Here is a serious and well informed critique of the popular new documentary "Waiting for Superman" by educator and critic Diane Ravitch. The potent sort of dishonest mythmaking the film represents might help us remember that Plato was not crazy to be suspicious of the power of poets.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?page=1
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An interesting article. So long as we're judging achievement by a standardized test, then yes, charter schools are likely no better than public schools. I went to a charter school (a Museum Partnership school, to be specific) for middle school. It was public but one had to audition to be accepted. We had very little funding, likely much less than the public school next door. We had no textbooks, so we were taught with a rather unique teaching method. It was unclear as to whether this was by choice or out of necessity. Anyhow, I suspect that the most important skills I learned at this school would not translate to a standardized test. Perhaps we should be going beyond judging the performance of a school solely on test scores.
This is a very important critique and I think it needs to be heeded if we expect to keep any public education available in this country.
There may well be advantages to some charter schools independent of their effects on standardized scores. I have always been a fan of innovation and experimentation in learning, and often you can try cool stuff on a small scale that would be unwieldy in a big school. Privatization and the vilification of public schools and teachers disturb me deeply, however.
My children were part of the charter school lottery in St. Mary's county last spring. As an educator, I don't appreciate the vilification of teachers either; but having done extensive work in the public schools, I think that charters have a lot to offer, and as a parent, I'm happy to have some small choice in the matter.
I'd like to discuss the "problem" with public schools: whether there is a problem, what the problem is, how the Nation at Risk hysteria has been prolonged since the 80's.
Meant to bring this up in class on Thursday. I suspect there is no problem with public schools as such, though there are certainly better and worse one. Same with Charter schools as it turns out, unsurprisingly. The problem, then, might be the demagoguing of the issue for the past thirty years leading to the widespread perception that there is a problem.
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