Charter school

Charter Schools are big in the UK and offer all sorts of differing education methodologies, bringing freedom of choice to education, and removing control from under the thumb of the teacher unions.

An unorthodox secondary school offering “cross-subject projects” rather than traditional classroom lessons, is among the latest tranche of free schools to be approved.

XP school in Doncaster is one of the 102 new free schools given the go-ahead to open next year by Michael Gove, the education secretary, a slight decrease on the 109 schools opening this year.

XP’s prospective chair of governors, Gwyn ap Harri – a former computer science teacher who went on to start a company selling educational software – says the school’s teaching method is based on how learning takes places in the “real world”, rather than sitting behind desks.

“We’ll be still be teaching the national curriculum, the kids will still be doing GCSEs and A-levels. But the way we deliver the curriculum will be totally different,” Harri said.  Read more »

John Banks was interviewed on Q+A about charter schools. It seems they are on track:

Act Party leader John Banks says there won’t be any changes to legislation around the controversial partnership schools despite opposition parties continuing their objections to elements of the bill such as allowing unqualified teachers.

The Education Amendment Bill, which would establish charter schools, known as partnership schools, was expected to pass in Parliament with the support of National, Act and the Maori Party.

Mr Banks told TVNZ’s Q+A programme today it was not insignificant the Maori Party would want to support the bill.

“Because every second young Maori leaves school after 12 years of schooling without NCEA level 2, no numeracy or literacy.”

He said the Maori Party had not asked for any changes to the bill in exchange for their support of it.  Read more »

The Labour party is trying to amend the Charter Schools legislation to force them to only hire registered teachers.

A last-ditch bid to modify the rules for charter schools will take place this week, with pressure expected to go on the Maori Party whose votes will decide whether legislation passes.

Labour has effectively conceded defeat in its battle against allowing a trial of the schools, which will be able to determine their own curriculum and can be staffed by teachers who are not registered.

But Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said he would be tabling a series of Supplementary Order Papers this week, suggesting amendments to the Education Amendment Bill when it sees its second reading.

These would impose teacher registration and curriculum requirements, as well as making the schools subject to the Official Information Act.

No problems with the OIA, but it should apply to any organisation in receipt of public funds including universities. The insistence on registered teachers though is farcical. Labur and the their paymasters the teacher unions claim it is to protect children.  Read more »

John Stossel at RealClearPolitics writes again about the intransigence of teacher unions in opposing any reform at all.

I wrote recently how teachers unions, parent-teacher associations and school bureaucrats form an education “Blob” that makes it hard to improve schools. They also take revenge on those who work around the Blob.

Here’s one more sad example:

Ben Chavis, founder and principal of the American Indian Public Charter Schools, got permission to compete with the Blob in Oakland, Calif. Chavis vowed, “We’ll outperform the other schools in five years.” He did. Kids at the three schools he runs now have some of the highest test scores in California.

His schools excel even though the government spends less on them.

But Chavis paid his wife to do accounting work, rented property to his schools and didn’t follow all of the Blob’s rules. So last month, the Oakland School Board said it might close the schools.

Parents and students begged the Blob — pardon me, the school board — not to. One sobbing mother pleaded with the board: “As soon as (my son) goes to this school, he’s a top student. … And now you guys want to take that away from me.” Many students implored, “Please don’t close down our school!”

The school board voted to close the schools anyway.  Read more »

Asssociate Professor of being a Drama Queen at huge taxpayer expense at Auckland University – Peter O’Connor – clearly feels he is running short of attention so it now putting out his own press releases on Voxy.

At least in this one he acknowledges that Maori (at 23% behind non-Maori) have been long-term screwed over by the NZEI/PPTA system.

A reader emails about Charter Schools. I found this email very interesting, something for other readers to discuss.

You have run a number of blogs over time about the unions and charter schools.

The unions obviously want to block charter schools. Perhaps it is because these big huge organisations with thousands of teachers are afraid they may be brought down by a small army inside a Trojan horse called “Charter/Partnership Schools”.

Perhaps it’s because education in NZ still revolves around the adults, not the students as we profess it does. Notice how, while unions, principals groups, Massey University, etc. pontificate about charter schools they all ignore the hard statistics relating to NZ kids becoming disengaged, dropping out of school, failing to achieve NCEA or any other school qualification, failing to enter university or the work force….least of all to mention the teen suicide rate …  Read more »

Everywhere in the world people are embracing charter schools, voucher schools, academies, and partnership schools. For too long education has been the preserve of the unions and academics…and their way isn’t working.

The old systems specifically are leaving the poor behind. In India there is a movement to change that:

The Brahmpuri slum in New Delhi is an energetic place, home to migrants, Muslims and other marginals. A barber with a cut-throat razor and a bucket of dirty water shaves clients on the pavement. Factories hum in people’s front rooms. Animals and children are everywhere: buffaloes pulling carts, white ponies doing nothing in particular (they are popular for wedding ceremonies), children hawking bicycle pumps and washing powder.

The school, despite its name, is private, and it is a miracle of compression: floor upon floor of children, 25 to a class, crowded into a narrow concrete block. It is also a miracle of order: the children wear uniforms and stand up to greet visitors. One classroom is decorated with bright pictures and perky slogans such as: “We will get more than 80% in maths.” The teacher worked for Infosys, a giant IT firm, before finding her vocation. Other classrooms are drabber. Dr Bhandari, the school’s owner and headmaster, is clearly a shrewd businessman. He runs a fancier school next door, decorated with images of Mickey Mouse. He has an impressive collection of certificates. He uses an interpreter to explain that one of his school’s strengths is that it is “English medium”.  Read more »

John Stossel has made documentaries on the state of education in the US. I have featured some of them on the blog, especially when it comes to Charter Schools.

The teacher unions here would have you believe that there is no evidence to suggest they are successful. John Stossel has shown the exact opposite.

He writes at RealClearPolitics about just how stupid teacher unions are:

Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, “Stupid in America,” hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don’t learn.

The union is a big reason kids don’t like school and learn less. Union contracts limit flexibility, limit promotion of good teachers, waste money and make it hard for principals to fire even terrible teachers.

But I was wrong to imply that the union is the biggest problem. In states with weak unions, K-12 schools stagnate, too.

Education reformers have a name for the resistance: the education “Blob.” The Blob includes the teachers unions, but also janitors and principals unions, school boards, PTA bureaucrats, local politicians and so on.

They hold power because the government’s monopoly on K-12 education eliminates most competition. Kids are assigned to schools, and a bureaucracy decides who goes where and who learns what. Over time, its tentacles expand and strangle attempts to reform. Since they have no fear of losing their jobs to competitors, monopoly bureaucrats can resist innovation for decades.

As one advocate of competition put it, the Blob says: “We don’t do that here. We have to requisition downtown. We got to get four or five people to sign off; the deputy director of curriculum has to say this is OK, etc.” Most reformers just give up.

The Blob insists the schools need more money, but that’s a myth. America tripled spending per student since I was in college without improving student achievement.  Read more »

NZ Principals Federation (another form of union) new head Philip Harding is clearly as out of his depth as the new NZEI and PPTA leaders.

In this article Harding tries to make the point that there is no demand for Charter Schools for New Zealand families.

‘No one is calling for Charter schools,’ said Harding. ‘I don’t hear parents out there lobbying Government for Charter schools, the professional educators aren’t calling for them and the academics who have critiqued Charter schools’ performance overseas give them the thumbs down,’ he said.

‘I am concerned that we have yet another reform in front of us which, like increasing class sizes, has not been properly thought through and does not emanate from any sound evidence base for improving the education of Kiwi Kids,’ he said.  Read more »

As more and more results stack up overseas the Charter Schools opponents are trying to change the story.

Paul Goulter (NZEI) on Radio NZ this morning continued to be disingenuous through his teeth in trying to say there is “no evidence” of success overseas. He is trying to treat the New Zealand public as fools.

The union argument will be hurt again by a growing body of evidence from the US (a country Goulter calls a “basketcase” even though it has e.g. 13 of the world’s top 20 Universities). Today information was released from Florida that their Charter Schools are well and truly outperforming their state counterparts.  Read more »