AM News: Budget Cuts Threaten Philly Schools

Budget Woes Could Close Philly's Problem Schools NPR: Philadelphia's school district plans to close a quarter of its school buildings in coming years to eliminate a huge budget hole. But parents and activists don't trust the decision-makers. Many of them suspect the plan is a ruse to force charter schools and privatization on the district.

Students at charter-run Locke do better than nearby peers Los Angeles Times: Locke students were more likely to graduate and to have taken courses needed for a state college, a study says. Still, overall achievement remains low.

1 in 3 autistic young adults lack jobs, education AP via Boston.com: One in 3 young adults with autism have no paid job experience, college or technical schooling nearly seven years after high school graduation, a study finds. That's a poorer showing than those with other disabilities including those who are mentally disabled, the researchers said.

Student surveys for children as young as 5 years old may help rate teachers Washington Post: Kindergartners in Georgia — many of whom don’t yet read — could soon play an important role in deciding which teachers get raises or get fired. Under a new pilot program, 5-year-olds will be guided through a survey that includes such statements as “My teacher knows a lot about what he or she teaches” and “My teacher gives me help when I need it.” As the youngsters circle a smiley face, a neutral face or a frowning face, they will be playing their part in new high-stakes teacher evaluations.

D.C. may give neighborhood families preference in charter school admissions Washington Post: District officials are seriously considering changes in the law that would make at least some public charter schools, currently open to all students citywide, more accessible to families in surrounding neighborhoods.

Scoring of State Math and Reading Tests Is Almost Complete NYT: More than 5,000 New York City teachers have been assigned to score the state math and reading exams. The work happens at several sites around the city during the school day, which means students are without their regular classroom teachers for several days at a time.

Comments

[Bruce]

Pretty damned disappointing numbers coming out of Locke. Yes, the numbers are up, but the average kid enrolling there still ends up a dropout, whether via LAUSD or via Green Dot. Nonetheless, better numbers will come out after this year, since most of the students who graduated in 2011 had to spend their ninth-grade year in the disastrous last, transition year under LAUSD (2007-8), which got those kids off to the worst possible start in high school and meant that many had either dropped out or were on their way to doing so before Green Dot ever got onto the campus. Nonetheless, starting with this year's graduating (next month) class, there will be no more excuses: those students will have spent their entire high school careers under Green Dot, without having ever experienced the LAUSD Locke.

[CarolineSF]

But what is the pushout/admission situation at Locke? As someone who has watched the charter sector closely for many, many years, I know that the norm is admissions hurdles and pushouts that mean the charter admits the more motivated and high-functioning from the community it serves, and only keeps the more successful of those.

I know that the charterized Locke schools committed to serve the neighborhood. Is admission by default? And are there any requirements in the enrollment process that have to be met, and that would weed out the non-compliant? And what would an impartial observer with enough access to see if there were pushouts find?

One thing about pushouts -- charter defenders regularly say that public schools do that too. But if a public school pushes out a challenging student, that student is still the responsibility of the school district (meaning that the site administrator's superiors are taking note). And the school that receives the pushed-out student is headed by a colleague of the site admin of the school that did the pushing out. If a charter pushes out a student, the charter never has to give the student a thought ever again, and the pushout would likely please the site admin's superiors rather than causing them a headache. So what would be deterring Locke from engaging in the usual charter pushout practices? These Qs are for both Bruce and Alexander as I know they have good information.

[Bruce]

Caroline, to the best of my knowledge there is no pushout situation at Locke. You can read the original study here: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/promising-academic-trends-at-new-233970.aspx

Locke students are admitted to the current school(s) just as they were under LAUSD: if you live within the boundaries you have a right to go there, and they recruit everyone (in part because attendance means income). There are no special requirements; everyone is welcome. The UCLA study team was impartial and had access to all of the relevant information; Green Dot's incentives were definitely aligned to cooperate with the outside observers, since both are funded by the Gates Foundation, and Green Dot needs to please the Gates people to win more money (which they have since succeeded in doing).

[Sarah]

Part of the problem with autism is that it can be frequently misdiagnosed as a behavioral disorder, and a lot of people don’t receive the help they need growing up as a result. It doesn’t help that, unlike other disorders, autism never really became big in the mainstream media, past its use as a word. Few actually understand what it is, let alone feel compassion or a desire to help those afflicted.

[Sarah]

And school ratings for kindergarteners? I don’t think students that young can judge a teacher past his/her overall personality. It being, typically, the first teacher one has, how do they expect to get valid feedback out of such surveys?

[CarolineSF]

But Bruce, is Locke enrollment the DEFAULT, with no action needed by the student/family? If not, what is the default assignment if the student/family don't make any effort to enroll in a school?