Daniel Lautzenheiser at Ed Week describes what happened when two schools shared the same building in Harlem:
If there's ever a tangible physical reminder about the differences in education quality in a particular locale, it is found on the floors of a school building on West 134th Street in Harlem. Literally on the floors. There, a line of tape runs down the hallways. On one side is Democracy Prep Charter School, which in 2010 was the best middle school in New York City. On the other side, until recently, was the Academy of Collaborative Education (ACE), which that year happened to be the worst middle school.
The student population was identical -- about 100 to 125 6th graders. The schools even opened in the same year -- 2006. The only difference were the adults in the building and how they decided to educate the children entrusted to them.
From day one, the two middle schools moved in literally opposite directions in terms of student performance (as measured by the DOE chancellor's annual Progress Report) and parent and student satisfaction (as measured by NYC School Surveys). A short three years in, in 2009, ACE received a "D" score on the chancellor's Progress Report and was ranked the worst middle school in central Harlem, while Democracy Prep received an "A" and was ranked the best.
The charts below from the chancellor's Progress Reports and School Surveys succinctly show these trends.
Chancellor's Progress Reports:
*In 2010-2011, ACE's enrollment dropped to 129 while Democracy Prep Charter increased to 340
ACE Democracy Prep Score Letter Enrollment Score Letter Enrollment 2007-2008 43.4 C 221 91.7 A 197 2008-2009 35.7 D 254 99.8 A 325 2009-2010 13.7 F 194 100 A 326
2009 School Survey of Parents, Teachers, and Students:
ACE Democracy Prep Academic Expectations 4.9 8.9 Communications 4.1 8.2 Engagement 3.8 8.4 Safety and Respect 4.4 8.8
The NYC Department of Education shut ACE down after four years of failing students. Democracy Prep took over the rest of space, though one can reasonably assume that the reason DP's enrollment was rising in the years before that was because ACE's student could look down the hall and see what school should be like.
The fact that DP is a charter school matters, but only in the sense that DP had been allowed to hire great administrators and teachers and develop them into a high-performing school. The charter label didn't give them any advantage -- just an opportunity to demonstrate that a ZIP code shouldn't also be academic destiny.
This goes back to the idea that we should find where the high-performers are -- district or charter -- and expand what's working. And if someone's not getting the job done -- flagrantly, repeatedly -- then reallocate those public dollars towards an organization that is.
In NYC and several other big cities, the NYT says parents seem to be voting with their feet.
The rise of charter schools has accelerated some enrollment declines. The number of students fell about 5 percent in traditional public school districts between 2005 and 2010; by comparison, the number of students in all-charter districts soared by close to 60 percent, according to the Department of Education data. Thousands of students have moved into charter schools in districts with both traditional public and charter schools.
Although the total number of students in charter schools is just 5 percent of all public school children, it has had a striking effect in some cities. In Columbus, Ohio, for example, enrollment in city schools declined by more than 10 percent — or about 6,150 students — between 2005 and 2010, even as charter schools gained close to 9,000 students.
The only thing that bothers me is treating charter schools as if they weren't also public schools. They are. In Tennessee, charter schools must offer open enrollment, follow all special education regulations, and all of the other laws that keep our public schools, well, public.
A better way to frame it is that parents are seeking better options within their public system. In Nashville, charter and district-run schools' enrollment are counted together -- which makes sense! -- and what do we see? Metro's enrollment is rising this year to more than 80,000.
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