the public school proponents.. Two public school will be turning charter by the blessings of the public education establishment.  “Barsamian Preparatory Center, for high school students who have been expelled from all public schools in the state, will also remain open along with Hancock Preparatory Center, a school for expelled kindergarten to eighth-grade students.”  http://www.freep.com/article/20110616/NEWS01/110616032/

P.S. - there is no comments on the last link. I shall assume that the public school proponents would not want to dis charter schools on the basis of expelled public school students that they themselves have written off as non-educable at some point in the stay at the public school.

On another note, regarding expelled students or rather students being suspended, a public school in BC has come up with an even crazier method to suspend the K students for bad behaviour, to avoid at all costs - the little matter - there is no more teachers in the playground at recess and lunch break. Instead, a new policy of ‘no-touching’ with zero tolerance will be immediately enforce. http://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-school-bans-kindergarteners-from-touching-each-other-1.1528348

Read the comments - and here - http://www.theprovince.com/news/Aldergrove+school+tells+kindergarten+kids+Hands/9124456/story.html

On that note, it is in Australia and the US -  here - http://www.search.news.com.au/related/id:story_1226395991935/0/Parents-blast-schools-no-touching-rule/?us=ndmnews&sid=2&as=NEWS&ac=search&r=related  And here - http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/08292013-schools-tell-kids-no-chasing-no-tag-during-recess/

Soon to cross Canada, and do we have to wonder why charter schools and other alternative education choices are so popular with parents??? 

pobod

The novelty is coming off charter and vouchers very rapidly as they prove they cannot deliver better results