"...we are led to believe, teachers will be caring and highly skilled...the schools will have high expectations and test score will soar; and all children will succeed academically, regardless of their circumstances."
This may be true of charter schools, but it also true of public schools. Teachers in public school care, are highly skilled, children succeed academically and have great test scores. There is nothing different that a student in a charter school will receive than a student in a public school. The only difference is money. I can't speak for teachers in charter schools, but I know that the teachers I work with will spend hours at school preparing for the next days or week. They will spend their own money on projects they want to do in their classroom because the school doesn't have money for it. They will spend time in the summer preparing their classroom, creating lessons, taking classes and going to workshops so they can better educate themselves so their students can succeed. Just because you need to pay to go to a charter school doesn't make it better than a public school.
"...teachers are the most important factor determining student achievement."
Teachers are an important factor for students to achieve, but so are parents, administration, and the students themselves. If the students don't care about their education and aren't determined to learn new things, the teachers can't be blamed for this. If you get a student that doesn't care about school and doesn't want to learn, the teacher has to find a creative way to make that student care and want to learn. Will this happen in a charter school? Do public schools care more about the student's achievements?
" that (Geoffrey) Canada kicked out his entire first class of middle school student when they didn't get good enough test scores to satisfy his board of trustee."
REALLY! If this was running a public school, we would have looked over the tests to see where we can improve our teaching. We wouldn't kick students out of school because they got low test scores! If we would do that, the school I work in would have A LOT less students. How can students learn and feel successful if they are going to get kicked out of school because of a low test grade.
Working in a school that has a low socio-economic population and having students with little motivation is a struggle some days, but we won't kick kids out because of test scores, it's not fair. I can't imagine a charter school dealing with some of the things a public school has to deal with. Like, lice, clothing children, feeding them breakfast, giving them snacks, giving them sneakers, winter boots and winter jackets, etc. Would a charter school do this?
"If one uses student gains or losses as a general measure, then those who teach the neediest children-English-language learners, troubled students, autistic students-will see the smallest gain, and teacher will have an incentive to avoid districts and classes with large numbers of the neediest students."
Teachers should not be measured according to student growth. I think of some of the students I work with and they are behind grade level when I start working with them. So, to try to get them on grade level, or above, to get the them ready for their next school year, is a struggle. These students need to do more work than their peers to try to get caught up to them. It is possible to get them on grade level, but its a lot of work and dedication from the students. Maybe the school they work in may have some incentive for the teachers who have had growth in their classroom. But, I feel that student growth shouldn't be the only thing that teachers get judged on. I feel, that if the state starts to "grade" teachers on student growth, a lot of good teachers will leave teaching, and less and less people will want to go into education because of this.
Reading this article about charter schools made me angry. I can't believe that they would kick students out because of low test scores, or that they think that the teachers at their school are better than public school teachers. I can't speak on behalf of charter school teachers, but I know that public school teacher put in a lot of time and effort into their planning, correcting homework, creating test and lessons, etc. (Which I believe a charter school teacher would do the same). A teacher's day never ends when the students leave to go home and a lot of people don't see the extra time put in so their child can get a good education.
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