Media Coverage

Education reform is in for a big test

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe November 13, 2009

"WE'RE ABOUT to see a crucial test on education reform.

We’ll learn what’s truly important to the Massachusetts Legislature: offering families more choices, catalyzing educational innovation, and tackling underperforming schools - or placating the teachers unions.

Setting the stage for that battle is sweeping legislation just unveiled by Representative Marty Walz and Senator Rob O’Leary, the House and Senate chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education.

Building on Governor Deval Patrick's education proposal, the two have produced an impressive reform bill, one that would put Massachusetts squarely in the hunt for several hundred million in federal Race to the Top dollars.

"It is a very positive development," says Secretary of Education Paul Reville. "This would enable us to be competitive for Race to the Top both on the grounds of charter schools and on innovation."

"It is a great piece of work," agrees Paul Grogan, who as president of the Boston Foundation has pushed hard to improve urban education.

In broad strokes, the bill would do three things.

It would authorize new "innovation" schools, whose mission plans could free them from many of the bureaucratic encumbrances that limit traditional schools, and establish a predictable process for creating those schools from scratch or by converting existing schools.

It would give superintendents and the state commissioner of education broad powers to reform up to 92 of the worst-performing schools in the state at any one time.

It would eliminate or loosen most of the caps that now restrict charter schools. The overall limit of 72 Commonwealth (initially nonunionized) charter schools and 48 Horace Mann (unionized) charters would be eliminated. Also nixed would be the stricture that no more than 4 percent of students statewide can be enrolled in charters. In the state's 29 worst-performing districts, the amount of school spending that could go to charters would gradually double, from 9 to 18 percent.

Over time, that would mean thousands of new charter-school slots, and not just in poorly performing districts.

Indeed, the hope is to usher in a competitive dynamic in education. A host of new charters would offer families many more education options. But innovation schools would give the traditional system more flexibility to respond to charter competition.

"We have to drive districts to innovate more so the mediocre schools can become good schools and the good schools can become even better," says Walz.

Where unions lose significant power is in underperforming and chronically underperforming schools. Superintendents or the state education commissioner would have enhanced ability to force the modification of contracts and to replace teachers, principals, and staff there. Teachers not retained at those schools would have a year to improve their skills and find a new position elsewhere, but would lose bumping rights, which let them take the job of a less-senior instructor...."

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Solution for dropouts

By Yvonne Abraham The Boston Globe October 25, 2009

".......'I don‚t know of a single group more tied to the dropout issue than pregnant and parenting teens,' said Patricia Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. She estimates that there are currently 10,000 pregnant or parenting girls in this state, and 4,000 parenting boys. Keeping them in school, and lowering teen pregnancy rates, would put a huge dent in the dropout rate, she said.

In Massachusetts, the cities and towns with the highest dropout rates are also the cities and towns with the highest teen pregnancy rates: Lawrence, Fall River, Holyoke, Chelsea, Springfield.

Obviously, preventing kids from getting pregnant in the first place is the best solution here. To that end, kids need better sex ed in schools, access to birth control, and reasons to delay sex and pregnancy. It would be handy if more parents stepped in.

And the girls who are already mothers need someone to care for their babies while they go to school.

That‚s obvious to Beth Anderson. Her Phoenix Charter Academy, on the Chelsea-Everett line, specializes in working with the dropouts who have state officials wringing their hands. Sixteen of her 180 students are pregnant or parenting. They get the same intensive teaching and counseling as everybody else, and are held to the same standards: They can't graduate without a college acceptance letter.

They also get on-site day care. On Friday, a dozen babies and toddlers slept or played with caregivers as their mothers sat in chemistry and literature classes. Amanda Williams, 17, perched herself on a tiny chair by her pigtailed daughter Anais, 2. Williams dropped out of a Boston school last year, frustrated at being kept back. Consumed with caring for her daughter, she lost focus. She had a voucher to a day care center, but it took two buses and a train to get there from Mattapan, so she was always late for class.

"I have to be here by 9 or I get kicked out, but I can do that"‚ Williams said. "I've gone from straight Fs to being a high honor roll student"‚

Because Williams will finish school, her daughter is more likely to finish, too: Phoenix is changing two lives.

Giving teen mothers access to child care so they can graduate high school may just be the simplest and most sensible solution to a big part of our dropout problem. Williams is lucky Anderson raises private funds to pay for her on-site day-care center...."
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Beating the charter school clock

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe October 9, 2009

"In the 41 days before the Legislature adjourns, Massachusetts has to answer a pivotal question. Will it remain a national leader in education reform or will the education establishment's hostility to charter schools hold it back?

The stakes are high, and not just because of the impressive results many charter schools have delivered.

President Obama has now put a glittering pot of money - a pot that could hold $200 million to $300 million for the Commonwealth - on the table for states willing to press ahead boldly on reform. But the administration has also made it clear that those with charter caps will be at a disadvantage in applying for the "Race to the Top" dollars.

Governor Deval Patrick has taken a big step in the right direction by proposing to raise the charter cap in the state's worst-performing districts. That's more limited than what the Obama administration has sometimes called for, but the presence of US Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Patrick's July charter-cap press conference was a clear signal that the governor's plan would put us hard in the hunt for the national dollars.

Since then, however, little tangible progress has been made. Certainly neither House Speaker Robert DeLeo nor Senate President Therese Murray has issued a clarion call on lifting the cap. Although the Education Committee co-chairs say they are proceeding apace on a bill, others fear the governor's plan could sink out of sight in a Legislature that has long proved a murky bog of anticharter sentiment. If so, the state won't be strongly positioned for Race to the Top funding, applications for which will be due early next year.

Recognizing the dangers of inertia, a newly formed group of community, civic, and business leaders held a press conference this week to try to inject some urgency into the process.
The Race to the Top Coalition, midwifed by the Boston Foundation, counts progressives like Eduventures Inc. President Tom Dretler and Tom Birmingham, the former Senate president and coauthor of the state's landmark education reform law; conservatives like Massachusetts High Technology Council President Chris Anderson and Analog Devices chairman Ray Stata; and minority and community leaders like Claudio Martinez, executive director of the Hyde Square Task Force, and Bennie Wiley and the Rev. Ray Hammond, co-chairs of Black Leaders for Excellence in Education. Others include University of Massachusetts President Jack Wilson and Leslie Nicholson, state director of Stand for Children.

Hammond told me that the African-American community has come to see lifting the charter cap as crucial to providing quality educational options to students of color.

"For many of us, we talk about it as in some sense the second phase of the civil rights movement," he said. "Opportunity is great, but if there's no equipping to seize the opportunity, it might as well not be there."

Birmingham, a former Ways and Means chairman, dismissed the argument that the state can't lift the charter cap in a time of budgetary pressures, noting that the immediate cost, which he estimated as a few million dollars, is minor compared to the federal dollars that could be garnered.

Afterward, Birmingham said that with teachers unions, superintendents, and school committees all hostile to charters, raising the cap would be a tough vote for lawmakers..."
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Politics and Charters

Metrowest Daily News Editorial September 27, 2009

"Politics has been part of the state's charter school debate from the beginning. On Beacon Hill, proponents and opponents of these independently-operated public schools have clashed constantly over caps and funding formulas. In cities and towns where charter schools have been proposed, school officials and school unions, often more interested in protecting their budgets and their power than in providing educational alternatives for children, have attempted to use political clout to stop charter schools.

But for most of the 15 years since Massachusetts established charter schools as part of its landmark Education Reform Act, the process of approving charter school applications has been free of political interference. Experts charged with examining charter school applications aren't allowed to take into consideration the opinions of state legislators or municipal officials. They are solely charged with weighing the soundness of the applicants' educational and financial plans, and the state Board of Education has almost always followed their recommendations.

The first exception came in 2008, when the state Board of Education rejected an application from Sabis International for a Brockton charter school, against the recommendation of the commissioner of education. The second came this year, when the BOE accepted the application for a Gloucester charter school the experts had recommended against....

Decisions on charter school applications should be independent and professional, based on consistently applied criteria, without interference from governors, mayors, district school officials, engaged parents or special interest groups. Patrick, Reville and the state BOE should recommit themselves to that principle, as should activists on all sides of the charter school debate."
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Mired in Gloucester: Reville email taints process for charters Worcester Telegram & Gazette Editorial

September 23, 2009

The circumstances of the approval in February of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School point to procedural missteps and a growing and improper politicization of the charter school approval process, a process that has served the state well since 1993.

The controversy was ignited over the weekend when the Gloucester Daily Times revealed that Secretary of Education S. Paul Reville sent a Feb. 5 e-mail to state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, urging that at least one of three charter proposals before the Board of Education — including ones from Waltham, Worcester and Gloucester — be approved, "...or we'll get permanently labeled as hostile and that will cripple us with a number of key, moderate allies."

Eight days later, Mr. Chester prepared a favorable recommendation for the Gloucester proposal, which was narrowly approved at the BOE's Feb. 24 meeting. Mr. Reville, in Washington that day for talks with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, cast a proxy vote in favor of the Gloucester charter.

Mr. Chester insists the Gloucester vote was taken on its merits, and Mr. Reville told The Boston Globe this week that his Feb. 5 e-mail is being taken out of context. Those defenses have not satisfied school officials and parents in Gloucester, who are livid that no BOE members attended the Nov. 11, 2008, public hearing for the Gloucester school, and believe their district public schools now stand to lose funds to a charter proposal they believe was not up to state standards. At another DOE meeting yesterday, they sharply criticized Mr. Reville, Mr. Chester and other members of the BOE. State Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, called for the state inspector general to investigate the Gloucester approval process.

Charter school advocates are also crying foul. Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, said his group was "deeply troubled" by the matter, and declared that "Political interference — whether by charter opponents or supporters — weakens the integrity of the chartering process and cheapens the hard work and
commitment of charter applicants..."
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Hundreds descend on State House in support of charter schools

James Vaznis, Boston Globe September 18. 2008

"A sea of blue rolled into a State House auditorium yesterday afternoon, as charter school students, teachers and parents donned light blue T-shirts to trumpet a quote from President Obama: 'We must eliminate all charter caps.'

Among those looking for more charter schools in the state's worst-performing districts was 18-year old Eddie McGuire, a senior at Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, who believes more students should have the same kinds of opportunities he has had.

'Kids deserve a successful education,' McGuire said in an interview as he left the hearing, which lasted several hours. 'Our school has proven itself more than once over the years.'

Hundreds of business leaders, politicians, parents, students, educators, and advocates turned out for the first legislative hearing on Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to expand the number of charter school seats in school districts with the lowest MCAS scores as well as another proposal that would allow for a state takeover of failing schools.

While supporters were apparent with their blue shirts, plenty of dissenters, including high ranking teachers union officials, filled the seats, too. Unions see the proposals as an attack on the performance of teachers in traditional schools as well as a threat to their workplace rights because the proposals could reduce union contract provisions.

Speaking before members of the Joint Committee on Education, Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, said, 'The solution to better schools lies with working with us and not against us.'

Concerned about lagging achievement among some disadvantaged student groups, Patrick pitched the proposals this summer to launch what he calls the second phase of the state's more than decade-long overhaul of public education. The charter school proposal was a sharp turnaround for the governor, who had previously resisted calls for an immediate lifting of the charter school cap.

The governor now, however, views the expansion of charter schools, which were initially created under the state's 1993 Education Reform Act, as a cornerstone of his improvement plan. Several charters have proven successful in boosting achievement among low-income students as well as blacks and Latinos, and he would like those to expand - either by allowing them to accept more students or by opening more schools...."
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At war over charters

Boston Herald Editorial September 17, 2009

"Lawmakers are scheduled to hear testimony today on Gov. Deval Patrick's bill that would lift the cap on charter schools in underperforming school districts, and expand by leaps and bounds the opportunities for kids and families in struggling schools.

But school superintendents and municipal officials -- along with teachers' unions -- are still wringing their hands about their budgets. So they're making the case that charters shortchange district schools, literally.

It's nonsense, of course.

The charter school funding formula is entirely fair, simply redistributing the amount the district spends on a student to the charter school when he or she enrolls.

And those folks who are so heavily invested in beating back any charter school expansion always leave out the part about reimbursements. The state provides full reimbursement to the 'sendingä district for a full three years after the student leaves.

Still, critics argue - sometimes even with a straight face - that charter schools are somehow rolling in cash that ought to be reserved for district schools (which just happen to operate under the thumb of union rules). Even Boston Mayor Tom Menino, who has found some measure of religion on the issue of the charter school cap, tried to further that claim in last week's mayoral debate.

And now the fear is that a majority of state lawmakers will be willing to sign on to the governor's plan to lift the cap on charters - but only in exchange for weakening the charter school funding formula. It's a cynical bit of business that risks the future of some of our most vulnerable children. Not to mention that it would risk hundreds of millions of dollars in federal 'Race to the Topä funding, which is contingent on a state's support for charter schools..."
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Legislature must respond to clamor for better schools

Boston Globe Editorial September 16, 2009

"FROM THE HIGHEST reaches of the Obama administration to the parents of children in dysfunctional classrooms in Boston and elsewhere, there is a clamor to shake up underperforming schools. Tomorrow, the Legislature's education committee will take up two must-pass bills from Governor Patrick.

One would give the state Board of Education the clout it needs to intervene in underperforming district schools, including the suspension of collective bargaining contracts. The board needs this to remove bad teachers, expand the school day, reallocate existing budgets, and change curriculum in the state's worst schools.

The second bill - just as important - would dramatically increase the number of charter school openings in the lowest-performing 10 percent of school districts. Right now, more than 20,000 children are on waiting lists for the state's charter schools, which feature longer school days, better schedules, and, in many cases, higher MCAS scores. Failure to raise restrictive caps on charter schools could disqualify the state from receiving more than $200 million in federal funding for education.

Under current law, districts that lose students to charter schools also lose funding - up to 9 percent of their instruction and administrative budgets. Patrick would double that. Teachers unions and school committees are howling. But the public should save its pity for the students whose educational futures are in jeopardy. Not all charter schools are great. But Patrick's bill protects families against trading one bad option for another by limiting new seats to high-performing charter schools that make sound efforts to recruit students with special needs and limited English skills...."
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Charting action: Some states responding to challenge

Worcester Telegram & Gazette Editorial July 15, 2009

"Education reform necessarily involves a good deal of talk and planning, but ideas to take charter schools to a new level of opportunity and excellence in Massachusetts are in danger of being talked to death, even as federal education authorities make available unprecedented funding and support for such schools.

Addressing the National Charter Schools Conference in Washington, D.C., last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made it clear that the federal government stands ready to assist those states willing to lift the outmoded restrictions on charter schools and find ways to expand access to the millions of American public school students hungry for innovation and new challenges....

Meanwhile, in the face of ever-growing waiting lists for charter schools, Massachusetts remains mired in the political mud, with much talk of change, but little evidence of the bold leadership necessary if our students are to take their rightful places at the head of the national class.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s approach to education reform has been an interesting amalgam of reform proposals for traditional schools, a partial lifting of the cap on charter schools, and the creation of a new breed of “Readiness” schools. We applaud the governor’s shift toward a broader endorsement of charters, but regret that his proposals seem to have become trapped in an unending feedback loop from unions, legislators and other stakeholders. The Legislature’s Education Committee, for example, opens hearings July 21 on reform proposals that do not include the governor’s long-simmering plans.

No constituency in the education game will ever be fully satisfied by any reform proposal, because compromise is a necessary part of the political process. Against such a backdrop, bold action, not endless discussion, shows the way forward. Substantial federal dollars in the near term are one potential reward, but a far more important one is the future success of many thousands of Massachusetts students."
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How to improve education for all

The Lowell Sun Editorial July 10, 2009

"....We believe the cap on charter schools should be lifted, and technical-vocational schools should continue to see strong support at the state level.

Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing his "readiness schools" proposal, which combines features of charter schools and experimental pilot schools located in Boston. We understand, and commend, his desire to improve educational opportunities for all children. But why not invest more in programs that have already proven their worth? Why take unnecessary risks with taxpayers' money?

Charter schools and technical-vocational schools have shown tremendous growth and excellent scores for more than a decade. Charters, which provide a newer model than technical-vocational schools, have been hailed by education advocates for their innovative teaching styles and curriculum.

If more charter schools slots became available, low-income parents would have increased opportunities to remove their children from substandard schools in favor of academically innovative institutions with high achievement levels. The more students excel, the more likely they will succeed in future endeavors, and the more likely they will one day pay higher taxes, purchase more goods and services, and contribute to the nation's economic recovery.

Investing in innovative, quality schools is a prudent investment in America's future. There's seems little need to gamble on readiness schools. Charter and technical-vocational schools have proven their worth and deserve the staunch support of Massachusetts' leaders."
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Lifeboat for failing schools

The Boston Globe Editorial July 7, 2009

"THE UNDERSIDE of education reform in Massachusetts is the abundance of low-achieving schools in mostly poor cities and towns where progress in the classroom is torturously slow. It has become common knowledge in the Patrick administration that many of these schools won’t improve significantly without aggressive intervention by state education officials.

Governor Patrick will soon seek legislative approval to beef up his earlier “readiness schools’’ plan by allowing the state commissioner of education to appoint a receiver for dozens of chronically underperforming schools. State takeover would open the way for dramatic changes in curriculum, budgeting, staffing, and key provisions in teacher contracts, such as the length of the school day. The type of intervention and the level of control retained by local school districts would depend largely on the academic status of the school and its willingness to improve. But the proposed bill will open the way for the removal of school administrators and ineffective teachers in the worst schools without regard to collective bargaining contracts. And in some cases, nothing less will do.

Despite providing generous support for education reform since the early 1990s, lawmakers have shown undue deference to local school committees and teachers unions. The Legislature, for example, retains tight caps on charter schools, which compete favorably with local schools by offering reforms similar to Patrick’s proposal. But with about 200 Massachusetts schools on a federal watch list, there should be plenty of room for both new charter schools and Patrick’s readiness schools.

The Legislature has taken huge steps to close public pension loopholes and pass tough ethics laws for public officials. Lawmakers should take a similarly-bold approach to education reform both by raising the cap on charter schools and giving the education commissioner the power needed to intervene in broken schools...."
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Charter Schools Win a High-Profile Convert: Boston's mayor risks the ire of the teachers' unions.

Op-ed by Jon Keller The Wall Street Journal June 27, 2009

"Tom Menino, the longtime Democratic mayor of this city, is not known for rocking the boat or for eloquence. But earlier this month he stunned many in the city when he gave a powerful speech about school reform.

The speech took aim at the lack of progress in dozens of low-performing, inner-city Boston public schools, many of which have not met adequate yearly progress for five years running.

'To get the results we seek -- at the speed we want -- we must make transformative changes that boost achievement for students, improve quality choices for parents, and increase opportunities for teachers,' Mr. Menino said. 'We need to empower our educators to quickly innovate and implement what works.' With that, Mr. Menino abandoned nearly two decades of personal opposition to nonunion charter schools, which have been bitterly resisted by Massachusetts teachers unions and their political allies. 'I believe that the increased flexibility that charters provide can . . . help us close the achievement gap,' he declared.

'Betrayal,' cried the Boston Teachers Union on its Web site, decrying the 'glee' with which Mr. Menino's 'sudden turnaround' was greeted by 'anti-public school and anti-tax zealots.' That's a typically hyperbolic reference to Massachusetts' growing legions of charter-school supporters, an ideologically-diverse group that includes the Boston Globe's liberal editorial page, a bipartisan group of state officeholders who've funneled billions in new revenue into the public schools, and at least 13,000 pro-charter Boston taxpayers -- the 5,000 families with children in charter schools and 8,000 on waiting lists to enroll.

But the inflammatory rhetoric of the Boston Teachers Union reflects the alarm triggered by Mr. Menino's speech. 'He has really thrown down the gauntlet to the union,' notes Linda Brown of the charter-school support group Building Excellent Schools. 'He's responding to an enormous overcurrent and undercurrent of public pressure over the fact that nothing is changing in too many schools. He's used his political acuteness to see there's a perfect storm'.....

Mr. Menino tried to accommodate union resistance to charters by experimenting with unionized "pilot" schools that allow limited managerial flexibility in making personnel and budget decisions. But those experiments are failing to improve education and unions remain opposed to charters.

'The straw that broke the camel's back,' Mr. Merino told me, came when a principal of one of the struggling school accepted a grant from ExxonMobil to give teachers small bonuses when their students excelled. The unions 'took us to arbitration,' Mr. Menino said, essentially killing the bonuses. So for good measure the mayor included a call for merit pay in his blockbuster school-reform speech. 'Every time we try to do a reform they stop it.'

Vestiges of Mr. Menino's anticharter past and his cautious political instincts remain. He wants to convert 51 failing public schools to "in-district" charters under the control of the city. Initially these schools will be nonunion, but unions may be able to organize their teachers down the road. Still, if results don't improve or the unions block his plan, Mr. Menino vows to lobby for lifting the state's restrictive cap on the number of "pure" charter schools. "Charters are a vehicle to get the reforms we need," he says.

Resistance in the state legislature to charter expansion is already wearing out the patience of even sober civic leaders like Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, a large private philanthropy. Creating more charters "couldn't be a more urgent matter," he told a legislative committee recently, adding that further delay "borders on criminal."

The Boston Foundation recently released a study noting that students admitted to charter schools were doing much better than the children they left behind in regular public schools, and better than students in those pilot schools that the mayor supported. The report found, for example, that students in pilot schools did not improve above regular public school students in eighth grade math. Charter-school children vastly improved their scores.

With Mr. Menino now pressing for more charters, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick could soon be under tremendous pressure to do more than pay lip service to the idea. The governor has so far professed support for charters, then supported policies that hamstrung them. For example, he has called for easing caps on charter schools -- but only in the worst-performing districts and with restrictions that force them to toss aside the lottery system they use to select students and instead adopt quotas for special education and English-as-a-second-language students.

It's unclear if such charter policies will meet Mr. Duncan's federal-funding smell test. It definitely doesn't satisfy Ms. Brown of Building Excellent Schools. "He cannot keep kicking popular opinion and political sanity aside," she says.

For Mr. Patrick, whose poll ratings are sagging low enough for some to wonder if he can win re-election in 2010, all of this has to be worrisome. The pro-charter rhetoric from Mr. Menino -- who is usually ranked alongside Sen. Edward Kennedy as the state's most popular politician -- is a flashing warning light. He can continue to cave into the teacher unions. Or he can get in line with demands of the Obama administration and offer unqualified support for charter schools.

Mr. Menino, for one, is already well down that path. He says that his own children are eyeing Boston charter schools for two of his grandchildren next fall."
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New momentum for charter schools

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe June 12, 2009

"TALK ABOUT barriers lifting and paradigms shifting.

Suddenly, support for charter schools, once the lonely province of public-policy entrepreneurs and intrepid, union-defying pols, has become positively mainstream.

For that, you can credit a pro-charter Democratic president, recent Boston Foundation-sponsored research demonstrating their educational efficacy, persistent pressure from both Boston dailies, a developing mayoral race in the Hub - and, oh yes, the myopic resistance to change displayed by the leadership of the Boston Teachers Union.

Last week, City Councilor Michael Flaherty, a mayoral hopeful, outlined to me his bold plan to transform Boston's 10 worst schools into charters and to lift the charter cap so still more of the independent public schools can open.

This week, incumbent Tom Menino, long a charter opponent, also called for turning the city's most chronically underperforming schools into charters. If he fails to get state authority to do so, Menino pledged to push for raising the state cap on charters.

Councilor Sam Yoon, who told me in February that he favored more charters, weighed in with his own proposal: Letting charter schools with a proven record replicate themselves. "If you are successful, why should you be limited?" asks Yoon, who's also running for mayor. "We should be saying exactly the opposite: Be fruitful and multiply."

......So, imperfect though Menino's plan may be, it could still signal cement-cracking change.

"Because this mayor is so long-serving and so powerful and because of his traditional reluctance to embrace the charter model, his change of position is extremely significant, both substantively and symbolically," says Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation.

Further, the macro message is clear: After years of trying to nudge the existing system along, only to be thwarted by the BTU, the mayor has concluded he can't get the changes he needs by working solely within that system.

Menino acknowledges as much, noting the BTU has filed grievances over pilot schools - designed to be the city's in-district alternative to charter schools - and over a plan for performance pay for advanced-placement teachers.

"I have been out there working with them, and now we are in arbitration on two simple matters," says Menino. "When is it going to be about the kids?"

Finally, it's worth noting that the Patrick administration is retooling its own cap-lifting proposal. Although the administration still would only allow more charters in the worst performing districts - and then only to target achievement-gap populations - it is at least backing off plans to impose specific, up-front student-body requirements on any new charters.

That's a step in the right direction. Yet at a time when a Democratic president and his secretary of education are calling for the lifting of all caps on charters, there's room to be much bolder.

The charter battle is hardly over, of course. Words shouldn't be mistaken for deeds, nor intentions for results. Further, the Legislature, long a swamp of anti-charter ambuscade, needs to realize the urgency of moving forward.

All that said, however, the June momentum is marked and unmistakable."
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Take caps off charter schools

Boston Globe Editorial June 10, 2009

"CONTINUED resistance to lifting the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts leaves more than 20,000 children on waiting lists and the potential for millions of federal stimulus dollars on the table. Sensible politicians and policy makers can’t abide such waste, regardless of how much fuss arises from the ranks of teachers unions and school committees.

US Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned state and local officials on Monday that they will miss out on a share of the $4.4 billion in competitive education grants if they undermine the spread of charter schools. Duncan, the former head of Chicago's public schools, is a strong backer of charter schools, known for their longer school days, flexible scheduling, and ability to hire and assign teachers without interference from teachers unions and downtown bureaucrats. And he is no fan of the artificial caps that limit the ability of new charter schools to open in urban areas where they are most needed.

Some elected officials are responding. Yesterday, Mayor Menino told a group of business leaders at the CEO Club that he will call for lifting the cap on charter schools if he fails to win legislative approval for 'a new form of in-district charter school.' ....

It's a half-measure, leaving Menino with only the bully pulpit should state lawmakers reject his bid. Mayoral challenger Michael Flaherty takes a more straightforward approach by simply urging state lawmakers to raise the current cap, which mandates that no school district be required to transfer more than 9 percent of net school spending to support charter schools. Mayoral challenger Sam Yoon takes a more nuanced approach, calling for a "smart cap" that would allow charter schools with a proven record of success to float above the spending cap. Both the proposals by Flaherty and Yoon seem more in keeping with Duncan's call for decisive action on charter school caps.

The Patrick administration is also dancing around the charter cap issue, offering small reforms and then doing little to guide them through the Legislature. Meanwhile, thousands of students in Cambridge, Lawrence, Lowell, Springfield, and other cities at or near the cap for charter school spending are trapped in underperforming schools. Tight caps on charter schools are a sign of restrictive thinking."
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Editorial: Raise the cap on charters

MetroWest Daily News May 31, 2009

"The latest study of public education in Massachusetts cites progress over the last 15 years and a stubborn gap between the state's highest- and lowest-performing schools. It makes a handful of sensible recommendations, including one for which there is growing momentum: Raising the cap on new charter schools.

The study, commissioned by MassINC, a respected, nonpartisan think tank, concludes that the Education Reform Act of 1993 has had mixed success. A big increase in state aid narrowed the school funding gap between communities. The MCAS tests set tough new standards, encouraging schools to give extra attention to struggling students. Massachusetts students now lead the nation in standardized test scores and are at or near the top in math and science when compared with students around the world.

But the achievement gap between students at the highest-funded schools and the lowest-funded schools persists, according to two Tufts professors who crunched the numbers for MassINC. The gap has been exacerbated by an increased concentration of low-income students and students with limited English in the lowest-performing districts.

The report's recommendations are familiar: longer school days and school years, merit pay for the most effective teachers, incentives to get the best teachers in struggling schools, intervention for students lagging in the early grades, cost savings by consolidating administrative functions and putting teachers' health benefits under the state's Group Insurance Commission.

Most of these ideas have faced resistance from teachers' unions and some are expensive at a time when budgets are being cut and teachers laid off. There has also been resistance to charter schools, which were allowed under Education Reform but limited by a provision that caps the amount of district funding diverted to charter schools at 9 percent of school spending.

That provision has put districts at or near the cap in such cities as Boston, Holyoke, Springfield and Lowell - exactly the places where new charter schools are needed most. Research funded through The Boston Foundation has found charter schools outperform traditional or pilot schools at improving student achievement. Almost all charters operate on longer school days, provide more intensive individual attention and foster more interaction between school and parents.

The denial of these benefits to students in struggling districts because of the arbitrary cap "borders on criminal," Paul Grogan, president of The Boston Foundation, told a recent legislative hearing.

Gov. Deval Patrick's budget calls for raising the cap for some districts, but includes cumbersome and unnecessary conditions on new charters. Neither the House nor the Senate budgets lift the cap, but there is movement toward appointing a study panel that could fashion consensus....

The best reason to raise the cap, however, is the thousands of students on waiting lists for charter slots in school districts on the low end of the achievement gap. They can't wait indefinitely for the political stalemate over charter schools to break, and they shouldn't have to."
Click here to read the full editorial

A brave call for raising the charter cap

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe May 29, 2009

"WHEN MassINC speaks, it's well worth listening.

After all, the nonpartisan think tank has established itself as a thoughtful, careful, credible voice on public policy in Massachusetts.

Yesterday, it called for raising the cap on charter schools.

That recommendation comes as part of a detailed analysis of the state's long education reform effort. The study, "Incomplete Grade: Massachusetts Education Reform at 15," is a good news/bad news evaluation.

On the plus side, it finds we've made real progress in boosting overall student achievement. Further, students in poorer communities are doing considerably better than baseline trends indicate they would have been had Beacon Hill never enacted our landmark education legislation, which dramatically increased state expenditures, narrowed spending disparities among districts, raised academic standards, and established the MCAS.

Yet despite those efforts, the achievement gap persists between communities that were low-spending when education reform passed and those considered high-spending.

Different strategies are needed to help students in the poorer, low-spending communities, says MassINC. Noting recent research by Harvard and MIT showing the strong impact some Boston charters have had on student achievement, the nonprofit says one of those remedies should be more charter schools.

"The report underlines that we have unfinished business - and that charter schools clearly are part of the answer to that unfinished business," says Mass-INC president Greg Torres. "It's time to lift the cap and it's time for the education establishment and the political leadership to be more aggressive about focusing on inner cities."

That's a position I advocate with some frequency, both because of the success many charters enjoy and because it's important that students of modest means have greater educational choice and opportunity....

So it's time for Governor Patrick, Speaker Robert DeLeo, Senate President Therese Murray, and Massachusetts mayors like, say, Boston's Tom Menino, to get forcefully behind raising the charter cap - and without cumbersome qualifications...."
Click here to read the full op-ed

GROGAN: MINIMAL CHARTER SCHOOL ACCESS ‘BORDERS ON CRIMINAL'

State House News Service May 12, 2009

"Urging lawmakers to lift the cap on charter schools, the head of a prominent civic organization told the Committee on Education Tuesday that failing to increase access for poor and minority students to charter schools 'borders on criminal.' 'We seem to be defending the right of our urban school districts not to change,' said Paul Grogan, president of The Boston Foundation. Grogan argued that charter schools provide the longer day and intensive training that helps underachieving students catch up to their peers. 'It couldn’t be a more urgent matter to remedy this problem now ... I think it is a problem of political will. The unions have spent decades building up these highly prescriptive work rules,' he said. Grogan spoke as part of a panel that also included former Board of Education Chair Chris Anderson, who also argued that charter schools help close a persistent achievement gap between poor, minority students and their wealthier peers, the bane of state education officials. Rep. Jennifer Benson, a freshman Democrat from Lunenburg, countered that public schools have a “bit of a different clientele” compared to charter schools. 'They have students and parents who need special education programs. They can’t leave their public school because of that,' she said. 'Public schools are definitely for every child.' Benson said that part of the solution was helping public schools improve rather than focusing solely on proliferating charters schools. Last week, the state’s elementary education chief Mitchell Chester was bombarded by backers of public schools who argued that charter schools were sucking resources away from traditional schools. They lambasted the Patrick administration for siphoning state education aid to charter schools while teachers were being laid off at local public schools. 2:28 P.M."

Parents want charter public school cap removed

WBZ TV April 29, 2009

"More than 500 parents gathered at the State House Wednesday, hoping to get a message to Gov. Deval Patrick.

They want the cap on public charter schools lifted in Massachusetts so that more charter schools could open.

Right now, there are 25,000 students enrolled in public charter schools and 23,000 on the waiting list.

State Representative Eugene O'Flaherty has co-sponsored a bill that would lift that cap on school district spending from 9 percent to 20 percent.

O'Flaherty says, "Charter schools are another opportunity for children of working class parents who may not be able to afford it... to send their kids to schools they're comfortable with."

If the bill is passed, more money would go to charter schools and more could open.

Single mother Esther Vargas has a daughter at Kipp Academy in Lynn, a charter school that has 200 kids on the waiting list for 75 spots that are already filled.

"Kipp is the other parent that's missing in my house," Vargas said.

Her oldest daughter graduated from Kipp and earned a scholarship to a private school. Her younger daughter is currently enrolled.

Vargas says, "It changes lives. It changes generations of families. My kids will be the first to go to college."
Click here to view the full story

 

State should meet demand for charter schools

Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and former chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education Worcester Business Journal 4/27/09

"....In contrast to the president’s call, high hopes for more rapid adoption of these well-researched models of transformation in Massachusetts have faded in the face of union resistance and political leadership. As a result, we risk losing the gains we’ve made and alienating parents who are looking for public school options outside traditional school districts.

The results of a definitive study on the benefits of charter schools conducted by the Boston Foundation this year are stunning. The estimated effect of a year spent in a Boston charter school is often quite similar to that of a year spent in one of the city’s elite exam schools. In a single year, academic gains are the equivalent of half the size of the achievement gap between minority and white students. Between fourth and eighth grade, the test scores of charter middle school students rose from slightly above Boston’s average to almost equal to the Brookline public schools.

The need for more charters in Worcester is evident from the long waiting lists for the two current charters. More than 1,300 children wait for open seats at Abby Kelley Foster and Seven Hills charter schools, which exceed the performance of all other city schools but the University park Campus School, which is open only to students in its neighborhood.

Expanding access to charters will take strong and sustained support from the Worcester business community. We would encourage local leadership in this effort, and are willing to provide support.

Innovative schools represent just one element in a list of improvements required to create a world-class education system in Massachusetts.

In the case of charter schools, however, the demand is there, the results are proven, but the current limit is unjustifiable. We cannot consider ourselves a world-class education system while slamming the door in the faces of thousands of parents and students who seek a proven standard of education.
Click here to read the full op-ed

Cease-fire needed: Charters and districts share goals

Worcester Telegram & Gazette Editorial April 5, 2009

"More than 15 years after charter schools came to Massachusetts as part of the comprehensive 1993 education reform legislation, it is time for charter opponents and proponents to end their long-running feud over the future and funding of these institutions.

With 61 charter schools enrolling more than 24,000 students, and demand continuing to grow in cities and suburbs alike, it is clear that charter schools are a success story that cannot and should not be wished or legislated away. Nonetheless, their governance and funding remain sore spots for some education and municipal officials, who believe they unfairly drain resources from the state's district public schools.

As originally conceived, the funding of charter schools did pose a serious financial hardship for existing district schools. The 1993 law did not provide for any reimbursement to school districts that lost students to charters. That inequity was first addressed in 1997 and has been revisited since then. Currently, "sending" districts receive 100 percent reimbursement during the first year following a student's departure, 60 percent the second year, and 40 percent the third.

Although those reimbursements are among the most generous of any in the 40 states with charter schools, district school officials in Massachusetts still contend such funds are insufficient. It is not always possible to realize cost savings that might be anticipated from having fewer students to teach, they say, because buildings and programs cannot necessarily be consolidated when enrollment losses are spread across a district's grade levels and schools.

While that argument had strong merit in the early years of the charter school movement, it is far less persuasive now that charters are well established. The state's vigorous charter school approval process, in combination with existing caps on the number, location, enrollment and overall funding of charter schools, gives district school officials plenty of time to anticipate the opening of a school and gauge its impact on enrollment in their district.

For that reason, a Patrick administration proposal to move 20 percent of charter school funding outside Chapter 70 - the section of state law that governs public-education funding - would be fundamentally unfair to charter schools and ultimately unhelpful to district schools caught up in renewed and acrimonious public debate..."
Click here to read the full editorial

 

Gov behind the curve

Op-ed by Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute The Boston Herald March 30, 2009

“’Right now, there are many caps on how many charter schools are allowed in some states, no matter how well they’re preparing our students,’ President Barack Obama recently noted before calling to ‘lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place.’

Obama’s support for charter schools comes in the wake of a Boston Foundation report showing that the city’s charters, which significantly outperform district and pilot schools and educate a higher percentage of African-Americans than district schools, are bridging the achievement gap.

The report noted that in one year charter student gains equaled half the gap between black and white students. A student attending a charter middle school can see improvements akin to what would be achieved moving from the Boston to the Brookline public schools.

So will Gov. Deval Patrick heed Obama’s call to lift or eliminate charter caps, particularly in urban districts such as Boston? The rhetoric and a proposal from his administration don’t bode well…

The excellence of Massachusetts’ charter schools was evident again last month when New Leaders for New Schools, a national educational organization, gave out awards to the nation’s top charter schools. Massachusetts’ charter schools received almost 30 percent of the awards, though we have fewer than 2 percent of the nation’s charter schools…

It is time for the governor to go back to the chalkboard. His new proposal must not create the potential for separate and unequal sources of funding for charter students, and it should allow charter enrollments to continue to be determined by lottery, not by state-mandated quotas.

Even as Massachusetts seems stuck in a public policy time warp, people in both parties across the country are fully embracing public charter schools. Patrick should too and heed Obama’s call to lift the caps.”
Click here to read the full op-ed

 

Obama's challenge on charters

By Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe Columnist March 13, 2009

"President Obama's speech on education this week offered a nice national nod to Massachusett's education reform efforts - and presented a distinct challenge to Democrats like his good friend Deval Patrick...

After stipuating that states need a rigorous selection and oversight process for charters, the president urged this bold action: 'I call on states to reform their charter rules and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place.'

Um, Governor Patrick? Lieutenant Governor Murray? Legislative leaders? That's your Democratic president speaking.

On charters, Obama is refreshingly willing to put the interests of kids and families first, even though teachers unions are vehemently opposed to the independent academies, where faculties aren't automatically unionized and pay increases are based on performance.

Once a pronounced charter skeptic, Patrick has started to come around. He has called for raising the charter cap in the 50 lowest-performing districts, but would require new charters to draw their students disproportionately from demographic groups that lag in academic achievement. Charter advocates contend the governor's strict conditions would be hard to square with the blind lotteries charters use for student selection.

Nor is there a good reason to deny charter opportunities to other hopeful families. Given the clear demand for charter slots as evidenced by the long waiting lists, Patrick's requirements would be unfairly restrictive.

'We appreciate that the governor has moved on the charter cap issue, but we would prefer it if he simply took the president's advice, at least for the urban districts, and called for lifting the cap outright,' says Boston Foundation President Paul Grogan, a leading voice for more choice and innovation in education.

So will Patrick accept the president's challenge? Although Secretary of Education Paul Reville hadn't yet discussed the matter with the governor, who has been on vacation, Reville said his guess is that the administration will stick with its current approach to raising the cap, while pushing for charter-like (or is that charter-lite?) readiness schools.

'We are trying to skin the cat a different way and not run head on into the midst of what the president has called a stale debate, in which we have been stalled out for a number of years,' Reville told me.

But that misses the president's point. Obama's message was that we should get beyond long-standing ideological debates by supporting what works. And the best charters are showing impressive results.

That's why Patrick should use the president's challenge to move beyond his own limited step. If he doesn't, the governor and the Commonwealth will have missed an important opportunity..."
Click here to read the full story

 

Charters win a big fan

Boston Herald editorial March 11, 2009

"Yesterday President Barack Obama was as clear as he could possible be about his support for charter schools and for their expansion in states where they already exist.

Now if only his BFF Deval Patrick would get the message!

Obama detailed his education reform plan in a major address to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Much of it was in keeping with his campaign themes, but still, speaking from the bully pulpit of the presidency is different....

'Right now, there are caps on how many charter schools are allowed in some states [Massachusetts among the], no matter how well they are preparing our students. That isn't good for our children, our economy or our country.'

Well, memo to Gov. Patrick -- who has supported lifting the cap only in under-performing districts -- it's time to get with the program.

'I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place,' Obama said.

So how about it?"
Click here to read the full editorial

 

Six Bay State Charter Schools Emerge Winners in National Competition

State House News Service March 5, 2009

"Massachusetts is home to six of the 21 schools that will be announced Thursday morning as winners of national awards. The schools were among 144 competing for awards from EPIC, the Effective Practice Incentive Community grant program run by New Leaders for New Schools and funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education...."
Click here to read the press release from EPIC

 

A challenge to charter schools

The Boston Globe Editorial February 5, 2009

"GOVERNOR Patrick finally stopped fraternizing with charter school detractors last week and put a solid idea on the table: Raise the cap on charter schools, provided they do more for the hardest-to-educate students in poor school districts.

This is encouraging. Only weeks earlier, the administration signaled that it might delay opening charter schools under the current cap of 120 statewide. Patrick feels pressure from districts and local officials who must shift per-pupil costs to charter schools. But it is money well diverted. Public charter schools, which are run by independent boards, make skillful use of longer school days, enhanced curricula, and the ability to assign teachers without interference from unions or downtown bureaucrats...

There is a simpler way. Patrick and the Legislature should raise the cap while instructing the Board of Education to call for and entertain only those charter school proposals with a mission to serve struggling students, such as the "second chance" Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School.

Patrick's proposal would also shift some of the funding for charter schools away from the mainstream Chapter 70 education funding account and into a separate line item in the budget. This is dangerous because it exposes the line item to liquidation by legislators who do the bidding of local school committee members, union leaders, and other charter school opponents.

The Patrick administration should issue its challenge to the charter schools, raise the cap, and then get out of the way."

Click here to read the full editorial

Our View: Lift cap on new charters

The Herald News January 13, 2009

"...Now that the state budget crisis has moved Patrick's education agenda to the back burner, it's time the governor rethinks his position again. Innovations that help charter schools succeed must be spread to all schools, and the cap on new charters must be lifted. Students must not be deprived because of a political stalemate on Beacon Hill."
Click here to read the full editorial

 

Short Fuse
Charter schools: Patrick's fishy logic

The Boston Globe January 14, 2009

"Speaking on WTKK last week, Governor Patrick called the issue of raising the charter school cap "a total red herring" because "we're not at the cap." Maybe so for the statewide cap of 120 charters, but the cap's local-spending restriction already effectively rules out some communities. For example, the Department of Education notes on its application form that it won't accept proposals for charters including Boston students because the Hub is now so close to its cap. Meanwhile, places like Cambridge, Everett, Greenfield, Holyoke, Hull, Malden, North Adams, Randolph, and Somerville have fewer than 200 slots left. Since most charters need at least 250 students to be financially viable, the cap makes new charters impractical there as well. Conclusion: The issue is real, not a red herring."

 

Editorial: Lift the cap on charters

Daily News Tribune and Metrowest Daily News January 11, 2009

“In the 15 years since they were created, the debate over charter schools in Massachusetts has been polarized over issues of financing and authority. Too little attention has been paid to the most important question: How well are charter school students learning?

While charter schools have consistently out-performed district schools on standardized tests, a new study paints an even clearer picture. The study, commissioned by the Boston Foundation, compared test scores over four years for students of similar backgrounds in Boston's district schools, charter schools and pilot schools…

What sets this study apart is the effort to address the argument that charter school students are a self-selected sample of the most motivated students and parents. Researchers compared the scores of students who applied to the most popular charter and pilot schools but lost out in the lottery required for admission. Their scores also fell well behind those of their luckier peers…

As a candidate, Deval Patrick said he supports charter schools, but wanted to fix their much-criticized funding formula before expanding them. As governor, he rethought his position. After more than a year of study, he produced an ambitious education reform plan that didn't do either, instead calling for the creation of "readiness schools" which, like pilot schools, would function under union rules and the control of local school boards.

Now that the state budget crisis has moved Patrick's education agenda to the back burner, it's time the governor rethought his position again. Innovations that help charter schools succeed must be spread to all schools, and the cap on new charters must be lifted. Students must not be deprived because of a political stalemate on Beacon Hill.”
Click here to read the full editorial

 

Raise the cap on charters

Boston Globe Editorial January 10, 2009

“THE SHORTEST DISTANCE between urban students and quality education is a charter school that is free to lengthen the school day, enhance the curriculum, and assign teachers without interference from teachers unions or downtown bureaucrats. Yet state education officials not only resist lifting tight caps on new charter schools but are now contemplating measures that would undermine opening charter schools under the current cap.

A new Boston Foundation study compared the achievement of Boston students at charter, traditional, and in-district pilot schools, which have adopted some charter-like reforms. The charter schools, which are run by independent boards, topped the list. The most dramatic finding in the new study was the success of charter schools in raising math performance by middle school students - usually a resistant bunch…

The best strategy would be to double the potential for new charter schools in low-performing urban districts by raising the net school spending limit from 9 percent to 18 or 20 percent. School districts will howl. But they may also recognize the urgent need to provide their own students with longer school days and deeper opportunities.”
Click here to read the full editorial

Charter schools shine in new study. Now what?

Commonwealth Magazine Blog: Commonwealth Unbound January 6, 2009

“Exactly what will it take for state leaders to raise the cap on Massachusetts charter schools, which have thousands of students on waiting lists clamoring for a chance to escape the mediocre classrooms that define too many of the state's urban district systems?

By any measure, the new study released today should end the argument over the effectiveness of charter schools, which operate independent of district systems and without the constraints of collective bargaining contracts. Yet unyielding state education leaders show no sign that they will let rigorous evidence get in the way of dug-in resistance to more charters…

(Education Commissioner Mitchell) Chester seems to be following the script laid down by Gov. Deval Patrick and his education secretary, Paul Reville. They have resisted the call for more charters and are pushing instead for the development of so-called "readiness schools," which would operate within district systems and mimic many aspects of the Boston pilot schools.

Charter schools are by no means the only answer to the yawning achievement gap that is the central challenge facing U.S. public education. But they are emerging as an important part of the answer, one that has been embraced by President-elect Obama and by school leaders in big urban districts across the country. Sensibly, Sagan and Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan voiced support this morning for raising the charter cap and experimenting with "readiness schools." Adopting aggressive reforms and embracing school models with a clear track record of results in closing the achievement gap is indeed the civil rights issue of our time. It's an issue that Gov. Patrick and his education team seem in danger of ending up on the wrong side of. “
Click here to read the full article

Charter Schools Work

The Lowell Sun January 7, 2009

“It's hard to keep secret the success of Massachusetts' public charter school movement unless you are: an employee of the state Department of Education; a teacher, principal or superintendent in a traditional public school system; a School Committee member anywhere; a member of Gov. Deval Patrick's Readiness Project team and/or his 21st Century Skills Task Force.

Despite convincing evidence of the effectiveness of charter schools in raising students' performance standards, the so-called education elite continues to ignore the results…

The case is stronger than ever now that a Boston Foundation study showed that charter schools outperformed the city's traditional schools and 18 pilot schools run by the local School Department. The four-year study, conducted by Harvard and MIT, found that the innovative teaching in charter schools improved the academic progress of students from similar backgrounds. Pilot school students performed the worst. The findings are significant because Patrick's Readiness Project task force has endorsed pilots -- run by local school districts -- over creating more charters.

Paul Reville, the state's education secretary, seemed nonplussed with the Boston study's findings. That's disappointing. With the state facing a $2.2 billion budget deficit, Reville should be focusing on what works.

Gov. Patrick, too, has to realize that public charter schools, like the MCAS test, are enduring initiatives that deliver academic value to students. Their success should not be denied.”

(Full article no longer available online)