Providence Goes to War over Charter Schools
Friday, December 16, 2011
Education reformers and traditional public school proponents are engaged in a battle over two proposed Mayoral Academies the city hopes to open in 2013 and 2014.
The schools would be operated by Achievement First (AF), a nonprofit charter management organization that has been praised for raising test scores in several high-poverty areas in Connecticut and New York. It would accept students from Providence, Warwick, Cranston and North Providence.
Supporters say the schools would be able to operate without many of the restrictions of a traditional teacher contract and point to the successful Blackstone Valley Prep in Cumberland as an example of what mayoral control over schools can do.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBut critics says the schools, which could eventually serve about 1,500 Providence students, are simply taking away funds from traditional public schools, which serve the majority of Providence’s 23,000 students.
Consensus on the problem, but no solution
Both sides, however, agree that the Providence public school system needs drastic and immediate reform.
In 2010, the dropout rate was nearly one in four (23.5%). During the 2010-11 school year, half of the city’s public schools (22 of 44) failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards set by No Child Left Behind. In October, the Rhode Island Department of Education identified five Providence schools as “persistently low achieving,” in addition to four declared “failing” last year.
The question is how to makes the changes needed.
The AF proposal has been met with opposition from several local stakeholders. Arguments against the schools encompass concerns over the financial implications for Providence’s existing public schools and AF’s academic approach, which they label as militaristic.
According to the Providence City Council Education Subcommittee, the proposed schools will cost “approximately $4,000-$5,000 per student local money plus $9,750 per student in State aid in 2018 after a phase-in related to the funding formula,” – totaling more than $14,000 per student per year. Providence’s public elementary schools currently spend between $10,000 and $11,000 per student.
In a recent letter to Governor Chafee, opponents expressed concern over AF, which they claimed has “a harshly disciplinarian ‘no excuses’ model of education that attempts to raise academic achievement through severely punitive measures.”
Major support as well
However, Betty Bernal – a Peruvian immigrant who moved from Providence to Cumberland in order to send her now-grown daughter though a public school she considered acceptable – insists that the AF model is neither too harsh nor inhibitive of student learning. Bernal said she saw a “structured learning process” at the Amistad Academy (the AF pilot school, located in New Haven, CT) that encouraged student engagement in their education.
“I don’t think that the Achievement First system is harsh,” Bernal said. “I think that in a lot of US schools students are not being challenged the way that they should. The schools are not sufficient for the academic needs of the students. You see kids that that don’t care and that’s because they’ve never had a structure for learning. At Amistad I saw kids that respect their peers, kids that are engaged in their education. If you can’t give kids that structure, then you’re not doing your job as an educator.”
Achievement First officials also dispute the notion that their schools are too harsh.
“The idea offered by the opposition that Achievement First has intimidating or harsh discipline policies is simply not true,” said Reshma Singh, Vice President of External Relations for Achievement First. “Our teachers use a large array of strategies to promote positive behavior and to correct disruptive behaviors. Our faculty uses positive reinforcement whenever possible… We also use consequences and a problem-solving approach to fix student behavior problems.”
Comparing apples to oranges
Both proponents and opponents to AF are relying heavily on statistics to back their positions up.
Opponents of the schools say the AF has not, as it has claimed, “created a network of consistently high-performing charter schools” in New York and Connecticut. In fact, all of AF’s elementary and middle schools in CT failed to make AYP in the 2010-11 school year, and two were identified as “in need of improvement.”
Bernal, however, does not think that these statistics accurately depict the AF model.
“I feel it is not fair the way [they are] using statistics and data to oppose Achievement First,” she said.
The RI Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) agreed with Bernal, suggesting performance in Achievement First’s schools has skyrocketed compared with traditional public schools in Connecticut.
“AF’s Elm City College Preparatory (ECCP) students saw a 30 percent improvement in math proficiency from fifth grade to eighth grade (2011) while the state only saw a 4 percent change in proficiency,” a DFER statement noted recently. “In reading, ECCP students saw an 80 percent improvement from fifth grade to eighth grade while the state only saw a 12 percent change.”
DFER also noted that Amistad Academy High School in New Haven ranks #1 in CT for African American performance while the middle school was #2 in the same category and in the top ten for Low-Income Student Performance.
“Our position is not that one data set is more important than another,” Singh said.“Rather the AYP requirements in Connecticut are not an accurate barometer of AF’s school performance or student improvement… test results consistently show our students making enormous, measurable progress, including at schools designated as not meeting AYP.”
A financial threat to the district
The biggest controversy surrounding AF is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a financial one.
“Most people will tell you that Providence public schools are broken. I’d argue that they’re neglected,” said Brian Principe, an outspoken opponent to AF. “We need to ensure that any real reforms are for the benefit of each and every one of those 23,000 kids, not just an opportunity to give some a better education. Achievement First won’t make enough of an impact on the student population while it starves the other schools in the district. It’s a financial threat to the district as a whole.”
Bernal sees the situation differently, arguing that AF would be a wise investment.
“Education is an investment worth making. Achievement First uses the money its given to provide a significantly better education to its students. If Achievement First will teach even a fraction of the students in our community, we should consider ourselves lucky. I want my money to be well invested and I think that Achievement First does that.”
A Divisive Argument
Still, with both sides bickering over the future of proposed AF schools, the question over how to improve the city’s failing public schools remains.
“Achievement First has created a lot of talk about public education, and in itself, I think that’s great,” said Kathy Crain, former President of the Providence Public School District. “But it’s been very divisive, and the argument is causing us to miss the boat [on school reform]. The real issue isn’t about bringing in a school that will affect 500 kids – meanwhile, 1,100 elementary school students are being ignored. We’re taking focus and attention away from the real problems.”
Crain said the reform efforts need to focus on universal, full-day pre-K education to better prepare students for their entry into the formal school system. She called for more classroom support to give students the attention they need and after-school programs to provide them a safe, engaging environment after 3pm.
“A friend of mine once used an analogy that I think speaks to the debate over Achievement First,” Crain concluded. “Everyone’s worrying about this one tree dying. Meanwhile, the entire forest is burning down.”
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
