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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Education ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedSchool Choice

The state of the choice movement, 2020

Matthew Ladner
Matthew Ladner

Now that the smoke has begun to clear from the 2020 elections, it’s a good time to take stock of the parental choice movement.

The Center for Education Reform has released 2020 grades for charter laws based on a variety of factors, including the number and independence of authorizers, the absence caps/potential for growth, the independence of schools and the equity of funding.

Arizona’s is the only law to receive an A grade (an A-minus). Washington, D.C., Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Colorado, South Carolina, Texas and Utah received B grades. Unfortunately, the number of charter laws receiving D/F grades is almost twice as numerous as A/B grades. In the worst cases, charter school laws don’t produce many charter schools.

Charter school laws are vital to expanding options for families, but they face substantial practical limitations related to starting new schools – securing start-up funding and facilities, in addition to legal limitations. The same politically powerful and powerfully misguided forces that have kept most charter school laws limited also have kept private choice laws limited in a variety of ways.

Moreover, of the four largest states by population (California, Texas, Florida and New York), Florida has the only private choice programs. While Florida has more charter school students than private choice students (329,000 compared with more than 160,000), more than a quarter of the students using vouchers, scholarship tax credits or education savings accounts are Floridians.

EdChoice provides this graphic depicting national private school choice numbers in its publication titled The ABCs of School Choice:

Number of ESAs, vouchers and tax credit scholarships

As if the spring of 2020 didn’t do enough academic damage, school districts around the country have begun a second round of shutdowns, which means families need much stronger charter and private choice programs, and innovative solutions, as the need for remediation will exceed the current system’s ability to supply it.

If it ever existed, the time for capped, limited or otherwise hamstrung choice programs has passed. The 2021 legislative sessions will be a time to go big or go home.

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Blog GuestCharter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedJack CoonsParent EmpowermentParental ChoicePrivate SchoolsSchool ChoiceTesting and Accountability

Test scores plus responsibility

John E. Coons
John E. Coons

“Liberty means responsibility.”

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

The school choice movement continues to plead its case by focusing on “results.” That is, the experts compare the test scores of low-income students whose parents have transferred them to a “charter” school against those of age-mates who remain in the public school to which they were assigned according to their residence.

This fixation on numbers is understandable; the media need to keep the tale as simple as possible, and scores do exactly that.

Up to now, the outcomes so measured favor the performance of charters to a fair degree; in the world of numbers, choice appears to work. Of course, in the hands of anti-choice professionals, these reports can be and are portrayed as the effect of greater sophistication of those parents who made the choice of charters and of their children who have already profited by living with them in such a home.

In any case, the public who consume such conflicting news can, and too often do, conclude that choice would be okay – but it’s no big deal.

But it is. The comparison of scores is, of course, relevant to the wisdom of subsidizing choice for the poor. If, instead of this positive picture, there were a gulf in favor of those students whose families who decided their child should stay put, we might worry about aiding parents to make the escape.

But, in fact, choice of charters and private schools seems not merely to do no harm, but rather to raise scores and make subsidized choice possible. Society can now turn to address the more profound social problems it has created by its disabling of the parent.

The core argument for empowering the poor lies not in statistics but rather in the centrality of parental responsibility in creating and maintaining a stable home and, in so doing, increases our hope for the good society.

Here is a reality not so easily tested; there is no standard mathematics to report the spirit and functioning of parents and its link to the maturing of the heart and mind of their child. There is only our human experience of families.

I fear that, in the eyes of the child, by deposing the parent we have rendered fathers and mothers figures of impotence. They may ask their child at dinner how the school is shaping up, but, when given a negative response, they are helpless to aid their own.

And to the child, the overall message is clear: For 180 days of the year, the raising of a family is out of the parents’ jurisdiction. They may be loving people, but they remain powerless subjects of the public school. The design and pursuit of the good life are in government hands.

One must ask: Just what is the point of this peculiar subordination of fellow citizens according to their bank account? And just what is its effect upon the child’s respect for the very idea of family, and upon the parents’ respect for themselves?

And finally, what will be the contribution of each to the civil order?

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Charter SchoolsEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

IDEA principal offers glimpse of things to come when charter school network debuts in Florida

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

IDEA Tampa Bay is hosting three lottery events to randomly select students to fill seats for the 2021-22 school year. The first is scheduled for Nov. 14.

IDEA Public Schools, a Texas-based nonprofit that serves more than 63,000 students in 120 schools across Texas and Louisiana, is set to bring its award-winning college preparatory program to the Sunshine State in 2021 with the opening of two campuses in Hillsborough County.

In their first year, the Tampa “schools of hope” will be open to students in kindergarten through second grade as well as sixth grade, with additional grades added each year until the schools are fully scaled with K-12 campuses. Building on its reputation as the nation’s fastest-growing network of tuition-free, Pre-K-12 public charter schools, IDEA, which stands for Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement, plans to have four schools in the Tampa Bay area by 2023 and aims to grow that number to 20 by 2026.

IDEA Tampa Bay already has begun recruiting students and principals, including Emily Carlisle, who has been tapped as principal in residence at IDEA Hope College Preparatory School. redefinED reached out to Carlisle to learn more about how her school will offer additional education options to families. Our interview follows, edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. What inspired you to pursue a career in education?

Emily Carlisle

A. Being raised in a faith tradition that encourages love and the pursuit of justice and restoration, as a teenager I recognized the disparate educational opportunities afforded to the magnet and neighborhood student populations at my high school in Tampa. Desiring to be a teacher from a young age, I committed in college to pursuing a career seeking to change the educational trajectory of students from underserved communities. It is my ever-evolving faith that guides my attempts to love those around me well, both inside and outside the schoolhouse. Having labored relentlessly for seven years at my alma mater in Tampa to provide quality educational opportunity, I am thrilled to embark upon this new journey with the IDEA team and family to prepare all students to go to and through college so that they can live choice-filled lives that positively impact our world.

Q. What is a principal in residence and what does that role involve?

A. The Principal in Residence (PIR) program is a rigorous training program aimed at honing educators’ instructional leadership skills so that they are ready to take on the challenges and joys of successfully founding and growing an IDEA school. The program affords tremendous growth opportunity for educators. Principals in residence work to support teachers, leaders, students, and families while sharing responsibility for critical school achievement goals at an IDEA campus. The personalized coaching and feedback principals in residence receive as a part of the residency is invaluable as they prepare to launch schools.

Q. Tell us a little about your background, education and previous experience and explain how that prepared for you for your new role at IDEA Public Schools in Tampa.

A. I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Florida prior to joining Teach For America as a 2007 Mississippi Delta corps member. After meeting my commitment, I completed a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in social and economic development from Washington University in St. Louis. After graduating, I moved back to my hometown of Tampa and taught high school social studies for eight years. During that time, my students achieved some of the highest Advanced Placement pass rates in the district. I also served as a social studies department chair for four and a half years, operationally and instructionally supporting a 17-member team. I believe my education and 10 years of experience in the classroom have fully prepared me to take on the role of founding principal at IDEA Hope College Preparatory School.

Q. Tell us about the mission of IDEA Public Schools as it relates to Florida.

A. IDEA believes that no student’s potential should be limited by the color of their skin, where they live, or household income. IDEA Public Schools is committed to a vision of college for all children. Through our curriculum and college support model, we are closing the opportunity gap and increasing levels of achievement by preparing students from underserved communities for success in college and citizenship. In 2017, the Florida Legislature passed Schools of Hope legislation to help high-performing charter school districts, including IDEA, expand in neighborhoods with a concentration of persistently low-performing schools. Our staff members are out in the broader East Tampa community five days a week, introducing themselves to families, and spreading the word about the two new high-quality schooling options, IDEA Hope and IDEA Victory.

Q. What distinguishes IDEA from other charter schools and from traditional district schools?

A. IDEA Public Schools has a long track record of success. For the last 14 years, 100% of our high school graduates were accepted to college. Additionally, in the latest rankings of the most challenging high schools in the nation by the Jay Mathews Challenge Index published in the Washington Post, all 15 eligible IDEA college preparatory schools were ranked among the top 1%. Looking past the sheer numbers, every adult I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside at IDEA has an unwavering belief in the potential of all children and works relentlessly day in and day out to prepare our scholars for college. Lastly, as an organization, IDEA values feedback and considers it a gift. This pervasive mindset is interwoven into the fabric of our operating mechanisms and helps cultivate improvement in every area of the school district.

Q. What should IDEA families expect on the first day of school?

A. Imagine a hot, muggy morning in early August 2021. As students arrive, they recognize the principal, Ms. Carlisle, from when she made a home visit in the spring to welcome their family to IDEA. She greets them by name, and a tiny bit of nervousness dissipates as they feel seen in that moment. Stepping across the threshold, they enter the building and are welcomed by other smiling Hope staff members who usher sixth graders to their homerooms. As the school day begins, homeroom teachers facilitate opportunities for community and culture building. Students are served breakfast in homeroom while they listen to morning announcements. The closing lines of this daily ritual will quickly become a comforting and inspiring refrain: “At IDEA Hope we are BOLD members of our community. We are BRILLIANT lifelong scholars. We are BECOMING more of our truest, fullest selves. With all the knowledge you are sure to acquire today, dear ones, may this remain top of mind: You. Are. Beloved. Rays of Hope, may you shine bright, today and every day!” Once homeroom ends, students transition through their schedule, where each teacher embeds culture building opportunities into their lessons, ensuring all scholars have a strong start to the year.

Q. Where do you see IDEA’s Florida schools in the next several years?

A. IDEA Jacksonville will be the next IDEA Florida region with its first two schools launching in 2022. Meanwhile, IDEA Tampa Bay plans to open 20 schools by 2026. I am confident that as IDEA expands its reach throughout the Tampa Bay area and Jacksonville, thousands of scholars will be put on the path to and through college while partaking in a joyful and rigorous elementary and secondary school environment.

Q. How do interested families find out more?

A. We are currently accepting applications for scholars entering kindergarten, first, second, and sixth grades in fall 2021. Our IDEA Hope and IDEA Victory student lotteries are occurring on Nov. 14, Jan. 16, and Feb. 20 for the 2021-2022 school year.

For more information, visit https://ideapublicschools.org/apply/.

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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19Education ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedPodcastSchool ChoiceTechnology and Innovation

podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews Friendship Public Charter School CEO Patricia Brantley

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

On this episode, Tuthill talks with the leader of a cohort of 16 charter schools in the Washington, D.C., area that primarily educate families of color. The two discuss how Friendship, which serves more than 4,500 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade, has adapted its education delivery in the wake of the global pandemic.

 Brantley observes that one of her biggest surprises has been feedback from families of students with special needs who say their children are less distracted, learning more, and getting better personalized feedback from their teachers in digital or hybrid learning environments. She discusses with Tuthill the unbundling of education services to provide families with more flexibility and options, the growing trend of families creating small “pod” schools in their homes, and the necessity of providing internet access to all children to ensure educational equity.

“Adults need to think differently, and they need to catch up with kids … (Families in pods) are getting an amazing education. But that education is owed to all our children regardless of their parents’ resources. We need to figure out how we’re going to get it delivered to them.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       What Friendship has learned over the past two semesters of innovation and how it plans to improve for the future

·       Creating a robust professional development system for Friendship’s teachers and staff

·       Strengths of the digital environment and how technological advancements can personalize education

·       The benefits of unbundling education services and the ways entrenched systems may react and adapt

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AnalysisCharter SchoolsDemographic ResearchEducation ChoiceEducation PollingFeaturedMagnet SchoolsPrivate School ScholarshipsPrivate SchoolsPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Office of the President releases new data on education choice

Patrick R. Gibbons
Patrick R. Gibbons

Percentage distribution of students age 5 through 17 attending kindergarten through 12th grade by school type, 1999 and 2016

The percentage of students accessing schools of choice has increased dramatically over the past 30 years, with growth coming from the expansion of both public and private school choice options, according to a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers.

Among the findings of the council, an agency within the Executive Office of the President charged with offering the President objective economic advice on the formulation of domestic and international economic policy:

Private school scholarships have grown considerably, but still make up a small portion of the K-12 student population, with 539,000 students utilizing tax-credit scholarships, vouchers or education savings accounts to enroll in private schools.

With the inclusion of public options, more than 5.8 million students were enrolled in charter and magnet schools in 2016, the latest available public school data. That figure was up from about 1.5 million students enrolled in charter and magnet schools in 2000.

Importantly, the number of students attending their assigned public school dropped from 74.1% to 68.8% between 1999 and 2016. In Florida, 54.8 percent of K-12 students attended assigned public schools in 2018-19, the most recent figure available.

Public choice schools grew by 4.3 percentage points and home education grew by 1.6 percentage points. Though private school scholarships have grown considerably, private school enrollment has dropped 0.8 percentage points nationwide.

The report’s authors conclude that expanding choice options could help low-income and minority students. Florida already is a national leader on that front, with 41% of students attending schools of choice in 2018-19, the latest data available.

The state’s most popular options include charter schools, open enrollment, magnet schools and career academies enrolling more than 600,000 students, about half of all choice students in the state. By comparison, only about 152,000 students utilized scholarships to attend private schools in Florida.

With the inclusion of 237,200 students attending private schools through private pay, more than 45% of Florida students attend schools of choice.

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Blog GuestCharter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedJack CoonsParent EmpowermentSchool ChoiceUnionismVouchers

Truth, freedom, choice

John E. Coons
John E. Coons

See! A disenchanted nation

Spring like day from desolation;

To Truth its state is dedicate,

And Freedom leads it forth, her mate;

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”

Shelley got it right; truth and freedom are inseparable. And, when it comes to schooling, the two join in the long-established freedom of parents to decide the specific medium of truth for their own child.

And yet, it is the national reality that we have imposed the unchosen medium – the specific “public” school – upon the lower-income family; such parents have no voice in the matter. Billy’s school will be assigned to him by a completely impersonal system, one that lacks any plausible, or even intelligible, justification beside the welfare and power of the union chiefs who profit from it.

Will the empowerment of non-rich parents ever become a reality? Will these mothers and fathers one day be offered the dignity of making that fateful decision for their own child – that power and freedom that the rest of us so cherish?

Given his very specific and humbled submission to the teachers union by our most plausible next president, the federal government seems an unlikely champion of the poor for the near future. Yet, today, in a number of states, we watch politicians adjusting to signs of an awakening civic conscience; of course, it helps that the polls show a mounting preference for choice among all parents, the comfortable as well as the poor. The subsidized mother and father have become a spreading vision among our people.

When and if choice comes to be in a sustainable way, it will most likely do so in a variety of legal and economic forms from state to state. Vouchers that would subsidize and empower lower-income parents to exercise their legal right by paying tuition are merely the most simple and obvious remedy.

And, of course, we have already created the harbinger of parental empowerment in our well-functioning and very popular charters. Aside from their superior test scores, we can be confident that they work simply by watching the frantic (and too often successful) effort of union chiefs to minimize their numbers and/or to shrink the operating liberty of these precious quasi-public latecomers in our history.

Tuition vouchers for ordinary and poor families will be the simplest form for the subsidizing of choice. Imagine the real freedom for families that need financial help to decide for themselves if both vouchers and charters were to become available to them.

That will depend entirely upon the prudence and resilience of their current union overseers to transform themselves and, for the first time, rise to meet the competition in a free market.

In short, they would have to become worth choosing. Is that too much to ask?

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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionCustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedSchool Choice

Do Boston charter schools have a lesson to teach America?

Matthew Ladner
Matthew Ladner

In 2016, Massachusetts voters soundly rejected a ballot proposition (Question 2) which would have allowed 12 additional charter schools per year. A recent study demonstrates how costly this decision has been, especially for special education and English language learner (ELL) students.

Tufts University Professor Elizabeth Setren analyzed enrollment lottery data for Boston charters in order to compare long-term outcomes for three groups of students: general education students, special education students and ELL students (see above). The random admission process provides confidence that observed differences in outcomes show the impact of the schools.

Professor Setren noted that the Boston district schools spend significantly more on special education than charters, but charter schools see much better results.

I find that charter enrollment at least doubles the likelihood that a student designated as special education or an English learner at the time of the admissions lottery loses this classification and, subsequently, access to specialized services. Yet charter enrollment also generates large achievement gains for students classified at the time of the lottery—similar to the gains made by their general-education charter classmates.

Classified students who enroll in charters are far more likely to meet a key high-school graduation requirement, become eligible for a state merit scholarship, and take an AP exam, for example. Students classified as special education at the time of the lottery are more than twice as likely to score 1200 or higher on the SAT than their counterparts at traditional public schools. English learners who enroll in charters are twice as likely to enroll in a four-year college.

Students with special education and ELL labels at the time of the enrollment lottery are more likely to discard that status in charter schools. They are also more likely to enroll in a four-year college, score proficient on state exams and take an Advanced Placement course. Notice as well that general education students also see large improvements in those same outcomes.

This study seems all the more important given the nationwide decline in NAEP scores for students with disabilities. While there are exceptions, most states saw declines in scores for both eighth-grade math and reading between 2009 and 2019.

A similar chart for ELL students during the same period looks even worse.

So, Boston charter schools just might have a lesson about high expectations and inclusion. The charter school cap in Massachusetts, meanwhile, is limiting the opportunities for both general and special status students.

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AnalysisCharter SchoolsCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityEducation SpendingFeaturedHomeschoolingMicroschoolsParental ChoicePrivate SchoolsSchool Choice

‘Emergency mindset’ needed to address education inequities

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

As the first full year of schooling during the coronavirus pandemic launches, a national education advocacy network is sounding the alarm in a research brief that America’s K-12 education system is in crisis.

To ensure a more flexible, equitable and student-centered system of education both now and post-pandemic, the independent non-profit organization 50CAN is calling for a national response to that crisis, starting with a greater level of federal support for new learning modes to extend greater choice for families, including distance learning, homeschooling, and micro-schools and learning pods.

While schooling traditionally has been funded through a mix of local property taxes and state revenue with the federal government paying only about 10% of total costs, 50CAN observes, a greater level of federal support across these three modes of learning is needed. 

Among 50CAN’s overall policy recommendations:

 ·       All district, charter and private schools should receive emergency funding to support safely running in-person schooling this school year if they are able to do so and to provide a flexible, high-quality online schooling option for all students.

 ·       Families should be able to easily move into or out of these in-person and online options as their health circumstances and risk factors change throughout the year.

 ·       Families should have the option to enroll their student in an online district school program outside of their neighborhood boundaries or in an online charter school or private school program anywhere in the country with no restrictions to these online transfers, such as state enrollment caps.

 ·       Families should receive funding to enroll their child in an in-person school in a neighboring district or in a charter school or private school if their district school does not offer an in-person option.

 ·       Families up to 200% of the poverty line should receive a direct payment of $2,000 per child to pay for supplemental educational materials, tutoring, technology and other learning expenses, building upon payments — $1,200 per adult and $500 per child – in the CARES Act.

 The independent non-profit organization, launched in 2011, has a presence in eight states with affiliates in additional cities including Miami.

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