Spitting in the eye of mainstream education: Oakland Charter Schools

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Students sit in detention at American Indian Public Charter school in Oakland for offenses ranging from getting up during class or skipping a problem on a homework assignment. Students who misbehave in the slightest must stay an hour after school; if they misbehave again in the same week, they get more detention and four hours of Saturday detention.

Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores.

By Mitchell Landsberg, LA Times

Reporting from Oakland -- Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."

That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education. These small, no-frills, independent public schools in the hardscrabble flats of Oakland sometimes seem like creations of television's "Colbert Report." They mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody.

School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.

Students, almost all poor, wear uniforms and are subject to disciplinary procedures redolent of military school. One local school district official was horrified to learn that a girl was forced to clean the boys' restroom as punishment.

Conservatives, including columnist George Will, adore the American Indian schools, which they see as models of a "new paternalism" that could close the gap between the haves and have-nots in American education. Not surprisingly, many Bay Area liberals have a hard time embracing an educational philosophy that proudly proclaims that it "does not preach or subscribe to the demagoguery of tolerance."

It would be easy to dismiss American Indian as one of the nuttier offshoots of the fast-growing charter school movement, which allows schools to receive public funding but operate outside of day-to-day district oversight. But the schools command attention for one very simple reason: By standard measures, they are among the very best in California.

The Academic Performance Index, the central measuring tool for California schools, rates schools on a scale from zero to 1,000, based on standardized test scores. The state target is an API of 800. The statewide average for middle and high schools is below 750. For schools with mostly low-income students, it is around 650.

The oldest of the American Indian schools, the middle school known simply as American Indian Public Charter School, has an API of 967. Its two siblings -- American Indian Public Charter School II (also a middle school) and American Indian Public High School -- are not far behind.

Among the thousands of public schools in California, only four middle schools and three high schools score higher. None of them serves mostly underprivileged children.

At American Indian, the largest ethnic group is Asian, followed by Latinos and African Americans. Some of the schools' critics contend that high-scoring Asian Americans are driving the test scores, but blacks and Latinos do roughly as well -- in fact, better on some tests.

That makes American Indian a rarity in American education, defying the axiom that poor black and Latino children will lag behind others in school.

First graduates

On Tuesday, American Indian's high school will graduate its first senior class. All 18 students plan to attend college in the fall, 10 at various UC campuses, one at MIT and one at Cornell.

"They really should be the model for public education in the state of California," said Debra England of the Koret Foundation, a Bay Area group that has given more than $100,000 in grants to American Indian. "What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing."

So what are they doing?

The short answer is that American Indian attracts academically motivated students, relentlessly (and unapologetically) teaches to the test, wrings more seat time out of every school day, hires smart young teachers, demands near-perfect attendance, piles on the homework, refuses to promote struggling students to the next grade and keeps discipline so tight that there are no distractions or disruptions. Summer school is required.

full article here.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The schools I attended in India taught to the test, had huge class sizes. Most of us are doing well. Many of us are doing very well.

Heck, they threw chalk at us when we spoke out of turn. That ish hurt.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The schools I attended in India taught to the test, had huge class sizes. Most of us are doing well. Many of us are doing very well.

Heck, they threw chalk at us when we spoke out of turn. That ish hurt.

A high school Maths teacher in my school used to do that.

He'd also kick the students chairs over while they were sitting in them.

[GaryC 7]

This in California no less. It's about time. Maybe there is hope for the future of our kids if this catches on.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

The schools I attended in India taught to the test, had huge class sizes. Most of us are doing well. Many of us are doing very well.

Heck, they threw chalk at us when we spoke out of turn. That ish hurt.

Never had teachers who threw chalk, but did have ones who would slap with a ruler thick enough to be used as a whetstone.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

He'd also kick the students chairs over while they were sitting in them.

I've had that done to me too. And once we were supposed to get in line and I was being slow (as usual) so a teacher pushed me from the back, I fell face forward on the pavement, I still have the scars on my forearm.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

STFU hippie. With less than half a dozen exceptions, everyone I went to HS with went to college and is gainfully employed. About a dozen of them are already senior management. Discipline works, kumbaya doesn't.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

STFU hippie. With less than half a dozen exceptions, everyone I went to HS with went to college and is gainfully employed. About a dozen of them are already senior management. Discipline works, kumbaya doesn't.

Have you written to the teacher who gave you that scar on your forehead a thank you letter?

[GaryC 7]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

The world is a rough place. Without toughening them up they don't stand a chance when they get out of school. I think school should be more like boot camp than summer camp. It just doesn't prepare them for life by worrying about hurting their "feelings". The great experiment over the last 10 years has been shown to be a failure.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

STFU hippie. With less than half a dozen exceptions, everyone I went to HS with went to college and is gainfully employed. About a dozen of them are already senior management. Discipline works, kumbaya doesn't.

Have you written to the teacher who gave you that scar on your forehead a thank you letter?

No, if I see him again I'll fvcking kill him

The great experiment over the last 10 years has been shown to be a failure.

Yup.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

The world is a rough place. Without toughening them up they don't stand a chance when they get out of school. I think school should be more like boot camp than summer camp. It just doesn't prepare them for life by worrying about hurting their "feelings". The great experiment over the last 10 years has been shown to be a failure.

I think you'd have to be specific on what you see as a failure. My recollection of attending public school (I also had 2 years in a Catholic High School), there wasn't a lax in discipline, generally speaking.

[AlHayatZween 2]

i don't 100% agree to teaching to the test. there are a 100 different interesting ways to teach basic skills, and once you know that, the test is cake. the skills are the most important.

strict discipline is key, though. more power to that!

i used to throw chalk.

and i'll throw it again if i have to.

Edited June 3, 2009 by AlHayatZween

[GaryC 7]

Kids do need structure and discipline, but it doesn't have to be extreme to be effective.

The world is a rough place. Without toughening them up they don't stand a chance when they get out of school. I think school should be more like boot camp than summer camp. It just doesn't prepare them for life by worrying about hurting their "feelings". The great experiment over the last 10 years has been shown to be a failure.

I think you'd have to be specific on what you see as a failure. My recollection of attending public school (I also had 2 years in a Catholic High School), there wasn't a lax in discipline, generally speaking.

I am referring to the "nobody fails" policy. Worrying about a students self esteem rather than making sure they learn something has failed. I am assuming you are in your 30's. Things have changed a lot since you graduated. The kid gloves need to come off in the schools and focus on learning.

[AlHayatZween 2]

I am referring to the "nobody fails" policy. Worrying about a students self esteem rather than making sure they learn something has failed. I am assuming you are in your 30's. Things have changed a lot since you graduated. The kid gloves need to come off in the schools and focus on learning.

Agreed, but the parents have to reinforce this as well.

Nothin' like a teacher actually doing his/her job, and calling a parent to say Johnny can't behave in class and that's why he can't do __________. And the parent complaining to the principal, guidance director, etc... saying: "Not my child."