What do you think about charter schools?

I have to admit that I once was a pretty whole hearted supporter of charter schools. I also believe philosophically in freedom for education of children, parent choice, student choice and other factors that are not results related. I also believe that results based methods of evaluating schools (primarily charter schools, but really all schools) are suspect.

There are many reasons to be cautious about the current measures of academic success in schools. Here are two.

First, so much of what a kid learns depends on parental involvement and dedication that it's tough to determine how successful a school or teacher really is. You can evaluate method and how successfully a school uses a particular method, but it's hard to determine the connection between that method and the results because of the number of variables.

Second, we do not know that high test scores or even going to college really has demonstrated a successful education. This leads to another interesting question that few seem to be able to answer: "What is a good education?" If early life is to prepare a student for later life, then life skills may be as important as academic skills. Plenty of successful people are not making a lot of money and do not have "good" jobs. On the other hand, I know many people who have dropped out of college to pursue music, acting, comedy, sales, or a trade and are extremely glad they did. In many cases, they are also making more money that many of their college trained counterparts, even 30 years later. They are also successful citizens who keep up on current events, think deeply about ethics and politics, and often hold very well thought out views on "the" issues.

In my not so humble opinion, I have a much greater appreciation for these people, even when they radically disagree with my views, than I do for those who simply have good jobs, a nice house, and a "wonderful" family. It isn't that I don't appreciate friends of mine who are good engineers and design useful products, it's just that I am not sure that is success.

For that reason, I wonder about charter schools and other schools. Are they effective?

I also wonder when I see the use of funds (both in charters and in traditional district schools) if there isn't some better way to "educate" kids. I've written in this blog about my ultimate high school, but short of a radical change in education, couldn't we provide more hands on learning and more real life lessons for kids. I commonly teach adult learners in an evening format university setting. One of their biggest fears (average age of about 30 years old) is interviewing for a new job. How does that happen?

I recently interviewed candidates for a position. None of them could answer a basic algebra question that I gave them, but a couple stood out in their ability to communicate and their desire to do a good job. I thought about waiting for the person who could answer the algebra question (and perhaps I should have), but I chose someone who gave me confidence that she could related to schools and was competent to do the tasks that I had for her. So far, so good. The point is that an employer doesn't always need the smartest or best educated person. An employer needs someone with a good attitude who will get the job done. That's a different skill than being able to score well on a state certified exam.

In my mind, a test of schools, and particularly charter schools that have more freedom, is whether they are producing students who will succeed in the real world. Do they have the ability and desire to succeed at whatever they do, rather than judge themselves on some ranking system that may or may not have anything to do with whether or not they are good people who others want to hire or work with.

I guess I've rambled here more than I intended, but I guess that's what blogs are for sometimes. What do you think?

How many charter schools have good board members?

I've been rereading Dr. Brian Carpenter's book, Charter School Board University. I just finished chapter 9 on what makes a good board member.

He gives a lot of helpful advice based on his position that a charter schools board's job is governance (perhaps a new concept to some charter schools board members).

Given my experience with charter schools, one of Dr. Carpenter's criteria is quite controversial. He thinks that parents of students are a bad choice for charter school board members.

Of course, one of the great things about some charter schools is the level of parent involvement. The problem with parent board members is that there is an inherent conflict of interest. Parents as board members could think that their job is to support parents or certain groups of parents rather than the mission of the school or other overarching interests that board members are supposed to protect.

The other challenge with a parent board is finding the expertise needed to run a board. Of often parent boards are not comprised of people with education backgrounds or business or legal backgrounds. For this reason, they often incur extra consulting costs or make serious mistakes in running the school and have to "learn the hard way" (if they learn).

This isn't to say that parent boards can't be effective. It is to say that parent boards leave a lot of room for inefficiency and ineffectiveness, which can lead to a breach of the fiduciary duty.

On the other hand, charter schools aren't the only boards that often have a high percentage of parent board members. Often school district board elections are popularity contests. A school district election does not ensure the quality of board members that hand selecting professionals could bring.

The district does have the advantage of having non-parent group involved in the election, but even that can bring terrible results. Districts that have serious needs for students, but a low percentage of residents with students in schools can end up voting in boards that don't spend money where it is needed.

So, as charter schools examine the landscape of possible board member selection, there are a number of pitfalls to avoid. The school founders need to consider all of the possible drawbacks as they begin a school--the list of drawbacks needs to look to the future as well. Some founding groups have a broad base of legal, financial and educational expertise, but a parent election process can quickly eliminate that broad base of expertise. On the other hand, a quality set of founders hand picking competent board members (not just a bunch of friends) can contribute to a long legacy of successful governance.

Strategic Compensation for Teachers: Can it work?

We believe it can. In fact, within a few days we'll publish a white paper explaining more about how we think about teacher pay (and pay for everyone really) and how to implement it for your school. So, be on the look out ad we put on the finishing touches this week.

It's too big to post here, but we'll give you an email address where you can get it. Please request it, read it, and let us know what you think. We want feedback as we seek to create the best possible method of rewarding and retaining excellent teachers.

Harvard Education Leader Speaks Out

I don't have a lot of commentary on this one, but I thought it was important enough to broadcast on the blog. Kathleen McCartney, Dean of the Harvard School of Education recently wrote on the CNN web site on the value of education reform.

One thing that I'll point out is that I've often said that people don't agree enough on what a good education is to criticize or evaluate schools based purely on test scores. I found it interesting that even at Harvard, the view is that there hasn't been enough research in education to determine what really works. I realize that it's not exactly the same point that I've been making, but it does support the fact that many of the methods used to criticize charter schools as not being effective are not necessarily proven methods of evaluating education, in general.

Related to this fact is the debate on what makes for effective teaching. See this discussion at Education News Colorado for more on that topic.

I hate it when that happens...another black eye for charter schools

Well, here is another black eye for charter schools. For everyone of these cases in which an administrator blatantly steals from a school, there are hundreds of cases of successful charter schools. Unfortunately, the good schools don't get the news while the bad schools attract nationwide attention.

This means that all charter schools who want to maintain a good reputation need to be extra careful. It also means that charter leaders should not be surprised when new laws for financial transparency or for increased training for charter school leaders and board members arise.

While it's pretty clear from other writing in this blog, that we aren't in favor of big government or huge amounts of regulation, we also recognize and respect the fact that charter schools are using public money. We believe that the whole point of charter schools is to do a better job with public money than our counterparts. If we don't, then there is little reason for charter schools.

If charter school leaders to not rise above the steep learning curve that I outlined yesterday, then these types of activities will continue and charter schools will continue to have to answer for their unethical siblings.

I'm not sure there is an easy way to stop illegal use of school funds before it happens, but if boards reviewed financial statements and insisted on good internal controls, these cases would become fewer and fewer. Charter schools do not have enough money for someone to steal $1 million without someone noticing (if they are paying attention). Charter school board members must understand the budget and understand where the money is going, especially when we get into $100,000 plus expenditures.

Board members, if you aren't a financial person, figure it out. Get some training. Get someone or someones on your board who do have financial training. Find a financial manager who isn't the director's best friend. Eliminating fraud is not easy if someone really wants to hide it, but there are steps to take to reduce the opportunity. Look into them and implement them.