Vol. 4, No. 29
July 23, 2002

* TESTING: In a time of widespread consensus that students need challenging standards to aspire to, two recent state assessments show the wide disparities in what students are expected to know. In Massachusetts, it was reported last week that of the 32 math questions on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test administered in May, 18 were missed by more than half of the test takers. Conversely, while New Jersey observers have designated that state's new High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) math section as difficult, it actually features many middle school level questions. Despite the New Jersey test's supposed severity, 73 percent of students rated "proficient" in math. In the case of the MCAS, when the test was administered to tenth-graders last year -- the first class needing to pass to graduate -- significant improvement was shown. Despite that, three Massachusetts districts have threatened to refuse to administer the test at all (despite state and federal law requiring it). Of course, the point of testing is to prompt districts to improve the quality of instruction to meet the test's challenges, thus improving learning. With New Jersey and other states now poised to begin designing a new assessment, these are lessons that can be learned none too soon.

* PHILADELPHIA: Hats off to Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Charles Zogby, who last week told the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) that if Philly is to receive state money to save the city's schools, PA taxpayers must get what they're paying for. That means that the 45 schools that, because of their failure rates, have been turned over to a combination of private, non- and for-profit entities for restructuring, should receive the bulk of new monies offered by the state. The SRC instead wanted to spread the money throughout the system, a practice that over the last 20 years has yielded absolutely zero return. Thus Zogby refused to give the SRC any of the $55 million offered by the state unless "sufficient funds have been allocated to these 45 privately managed partnership schools." Unfortunately, new schools CEO Paul Vallas who fought the system in Chicago seems to be siding with the SRC in this battle, which local reformers see as a bad sign in his newly minted leadership. Meanwhile...

* CHARTERS: The SRC seems to once again be demonstrating an inability to cope with innovations like charter schools. Readers might recall that last fall the Commission said it would not review 26 charter school applications, despite the clear mandate of the reform commission to provide additional choices to parents. Then a month ago the applicants were told they would finally be considered, though most chose not to be, given how little time they would have had to prepare for September. Three groups received conditional approval to open. However, they are still facing deadlines -- and more hearings -- before they can open. All three schools -- Maritime Academy Charter School, Green Woods Charter School and First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy -- must again go before the Commission to make a final pitch for approval. These schools will learn on August 7th whether they will be allowed to open, less than one month before traditional schools open on September 5th. When coupled with new information from a study of Pennsylvania Charter Schools that found "typical charter schools out-gained its demographically similar comparison group in all subjects and grades levels," the fact that the SRC remains out of touch with what the ailing system needs becomes all the more clear.

        (For more on the Philadelphia overhaul, see In the News, the June 2002 Monthly Letter, and newswires from July 10, June 25 and June 18, as well as others in the CER Newswire Archives.)

* CHOICE: A long-standing coalition of parents, teachers and legislators is working out plans to file a bill that would extend Maine's limited choice program to more children and schools. Since 1869, the Pine Tree State has permitted children in schools with no area public high school to choose a private school with the district paying for the child's education. Religious schools have been discriminated against in this program since 1981, but with the recent Supreme Court decision affirming the participation of religious schools in choice programs, legislators are taking a look at the options. Given Maine's history with extended choices, the Maine School Choice Coalition may be onto something. For more information contact them at global@gwi.net.

* CHARTERS II: A school district that cares about its students probably wouldn't knowingly put them in asbestos-saturated buildings. It also probably wouldn't want them forced onto the streets. Yet in Washington, DC, those are the two choices the city is offering to charter schools. In the nation's capital there is a major facilities crisis, with numerous schools searching desperately for homes. The city seems to be doing its best to exacerbate that shortage. Consider, for instance, the death trap the city offered to sell to the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a building which according to school founder Joshua Kern suffers from "$3 million worth of asbestos issues, and apart from that . . . will cost us $10 million to renovate." Adding insult to injury, this year the city reduced its per-pupil charter school facilities allocation from $1,422 to $1,237, making it even harder for homeless schools to secure even the dilapidated buildings offered by the District.

        Some charters are pursuing private solutions and increasingly and the city's business community is getting fed up that the district is not doing more to release surplus, healthy buildings. With a mayoral election looming and demands for greater choice emanating from DC's poorer communities, this issue will continue to be an indication of whether or not district officials recognize the importance of parent choices.

* CHARTERS III: The allegedly non-partisan North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research has called for a three-year moratorium on charter school expansion. The request for the moratorium is based on incomplete data: the Center looked at a small number of schools and ignored the long-term benefits that have come out of the charter movement in North Carolina, especially as it relates to the achievement gap and success among minority populations. This reminds us of the release last week of the American Federation of Teachers' report which damns charter schools on several fronts. It found little favor among the media or policymakers, thanks to the efforts of charter leaders nationwide whose close examination of the report found skewed and false conclusions based on erroneous data. A whole host of rebuttals, reviews and analysis of the AFT's attempt to discredit charters can be found here. 

* UNIONS: Getting desperate? The Miami Herald reported Monday that "The United Teachers of Dade wants Miami-Dade County schoolteachers and others who aren't members of the union to pay an 'administrative fee' to help cover the cost of negotiating new contracts that would benefit all district staff." It's not clear whether this is legal, and of course, those who are not even union members would be subsidizing the UTD central office by doing so. "'It's insane,' said one teacher who dropped out of the UFT two years ago." Enough said.

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