Comments on: Worksheets instead of Teaching, in D.C. http://dcentric.wamu.org/2011/01/worksheets-instead-of-teaching-in-d-c/ Race, Class, The District. Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: nandalal rasiah http://dcentric.wamu.org/2011/01/worksheets-instead-of-teaching-in-d-c/#comment-200 nandalal rasiah Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:04:00 +0000 http://dcentric.wamu.org/?p=3091#comment-200 the prime benefit of charters is that it is possible to tell them to pound sand if they do not do what they say they will. The focus on performance metrics as the achilles heel of charters is unfortunate--either you don't measure anything and don't know what's going on or you create a system which contains clear incentives to game it. This is a dilemma which has never been solved to all parties' satisfaction. I would think that parents would simply be happy to know that the bums can actually be kicked out rather than destroy several generations. The biggest difference between the scary rural public HS I avoided (63% graduation rate) and the suburban one which I eventually attended (87% and tons of AP classes) was that the tax base for the latter was much larger. So, if both charters and public schools produce students who do not succeed at similar rates, who or what then do we blame? I don't think Rhee is responsible and the empowerment of parents in Compton has more to do with the sacred nature of trust placed in tax-funded public officials to educate their children. Schools are prisons for far more students than we would care to admit. Let 'em out. the prime benefit of charters is that it is possible to tell them to pound sand if they do not do what they say they will. The focus on performance metrics as the achilles heel of charters is unfortunate–either you don’t measure anything and don’t know what’s going on or you create a system which contains clear incentives to game it. This is a dilemma which has never been solved to all parties’ satisfaction. I would think that parents would simply be happy to know that the bums can actually be kicked out rather than destroy several generations.

The biggest difference between the scary rural public HS I avoided (63% graduation rate) and the suburban one which I eventually attended (87% and tons of AP classes) was that the tax base for the latter was much larger.

So, if both charters and public schools produce students who do not succeed at similar rates, who or what then do we blame? I don’t think Rhee is responsible and the empowerment of parents in Compton has more to do with the sacred nature of trust placed in tax-funded public officials to educate their children. Schools are prisons for far more students than we would care to admit. Let ‘em out.

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