NOTE: Arrrggghhh. The lack of a post this morning was pure idiocy on my part. I wrote this story earlier than usual and figured I’d wait until midnight to actually put it online. Then I got busy and plum forgot that I never pushed the “PUBLISH” button. I’d like to blame this glitch on nefarious forces. But sadly it was me.
Look for additional stories over the weekend.
Happy Friday!
************************************************************************
This is a good news moment.
On Wednesday, the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, announced the state’s 2009 picks for the California Distinguished Schools Award. According to the State Department of Education, the award “identifies and honors those schools that have demonstrated educational excellence for all students and progress in narrowing the achievement gap.”
In other words, instead of simply flagging schools that are doing poorly under No Child Left Behind, since 2000, the state has endeavored to use a carrot along with the NCLB stick by honoring the schools that are doing well.
In even years, O’Connell’s office honors elementary schools. In odd years (like 2009), middle and high schools are given awards.
This year the area of Los Angeles covered by LAUSD had 12-schools honored, the most Distinguished School Award winners of any region in the state.
Given all the bad news we’ve been hearing lately—the budget problems, the proposed teacher layoffs (the overpaid consultants) it is cheering to have some good news.
Yet, here’s the interesting thing: out of the 12 LA schools named, 10 of them are charters.
Now, it is important to mention here that, according to the rules of the award, if a school was named “distinguished” in the last awards cycle—which for middle and high schools would be 2007—one cannot apply for the following year. By the same token, the schools that won this year, can’t apply until 2013.
That meant that a few of the great LAUSD magnet schools named last time, were not in the running this time.
But not many.
The LA Charters named were: Animo Pat Brown Charter High, California Academy for Liberal Studies, CALS Early College High School, College Ready Academy High #4, College Ready Academy High #6, Gertz-Ressler High School, Marc and Eva Stern Mass High School, New West Charter Middle School, Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High and Renaissance Arts Academy.
So what does this mean? That LAUSD sucks? Well, yes, probably, in certain ways. But we knew that already. We are looking to the future here.
(And, to be fair, LAUSD does much right too. . There are those magnets, and some great neighborhood elementary schools.)
Still, the awards configuration suggests that, despite the problems of the LA Unified School District, a new model—or series of models—is emerging.
“It means that the charter school movement is getting lots of traction right now,” Jed Wallace, the head of the California Charter School Association, told me when we chatted about what the awards signified. “It means that a lot of charter schools are figuring out an instructional model that makes sense, and that really includes the community in which they’re located.”
Wallace said that he felt there was far less resistance to charters among LA leadership—people like the mayor and Ray Cortines, the LAUSD sup. “Maybe I’m being optimistic,” he said. “but I think they sense that Los Angeles is being remade in terms of school reform, and that reform is being driven by charters.”
Okay. Maybe. Sort of. Last Thursday, when the Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science School—a state of the art charter—- opened on the campus of Cal State LA , the mad rush of the LA dignitaries was something to behold. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Dick Riordan, Ray Cortines, and State Sup, Jack O’Connell all were there and all gave effusive speeches. (As illustrated in the photo above.)
(NOTE: A Marc & Eva Stern sister school was one of the “distinguished” campuses named by the state.)
As one education policy watcher pal of mine put it after the ribbon cutting and the speeches, “Obama has opened the charter floodgates and everyone is tripping over him/herself to say that charters are great and we need to learn from them.”
Yep. Probably. But that isn’t a bad thing at all.
It’s good.