November/December 2004
What educators and policymakers can learn from the successes and failures of charters
By Robert Rothman
Most followers of education reform can remember their typically quiet summers being interrupted last August by a front-page story in the New York Times. The story suggested that charter schools, heralded by many as havens of free choice and innovative practice, might actually be doing worse than traditionally organized public schools. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) analysis found that fourth-grade students in charter schools performed about half a grade behind those in regular public schools, and that these differences held true even for low-income students and students in central cities. The study provoked a rash of point/counterpoint exchanges among charter school advocates and opponents. Yet, according to Gary J. Miron, principal research associate for the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, looking at the average performance of charter schools and their students tells only a small part of the story.
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
By Robert Rothman
Since its opening in 2001, the KIPP DC: KEY (Knowledge Empowers You) Academy, a public charter school in Washington, D.C., has attracted a great deal of attention for its program and results. One of 38 KIPP schools around the country, the D.C. school enrolls about 240 students in grades 5 and 6 and stays open until 5:00 p.m. each day, and half a day on Saturday. KIPP DC: KEY Academy has been one of the highest-performing schools of any type in the trouble-plagued District of Columbia system. The Harvard Education Letter spoke to the school's director, Susan Schaeffler, about charter school status, the school's success, and what lessons it may hold for educators in all types of schools.
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
"The Language Game of Math" Approach draws on language arts methods to help English-language learners solve math problems By Meg Gebhard, Andrew Habana Hafner, and Mary Wright
In September 2003, nine-year-old Marisol Rivera hesitantly entered Mary Wright's third-grade classroom at Sullivan Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Early on, Marisol told Mary that she "hated math," and Mary noticed that during math Marisol often hid behind other students and avoided eye contact, which made it hard to determine how much she understood. Mary reflected on Marisol's participation in her class, but she wasn't sure what the problem was: Was it English? Was it math? Was it something else? What Mary was certain about was the need to rethink the way she was teaching the English-language learners (ELLs) in her class, especially the way she was teaching math.
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
Getting to Tenth Can helping your students through ninth grade keep many from dropping out? The answer may lie in data you already have. By Michael Sadowski
Several national studies have suggested that the risk of dropping out increases as students rise up through the high school grades; that is, seniors are more likely to drop out than juniors, juniors are more likely to drop out than sophomores, and so on. But a study of Philadelphia high school students has found just the opposite: that the largest number of high school dropouts there are, by far, ninth graders. What accounts for these contradictory findings? Are Philadelphia students really that different from their peers in other parts of the country?
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
|
