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NEW DIMENSIONS: THE CHARTER SCHOOL MOVEMENT
Dr. Donna Elam, Associate Director, Southeastern Equity Center
(Federally-funded Program), Miami, Florida
Testimony before the US House of Representatives
October 11, 1999
Introduction
Charter schools have become an accepted part of the panorama of public education in 34 of the 50 states. Charter schools are public schools. They operate under a performance contract. There is some freedom from most rules and regulations. Yet charter schools are held strictly accountable for Academic and Financial Results. Since the 1991 passage of the first state's charter legislation there has been growth in both the number of states with charter legislation as well as charter schools opening in those states.
Statement of Issues
The testimony presented today is a position shared by many in the Charter School Movement and focuses specifically on five dimensions: Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Organization, Diverse Partnerships, Client-Oriented, and Professional Institutions. These dimensions are those of inspired educators, parents and community representatives who want to create a different learning experience for children. First and foremost I must emphatically state that I support and believe in public education. The position that I support is to address the diverse needs of the students who fill the rooms of our schoolhouses to perform their psychologically and academically best. The Charter School experience may offer an alternative vision of schooling that may not be realized in the traditional public school setting.
Discussion of Issues
As an educator of over 20 years, my vision of schooling utilizes a formula of research and best practices combined with consideration of the cultures of the students and their families who attend them. As we aim for educational equity and excellence in our Nation's schools, I see charters as an additional public school choice option to address those diverse needs of the students who may need that alternative to succeed in school.
There are five dimensions demonstrated in charter schools:
1. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment are of paramount importance to charter schools. There is a great opportunity to employ a variety of approaches to curriculum and instruction in a charter program. Many programs are incorporating innovative, hands-on and unconventional approaches to learning. One of the charter programs, Eastside Multicultural Community School, is retraining teachers to understand the learning of children and building in successful educational experiences at all levels (for students, staff and parents) as the foundation of its curriculum and instruction.
A multicultural curriculum that is reflective of the student population it serves is the first step to success. The connection between critical pedagogy and multicultural education is receiving growing attention in the educational literature and is a promising avenue for expanding and informing both these philosophical frameworks. (Gay, 1995; Nieto, 1996; Sleeter and Mclaren, 1996)
Multicultural education has a greater possibility of positively affecting student learning when it is approached through the lens of critical pedagogy (Nieto, 1999). Viewing education this way encourages teachers who are interested to rethink what and how they teach.
It is essential for us to distinguish what we expect children to know and be able to do (standards) from how we will assist them in reaching that knowledge and skill (strategies and techniques). In my experience as a trainer, I see many content-oriented teachers knowledgeable in their field but less proficient in their service delivery to transfer that knowledge to their students. The smaller settings and hunger for an alternative vision to meet the needs of youngsters in charter programs is a perfect training ground for such development. This type of curriculum embraces higher order thinking, multiple perspectives and integrates knowledge, action and caring.
The curriculum at Eastside Multicultural Community School is supported with a Multicultural Exchange Program funded by a school-initiative grant from the State Education Department. The MEP was a proactive strategy to address the desegregation court order of the sponsoring county. This is just another example of the innovation opportunities evidenced in charter programs.
Curriculum and instruction designed with the belief that all students have important talents and strengths are used in the service of their own learning.
Assessment must be the driving force of evaluating what works and what does not. Too often assessment is an afterthought, but charter schools are well aware of the importance of documentation. Baseline data is gathered at the onset of a child's experience in a charter with intervals of follow-up assessment. We are witnessing a number of students received by charters who arrive with reading and computation skills two to three years behind the grade classification. Therefore collecting the baseline assessment becomes paramount to accurately measure a student's actual academic growth in the new setting.
2. Organization
Growing evidence is pointing to the importance of student identification with teachers and schools in promoting learning (Nieto, 1999). Schools are organized differently in charter schools with a more family-like atmosphere. The schools are smaller, classes are smaller, and comradery of teachers and staff responsible for groups of children create a positive school climate for students and their families.
3. Diverse Partnerships
Funding (or the lack of it) creates a need to look into creative and diverse partnerships to the most effective and efficient ways to serve the school. Beginning with the premise that children and their families have important talents that can promote learning has important implications for accommodating school policies and practices to the lives of students. Therefore our primary partner is our parent/guardian/family. In addition, parents, community reps, businesses, universities, retired educators, advocate groups, and cultural organizations have been found to offer tremendous support to charter programs.
4. Client-Oriented
Parents are making choices of where they wish to send their children to school. Charters are developed to focus on the educational needs of children and families they serve through surveys, needs assessments, and focus groups with the clients themselves. Many of the charter school studies report high satisfaction levels from students and their families about the new hope and high expectations they are experiencing.
5. Professional Institutions
Teachers and staff have made a concerted effort to work at a charter school setting. Often the financial benefits are not the same, but the professional satisfaction outranks that. Professional staff development is vital for the new and alternative visions of the charter program to become a substantial reality.
Conclusion
The Charter concept is simple, yet powerful. It begins at a different starting point, a client-oriented base umbrella of public education. Effects on school districts with charter programs as cited in a 1998 report, "How are School Districts Responding to Charter Laws and Charter Schools", include increased public relations and changing educational offerings. Other effects of these schools study, success of making academic gains are summarized in student achievement and other aspects of accountability such as student behavior and attitudes, parental involvement and school climate.
Intensive training and professional development for all stake holders (administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students) is essential in understanding how children learn best.
There are many positive indicators of charter schools. Some of those indicators are named below.
Charter schools
In conclusion, I would like to bring to the attention of policy and decision-makers in education to be aware of some issues confronting charter programs. Those issues involve: some high-minority and ESE Clustering; selective districts' off-loading of difficult students; and the myth of charter school flexibility (Regulatory Re-loading leads to many locally imposed rules being re-burdened back to school).
Educational reform must chart its course in a direction to educate ALL of America's children to high standards and expectations.
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See Also Testimony on Charter Schools and Desegregation in Louisiana:
Charter Schools
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