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Comparing charter schools and public schools
Comparing charter schools and public schools
Comparing charter schools and public schools
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The purpose of this case study is to discuss Sehba Ali, superintendent of KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Houston Public Schools, ability to change the public’s outlook on the KIPP program (Roberts, 2015). Although, KIPP Houston is “a network of charter schools located in Houston, Texas…Charter schools are public, taxpayer funded, and open to all students; however, they operate independently” (Roberts, 2015, p. 232). Additionally, KIPP schools stand by the following five principles: high expectations, choice and commitment, more time, power to lead, and focus on results (Roberts, 2015). Furthermore, KIPP schools are created to assist underprivileged students, living in low-income communities; which ultimately allows each student to receive a quality education (Roberts, 2015).
Moreover, KIPP schools have created a lottery due to the number of prospective students to teacher ratios (Roberts, 2015). Furthermore, students that are not selected through the lottery are placed on a waiting list that currently spans over 8,000 students (Roberts, 2015). Unfortunately, KIPP schools have experienced severe restraints due to government regulations around Texas charter schools. Fortunately, the teachers are not required to “obtain certifications, enter into a written
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Moreover, once the State Board of Education determines the curriculum, the schools are then required by law to teach the selected curriculum. Furthermore, KIPP schools have succeeded in the market by keeping a 90% success rate. Due to KIPP’s success, other schools have attempted to duplicate their efforts; one program in particular is called Apollo 20 (Roberts, 2015). Additionally, another competitor of KIPP, YES Prep has a consistent exemplary rating and currently utilizes “a common framework for evaluating, promoting, and compensating teachers” (Roberts, 2015, p.
The city of Denver and the challenges confronting its elected leaders, are no different than any other large city, one of the most problematic of which, includes enhancing the quality of public schools for ethnic minority students from lower socio-economic neighborhoods. Katherine Boo’s, “Expectations”, provides a narrative centered on Superintendent Michael Bennett and the implementation of his ambitious strategy to raise high school graduation standards throughout the Denver public school system. Bennett’s plan to achieve this lofty goal illustrates the “four tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform: liberation management by allowing students from underperforming schools to attend any high quality public school of their choice; (2) a war on waste through the closure of Manual High School; (3) a watchful eye with computer tracking to ensure student accountability; and (4) scientific management with increased and meticulous academic standards.
Goldstein argues a problem with education policy is, “American policy makers require every public school to use the same strategy…” (261) When facing the problem of inequality in education a teacher needs to be fluid with his or her curriculum. In fact, one of the best ways to allow for fluidity is through peer-to-peer help. Goldstein states, “(teaching hospital model) allows best practices tailored to a specific school to be passed from professional to professional.” (255) Peer-to-peer help not only does this allow for constructive feedback, but also it allows teachers to learn from one another. While policy makers might not know a schools demographics and unique situation teachers in the school will. Thus, teachers can help one another on their unique problem through a collaborative process. Peer to peer help allows for the design of, “creative curriculum materials and to lead school turnaround efforts.” (232) The problems associated with inequality can be thought out and explored through teachers working
In his book Improbable Scholars, David Kirp examines the steps communities take to make successful education reforms. While describing the particular education initiatives of Union City, New Jersey, Kirp suggests that “[if] we want to improve education, we must first have a vision of what good education is,” (2015). Kirp’s descriptions of Union City certainly support that point, but it’s difficult to claim that that point is generalizable if we do not examine other education initiatives and their approach to reform. In examining how visions of “good education” can guide successful education reforms, one can point to Black communities in Mississippi—whose radical vision of “good education” guided the creation of schools, curricula, and community
The Chicago Public School District is the third largest school district in the United States educating around 400,000 students. Back in 1987 CPS was named “the worst in the nation”(). Moving its way up to the top, since then, CPS had completely rebuilt its structure, appointing leaders and reformed ideas. Now, with a deficit projected to be around $1 billion CPS is headed back in a downwards path, money being the biggest issue. The United States Federal Government already has financial issues of its own, which makes dealing with a CPS budget a problem within a problem. CPS, with a $6.6 billion FY2013 budget, is now taking a new strategy based upon a flawed “Student-Based Budgeting System”. The Board of Education is also struggling to solve the debt they have reached, and with their FY2014 plans this year’s budget book is argued to be “one of the most poorly written budgets”(). The way CPS is handling their budget is not benefiting the lives and education of students and is leaving CPS at a loss with giant financial issues.
Thomas Jefferson was a man who believed that all American citizens need to be educated so that they may exercise their rights. He saw public education as essential to a democracy. One proposal he made for public education would guarantee that all children could attend public schools for three years. However, much like other early school reforms, this proposal received much rejection and was never brought into being. Despite this rejection, Jefferson still believed that America needed public education. Eventually, he opened the University of Virginia. Even though his bills and proposals to benefit public education never saw the light of day, he still made many contributions to public education by providing the foundation on how a democracy should handle educating its
High school is a time for students to develop new interests, talents, and hobbies. As well as, prepare them with material they need for college or the workforce. Most schools, Sequoyah High School being amongst one of these schools, are lacking the resources that students need in order to pursue these academic interests. Although Sequoyah High School is a great high school for students in Monroe County, there are several issues that still need to change in order to help better the school system as a whole.
While charter schools may seem appealing at first, further research shows that they, do, in fact have faults. Because of the high standards portrayed by charters, the brightest students in public schools often flee to charters in search of a better learning environment. Ironically, charter schools usually attract less-qualified teachers due to lower pay. Often, the result is many students eventually leaving the charter system, sometimes with a decrease in learning a...
Detroit, once known as a bustling city of fast cars and bling, is now known for its poor education system. Detroit, minus its Red Wings, has failed at every turn economically and educationally. With its population cut in half and poverty rates soaring, there is no telling what can stop this disaster of a city. The only hope, it seems, is to better educate the region that Detroit inhabits. Detroit Public Schools has been one of the worst performing school districts in recent years. In 2013, the city of Detroit filed chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest account of bankruptcy to-date. Good teachers avoid Detroit Public Schools because of the poverty, job quality, and low pay, leaving children with the unqualified teachers they have today in this poverty-plagued city that they call home.
The organization I work for is a nursing home management company. That’s the simple definition. Health Services Management Group manages of the operations of eleven (11) skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and three (3) home health agencies (HHA). Each of the SNFs and HHAs are operated/licensed by a single purpose entity. Of these long term care providers, one (1) SNF and two (2) HHAs are operated as non-profit organizations. The purpose of the non-profit providers, ultimately, is to fund The Trousdale School. “Trousdale School serves high functioning adults with intellectual disabilities, providing academics and life skills for the purpose of learning independence.” 1
In the study of The Way Schools Work we learned to question the ideals of meritocracy and the American dream. However, Conflict Theories challenge the system of meritocracy, in which people are sorted and selected on the basis of talent and ability. On the contrary, “Conflict Theories, on the other hand, imply a system of inheritance in which people’s life chances are largely determined by their starting point within an existing structure of inequality” (McNamee and Miller Jr. 2014, 11). According to these theorists mentioned in The Way Schools Work (Boudin 1974; Bowles and Gintis 1976; Carnoy 1972; Carnoy and Levin 1985; Persell 1977), they speak about how schools reproduce status in several ways. First, they use formal language, and hold
As the 2010 documentary, The Lottery, reveals, the charter vs. public school controversy continues to increase, creating rising tensions in communities nationally. The film centers on the issue in New York's Harlem and an actual lottery enabling a select few children to attend a charter, rather than a zoned school. This is however, essentially a microcosmic version of the larger debate, and perhaps the most interesting aspect of it is that both sides are after the same goal: the best possible education for children within the public school sector. The issue is complex, as the realities of charter and public schools present a wide range of specific concerns. Nonetheless, both sides of the debate are united by another element, that of identifying whether charter schools actually serve student needs more successfully than public schools. When the actual circumstances are assessed, the important complications surrounding the debate are noted, and the misleading and enormous factor of public perception is addressed, it is seen that charter schools are not superior to public schools.
KIPP’s School District still focuses on enforcing a different teaching concept as compared to public schools. They implement bright colors, singing, and hand motions into everyday learning. This keeps the students attention and helps with their involvement. KIPP’s business level strategy would still be focused differentiation. They focus on kids that live in poverty and are failing in a normal public school. Most of the children that live in these areas are minorities. “There is 58,000 students, more than 88 percent qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school, and 95 percent are black or Latino” (Monahan). With most of the students living in poverty, the teachers need to pay special attention to them and have commitment plan with the student’s parent. This means the teachers need to put in more hours than most teachers in public schools. This has caused a low retention rate for KIPP teachers. There are also major issues with funding and management. These are some of the major issues shown in the 2012/13 case
In many different states there are struggles and difficulties that the students face in order to get a decent education in grade school. The documentary states the many different changes that were practiced in order to try and make education better still failed due to the lack of resources for the students within districts. Michelle Rhee, who was an American advocate for the Reform of Education addressed these concerns and came up with many ways to try to better the districts in order for students to be successful. Although there were many programs and laws passed in the education system the NCLB( No Child Left Behind), was an act that protected the students to ensure they could understand and perform at basic levels. In many states, this still remains a problem throughout the school system for students, but they are gradually working to solve these problems and better the education for these students. Lastly, there are many states that are following the KIPP charter schools, which were created and organized to ensure that students will have the resources in order to look forward to a better
In “What’s Wrong with Schools,” Casey Banas uses the experiences of Ellen Glanz, a high school social studies teacher to express how different students and teachers feel about schooling. Ellen Glanz chooses to improve her teaching by pretending to be a student and sitting in on several classes and what she finds in the typical classroom includes students doing the bare minimum, disinterest, cheating, detachment, the list goes on and on. I agree with Ellen Glanz in that this separation between educators and students causes a great amount of passivity. Unfortunately, these types of circumstances in classroom settings are becoming more and more typical.
With the passage of NCLB, many school reform efforts have been initiated using top-down model in which each school leaders have been charged with initiating bold administrative changes to address the legislation. With the number of leadership theories and models, researchers have become interested in studying those to determine which might bring forth the most significant results for leading such change. Due to the lack of highly qualified administrators and the increasing demands for administrators, Bush, O’Brien & Spangler (2005) studied a program, the Southern Tier Leadership Academy, a collaborative of the New York Education Department. The study included three separate cohorts who completed an eight month program. Whereas, Somech (2005) chose to investigate directive and participative leadership approaches, and which would more significantly impact school effectiveness. Perhaps Somech’s reflect Scherer’s (2009, p.7) understandings as described in Educational Leadership, ‘broom-wielding leadership can indeed be beneficial’ as is putting advocates into positions of power and influence and building teams, both of which are seemingly contrasting opposites.