Graduate and family from Green Dot’s Animo Inglewood High School, where 80 percent of the students actually got diplomas, as opposed to Locke High School’s approximately 44 percent graduation rate.
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The New York Times, which has been doing more than the usual amount of LA coverage this month, knows a good story when it sees one….thus has an article in this morning’s paper analyzing the Greater Meaning meaning of the proposed takeover of Locke High School by charter school powerhouse, Steve Barr of Green Dot.
Here are some of the highlights.
Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city’s chronically failing high schools.
[snip]
In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union. And he has mobilized thousands of black and Hispanic parents to demand better schools.
Educators and policy makers from Sacramento to Washington are watching closely because many believe Green Dot’s audacious tactics have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement nationwide.[snip]
Andrew J. Rotherham, who worked in the Clinton White House and is co-director of Education Sector, a research group in Washington, said, “Green Dot is mobilizing parents in poor neighborhoods and offering an alternative for frustrated teachers, and that’s scrambling the cozy power arrangements between the school district and the union to a degree not seen anywhere else.”
[snip][Ted Mitchell, head of the NewSchools Venture Fund] said that only Green Dot was mounting such an aggressive challenge to the local school board. “Many charter organizations try to induce different behavior by providing examples of good new schools,” he said. “But only Green Dot is trying to provoke a school district to behave in radically different ways.”
[snip]
Locke, designated a failing school for much of a decade, is awaiting its fourth principal in five years. This spring, Mr. Barr drew up a charter plan and began meeting with teachers to explain it. He envisioned using the Locke campus for smaller schools that emphasize college prep and give teachers more decision-making authority.
He invited Frank Wells, Locke’s principal, to tour a Green Dot charter in May, a day on which Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be visiting. Before parents, teachers and the secretary, Mr. Wells denounced the district as using Locke as a dumping ground for incompetent teachers.
[snip]
On May 7, teachers began circulating a petition endorsing Green Dot’s plan for Locke, and more than half of Locke’s 73-member tenured staff members signed. Bruce Smith, an English teacher who gathered signatures, said most young teachers were eager to sign; older teachers were reluctant.
“Among the people who opposed us, nobody said, ‘The district is doing a great job here,’ ” Mr. Smith recalled. “It was mostly, ‘What about our job security?’ ”
The district authorities accused Mr. Wells of fomenting the revolt, dispatched guards to escort him from the building, and dismissed him….[snip]
Mr. Barr says that if he does not win the chance to use the Locke campus for his new charter schools, he will surround it with Green Dot’s next 10 charter schools, which are to open nearby in 2008, supported by a $7.8 million donation from the Gates Foundation.
“If the district doesn’t work with me, I’ll compete with them and take their kids,” Mr. Barr said.
The most eye-rollingly yet unintentionally ironic quote out of the whole thing was this one from LA teachers’ union head, A.J. Duffy: “We could have and probably should have organized the Green Dot schools. They started with one charter school, now have 10, and in short order they’ll have 20 schools in Los Angeles, with all the teachers paying dues to a different union. And that’s a problem.”
Y’think?
Celeste, when the issue is paying dues to different unions rather than the education of kids, one has to wonder what the real issue is. Shall it be the old system in which social promotion and a diploma that the “graduate” can’t read and really hasn’t earned, or shall it be striving towards excellence?
Charter schools are doing two things, allowing smart kids a chance at a future, and helping the “school establishment” show its ass.
Two problems in schools – teacher unions and no vouchers for parents.. Lazy teachers hate to work for what they are paid and they hate competition which forces them to produce results.
P.S. Maybe if you paid Alan four times what G.M. pays me, he would write more entries. He’s getting behind.
The Six Tenets of Green Dot Schools
1) SMALL – All Green Dot schools are small – no more than 525 students, with target student to teacher ratio of 22:1.
2.) EXPECTATIONS – every student takes a rigorous college-prep curriculum that meets the University of California requirements.
3.) CONTROL & ACCOUNTABILITY – Principals and teachers own critical decisions at their schools related to budgeting, hiring, curriculum customization and professional development.
4.) PARTICIPATION – Parents are integrated into all aspects of their students’ education experiences and are required to give at least 35 hours of service annually.
5.) CLASSROOM $$$ – Top administrative management is minimized so that each school receives $0.94 of every public dollar.
6.) AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES – schools are open until at least 5:00 pm daily to provide students with after school programs and to allow local community groups to help provide after school activates in the facilities.
http://www.greendot.org/
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If you go the Green Dot websites you find that they seem to be run like a lean mean small privately run company. It is now wonder that LAUSD can’t seem to compete.
I suspected the NY Times would be closely watching the Green Dot movement in LA because that iron is beginning to acquire some heat in NY as well. The money quote for me is this one:
That there exist teachers who are willing to work without tenure protection speaks well of the teachers, and indicates to me, their sense of professionalism and their concern for their students is at the top of their priority list.
Money quote two:
And, the fact that UFT in NY is willing to collaborate with Green Dot speaks volumes as compared to UTLA. It would make infinite sense for UTLA to reconfigure their position, come back to the negotiating table, or face death of a thousand knife cuts. Now is the time for UTLA and LAUSD to put their heads together and find a way to reposition those older teachers who are resistive, and let the young blood make a run with Green Dot. Systemic change is neither easy, nor without risk. But, there is also no good way to stop the world from turning. The LA Teacher’s Union and the School District can either turn with the world, or it will turn out from under them.
LOTS: “The LA Teacher’s Union and the School District can either turn with the world, or it will turn out from under them.”
Wow, powerful statement. And the added bonus of being TRUE.
Whoa. An Atta Girl from a knuclkedraggingneanderthalic conservative to a twinkle-toes-twirling-quasi-liberal? The world (and Celeste’s blog) will certainly crash in 30 minutes 😉 Or, is that what happened a few minutes ago when I tried and was greeted with ‘database unavailable’ message? We’ve got to be careful GM!
LOTS, isn’t it a lot more fun NOT knowing our power? 😀