Public School Choice

Achievement GapCharter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceVideo

Education choice advocates discuss equity for children of color

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

Step Up For Students’ Keith Jacobs made a recent guest appearance on The Soul Purpose Show, a podcast with the goal of educating, enlightening and empowering listeners through engaging and thoughtful conversation on topics including education, relationships and pop culture.

The episode, which aired June 20, was one in a three-part series titled “Education Matters” and was hosted by Keith Harris, CEO of a youth services nonprofit, and Monica Williams Harris, Esq. Appearing with Jacobs were Kendra Spence-Wester, veteran educator and principal of Renaissance Charter School at Cypress in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Katrina Long-Robinson, vice mayor of Westlake, Florida, owner of KLR Consulting and a former charter school administrator.

Running at just under an hour, the podcast touches on a host of issues regarding traditional public and charter schools, exploring questions such as:

·       Is it realistic to say that education is the great equalizer, or is education equity merely an aspirational goal?

·       If education equity is possible, what would it look like?

·       How can communities move beyond blame for a failure to address systemic issues and move toward solutions?

The participants, all of whom benefited from education choice within the traditional public school system when they were students, also discuss the importance of high expectations and rigor for children of color, the intrinsic connection between school funding and education outcomes, and the importance of advocating for change as opposed to settling for a mere promise that education will improve.

You can listen to the podcast here.

The Soul Purpose Show airs every Saturday at 11 a.m. on Facebook Live, YouTube and NTouch News Radio. 

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Charter SchoolsEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedNewsPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Charter school competition and traditional public school student outcomes

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

A new study from a national group focused on domestic-policy areas has found evidence rebutting the argument that charter school exposure over a meaningful period of time produces declines in the performance of traditional public schools.

The study, conducted by Marcus Winters, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, indicates a small but positive relationship between the proportion of students within a geographic district who attend a charter school and test-score growth for students enrolled in traditional public schools in the same district.

Winters used school-level test-score data across the United States made available by Stanford Education Data Archive for students attending a charter school as of 2009 and the test-score growth for students enrolled in traditional public schools in the same district over the following seven years.

As of 2009, charter schools served at least 10 percent of students in 91 of the 947 U.S. school districts with at least 10,000 students.

One important insight to be gained from the study according to Winters is that among districts with very high charter exposure, some did make meaningful gains while others saw declines. Similarly, among districts with little or no charter exposure, similar numbers made increases or decreases.

Winters acknowledged the results of his analysis should not be construed as proof that charter school expansion does not affect traditional public school outcomes, nor that the analysis can rule out other factors that potentially have systematically influenced the test-score outcomes of districts in areas with more or less charter school exposure. However, Winters says, even if it were true that charter school exposure did hamper public schools, his analysis suggests that in practice, public school systems have responded in ways that counterbalance that negative impact.

Bottom line: The analysis finds that charter exposure has either no influence or a positive influence on public school outcomes. According to Winters, the burden of proof remains on those who argue that expansive charter school sectors hurt students in traditional public schools.

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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceTechnology and InnovationVirtual Education

The uses of adversity: education innovator Eva Moskowitz on distance learning

Matthew Ladner
Matthew Ladner

Eva Moskowitz, founder and chief executive of Success Academy Charter Schools, has been a teacher, a college professor, an elected official and chair of the New York City Council’s Education Committee.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it.

— As You Like It, William Shakespeare

 Brian Greenburg, CEO of the Silicon Schools Fund, produced this graphic to categorize varying levels of proficiency achieved by schools that launched impromptu distance learning at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The graphic accompanied a post Greenburg wrote for EducationNext titled, “What we’ve learned from distance learning and what it means for the future.”

The graphic’s horizontal axis organizes schools by general effectiveness: culture, teamwork, flexibility, quality. The vertical axis organizes schools by expertise with technology, low to high. In the worst-case pandemic scenario, you are a child enrolled in a school system with an ineffective bureaucratic culture and a poor grasp of technology. In the best-case scenario – a highly effective, flexible and technically proficient organization – your school quickly reorganized efforts around distance learning to produce high-quality distance instruction.

New York’s Success Academy Charter Schools have been lauded for the high levels of academic proficiency achieved by high-poverty students. Stanford University’s Opportunity Explorer, for instance, shows Success Academy schools posting about three grade levels above average in academic proficiency, despite free and reduced-price lunch eligibility in the 74 to 90 percent range. Plotted against all available data in schools nationwide, this means Success Academy is not only breathing some very thin air in terms of performance, but also that it can lay claim to consistent excellent achievement.

The horizontal axis in the Greenburg chart was not an issue for Success Academy, and as it happens, neither was technological dexterity.

How did Success Academy tackle pandemic-induced distance learning? Well, the Philanthropy Roundtable was curious about that, so it interviewed founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz on how the schools rose to the pandemic challenge. You can watch the video here. What Success Academy pulled off seems potentially revolutionary, and Moskowitz is sharing learning resources free of charge.

I’ll give you my CliffsNotes version of the video.

The most effective lecturer in the entire network of schools on any given subject delivered live instructional lectures, while other teachers broke students into smaller groups online to facilitate group discussion and projects. Teachers monitored ongoing assignments to identify students who were falling behind and proactively required students to attend online remedial tutoring sessions.

In other words, Success Academy staff took great effort to keep students on track.

Why is this potentially revolutionary?

Because Success Academy and anyone else mastering these techniques may be able to offer it as an option to both admission lottery winners and losers in the future. It may be possible, for instance, to serve many students currently floundering in the bottom left quadrant in the Greenburg graphic through these techniques.

Exempt from public haunt, and more importantly, the need to provide very costly school space, a new path to quality and scale may beckon.

This crisis version of Success Academy distance learning should be viewed as a mere prototype. Success Academy and others doubtless will improve upon these techniques.

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Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation LegislationFeaturedPodcastPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceVirtual Education

PodcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews DOE senior chancellor Eric Hall

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

In this episode, Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill talks with Eric Hall, who joined the Florida Department of Education in February 2019 to deal with some of the state’s most high-profile initiatives, including the expansion of school choice.

A little more than a year into Hall’s tenure as head of innovation, COVID-19 began roiling education, and it looks like those disruptions will continue into the fall. A firm believer in the power of Florida Virtual School, he is convinced the state’s investment in online learning leaves the Sunshine State well-positioned to educate students. He discusses with Tuthill FLVS’ capacity to ramp up to serve nearly 4 million children, how to prevent rising achievement gaps in a distance-learning environment and his belief that great teachers drive technology.

“We have conditions in place that have empowered parents to make the best decisions for their children … we’ve got to double down and hold ourselves accountable as a state.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       The agility of Florida Virtual School as both a COVID-19 safety net and an expanded resource for a shift to blended learning for families who want it

·       How distance learning and blended education extends the classroom beyond the school day while creating greater equity for less resourced families

·       How to realign resources to get increased technology to more families

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Commentary and OpinionCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceFeaturedPodcastPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceVirtual Education

podcastED: SUFS president Doug Tuthill interviews FLVS president and CEO Louis Algaze

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

In this episode, Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill interviews Louis Algaze, president and CEO of Florida Virtual School. Founded in 1997, FLVS is a publicly funded non-profit that operates as its own $240 million school district. During the 2018-19 academic year, it served 215,505 students, technically making it the largest public school in the United States.

Tuthill and Algaze discuss FLVS’ rapid expansion in the wake of COVID-19 and the role the online school will play going forward, touching on improvement opportunities for the learning model they expect will be an example for the nation’s public school system as it shifts gears into the fall and beyond.

“There is so much talent and desire … We’re looking forward to really fantastic things in the future.”

EPISODE DETAILS:

·       How FLVS rapidly expanded capacity to serve every public school student in Florida

·       Differences between crisis learning and a full online education

·       How the demand for blended learning will grow and what it will look like

·       The challenge of acclimating nearly 2,000 teachers to a blended learning model and the commitment to train teachers statewide

·       Collaborating with traditional public, charter, and private schools to address student needs

LINKS MENTIONED:

·       Online school during COVID-19: It’s about student learning (Alaska)

·       Florida Virtual School brings online education to Alaska

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Charter SchoolsEducation ChoiceFeaturedOpinionPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

IDEA charter schools shine in national rankings

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

IDEA Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas, opened in 2012 and is one of 96 IDEA schools in Texas and Louisiana serving nearly 53,000 students. IDEA will open schools in Tampa and Jacksonville in the next two years.

A not-for-profit Texas-based charter school company that plans to expand to Florida has received national recognition for 15 of its high schools.

IDEA Public Schools, which is scheduled to open four schools in Hillsborough County next year and four in Jacksonville in 2022, announced that 15 of its college preparatory schools were ranked among the top 1 percent of the most challenging high schools in the nation by the Jay Matthews Challenge Index high school rankings. The index ranks public and private high schools by their ratio of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given in a school year, divided by the number of seniors who graduated that year. (The list is intended to rank schools that serve average students; those that serve elite students are ranked separately.)

The index included 11 IDEA schools among the top 25 of all high schools nationwide. Additionally, IDEA schools ranked in the top 25 percent of charter schools nationwide, with eight schools ranked among the top 10 in Texas. IDEA schools also ranked in the top 25 among Texas charter schools; IDEA College Preparatory McAllen was named the top high school in Texas and was ranked third in the nation.

The charter school company, which primarily serves students from low-income families, also was recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 Best High Schools. Two of its schools were among the top 25 percent of charter schools nationally and nine were among the top 10 percent of high schools in Texas overall. The U.S. News rankings are based on college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.

“IDEA believes deeply that every child can and will succeed if given the opportunity, and we provide our students with an enriching, nurturing and high-expectations educational experience,” said Adam Miller, vice president of advancement for the nonprofit company, which operates 96 schools in Texas and Louisiana. “We know that if we challenge our students with rigorous content delivered by exceptional teachers, our students will succeed.”

IDEA schools require each student to take at least 11 Advanced Placement courses, a contributing factor, Miller says, in the schools’ 100 percent college admission rate. Miller said the requirement also has helped boost IDEA graduates’ rate of college completion. Fifty percent of the class of 2012 earned bachelor’s degrees within six years, compared with 11 percent of low-income students nationwide who earn four-year degrees by age 24, according to the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.

Nine out of 10 IDEA students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch, generally an indicator of poverty. The company typically operates campuses located near traditional schools rated as failing.

When governors in Texas and Louisiana closed school campuses due to the coronavirus pandemic, IDEA quickly pivoted to distance learning for its 52,000 students and distributed more than 12,000 laptops to students in need. IDEA also provided wireless routers and mobile hotspots. Teachers have kept students up to speed with a combination of live instruction, recorded instruction and work packets.

In addition, the company has provided mobile meals to students younger than 18 who live in communities where IDEA schools are located.

“While this has been a new experience for most of us, our students, teachers and families have risen to the challenge,” Miller said.

The coronavirus hasn’t delayed the company’s plans to expand to Florida.

“IDEA is on track to open our first four schools in Tampa in 2021 and Jacksonville in 2022,” Miller said.  “Over the next six years we will open 32 schools across Florida, creating 25,000 high-quality seats for kids in neighborhoods with persistently low-performing public schools.”

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Charter SchoolsCourse ChoiceCustomizationEducation ChoiceFeaturedMagnet SchoolsNewsPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Choice-rich Miami-Dade stars in U.S. News & World Report’s top high schools list

Lisa Buie
Lisa Buie

School for Advanced Studies, a collegiate high school in Miami, was named fourth-best high school in the country this week by U.S. News & World Report.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, where nearly three-quarters of students are enrolled in choice programs, led Florida once again on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the nation’s best public high schools released earlier this week.

School for Advanced Studies, the top public high school in Florida, was the fourth-best high school in the nation, improving upon last year’s rankings of No. 2 and No. 26, respectively. The school is a combined effort of Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Miami-Dade College that allows students to complete their last two years of high school while attending the state college and earning credit toward an associate degree.

Five other Miami-Dade schools, all either selective magnets or charter schools, ranked in the top 10 in Florida and top 100 nationally: Young Women’s Preparatory Academy, No. 3 in Florida and No. 52 nationally; Design and Architecture Senior High, No. 6 in Florida and No. 72 nationally; Archimedean Upper Conservatory Charter School, No. 7 in Florida and No. 74 nationally; International Studies Charter High School, No. 8 in Florida and No. 83 nationally; and Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy, No. 9 in Florida and No. 94 nationally.

“M-DCPS continues to demonstrate that our district … is a leader in academic performance, and that includes providing our students with a remarkable range of educational opportunities,” superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a news release issued by the school district.

All six schools have minority populations between 74 and 96 percent. The percent of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, generally an indicator of poverty, ranges from 36 percent to 74 percent, with two schools – International Studies Charter High School and Jose Marti Mast 6-12 Academy – qualifying for Title I funds.

Carvalho, a long-time supporter of education choice, decided years ago to embrace rather than fight the opportunities that come with customization. Unlike other school districts that have resisted efforts to establish charter schools or have opposed programs that provide scholarships to private schools, Miami-Dade chose to be leaders in the movement and provide robust choice within the public school system.

“We recognized … that the choice tsunami was upon us,” Carvalho told redefinED in a podcast last year. “And I was not going to do what lot of my colleagues did. Which is, ‘Let’s hope and pray it doesn’t hit us. Or let’s just allow this to go through. Like all things, this is a fad that will go away.’”

Instead, Carvalho anticipated the policy shift taking place in Florida and throughout the country.

“And we were right,” he told redefinED. “It has, quite frankly, materialized exactly as we predicted. But rather than being a spectator, or a victim of it, we were an active participant in it.”

School of Advanced Studies principal Omar Monteagudo said the U.S. News rankings are a reflection of the work educators at the school have undertaken to elevate rigor and accountability.

“Truly, it comes down to all stakeholders committed to the school core values – working collectively and intentionally – on providing our students with a first-rate education,” Monteagudo said.

Each year, U.S. News & World Report publishes the rankings of 18,000 public high schools based on a review of 24,000 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The magazine analyzes schools relative to college readiness, math and reading proficiency and performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth, and graduation rate.

This year, all top 100 schools were either specialized, magnet or charter schools.

Other Florida schools making the top 100 were Pine View School in Sarasota, No. 24; Westshore Junior/Senior High School in Melbourne, No. 53; Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville, No. 62; and Edgewood Junior/Senior High School in Merritt Island, No. 95.

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Coronavirus / COVID-19Course ChoiceCustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation Savings AccountsFeaturedNewsPodcastPublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceVirtual Education

podcastED: Education reform in a post-COVID-19 world featuring Doug Tuthill and Manny Diaz

redefinED staff
redefinED staff

In this episode of podcastED, Step Up For Students President Doug Tuthill and Florida Senate Education Committee Chairman Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, discuss how public education shifts are ramping up due in part to COVID-19.

Among other topics, Tuthill and Diaz discuss policy changes that will be required to allow families to continue to educate their children based on subject competency rather than brick-and-mortar seat time. Both believe the expansion of Education Scholarship Accounts will provide families key flexibility.

Diaz: “Families will discover they can be more effective and more efficient with their time … more seat time doesn’t mean more learning.”

 EPISODE DETAILS:

·       How public and private schools alike have innovated on the fly to remain open during the pandemic

·       Florida’s unique position as a leader in education choice, which will allow for policy flexibility for families now and in the future

·       Florida Virtual School, its work in Alaska, and its competency-based model of learning vs. traditional seat-time learning

·       Funding and policy shifts that must occur, including expansion of Education Scholarship Accounts

 LINKS MENTIONED:

·       FLVS brings distance learning to Alaska

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