Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees: Will one of these two quarterbacks end up as MVP of Super Bowl XLIV? Entirely possible. So is eliminating the achievement gap while increasing graduation rates for students in Santa Clara County. And the odds just got significantly better for all children in our public schools.
Last Saturday, the Santa Clara County Office of Education hosted Charter School Summit I. The purpose was to share information from the charter school perch to the traditional public school one. We hoped by convening a group of interested educators and leaders we would exchange valuable information about strategies, beliefs, attitudes, and practices that are increasing student achievement. One of our many goals was to increase collaboration and reduce the friction that has existed for far too long between charter and traditional public. Most, if not all, of our goals were accomplished.
The Summit keynoter, Russlyn H. Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights of the U.S. Department of Education, challenged us to raise the bar for all children. She urged charter school authorizers to close down underperforming charters while increasing quality charters. She asserted that the number one civil rights issue of today is to ensure a high quality public education for all students and to eliminate the achievement gap that critically damages the fabric of our democracy. Ali said that the movement today does not resemble the civil rights struggles of over 40 years ago and the leaders look much different.
I was struck by her eloquence and her poignant challenge. I looked around the room as she softly spoke and became convinced that the true leaders of the new civil rights movement were the over 200 Summit participants. These educators, leaders, and community members want so desperately to see ALL students perform their reading and math skills proficiently in every grade, in every school and in every zip code. It can be done.
Early on in our Summit planning process the task force thought a video demonstrating the very best practices that are currently being implemented in charter and traditional public schools would be worth oodles more than a thousand words. In the afternoon session I introduced this extraordinary video showing charter and traditional public schools raising the bar for all while closing the achievement gap today.
Two school examples are Bracher Elementary in Santa Clara Unified and Rocketship Mateo Sheedy both high Latino and free lunch enrollment, where the API is 861 and 926, respectively. This week the SCCOE.org website will have a link to the video of all 12 schools selected who are doing exemplary instructional work. I urge you to watch the video and comment about what you see.
Frances Teso, principal of Voices College-Bound Language Academy Charter School in the Franklin-McKinley School District said on the video, “It can be done. I think the time for excuses is over, that we know that it’s more challenging to teach kids who don’t know English, to teach kids that come from low SES, etcetera, there is a million things we can list, however, it can be done. So, I think that we all need to as a bigger professional learning community—learn from each other—because the question is no longer what should we do—but are we willing to do it?”
I want to personally thank all the task force members for their incredible work over the last six months in planning and executing this event. Super Bowl XLIV is Sunday, but Summit I last Saturday will have more impact locally to improve educational outcomes. BTW- I think Manning will be the MVP. The MVP of Summit I might have been Dr. John Deasy with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More on John next week…
I attended the Charter Summit, and want to thank Joe, and the rest of the task force, for an excellent and thoughtful event.
One point struck me as I listened to the panels and attended the workshops: this is not a discussion about charter vs traditional schools. This is a discussion about autonomy. How can we move decisions closer to the real action? Manny Barbara put it best, when he indicated that in Oak Grove School District, they have been encouraging alternate approaches to education, in effect, handing control to parents rather than keeping control in the district.
There is no doubt that the schools that Joe highlights above are achieving high test scores, but in all cases, they have the benefit of very strong local leadership, and little to no interference from outside the community. However, we all know that everyone has an opinion for how to “fix education” and as a result, schools often have prescriptive solutions forced upon them, and little flexibility to deliver what’s best for their community. Federal and state government and even districts all define prescriptive approaches that don’t necessarily work for all communities/students. Charters are one way of providing autonomy from this overhead, but they aren’t the only way, and may not automatically be the best way.
Let’s move the discussion from traditional vs charter schools to “What’s the best way to move decisions closer to the students?”
They never learn.
They never learn that whatever learning takes place at the hands of the public educrat establishment, takes place IN SPITE of the educrats and not BECAUSE of them.
The only thing that seems to be missing from this self-congratulating “Summit” is the stern, omniscient hand of some educrat Czar.
Oh, wait.
“The Summit keynoter, Russlyn H. Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights of the U.S. Department of Education, challenged us to raise the bar for all children.”
Halleleuia! An authentic Obama Education Czar straight from the Washinton, D.C. mountain top!
Education is saved!!
I try to be cynical about the antics of the educrat learning prevention conspiracy, but as Lily Tomlin has said, “it’s hard to keep up.”
Wow! You ARE old!
Did they tell you in public school that there is an expiration date on wisdom?
DiSalvo: “…eliminating the achievement gap while increasing graduation rates for students in Santa Clara County” is entirely possible.
Ethnic Gaps
Ending all achievement gaps requires an examination of all the ethnicity-based gaps, and the varied applicable solutions. One size does not fit all needs.
For example, the gap between Asian Americans and white Americans is 16% points. The gap between Asian Americans and African Americans is 40% points.
The gap between Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans is 44% points. The county office of education suppresses knowledge about the gap between Asian Americans and Native Americans.
Gender Gap
Why the strange silence about the gender gap in our county’s schools? The county office of education suppresses knowledge about the gap between girls and boys.
For a quick, anecdotal look at some experiences with the achievement gap between young girls and young boys, go here:
http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2010/02/boys-and-school/
“Most, if not all, of our goals were accomplished”, really? then why is that a County sponsored charter school (Bullis Charter School) decided last week to sue the Los Altos School District for now the fith times.
Hope…
The conversations and collaborations that began on Saturday are hoped to prevent future strife with Charters and regular districts. Only time will tell. Saturday was a beginning…the road is now paved.
Joseph Di Salvo
Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District have now spent millions suing each other.
The County was the authorizer of Bullis Charter School and its subsequent preference attendance areas.
As such, you should really view your responsibilities to more than just facilitating a dialogue.
John Fensterwald in his blog titled theeducatedguess.org has written two informative articles about our Summit last Saturday. Each one is worth the read if you are interested in the topic.
It’s pretty clear that there is a lot of disappointment and lack of confidence in the public education system.
It’s not just on this forum, but one can see signs of conflict, disputes, bitter election campaigns, lawsuits, cynicism, etc. just about everywhere.
I wonder if Mr. Di Salvo or any of the educators who regularly post here can offer their insights as to what are the reasons underlying the dissatisfaction with the schools system.
Is the public education model fundamentally flawed?