Are Charter Schools The Answer?
Public schools across the nation are being labeled as low performing schools at a very fast rate. Low performing schools (LPS) are schools that do not meet the required standards that state officials set each year for all schools. These standards may include a certain graduation rate, certain goals for standardize testing, and a limited number of behavior referrals. The majority of public schools do not meet these standards. They often struggle with high dropout rates, low standardize test scores, low graduation rates, and disciplinary problems. These problems can truly hinder the future of these schools and the students attending them, so they are placed on the academically unacceptable list; low performing schools list. Although those problems standout they are forming from smaller problems within the schools. Many of the schools on the low performing list lack in the quality and quantity of teachers and books. This causes students not to meet the expected standards on standardize tests. Low test scores can lead to high dropout rates and low graduation rates. Another small problem they face is overcrowded classrooms which bring along the huge number of discipline problems. It can add to the low test scores because teachers are often interrupted with discipline problems while trying to teach large classes. Students who have trouble grasping the concepts that the teacher is teaching and who are constantly involved in disciplinary cases often dropout of LPS. When public schools lose students the state officials cutback on the schools’ finances that they receive to fund the school.
With all these problems how can students possibly receive the proper education required to be successful in life? State...
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...g the school is discussed. LPS often get choose other reform options they require less changes, allow teachers to keep their jobs, and they do not require that the entire school has to change. Although there is more than one reform option that looks good on paper, there is only one option that has any proof that it could possibly work in favor of the students and the option is charter schools. They address all the problems in public schools and they incorporate all reform options, except school shutdowns, in their reform plan. Charter schools are the reform option that shows the most improvement in areas that LPS slack in. Including other reform options in their reform plan is a way that can almost insure progression. All public schools across the nation that are declining to low performing schools should look into taking up charter schools as their reform option.
Thornton Fractional South High School represents a diverse school building in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We consist of a traditional 9th through 12th grade building with the exception of busing students to the District 215 Tech Center for vocational classes. We share these resources with our sister school TF North. Although we consistently outperform TFN, we are behind the state averages on both the ACT and the PSAE. On the ACT, we are below the state average on the composite score as well as on all three recorded sub-categories. We were closest to the state average in Science and the furthest in Reading. As for the PSAE test to measure those students meeting and exceeding standards, we are again behind the state average. TFS averaged 40.5% of students tested to meet or exceed standards. Meanwhile, the State of Illinois average was 53%. Currently, we are on the Academic Watch Status year 2. We were unable to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or the Safe Harbor Target Goal for Reading and Mathematics which are the two target areas. Our goal as a school is to reach the AYP and attempt to reach and exceed the state averages on the ACT and PSAE.
One of the most pressing issues facing the United States today is its failing educational system. While many solutions have been proposed, the idea of charter schools has been both popular and controversial. The topic of charter schools is being debated in as many places as local school board meetings to state supreme courts. Though on the surface, charter schools seem like an exciting and promising step for the future of education in America, they are not the answer to this country’s ever-increasing educational problems. Charters will drain already scarce funding from regular public schools, and many of the supposed “positives” surrounding them are uncertain and unpredictable at best.
School Choice: Followed the ruling on compulsory education. Parents have a right to choose whether their children go to a private, parochial or public school, or they may choose to home-school. Parents must accept any responsibility for their choice.
As someone who has had the privilege to attend quality public educational institutions, it was eye opening to see the struggle some of these families went through in order to provide the same for their children. However, with the push for quality public education through the creation of charter schools, many of these students now have the opportunity to live out their dreams, thanks to the “superheroes” who made it possible for them. The bottom line is that the future of our country depends on our dedication toward providing all children with access to a quality education.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
The issue of whether charter or public schools are more beneficial for students has been an ongoing debate. The question that arise is which type provides a better education. Having gone to a charter high school myself, I got to see and experience first-hand the benefits of going to a charter school as well as realizing the issues charter schools face here in Oklahoma. These problems need to address in order to guarantee that students are getting the best education that they can get. We are facing an epidemic today with our education system and charter schools could be the solution. There may be opponents to the idea of having charter schools, but they have been wildly successful lately and are quickly expanded throughout the states. This is due to the fact that charter schools can benefit people economically, educationally, and as well as socially.
The State of Ohio is letting down their students with some of the lowest test scores in our country. According to OSU Research News, reporter Doug Downey states, “up to three-quarters of U.S. schools deemed failing based on achievement test scores and would receive passing grades if evaluated using a less biased measure, a new study suggests” (“Many Failing Schools Aren’t Failing When Measured on Impact rather Than Achievement" par. 1). Above all, teachers feel that all they do is just teach students how to pass assessment tests. Thus, some students feel stress and frustrated, as if all they do is practice and study on how to pass achievement tests. In addition, with the economy effecting property taxes, which have been going down in recent years has affected the school funding. Furthermore, Ohioans are starting to see more states moving towards a year-around school system. Therefore, Ohio fails the students in education, due to lack of state funding, classroom time, and quality teachers.
California is one of the largest states in the country and has one of the biggest state budgets, but in the past several years, its school system has become one of the worst in the nation because of enormous budget cuts in efforts to balance the state’s enormous deficit. The economic downturn at the end of the 2000s resulted in even more cuts to education. It is in environments like this one in which students from poor backgrounds become most vulnerable because of their lack of access to support in their homes as well as other programs outside of schools. Their already financially restricted school districts have no choice but to cut supplementary programs and increase class sizes among other negative changes to public schools. The lack of financial support from the state level as well as demands for schools to meet certain testing benchmarks by the state results in a system in which the schools are no longer able to focus on students as individuals; they are forced to treat students as numbers rather than on an individual case by case basis. An article from the Los Angeles Times showed that majority of Californians give California schools “a grade of C or below” and half think that the quality of schools will continue to decline (Watanabe).While the economic downturn affected the public school system in a negative way, it was not the sole root of its problems. It just simply exacerbated already existing issues.
The expectation that a bad student in a public school will turn into a good student in a private school is not only absurd, it is yet another slap in the face of public school teachers. The presumption is that private school teachers are more effective than public school teachers. The expectation of improved scores is completely unrealistic. It's not that simple.
For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused elsewhere, particularly in the inner city schools.
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
In addition the changes in policies to address the substandard public school educational system did not resolve the issue was because before a program can get started another president was coming into office and the staff was replaced. With educational policies made by the federal government it left the state and local government unsure and in a state of flux. In essence there was no consistency in the implementation of programs to improve the educational outcomes of children in disadvantaged communities. Because of the inadequacies of the public school system and the inability to address the class sizes, the decaying school buildings, and children flunking out of school, charter schools and voucher programs were established to a...
Determining the cause of at risk conditions can be helpful and can contribute to the development of reform programs. First, school conditions might actually be creating at-risk conditions. “ Inappropriate instruction, competitive learning environments, ability grouping and hostile classroom environments are just a few ways schools contribute to the problem” (Muller, 2001, p.
How to help students who fail, or students who do not achieve up to a certain academic standard, is an issue that probably goes back to the beginning of levels of school for students to progress through. In the U.S. it goes back to the 1840’s where age-graded schools began. In those times children who did not meet a certain standard were retained, or they repeated that grade. Rates of grade retention are difficult to trace in the past as well as currently. In some of these illustrative examples, a state could reduce retention by half in thirty years. However, different states had different retention rates. In 1909 one Massachusetts school district had a 7.5% retention rate while a Tennessee had a 75.8%. “In the 1930’s educators recognized that grade repetition might endanger student’s social and emotional development, which gave rise to the practice of social promotion. As a result of this policy, students were passed on to the next grade even if they were not ready for the work.” (Alkin, 1114) Both social promotion and retention intend to rectify the problem of failing students. However, does either of these two methods succeed? If they do not then what does?
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.