Vol. 4, No. 31
August 6, 2002

CHOICE: Reform in Florida has suffered a blow at the hands of Leon County Circuit Court Judge J. Kevin Davey, who found the Florida Opportunity Scholarship Program has been operating in violation of the state constitution. Governor Jeb Bush, on behalf of the state, has vowed to appeal the ruling against the program that gives students in chronically failing schools the option to attend the public, private or parochial school of their choice. Nearly 50 students in two Escambia County schools currently use Opportunity Scholarships at private schools. In June, with the annual release of school grades, some 9,000 students in 10 schools became eligible for the scholarships, and about 600 students have already indicated they'd be pursuing a choice. (Link to Special Update on school choice polls.) Like a similar court ruling in Ohio two years, ago, the timing couldn't have been worse for families as school is scheduled to begin next week. It is uncertain whether or not students using the scholarship will be able to continue in their schools while the battle continues to be waged in the courts. Many of the questions raised in this case were settled in the Supreme Court's ruling last month, which found Cleveland's scholarship program constitutional. CER addressed the issue of state support of religious institutions in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court -- click here to view the brief (.pdf format). Click here to read more about the Ohio case.

ACHIEVEMENT: In another sign that the tide is turning in favor of results, the Department of Education is revamping the Blue Ribbon Schools program. Under the old program, schools were evaluated on subjective measures such as "school organization and structure," the vitality of a school's "professional community" and "school, family, and community partnerships." Buried deep in the process, evaluators took a glance at "indicators of success." Interestingly, under the No Child Left Behind Act, which forces schools to be measured on students' actual academic progress, suddenly, several schools wearing big blue ribbons on their chests were designated as "failing." The contradictions of this situation were not lost on Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who announced last week that the Blue Ribbon Schools program will be revamped to "reward schools based on achievement results, not process." This kind of common-sense assessment is a welcome step forward, but it is ironic that for so many years, the feds allowed schools to be rewarded by process and not results. CER's Parent Power did a piece on Blue Ribbon Schools in February 2000. To read it, click here.

CHARTERS: Last week the Texas Education Agency released its 2002 Charter School Accountability Ratings. Fifteen charter schools received exemplary ratings and another nine were recognized for their outstanding performance on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). As is typical, the curricula and focus of these schools range from schools such as Alief Montessori Community School to the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, from KIPP Academy to Escuela de las Americas, and from Seashore Learning Center to YES College Preparatory School. Slightly over 15 percent of charter schools received a low performing ranking and must make improvements to remain open.

CLASS SIZE: The People for the American Way, a frequent opponent in both school choice and charter school initiatives, is jumping head first into even more education issues (begging the question, don't they have anything else to do???). Last week this group announced they would put an initiative on the Florida ballot for November's elections asking for approval of a measure that required mandatory class size reduction in schools. With claims of "solid evidence" and citing the track records of class size reduction efforts in states such as Tennessee and California, one need only look a little deeper at the claims of what would be good for Florida. Evidence is beginning to show that Californians are increasingly disillusioned with the class size-reduction efforts that were enacted for the entire state a few years ago. It seems that the only benefits seem to be to the unions, whose membership increases as schools are forced to hire new teachers. Problem is, there's a quality shortage, so teachers are hired without regard to quality. (See TEACHERS below.) You could have a class of ten children but if the teacher isn't qualified, or the curriculum is poor and there are additional problems, class size does nothing to spur achievement. Some districts are even getting discouraged. California's Irvine Unified School District abandoned its plan for grades K, 2 and 3 - keeping only the program in the first-grade. CER explored this issue in depth in a paper and offered that the size that really matters is school size. Small schools have been found to produce greater feelings of "connectedness" among their students that resulted in a decrease in risky behavior and improved academic performance. Go to "Sizing Up What Matters: The Importance of Small Schools".

TEACHERS: It seems California's ponderous teacher certification requirements have led to a shortage of certified teachers. Because California requires teachers to have not only a bachelor's degree in their subject and pass state competency exams, they must take a laundry list of education classes, and complete supervised teaching in order to receive full certification. So, as federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) imposes the requirement that all teachers in low income schools be qualified to teach, as defined in numerous ways by the feds, California is feeling the pinch of not having enough and thus tried to say it complied with the law by including in their numbers numerous emergency teachers and interns. The U.S. Department of Education, knowing a dodge when it sees it, told California it must comply with the law. The fact is, California brought its problems on itself. "A credential does not equal good teaching," Nancy Ichinaga, a state education board member, told the L.A. Times, "Credentials just mean they have a piece of paper that meets certain regulations and requirements, which may have nothing to do with teaching." With 5.4 billion dollars at stake, maybe the state that usually leads the nation will enact policies that get to the heart of the teacher shortage: a profession that treats all players largely equally no matter what their performance or responsibility levels. This is yet another argument for charter schools, which already must perform to stay in business and attract quality individuals to teaching.

CHARTERS II: The Illinois State Board of Education revoked one of that state's most successful public schools, the Governors State University Charter School. Academically, the school ranks among the top charters in the state and outperforms the district in test score averages. The school has proved popular with parents and the community and boasts a waiting list for students. This marks the first time that the State has closed a charter school. While two schools have been closed in Chicago for mismanagement, this case of a local board and then the State board's ratification of a closing seem political in nature only. While groups like the AFT build up charter closings, it is often the case that they are done without just cause. In this case, the local and state bureaucracies have left parents scrambling to find a place for their child with less than three weeks before school starts. Local school boards (the sole charter authorizer in Illinois) have denied about three-fourths of the 100 charter proposals that have come before them. Imagine if the tables were turned what the outcry would be.

GET THE FACTS! Speaking of charters, since AFT president Sandy Feldman's monthly paid advertisement in selected national newspapers boasts of a union study that finds trouble with charters, we wanted to remind you to look into the real facts which were analyzed and provided in a report issued on July 16th by several leading national education groups. Click here for more on how charters really perform and reasons why to beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

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