Charter school parents explain why we need Amendment One
“How can I in good conscience send my child to a school that didn’t even cheat right?”
The question from Shelby McDonald has surely been asked by many an Atlanta parent since rampant cheating on standardized tests was uncovered in the city’s public schools. Only rhetorically, of course, because the answer is: You can’t.
Unlike many of those parents, however, McDonald found a way out: a public charter school approved in 2009 by a state commission. That commission closed after a 2011 court ruling declared it unconstitutional, but it would be re-created if voters approve Amendment One in next month’s election.
“I did everything right. I looked at every [school’s] test score between here and what was driveable,” says McDonald, a widowed mother of one whose parents had pledged to drive her daughter as far as Macon each day if that’s what it took. She tried one charter-school lottery and lost. As a single mother, private school was out of the question.
“I did what I was supposed to do,” she says. “And what did I find out [about the local schools]? Y’all cheated!”
Cheating wasn’t an issue at the elementary school Rich Thompson’s daughter used to attend — at least, he didn’t think it was. But low expectations were.
Thompson was the PTA president at Deerwood Academy in southwest Atlanta when, one spring, he realized things weren’t as good as they seemed.
“We had the normal end-of-the-year Awards Day program,” Thompson recalls. “Pretty much every grade level walked across the stage, and every kid got some kind of a certificate or ribbon or trophy. The principal was patting them on the back, saying what a great job they did.”
Within a few days, however, Thompson came across the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s 2009 “Report Card for Parents,” which ranks the state’s public schools according to their test scores. Deerwood Academy’s third-graders ranked 940th out of 1,208 schools statewide. Its fifth-graders were 470th out of 1,201.
“I just got livid,” Thompson recalls. “How in the hell can everybody be so happy with our performance when one grade level is in the 900s and one is in the 400s compared with the other schools in the state? …
“There just wasn’t any interest in doing anything beyond getting the public recognition we were getting. And it just wasn’t enough for me.” His daughter now attends an independent, start-up charter school.
It wasn’t long before that public recognition proved even more hollow: Deerwood was one of the first schools implicated in the APS cheating scandal. “It was just a big sham,” Thompson says of all the certificates, ribbons and trophies.
Accolades for his son at a south Fulton school also seemed suspect to Gavin Samms.
“His teacher said, ‘He’s so wonderful. He’s so quiet,’ ” Samms recalls. “But I said, ‘He isn’t learning anything.’ “
His son, Samms says, “kept coming home with the same worksheets of things I taught him two years before.” No one at the school was interested in giving the boy more challenging work, he says.
Samms didn’t just look for another school. He started one: Fulton Leadership Academy, which the erstwhile state commission approved in 2009. Despite its focus on the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) and test scores that last year beat both state standards and south Fulton schools’ averages, the Fulton school board denied FLA’s application to keep its charter. The state granted it under provisional authority that is highly questionable in light of the 2011 court ruling.
“They [the Fulton board] said we’re not ‘unique,’ ” Samms says. “It’s an all-boys school. We have STEM, we have an aviation focus. … You must see African-American boys in planes every day, because apparently we’re not unique enough.”
A note to those who think Amendment One is designed to pave the way for a modern white flight from Georgia’s public schools: Like Samms, McDonald and Thompson are black. Charter schools have a higher percentage of minorities or low-income students than traditional public schools, according to the Georgia Charter Schools Association.
They’re also more likely to serve them better, to hear these parents tell it.
– By Kyle Wingfield
RELATED:
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Charter amendment foes twist conservative language to make their case
The real statistics for Georgia’s charter schools
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361 comments Add your comment
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
4:56 pm
3 oh won!
mike
October 25th, 2012
4:56 pm
Tiberius: what are you talking about?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
4:57 pm
11 days, 11 hours and 1 minute until this long, stupid, disgusting national nightmare is ova.
buh bye obozo.
JDW
October 25th, 2012
5:04 pm
@mike…do you really think he knows?
JDW
October 25th, 2012
5:08 pm
@Bruno…while I think you are wrong, I can understand your vote for Romney and the amendment…what I don’t get is how a vote to ban alchol sales on Sunday squares with that whole personal freedom, gubment is bad mantra.
JDW
October 25th, 2012
5:13 pm
@LBB…”I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask for an example of a public charter that is teaching Adam and Eve walked with the dinosaurs,”
You need to open that closed mind of yours and learn what has happened in other states that went down the Charter Schools road…
http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/June-2012/Charters-Vouchers-Creationism/
JDW
October 25th, 2012
5:18 pm
@LBB…”Where is JDW to decry “that kind of thinking” as the reason for our national decline?”
Gloria? Not my favorite she kind of reminds me of Andrew Briebart except she is usually right.
As for the goods on Romney, anyone with any sense already knows Romney has perjured himself on the value of companies…that’s how he got a $100 million 401k.
md
October 25th, 2012
5:44 pm
“Send the parents to school. That’s who needs it. They obviously missed “it” when they should have gotten it. Make THEM go to school. ”
I’ve been advocating that for a long time. If one chooses (and it is a choice) to drop out of the taxpayer funded opportunity program called education and then subsequently finds themselves in a different line for assistance, then dropping back into the education program should be a condition of said assistance………
One shouldn’t be allowed to not participate when they are offered an opportunity and then turn around and ask for more generosity………
@@
October 25th, 2012
6:10 pm
Getalife:
All children left behind was another w failure and if the gop proposes it, it is always a bad idea for the people.
It continues under Obama, only it takes on a different form:
President Obama said that the waivers were necessary because the law was “driving the wrong behaviors, from teaching to the test to federally determined, one-size-fits-all interventions.” But what neither the president nor Secretary Duncan admits is that Duncan’s mandates will promote even more teaching to the test, while posing a heavy fiscal burden on the states at a time when they are strapped for cash.
[snip]
The states that won a waiver must agree to accept the Common Core State Standards, a national curriculum in mathematics and English language arts developed by nongovernment groups that has yet to be field-tested anywhere; they must agree to evaluate teachers and principals based in large part on the test scores of their students; and they must agree to intervene forcefully in the lowest-performing schools. At the same time, the Obama administration is promoting merit pay, so teachers whose students get higher test scores will be paid more.
The sum of all these changes means that test scores will matter even more in the states with waivers than in the states oppressed by NCLB’s heavy-handed regulations. Teachers will be evaluated based on whether their students’ scores rise or fall. Testing experts agree that gains in student scores will be smallest for teachers of children with disabilities and children who are English language learners and probably greatest for those teaching children in relatively affluent districts. In other words, those who teach children with the greatest needs are likeliest to get a bad evaluation and eventually fired. This will add to the already high level of teacher turnover in the neediest districts.
[snip]
One thing that the waivers will not end is teaching to the test, even though President Obama said in his State of the Union that teachers should stop doing it. With so many districts and states endorsing merit pay (at the Obama administration’s urging), teachers who want a bonus will be compelled to teach to the test. And with the careers of teachers and principals hinging on test scores, teachers who want to remain employed will be compelled to teach to the test. To avoid having their school fall into the pit of those marked for drastic “intervention” or closing, schools will concentrate as never before on teaching to the test.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/10/obama-grants-waivers-to-nclb-and-makes-a-bad-situation-worse.html
cc
October 25th, 2012
6:40 pm
Dusty:
“. . . it is not an atypical fractious intelligentsia.such as you present.”
You’re my hero!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:03 pm
Is Kyle gonna do a World Series blog?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:04 pm
bookman – The Urinal’s E.J. Dionne wannabe.
Tonto
October 25th, 2012
7:11 pm
I Report
Guess you were banned, huh?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:17 pm
Tonto – So I didn’t measure up to E.J.’s standards, I’m kinda curious, should I be concerned?
Moquanisha
October 25th, 2012
7:19 pm
The margin of victory for Amendment 1 will be comparable to, or even greater than, the margin of defeat in the TSPLAT referendum.
People are simply tired of government inefficiency and inertia, especially where it affects our children. Charter schools hold out the hope of making things better. I believe most of the people lamenting how Amendment 1 will be the EOTWAWKI are in the public education racket; can’t really blame them, their livelihoods are on the line.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:22 pm
If I hadn’t been banned by kookman, I would feel as though I failed somehow.
Tonto
October 25th, 2012
7:22 pm
I report
Seeing that you were crying about it @ 7:04 for what I assume was a ban sometime ago, you tell me.
Act like an adult, you don’t get banned. You didn’t get banned just because you had a different opinion. Acting like a baby and throwing fits was more like it.
Tonto
October 25th, 2012
7:27 pm
I report
Just let it go. You will feel better about yourself. You failed over there, but you have the ability to succeed here or elsewhere.
Don’t hold a grudge for a decision that was made due to your actions.
Man up and move on.
You can do this if you try.
Good luck and godspeed.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:31 pm
Apparently, Tonto is new to this.
I had hardcore libs complaining about my banning. They liked what I had to say more than they cared about miss kookman’s hurt feelings.
Just sayin…
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:33 pm
Mitt Romney’s campaign announced this morning that the GOP ticket and the Republican National Committee raised $111.8 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 17.
A 111 million reasons to see promise for America’s future.
Laprincey
October 25th, 2012
7:34 pm
“You didn’t get banned just because you had a different opinion.”
OK I’m going to throw a flag on that one.
Don’t know what I Report did to get blackballed, maybe he deserved it. But I’ve done this long enough to notice that some of the blogmeisters, especially the lefties, like for everyone to be on the same page. They notice if you disagree and sometimes will use a slight foot fault as justification for banishment.
Tonto
October 25th, 2012
7:36 pm
I report
Act like an adult when you are in another person’s house.
If you are unable to do so blogspot.com might be where you need to go.
You can set the rules and parameters as well as who blogs ad who doesn’t.
“just sayin………….”
Stop the tears and let it go.
You can do this man. I know you can.
Have a wonderful evening and work on your grudges and resentment, it currently shines as bright as the north star.
Hillbilly D
October 25th, 2012
7:42 pm
Me and IRYW sometimes agree and many times disagree but I saw far worse things done at the other place than what I saw him do and nary a peep was heard from the powers that be.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
7:43 pm
Kyle – Notice how the libs escalate these petty grudges of theirs? I understand that we are dealing with the intellectual equivalent of a mere child here and therefore I refuse to participate, but will they not come back tomorrow as though I caused the whole kerfuffle? I agree that you are forced to represent the Conservative and adult constituency, unlike kookman, but don’t you just occasionally wanna let them have it?
I don’t mind being your attack dog, should you find a need for one…
Tonto
October 25th, 2012
7:56 pm
“I don’t mind being your attack dog, should you find a need for one…”
Now that was funny. You could do stand up as a moonlighting gig……..
I’m being serious
cc
October 25th, 2012
7:58 pm
I Report:
If you were indeed banned by Bookie-man, I can only offer my congratulations! You probably shouldn’t have been there anyway. Always remember: you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas!
@@
October 25th, 2012
8:03 pm
I’ve lost track of all those jay has banned. The libs get a temporary vacation. Conservatives are permanently retired.
I’m enjoying mine!
schnirt
cc
October 25th, 2012
8:10 pm
@@:
I’m almost positive that I could also be banned by Bookman, if I ever blogged there. Geez, that’s a scary place, though!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
8:15 pm
cc – I always put on my Advantage flea collar before I logged in.
And sprayed with Lysol when I logged out.
cc
October 25th, 2012
8:18 pm
I Report:
Smart moves!
yuzeyurbrane
October 25th, 2012
8:35 pm
Kyle, it is cherry-picking because you have picked a few charter school families who are not a representative sample to make your point. The rest of your argument sounds like an argument for vouchers, which is not at issue here. I believe that is what you and other proponents are ultimately pointed to and would be happy to have that discussion. Simply not germane now.
@@
October 25th, 2012
8:42 pm
Strassel: A Chronic Case of Obamnesia
Obama flipp’n and a-flopp’n all ovah da place.
schnirt
My apologies if it’s already been posted. I’ve been busy.
teaching taxpayer
October 25th, 2012
8:51 pm
Make the board that hears denied charter schools’ appeals an ELECTED board, not a board APPOINTED from among the Governor’s cronies, and I’ll vote for it. If this board has the authority to spend TAXPAYER dollars, it should be accountable to the taxpayers. This amendment takes choice away from VOTERS and gives it to unelected bureaucrats. Kyle, why are you betraying this basic conservative principle?
@@
October 25th, 2012
8:57 pm
For Hillbilly if he’s around.
Clayton County high schools has a (maybe more) vocational class(es)? I knew one of our charter schools did, but I had no idea others did.
LOVEJOY — Lovejoy High School senior Marcus Gooch and his classmates begged last week and tried to convince Price Jacobs, the school’s construction teacher, to reconsider heading into retirement next month.
They enjoyed having him as a teacher, so they didn’t want him to go, said Gooch. He said the seniors were especially saddened to hear Jacobs was retiring because they’d been with him for four years. After Nov. 30, however, he will no longer be there to teach them about foundations and roof trusses.
http://www.news-daily.com/news/2012/oct/22/price-less-leadership/
Kewl!
Rupurt
October 25th, 2012
9:04 pm
“I don’t mind being your attack dog, should you find a need for one…”
Tough bark behind a keyboard
Sick em
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
9:07 pm
These pestilent Detroit people just need to go ahead on and choke, like we all know is gonna happen.
But then again, that would mean that the San Franfreakins will win, so I’m open to suggestions.
Still in all, I don’t even know why Detroit exists.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 25th, 2012
9:11 pm
I see that Rupurt hasn’t been intellectually slaughtered yet but when she’s ready, be sure to get back with me.
The bark ain’t worse than the bite.
Don't Tread
October 25th, 2012
9:27 pm
“if the gop proposes it, it is always a bad idea for the people.”
This coming from the guy who said we should revise our standards of treason to be more like Russia’s (where any criticism of the people in power will soon be considered “treason”).
I hate to rain on your Party, but the First Amendment still stands despite your best attempts to kill it.
Rupurt
October 25th, 2012
11:57 pm
“The bark ain’t worse than the bite”
whew………. tough kid
catlady
October 26th, 2012
6:55 am
Anyone care to guess what percentage of charter schools now open serve mostly low income, minority kids? And, should this pass, anyone care to guess what percentage of charter schols this commission would authorize would serve low income, minority kids? My guess would be less than 20%. ‘Cause that is where the money is–upper income kids are most likely to do well, to show positive “results” for the charter company. Think,, people!
And, anyone care to guess who would be named to the charter commission? I would bet we would see mostly friends and family of our current “leaders,” as well as large contributors to their elections. They would, of course, be “highly qualified” by either their bloodlines, friendship patterns, or history of financial support!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 26th, 2012
7:00 am
Looks like Gloria Allred’s October Surprise fizzled out:
From Howie Carr’s column in the Boston Herald: “Marty (Baron, editor of the Boston Globe), when did you realize you were out on a limb? Was it when you started reading all those punctuation-challenged tweets from someone named “Maureen Stemberg” at the Huffington Post about the Romneys and Mormons:
“One word: Deplorable!… These people are not healthy. Another word: SCARY!!”
(I guess at the Globe it’s as fashionable to hate Mormons as it is to despise Catholics.)
“Yet even in Biz he only has a very small circle of friends. I have seen that side of him about 15 years ago. He & She were at my home for a Xmas party… I think he has a terrible time with dealing with the 47%. I truly do believe he has a fear and dislike for anyone who has less than 99,000,000! He just can’t relate and obviously queen ann is the same.”
And they wanted a gag order lifted on this petty witch?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 26th, 2012
7:01 am
“My guess would be less than 20%.”
And you make up your mind on “guesses”, catlady?
Certainly explains the election of Obama.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 26th, 2012
7:53 am
With more than 40 million Americans on food stamps, welfare is the fastest-growing portion of the budget under Obama. Food stamp usage is up a staggering 46% and the cost of the program has increased by 72%. Over the next four years, the President is preparing to increase spending on these programs to enable the government to increase benefits and provide for an increasing share of the population.
Can you say Zimbabwe?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 26th, 2012
8:01 am
Gamblers and election winners:
In 2008, 90 percent of gamblers correctly forecast an Obama victory. They were also on the money with 48 of 50 states. Gamblers’ success in this arena is nothing new. In presidential races beginning in 1896, the New York Times, Sun, and World provided daily betting quotes. The papers’ sources were bookies who had agents at every stump and whistle-stop to gather intel and quantify popular sentiment. Between 1884 and 1940, the bettors erred on just one of sixteen elections, Wilson’s 1916 upset of Hughes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-thomson/how-gamblers–historys-mo_b_2011534.html
cc
October 26th, 2012
8:37 am
Tib, Gloria was “all red” in the face when her little surprise detonated prematurely. I guess you might call her a “suicide boo-boo”!
Stewie
October 26th, 2012
8:49 am
Why do libs buy into Obama’s lies? Because he does it so fancifully.
Obama’s fanciful claim that Congress ‘proposed’ the sequester
Rated a WHOPPER with 4 Pinnochios!
He’s the dems’ fancy man.
cc
October 26th, 2012
9:11 am
Stewie:
Obama has done nothing but lie throughout his political career. He has become very accomplished at lying from his years of experience. Absent a news media who will call him out and who, in fact, enable him, he continues to speak half-truths and lies. Unfortunately, there are many who are either unwilling or intellectually unable to recognize him as the liar he is.
sneak peak into education
October 26th, 2012
9:44 am
For all the proponent of charter schools, especially Kyle; here is piece on a principal of a Florida charter school who paid them self $500,000 when the school FAILED. This is what we can look forward to with the passage of this amendment. If you think that the students will be educated more efficiently you are wrong; yes, less money will go to them but the admin and management companies will make sure they get their pound of flesh.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-charter-principal-500000-payout-20121024,0,6968446.story
Real Athens
October 26th, 2012
10:00 am
Awwww.
“I found my “calling” a long time ago and it is not an atypical fractious intelligentsia.such as you present.”
So focused on the definition of those big words that you missed the usage part on the same page. LOL. Typical.
Real Athens
October 26th, 2012
10:05 am
Read about Bobby Jindal’s (GOP poster boy and opportunist) education experiment in Louisiana. Keep in mind, before Katrina the population of NOLA topped 1.6 million. At the last census it was slightly over 400,000.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/10/what_will_the_education_market.html