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The San Diego Monitor
Charter Schools vs. Public Schools Did you know that charter schools are actually public schools? Traditional public schools and charter schools have some major differences, but both are more bound to state laws and regulations than private schools. So, what exactly are the differences between the two? In a Nutshell: Charter schools are public schools that are independent of school districts through contracts with state or local boards.
The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for greater accountability. As public schools, charter schools are open to all children, do not require entrance exams, cannot charge tuition, and must participate in state testing and federal accountability programs. The schools draw up their own “charter� which is a set of rules and performance standards that they are held accountable to. WATCH NOW
The San Diego Monitor
Pot Meet Kettle By Kamaal MartinSpecial to California Black Media Partners
While testifying before the latest Senate Education Committee in favor of Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell’s (D – Long Beach) anticharter school measure AB 1505, San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten said, without irony, that children in a low performing charter school in her district lost five years of their lives before the school was closed. She said, “they don’t get those years back.” Referencing Marten’s comments, Senator Steve Glazier (D- Lafayette) remarked at the stunning lack of concern for the students languishing in the state’s 781 failing schools. Unlike with charter schools, a failing district school stays open. The system of accountability for student achievement for charter schools stands in stark contrast to the standard to which district schools are held. District schools are allowed to fail for generations without consequence. What about the students that have fallen through the cracks of that broken system? Typically, the state’s response to a failing district school is to give it more money and more time in exchange for the promise of incremental change. Even this weak commitment to incremental change is a promise that is rarely ever kept to students attending a failing district school. San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten should be very well aware of this situation because 14 schools in her district are on the list of California’s lowest performers. Some of those schools are located South of the 8 where San Diego’s low income, minority neighborhoods are found.
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Lincoln High – not even one of the 14 worst schools– is another example of a school in San Diego Unified that keeps grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. A recent story in the Voice of San Diego reported that at the end of the school year, Marten fired the entire school administration at Lincoln High in response to low performance. With that action, Lincoln has lost its fifth leader in 12 years. Lincoln High has been a failing school since it opened in 2007 with dropout rates at more than three times the district average. Martin has been trying to figure out how to fix the turbulence at Lincoln to no avail for all six years since she’s been superintendent. That’s one more year than she gave the charter school she complained about. When it comes to students in Lincoln High, Porter Elementary and Knox Middle, should we not be equally concerned about the “years those kids don’t get back” to use Superintendent Marten’s turn of phrase? If my grandmother could hear Cindy Marten decry low performance in charter schools while allowing it to continue in her own district-run schools she would say, “ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black.” NEXT PAGE
Lincoln High – not even one of the 14 worst schools– is another example of a school in San Diego Unified that keeps grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons.
4 What we need is a system that values the time of all students in our public schools, charter and district alike. We should act with a sense of urgency to fix a broken system and continue to give parents the choice of what public school they think is the best fit for their child. That’s what charter schools do. Moreover, district-run schools should be thoroughly examined in a local public hearing every five years just like a charter school. If a district-run school is failing to meet its mission to educate kids, then it should be closed, just like a charter school. School districts should become more like charters schools, not the other way around. Union backed AB 1505 would change the law to give school districts free rein to close down charter schools to prevent parents from having a choice to leave district schools, even troubled ones like Lincoln High, Porter Elementary and Knox Middle. Superintendents like Cindy Marten want to keep the money these students bring to the district. School districts should focus on fixing their own failing schools, instead of inventing ways to shut down charter schools. The best way to keep parents coming to your schools is to serve their children well. Kamaal Martin is a parent of two children in the San Diego Unified School District and is the political action chair at the NAACP of San Diego. Sent from my iPhone
The San Diego Monitor
In Year 2020 Best Charter Elementary Schools Forecast in the San Diego Area The 2020 Best Charter Elementary Schools ranking is based on rigorous analysis of key statistics and millions of reviews from students and parents using data from the U.S. Department of Education.
The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS Must READ Roy Landers is a practicing attorney and founder of the Landers Law Group, PC. He has practiced law for over 30 years and his practice emphasis has been in the areas of business law, taxation, acting as Corporate General Counsel for small to medium size businesses, negotiation, mediation and arbitration of disputes, contract negotiations, bargaining issues between employers and unions and litigating employment law issues. He served as a Judge Pro Tem within the California Judicial system for several years and heard and ruled on numerous cases on a variety of issues such as real estate, landlord/tenant disputes, contract disputes, construction matters, and numerous other civil matters. His current concentration is business development and marketing strategies to obtain maximum results for small business operators and providing copywriting services for content creation. In addition, he counsels and assists veterans to obtain benefits for serviceconnected disabilities. He also counsels and assists veteran business owners in setting up businesses and negotiating for contracts. As a disabled U.S. Navy veteran, he is very sensitive to the needs of veterans. He also serves as General Counsel for a non-profit nationwide small business support organization (The Council for Supplier Diversity) which has an emphasis on serving veteran entrepreneurs and women and ethnic minority business owners. The Council for Supplier Diversity acts as a liaison between the corporate community and diverse suppliers. Its purpose is to facilitate business opportunities and market share growth for minority, woman and service-disabled businesses through interaction with corporate members who support such efforts. One of Roy’s passions is helping youth, especially disadvantaged youth, to learn how to create a business for themselves and be successful at it. He is actively involved in the Council for Supplier Diversity’s Youth Entrepreneur Academy where he teaches business entity structure, financial literacy, taxation, and business legal compliance.
Roy focuses on helping others to better themselves and he strives to assist in self-development, acquisition of leadership skills and empowerment of others. He has a seminar series that he speaks and teaches on including but not limited to: •
Power, Passion, and Prosperity
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How To Negotiate And Get What You Want
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The Art of Influence and The Magic of Rapport
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How To Overcome Any Fear Or Phobia
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The Power of Mindset
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Black Students in Charter Schools Are More Likely to Have Black Teachers Black students in charter schools are more likely to have black teachers than their peers in traditional public schools, which can lead to academic gains in math, a new study shows. The study published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank that also authorizes charter schools in Ohio, examined data from grades 3 to 5 in North Carolina's traditional and charter public schools, from 2006-07 through 2012-13. The findings show that traditional public schools and charter schools serve the same proportion of black students, but charter schools have about 35 percent more black teachers. Black students in charter schools are more than 50 percent more likely to have at least one black teacher than their counterparts in traditional public schools, while white students are equally likely to have at least white teacher in both types of schools. A growing body of research has found that black students benefit from having
The San Diego Monitor black teachers, both academically and socially. Black elementary students performed better in math and reading when they had a teacher who was the same race as them, according to one recent study. Another set of studies found that black students are more likely to both graduate from high school and enroll in college when they have just one black teacher in elementary school. And black students are more likely to be placed in gifted education programs if they have a black teacher, and less likely to receive suspensions, expulsions, or detentions from black teachers. Research has found that black teachers have higher expectations for black students—and white teachers' lower expectations for black students can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Teacher diversity in charter schools is an "important but previously unexamined piece of the puzzle," said Seth Gershenson, the study's author and an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. This study found that overall, same-race teachers boost math performance by almost 2 percent of a test-score standard deviation, which is strongly statistically significant. It's about the same as a marked improvement—13 percent of a standard deviation—in teacher quality. READ MORE WWW.SDMONITORNEWS.COM
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The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS WATCH OF THE WEEK Brown v. Board of Education in PBS' The Supreme
WWW.SDMONITORNEWS.COM