How Do Charter Schools Affect Public Education?

How Do Charter Schools Affect Public Education?

By Jill Jenkins

            According to a September 28, 2014 article, “Charter Schools and the Risk of Increased Segregation” by Iris C. Rotbert of Phi Delta Kappan, “We need only turn to a large body of relevant research showing that charter schools, on average, don’t have an academic advantage over traditional public schools (Gill et al., 2007; Gleason, Clark, Tuttle, & Dwoyer, 2010), but they do have a significant risk of leading to increased segregation (Booker, Zimmer, & Buddin, 2005; Gulosino & d’Entremont, 2011).”  Attending a racially diverse school allows students to interact with all kinds of people. As a result, it reduces hatred and mistrust.  People tend to hate and mistrust what they don’t understand. Besides increasing segregation, charter schools use public funds, but do not have to adhere to the same rules including class size and they do not show a significant improvement in the education provided to students in regular schools while using some of the money that would have been allocated to regular schools.  As a result, it seems the public schools are not necessarily good for our country.

           

         

I decided to review the data from my state, Utah.  Utah is not a very racially diverse state, so perhaps integrating schools is even more important. According to a report entitled, “Utah’s Public Charter Schools 2012-2013 Annual Report”, the average percentage of minorities in across the state that year was 24%, but in Charter Schools it was 21%.  That didn’t seem that big of a difference until I found another report entitled, “Fall Enrollment October 2013”, a report that showed the population composition of each school in the state.  Some of them were listed as charter schools and some that I knew were charter schools were listed within each district, so it was confusing.  What I found was a few charter schools had high percentages of minority students ranging from 98% to 72%, but an extraordinary number of charter schools had between 10% to 12% minority.  The chart below appears in “Utah Public Charter Schools 2012-2013 Annual Report” from the Utah State Department of Education page 21:

The report also illustrate that there has been growth in each of the subgroups in charter school. Although the data shows that there is growth, what it doesn’t show is that growth may only be in a few schools, not across the board.  I have the feeling that the growth is only in isolated schools.

           

        

     Furthermore, I found that in the report “Fall Enrollment October 2013”, the enrollment in these charter schools is considerably smaller than the public schools with the largest charter school being 1,956 K-12 grade students and the largest public school housed only 10-12 grades having 2,507 students.  The smallest charter school has a population of only 3 students enrolled with many charter schools enrollment in the 7-16 student range.  The smallest public schools were in the 200 student range. Since charter schools can control their class size and their enrollment there is a considerable difference between the two types of schools. I believed that charter schools could also select their students meaning they can avoid students who struggle or are disruptive. That wasn’t exactly true according to the report “Utah Public Charter Schools 2012-2013.”  Charter schools must accept all applications as long as there is space available.  They give priority to students living in their area, the children of parents who helped establish the school, or work at the school in a paid or volunteer capacity and the children who have siblings attending the school.  However, when all student slots are filled the remaining students are to be placed on a waiting list.  The school, however, can determine how many student slots exist.  This means they do not have to adhere to the staffing ratios established by the state for regular schools.   They can also select their own policies for dismissing a student.

       
I also believed that charter schools were high performing schools because of their smaller class size; however I was wrong again.  My own grandchildren attend one because their parents wanted a quality education for their children.  Just as guilty, I sent my daughter to private schools and parochial schools to ensure that she got the best education I could afford.  I understand why many people feel that charter schools are the answer.  The truth is according to the state data found in, “Utah’s Public Charter Schools Annual Report 2012-2013.”   First, the test average Criterion Reference Test was almost exactly the same as the average scores of students in regular schools.

Regular schools’ performance on the Direct Writing Assessment exceeded that scores of the charter schools:

            Graduation rates are another area where charter schools fall behind regular schools. In the chart below, from the Utah State Office of Education’s report “Utah’s Public Charter Schools Annual Report 2012-2013,” charter schools’ performance fails to live up to the regular schools’ performance:

      
        

            To be fair the data showed that charter schools exceeded the regular school in the subgroups, but remember they had fewer students who fall into those categories in a high majority of charter schools.  These charts are from the same report and show better performance for students in subgroups in charter schools than in regular schools.

Considering how small the differences in performance in the average charter school to the district school actually are and the ludicrously small number of student from each of these subgroups that charter schools enroll, it seems questionable if they really are a significant improvement in education. Referring back to the report, the conclusion of the state was that although there are a few outstanding charter schools, more of the charter schools received an “F” from the state’s school grading program, “Further, compared to district schools, a higher percentage of charter schools earned an F (8.5% of charters compared to 3.2% of district schools).
 

            In conclusion, the data does not show that charter schools make a significant improvement in education; however, they continue to use the tax dollars that could improve public schools.  They do not serve enough students to make investing in them cost-effective. I think they hurt public schools, not help them, because they use funds that would have been allocated for all students in public education.

             

How Low Will They Go?

How Low Will They Go?

By Jill Jenkins

            Schools are made up of many support people: bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, cafeteria managers, cafeteria helpers, teacher aids and many others.  Most of these positions in the past were modest paying jobs that included benefits like health insurance.  To save money, many districts have made these positions part time relieving themselves of both health insurance expenses and retirement expenses.  The problem some districts are facing is how do districts find enough qualified employees who are willing to work under these conditions?

            Take for example cafeteria workers.  One of my friends manages a high school cafeteria and is responsible for hiring two-hour cafeteria workers.  Not only do these workers earn minimum wage, but need to pay $60.00 to be fingerprinted for a background check and purchase their own uniform.  In exchange, they can work two hours a day, five days a week for nine months out of the year.  At that rate, they will work for free for several weeks to pay for their background check and their uniform.  As a result, it is getting difficult to find employees to fill these openings. 

           

            Bus drivers also are only paid part time, but since they too must pay for a uniform and a background check and keep a Commercial Drivers License current, they have added expenses.  Furthermore, many of them decide to take a more lucrative position with trucking companies or local bus companies.  Some school districts have decided to contract with private bus companies to circumvent  the entire problem, but those drivers are rarely fingerprinted which means they are not meeting state guidelines.  As a result of the shortage of qualified drivers, students are often late to school because the districts have insufficient drivers.

            Custodians are equally as difficult to keep.  Last year, at the school in which I was teaching, the night custodian quit.  Because the district couldn’t find a replacement, for several months, students-sweepers cleaned our room bereft of an adult supervisor.  I bet you can imagine how sparkling clean they were.  Finding good help is difficult when the help is not appropriately compensated for their time.  Still, the program saves the district money.

            Substitute teachers used to be the job for retired teachers trying to augment their retirement, or teachers looking for an opening.  Most districts did not pay substitutes benefits, but a substitute often earned $80.00 to $100.00 a day. If they substituted daily, a substitute could earn from $400 to $500 a week minus taxes.  However, with the new guidelines, if they substitute every day they would be entitled to health insurance and the district doesn’t want to pay health insurance on them, so they can only work two to three days a week.  Retired teachers are not allowed to substitute for the first year of retirement without losing their retirement benefits.  As a result, there is a shortage of substitutes.  This means that teachers who have a consultation periods are used to substitute for the substitute the district could not find and earn an extra $10 or $20.  That should make everyone happy, right?

            Secretaries were the greatest support staff.  Currently there is only one secretary in the school who works full-time.  As a result, some of the paperwork that used to be delegated to the secretarial staff is either being piled on the principal’s secretary or distributed to the teaching staff. Some full time jobs are simply handled by asking the employee to complete the same amount of work in half the time. These employees are stressed and are often deprived of even bathroom breaks to complete the tasks assigned. Other work is reassigned to teachers to complete.  Ever wonder why the teachers’ cars are in the parking lot long before school, long after school and sometimes on weekends?  Somebody’s got to do it.

             Maybe the school districts need to take a lesson from Henry Ford.   According to the Ford Motor Company, “In 1914, Henry Ford started an industrial revolution by more than doubling wages to $5 a day—a move that helped build the U.S. middle class and the modern economy. ”  At that time, these were unheard of salaries, but Henry Ford wanted to create a loyal labor team that he could depend on to meet the demand for the Model T.  He did it.  Perhaps districts could also create a stable work staff if they were willing to offer them full-time pay and benefits.  How low will they go? If the district is so worried about finances, how long you think it will be before they make teachers work part time and lose their benefits?  Better yet, all of students could stay home and take school on their Smart Phones.  I am sure there is an app for that.

Poison Teachers: Do Teachers Bully Students?

Poison Teachers: Do Teachers Bully Students?

By Jill Jenkins 

            Roger Water’s from Pink Floyd’s album, Another Brick In the Wall, “We Don’t Need No Education,”  states:

           
“We don`t need no education,

we don`t need no thought control,

no dark sarcasms in the classrooms.
Refrain:
Teacher, leave them kids alone.
Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it`s just another brick in the wall.

We don´t need no education,
we don`t need no school control,
no dark sarcasms in the classrooms.”

            Poison teachers who use “dark sarcasms in the classroom” and seem to want to humiliate students to feel more powerful create huge problems for students.  These are the teachers who watch for students to cheat so they can pounce on them.  These are the teachers who stand at doorways waiting for the child whose dress is too short so they can sneer at them and haul them down to principal’s office like they have captured the biggest fish in the lake.  These are the teachers who brag in the faculty room about the number of students who have failed their classes.  These are the teachers who make education an uncomfortable and humiliating event in a child’s life and destroy any possibility that this child might even consider to further his education after high school.

            Learning should be a joyful and fulfilling experience to a child.  As teachers, we shouldn’t be trying to control a student’s mind, but enrich it with many opportunities to learn.  I remember once a former student popping his head into my class and saying, “I knew this was your room when I heard the class cheering and clapping.  I don’t think they cheer for assignments in any other room in this school.”  This is the kind of enthusiasm we need to be fostering in our students.  Students need to believe that teachers want them to succeed and will do whatever they need to do to help that child be successful.  If a student believes that every assignment and activity is designed for them to fail so the teacher could taunt them and make them feel incompetent, they are going to stop trying.  Amazingly these poison teachers are still in our schools.  How do we reform them or get them to find another profession?

           

            Take for example a recent homecoming dance.  The school has a dress code for the young ladies that up until this year was never enforced, so students rented prom dresses from a local company that have been acceptable at past dances, but this year, the administration firmly applied the rule and turned away students who did not meet the code.  The girls who were in violation were forced to sit in chairs outside the dance waiting for parents to bring them different attire while all of the other students paraded by to enter the dance.  This was a humiliating event for most of the students.  Certainly schools should be allowed to create dress codes, but if a change is made in how a rule is enforced, perhaps more communication is in order.  The students had already paid for admission and their money was not refunded, nor were they allowed to attend.  What is the purpose of dances, but to create a happy, cooperative environment in the school, but instead they have created a humiliating and negative environment.  In one inner-city school where I taught, a parent asked a teacher at parent-teacher conferences, how they could help their struggling son.  The math teacher replied, "Nothing could help your son except retroactive birth control." The father punched the teacher in the face.   In another school where I taught, another math teacher only allowed his students to ask three questions per class period.  If a student asked to use the restroom or for a pencil, two of the classes three question limit were gone.  I don’t think this teacher was communicating that he wanted his students to succeed. In another school, a boy’s hair was placed in pigtails because the teacher felt his hair was too long.  The parent sued.   Correcting a student in a hallway or privately is less damaging to a student’s self-esteem than making the child a target of others ridicule.  In my daughter’s middle school, girls were not allowed to paint their fingernails.  I allowed my eighth grade daughter to paint her nails on weekends, but she remove the polish before going to school on Monday. On one busy Monday morning, we forgot to remove the nail polish.  My daughter was sent to the principal’s office and carpet cleaner was applied to her nails.  The cleaner was so harsh it inflamed all of her cuticles and took weeks to heal.  She was not only humiliated, but physically in pain.  I was appalled. I know there was a better way to deal with it.  Yes, she violated a rule, but how important was that rule.    This is an extreme case, but when teachers behave like bullies they do extreme psychological damage to students.  Teachers should be behaving like models, not bullies. 

                Maybe we need to hold in-services on what is the purpose of education.  Teaching is a form of coaching.  A coach wants his team to win.  He not only trains them, but builds up their confidence with inspiring speeches.  Teachers should want their students to win.  They need to inspire them as well and instruct them.  I am not saying that school rules should not be enforced, but when a student violates the rule, it is important to explain to the student what he did wrong instead of humiliating him.  It is all in the delivery.  The punishment should match the crime.  We should never do physical of psychological damage to a child.

             Sometimes methods of education that were used by past generations seem innocent, but actually do real damage.  In fifth grade, our teacher put a large tree on the wall.  Each student’s name was placed on a leaf.  When we took a test, she placed our leaf bearing our name on the tree.  Those who earned 100% were at the top of the tree and I remember I was on the ground under the tree with the student in the class who threw his test in the garbage.  It didn’t encourage me to try harder; it made me reluctant to go to school.  Lucky for me, my best friend offered to tutor me and I moved up the tree, but the damage was done.  I hated math after that.  When I taught in a high school, there was a math teacher who arranged her seating chart based on the students’ performance on tests.  The best scores sat in front and the worst scores in the back.  I wonder how many would-be Einstein’s were lost.  

            Students are like fragile egg shells.  The words and attitude of the teacher has a strong influence on students.  Be cautious and courteous.  As teachers we need to be cognizant of how our words and actions affect a students’ attitude toward learning, self-esteem and psychological well-being.  Teachers are more powerful than we believe.  Let’s use that power to build our students, not tear them down.