It is ironic that the charter school lobby, which has been strengthened and supported by Arne Duncan and Gates and the rest of the corporate reformers, is resisting the sort of reductionist teacher evaluation system that was required for states to compete for federal Race to the Top funds, at the very same time that RTTT led to an increase in the numbers of charters.
Thus, charters could grow to significant part of the overall school system but remain exempt from the damaging prescriptions that the corp reformers want to impose on our public schools, and their teachers, no matter how “ineffective”, could continue teaching in charters indefinitely.
Here, the NY charter school community joins the growing pushback vs. the rush to adopt deficient teacher evaluation systems being pushed by the US DOE and Gates Foundation, joining the NY state teachers union, hundreds of Long Island principals, and the educators of Tennessee.
Meanwhile, the California State Education Department has estimated that adopting a new teacher evaluation system, along with the Common Core standards, would cost the state $3.1 billion; funds it clearly doesn't have, as school budgets have been scraped to the bone.
I believe charters also consider themselves free from having to adopt the Common Core standards, developed by the Gates Foundation and promoted by Race to the Top. I guess what’s good for the goose is NOT good for the gander.
2 comments:
This is completely silly: Charter schools are exempt from using the state's teacher evaluation system; that doesn't mean they oppose it. Also, charter schools have always been required to meet state standards, which will be Common Core, and administer state tests, which will be aligned to Common Core. Thus, they'll be held accountable, just like all other public schools, for helping their students achieve the Common Core standards.
If charter schools really wanted to help the community they would take in more English language learners,not hold lotteries for children of the more aware parents only,not take up needed space from neighborhood public schools,take in special education students and most importantly not be allowed to eliminate students who they feel will lower their test scores or will cause disruptions in class. Whether they hold their teachers accountable to their student test scores is meaningless because of the huge teacher turnover many of the charters experience.
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