Tax Dollar Diversion, Part 2

Let's start with a parable. Say you pay for your child to go on a cruise with over 7000 other kids (it's a really big ship). The deal is that you, the other parents, and your neighbors all take up a collection at intervals to send fuel to the ship to keep it moving. The ship's never in danger of sinking, the kids will never be thrown overboard, and you know they'll get home eventually, probably better for the experience.

Another ship's captain comes along and tells you he's got a nicer, faster ship and will go rescue some of the kids if you give him some of the fuel and pay his other expenses. But he's only got room for about 300 kids, which he insists on choosing himself--he doesn't want discipline problems or sick children or any others that could make his boat look bad. And of the 300 kids he takes, he claims the option to throw any overboard who don't measure up (with a life jacket, of course, so they can swim back to the 1st ship). Would you give him the fuel?

This is sort of how charter schools work. They take a portion of our tax dollars and, even if they turn out to be great schools, they only educate a tiny percentage of our kids--and usually only the ones who perform well academically anyway and aren't discipline problems. And if the kids don't measure up, they send them back to the public school they came from. That way the charter school can keep their rankings up by manipulating their student population. Meantime, the public school rankings drop because they've lost their best students, and the district has less money for the regular schools because of tax money alloted to the charter.

Still, if you're a parent of a smart student, vulnerable to boredom and bullies, I can't blame you for sending your kid to a place like Renaissance Academy in Phoenixville, which has a few hundred Norristown students enrolled. You want to make sure they're prepared for college.

Ditto if you're the parent of a special ed. student (assuming the charter school has a special education program). You want your child to have more attention and not be mainstreamed or bullied.

Humanus already provides staffing for special ed. programs, autism in particular. They say their proposed charter school will have an exceptional special ed. program. However, they can't only offer special ed. because charter schools in PA must be open to all students within a district.

Humanus has said they'd start small, with kindergarten and first grade classes and only about 100 students. Yet, our elementary schools are doing fairly well, as evidenced by our test scores. I question the need for another option for kids that age.

On the information I've received from Humanus, they point out more than once that Renaissance Academy is a long bus ride, which says to me that Humanus is most interested in those higher-achieving students already enrolled in Renaissance than in any of the rest of our 7000 students.

Humanus listed Chester-Upland schools as an example of a district that they say has benefited from charter schools, so I asked a friend of mine who teaches in Chester for her experiences. Ruth Sheets grew up in Norristown, went to Norristown schools, earned a BS in Education and a MS in Gifted Education. She's in her 20th year of teaching in Chester schools. I've seen her in the classroom and she's one of the best teachers I know. I've also taught writing workshops with her students and I found them to be creative and bright, though tremendously burdened with the sorts of attitudes I've seen in N-town. People have been telling them for so long that they're worthless that they believe it.

I'm just going to quote from Ruth's email.

"Charter schools were supposed to be a great thing because they were going to enable new ideas to be tried out quickly so that the ones that worked could be used in regular public schools. This is not what actually happened. The charters in Chester...do nothing different from what we do in the regular public schools. Their teachers do not have to be certified (only 75% do. I don’t know if the schools even have to inform families if their child’s teacher is certified). The turnover rate is high, or has been.... The children’s behavior is no better. The regular public schools here get back a lot of the students from the charter schools and those children are nearly always behind the regular public school kids."

I think teacher certification is very important. I have a BS in Music Ed--which involved loads of pyschology, educational law and theory and teaching methods classes, classroom observation and student teaching at both elementary and secondary levels. A 3rd of the credits of my masters equivalency were courses in music ed. and pedagogy. I substituted for a year in Norristown schools, then taught 2 years full time here. I've taught community college classes, Main Line School Night classes, Elderweek classes, classes in writing at Norristown and Bluebell libraries, and for the last 17 years, I've been in the Young Writers Day program, teaching writing workshops in districts all over the area (in fact, I'm teaching 4th graders in Haverford next week). Am I qualified to teach full-time in the public schools? No. Certified teachers not only have the diplomas, they have full-time classroom experience and continuing education credits that they have to earn every year. So please, don't tell me that ANYBODY can teach. Try it for a semester yourself. You won't survive. In NASD, our teachers have an average of about 10 years experience and are highly qualified. The quality of the education they provide is not the issue.

As for charter cyber schools? Even if I thought a child could get a decent education through a cyber school--and I don't--no student should ever learn in that kind of isolation, even if they have severe disabilities. There's too much social isolation in modern society as it is. Humanus, in their latest communication to me, say they are now NOT considering a cyber school.

As a taxpayer, I'd personally prefer that my money goes to fund our public schools and not be diverted to charters. I don't believe Norristown can afford to fund a charter school. Frankly, I wish there were no charter schools at all, so we wouldn't have to spend dollars on transporting students away from N-town and could use that money here at home. I'd prefer to see any new funding (hopefully we might get some under Governor Wolf's administration) go toward improving the schools we have, particularly towards fighting the stigmas that we have as an economically distressed community, and the poor school environments those stigmas bring.

I'd have no objection if Humanus opened a private school in Norristown. If it turned out to be a good school, I'd support it and recommend it.

Humanus will be giving their proposal to the School Board on Monday. Please express your own opinion, for or against, before then by emailing the Board Secretary at klally@nasd.k12.pa.us or call 610-630-5010.

This Is About Your Tax Dollars-Part 1

Two weeks ago I received an email about a proposal that would change the allotment of tax dollars in our school district. Since then, I've talked to many residents about it--parents, non-parents, my councilwoman--and to educators in other districts where it's been tried before attempting to write this Diary entry. It's a lot of information, so I'm splitting it into 2 days.

A man named Tom Gradowski emailed me that he and his partners were applying to open Humanus Academy Public Charter School in our district. Phase one would be a brick-and-mortar school in Norristown, phase two would be a statewide cyber school. The B&M school would draw students not only from Norristown but from Methacton and Upper Merion. He thought I'd might like to express my thoughts about the venture.

The proposal Mr. Gradowski sent me had some interesting comments, so I asked him a bunch of questions. It said that NASD "has been consistently ranked as one of the lowest performing school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." I knew that wasn't true, but even so, I went to www.paschoolperformance.org to double check. It's fairly easy to find schools ranking lower than Norristown--Chester, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton, and in lots of the smaller districts. Remember yesterday I said N-town High ranked 61.7? Dismal yes, but way better than the ranks in the 30s through 50s of many of the high schools in the districts above. We're nowhere near one of the lowest performing districts.

So I asked him what his source was. He said "PDE data and other sources" and said it was not up to date (which pretty much disqualifies his supposed data right there). He didn't say what years he was talking about (his use of the word "consistently" above would indicate that he thought we were one of the lowest districts for many years running). I could find no evidence of his claim, for any set of years, at all.

The very next sentence read "Unfortunately, NASD has struggled to meet the diverse educational and personal needs of its almost 7,000 students. Of the entire district, approximately 72% of the student population is composed of minority students, and nearly 70% of all students receive free or reduced price lunches." So I had to wonder what exactly he sees as unfortunate--that we struggle or that we have minorities or that some kids get lower-priced lunches (which is not a school district program, but paid for with Federal funds). Frankly, I think Norristown's diversity is an asset and not unfortunate at all. As Gotwals proved this year, poor minority kids are just as capable of learning as anyone else.

I asked if Humanus had any experience running a school, public or private, anywhere else? I'd already found out, and he confirmed that Humanus is a for-profit corporation, incorporated in Wyoming in 2012. Their HQ is in King of Prussia. They provide Special Education staffing for public schools in 14 states, including PA. They've only been in business since 2007, have 50-100 employees, and take in about 5 million in annual revenue. But experience running a school? No. The charter school would be listed as non-profit.

He sent the names and resumes of the team that would run this proposed school. The CEO of Humanus, James Stewart, was listed as have 20 years of executive-level experience in healthcare staffing firms. If you go to http://www.zoominfo.com/p/James-Stewart/1656535318, you can read that most of his jobs before Humanus were as a wellsite geologist and asbestos consultant. The document assured me that Mr. Stewart had "developed a personal interest in the needs of academic institutions and their students." (I have a personal interest in a lot of things--astronomy, for instance, but I don't profess to be qualified to be a rocket scientist.)

Only one member of this team seems to have any educational experience at all--Stacey L. Cruise. She has a Masters in Education Administration and is apparently working toward her doctorate in the same area. She has apparently only been an administrator, and only of charter schools.

I asked what educational experience any of the team had, specifically classroom experience or public school experience.  Mr. Gradowski sent me another name--Darlene Beasley--who he said would be their principal. He said she was a "certified turn-around specialist" and "successful educator" in the Philadelphia schools. Ms. Beasley, I found out, was principal at Barry Elementary. I couldn't find test scores during the years she was there, but their latest ranking is 56.6, with math, reading, science and writing scores all in the 20s. (N-town's lowest elementary ranking is Whitehall at 74.9, whose lowest individual score is reading at 52.3.) Ms. Beasley, as far as I could find, has only been an administrator, never a classroom teacher.

That's enough to digest for today. I have more information, which I'll post tomorrow, along with how charter schools effect districts and insights on how charter schools are working out in other districts..

NASD Schools Pumped Up Their Test Scores

I want to talk about our schools this week, for 3 reasons. One is that the 2013-2014 PSSA test scores were in the news this past week. Another is about the conversations I had about with my neighbors in the 3rd district while working at the polls last Tuesday. The 3rd reason I'll reserve for later in the week.

The Inquirer ran an article last Thursday on the Delaware Valley's test scores and it noted that 2 of our schools, Gotwals and Cole Manor, "showed the biggest increases" (over last year's scores) of any schools in the entire region. So I had to go look for myself.

If you go to www.paschoolperformance.org, you can look up any public school funded by taxpayer money in PA, regular or charter. It not only gives you test scores but all kinds of demographics, if the teachers are certified, what the promotion and attendance rates are, etc.

I checked out all of our elementary schools, plus Renaissance Academy in Phoenixville where a lot of Norristown students go, and PA Virtual Charter School, a cyber school in King of Prussia. All the schools claimed a 95% or higher attendance rate. All the public schools had a 100% promotion rate--the charter schools don't list a promotion rate.

All of our schools showed at least a percentage point or more gain in at least one area, most in all 3--math, reading and science.

Still, you can't simply compare the charter schools and public schools. Gotwals, for instance, has over 500 students, grades K-4. Renaissance has 999, but they're K-12, 8 more grades. PA Virtual Charter says they have over 2700 students, grades K-12, with 96% attendence. I have to wonder how they could prove that. Anyone can sign on to a computer. Doesn't mean you stick around for lessons, which might explain why PA Virtual Charter had the lowest scores of all the schools I looked up today.

Gotwals's teachers are 100% certified and are considered highly qualified. Charter schools aren't required to hire certified teachers. Renaissance does better than most, with 95% certified and highly qualified.

Demographically, Renaissance students are 19% economically-disadvantaged, compared to 96% at Gotwals. The racial makeup at Gotwals is 33% black, 54% Hispanic, 4% white, and 9% other races. Renaissance is 19% black, 3% Hispanic, 63% white, and 14% other. At Gotwals, 18% of the kids are learning English as a second language. At Renaissance, only 1% are ESL.

But let's compare their scores. Gotwals overall ranking was 87.9, with (rounded) scores of 74 in math, 63 in reading and 85 (!) in science. Renaissance's ranking was 92.5, with 88 math, 86 reading, 77 science. PA Virtual's rank was 63; 57 math, 66 reading, 58 science.

STEM seems to be working, because in science, all but 2 of our regular elementary schools out-performed Renaissance (I love to think we have a town full of budding science geeks). Yet all of our schools all seem to have below average reading scores. The higher ESL ratio would account for only a part of that. Perhaps we need more town-wide literacy projects. How about an annual children's book fest? Some reading challenges with great prizes? Create a culture where reading is more socially acceptable--where the library is a place parents take their kids regularly.

One thing Renaissance has that Gotwals doesn't is a dropout rate. This isn't just parents taking their kids out of Renaissance, but the fact that charter schools can kick students out. A charter school is allowed to say who stays and who goes. They can pick the best and brightest students and reject the discipline problems or non-English speakers or kids with learning disabilities. Basically, they can manipulate their school population until they're assured of producing good test scores, rejecting any students who'll bring their scores down. I'm not saying Renaissance does this, but other charters do. There are no laws in PA saying they can't.

I have to say, though, I think Gotwals and Cole Manor did a phenomenal job in the 2013-14 school year. And our science scores in most of the rest of the district were awesome. Now, let's work on reading.

More on schools later this week.