There are
multiple reasons for the Elementary and Secondary Board to reject the request
of Achievement First, a private corporation controlled by a private board, to
increase the number of charter schools in Providence: fiscal, educational and cultural. The fiscal logic is overwhelming. RIDE estimates that the Providence Public
Schools will lose about $35 million dollars a year if Achievement First expands
to 3,000 students. When this taxpayer
money is removed from public education into the private sector, it will also be
removed from public oversight. Privatization
of public services replaces the public interest with private interest and
control.
From an
educational perspective, there are two main problems. First, according to InfoWorks, 28% of AF teachers
at the Providence Mayoral Academy are not considered highly qualified, versus
3% of the state. RIDE has developed a
rigorous teacher certification system that AF has been allowed to ignore. Second, while AF touts higher scores on
standardized tests, these results are based on a narrow curriculum mostly
confined to preparing for tests. As a
former AF teacher from Connecticut wrote in a recent blog, “It is much easier
to teach behavioral management tactics than to foster deep passion and knowledge
about an academic field.”
Related to
that is Achievement First’s focus on discipline. The 2014-2015 rate of suspension for AF was
7.8 elementary students per 100, which is twice as high as the statewide
average of 3.8 per 100. According to the
Civil Rights Project
(2016), “there is
a wealth of research indicating that the frequent use of suspensions…contributes
to chronic absenteeism, is correlated with lower achievement, and predicts lower
graduation rates, heightened risk for grade retention, delinquent behavior, and
costly involvement in the juvenile justice system.”
Even more
disturbing is the lack of cultural responsiveness in a school where most
students are youth of color. In Linda
Borg’s feature article two weeks ago, a senior leader at AF was quoted as
saying, “We live in a white culture, so it’s important to learn these
skills—making eye contact, shaking hands, speaking loudly and clearly.” Appropriate
expectations for behavior are essential to student learning, but these
behaviors should not be coded as white, nor should they be narrowly defined. Students from diverse cultures have diverse
cultural norms.
Finally,
any expansion of schools should be based on multiple measures, which are
currently unavailable on InfoWorks. As a
purely business proposition, it makes no sense to expand when there is not
enough data to determine whether these schools are successful. Test scores are
not indicators of child well-being, and the limited data available on the two
AF schools in Rhode Island do not indicate that AF is significantly better than
the rest of the state in most measures.
In order
for significant positive change to happen in public schools, state and district
leaders need to acknowledge that results will not change unless conditions
change. Blaming students for not meeting
standards and teachers for student failures is misguided. Research shows that poverty negatively
impacts child well-being and ability to learn.
Furthermore, using test score data to measure student outcomes widens—not
narrows—the opportunity gap. This state
is full of educators, researchers, parents and youth who are eager to find
creative and culturally responsive ways to support learning for all children,
and there are plenty of local and national public school success stories that
can serve as models.
