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Bret Hartman / Washington Post via Getty Images
Doreen Diaz, right, walks with her daughter and other children to the front door of Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto, Calif., in February. She has been one of the key parents organizing for a charter school at Desert Trails.
About nine months ago, at a small park playground a few hundred feet from their children’s struggling school, a group of parents chanted, cheered and delivered passionate speeches about their growing frustration with Desert Trails Elementary.
That Jan. 12 park rally — which drew a throng of camera crews and reporters from around the state to the tiny desert city of Adelanto, Calif. — marked the beginning of a bitter battle in the national spotlight. That was when the Desert Trails Parent Union announced its petition to use the so-called “parent trigger” law to force a major overhaul of a school. They hoped to become the first parent group in the nation to do so.
On Thursday, that same park is set to become a makeshift polling place where those parents will make history. With a court ruling last week permitting the vote to go forward, parents who signed the petition last winter now have the chance to cast a ballot on the charter school operator they want to take over their neighborhood school next fall. As permitted by law, the vote won't include parents who opposed the charter conversion or declined to be part of the petition process.
“For the first time, a group of parents is going to take back power of the educations of their own kids and select a high-quality nonprofit to transform their failing school,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution, the Los Angeles nonprofit that is bankrolling the parent union. The little local election, Austin said, represents a “monumental day for the parent power movement.” Parent Revolution estimates that fewer than 200 parents will be eligible to vote this week.
California’s Parent Empowerment Act of 2010 enables parents who collect signatures representing more than 50 percent of students to spur big reforms at a low-performing school, from firing the principal and half the staff to shutting it down.
More than 20 states have considered the controversial legislation, and seven states have passed versions of the parent trigger law. Well-funded advocacy groups, like Parent Revolution and StudentsFirst, are using the new feature film “Won’t Back Down” to galvanize support for parent trigger laws, and educators across the nation are paying close attention to the real-life version.
The Adelanto effort has fiercely divided the school community. Parents who opposed converting to a charter school launched a counter-campaign to get parents to retract their signatures supporting it, and nearly 100 parents did so. Each side has accused the other of harassment and intimidation.
The petitioning parents scored their latest victory in Victorville Superior Court on Friday, when Judge John Vander Feer ruled that the Adelanto School District must let them press on with plans to convert Desert Trails into a charter school, effective fall of 2013. The judge’s decision reinforced a July 18 ruling by another judge who found the district couldn’t use the signature withdrawals to quash the charter petition.
"I'm feeling great,” said Doreen Diaz, a parent union organizer, as she headed to a “Won’t Back Down” screening shortly after leaving the courtroom Friday. “I'm ecstatic and happy that we're vindicated once again.”
'Parent trigger' fight: No Hollywood ending in sight
Diaz and fellow supporters are celebrating the legal win as a way to finally turn around Desert Trails, which ranks in the bottom third of California schools with similar demographics and has been on the federal watch list for failing schools for six consecutive years.
"We've gained strength, and we can only get stronger," parent union member Jeffrey Hancock said Monday on a press conference call. "Hopefully it will get better for every school that's failing.”
The smaller, more loosely organized group of parents opposing the conversion has called for less radical reform and working with current administrators and teachers. Parent Lori Yuan argues that “parents who believe that a charter is going to magically make their kids score higher, be smarter and achieve success” will be disappointed.
Adelanto School Board President Carlos Mendoza said that while he’s not “opposed to charter schools per se,” he’s concerned that the looming conversion will disrupt school changes already in progress. Before the latest court ruling, the school board had decided it was too late to implement a charter school this year. Instead, they created an “alternative governance council” co-led by parents and funded a new literacy curriculum called Success for All.
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“I’m just hoping that becoming a charter school doesn’t undo all of that,” Mendoza said. He also questions what the lack of job security will do to teacher morale. Under a new charter operator, teachers would have to reapply for positions at the school and enter into non-union contracts.
Parents will choose from two local charter operators who submitted proposals: the Lewis Center for Educational Research, which runs a K-12 charter school in Apple Valley focused on project-based learning; and LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, a K-8 school in Hesperia that partners with the University of La Verne.
Alex Wagner talks to the director of "Won't Back Down," Daniel Barnz, about the misconceptions he says some protesters have about his film.
The parent union leadership is telling voters it prefers the operator that runs LaVerne Elementary, which is less than half the size of Desert Trails’ roughly 600 students. Diaz said she likes that LaVerne’s proposal included a more formal structure for parent involvement, and that its school has demographics that resemble Desert Trails, a predominately Hispanic and black school where 100 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
Thursday’s vote isn’t the final step in the conversion process. Charter schools are taxpayer-funded, independently operated and overseen by the agency that authorizes them. In California, that agency is typically a local school district governing board.
'Won't Back Down': Film to spur parent-led school coups?
The charter operator that gets the most Desert Trails parent votes will submit a proposal to the Adelanto School District. In the past few years, the district has approved one charter school and denied at least two others, mostly over concerns about brand-new operators with poor financial plans.
As Parent Revolution helps Desert Trails parents advance, its organizers say they’ve also been working with a handful of other parent groups who may soon launch their own campaigns.
“There are parents organizing, mostly in Los Angeles but also in areas across California, to do the same thing,” Austin said. “My one hope about the next round of parent trigger campaigns is that they can be more collaborative.”
This story, "First 'parent trigger' moves to a crucial vote after court ruling" was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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Leave a Comment:
As long as the "winners" are the students, I'm for it.
At least the parents are involved enough in their children's lives to be concerned. So much better than other big upper mid-west un-named cities.
Good luck.
As long as parents are actively involved with their childrens' education, the students will be the winners. May this serve as a warning to other poorly performing public school districts.
If these parents were as active in their children learning as they are in this "anti-" cause, the school wouldn't be failing. Although we probably won't get the follow-up story a year after a charter company takes over this school, the math "don't lie", so-to-speak. The number 1 deciding factor in a child's success in education is the home environment. This particular case is just another example of it being "somebody else's fault".
when the corporations run the schools, you will see that creationism takes precedent over science, fact, and truth. Do you want your kids believing that the earth is 6,000 years old, humans and dinosaurs exited simultaneously, and a man who lives in the clouds controls everything in 6 billion people's lives all the time - a magic man who created the universe and earth in only 6 earth days? Get real.
With nearly half a billions dollars spent in public education per year, education is big business in California. And the big money also has attracted the most devious special interest groups. For the past five decades, the main beneficiary has been the teacher's unions , their members and the education industries. Student's educational welfare is secondary.
Public school is a monoply under the control of the teacher's labor union. Without competition from a free market, teaching quality has suffered and student illiteracy rate has risen. Not surprisingly, American students rank nearly dead last in math and science among the developed nations.
For years the labor unions have created layers upon layers of bureaucracy within the state department of education to shield and protect the inept teachers and administrators. Like the growth of the Big Federal government, the big state government is beholded not to the people but to special interest groups such as the teacher's labor unions and the industries that leech off the public schools.
tracontech--your avatar is appropriate, as your argument is a load of hogwash. Please name a single charter school operating as you assert.
Charter schools are public schools, subject to same requirements as public schools in terms of separation of church and state. It's complete fantasy to assert otherwise.
The "problem here is obvious". If all those illegal alien kids went back to Mexico where they belong,the school's kids would all do much better. I've seen this "same Problem" in a lot of schools all over this country,and it's all caused by illegal aliens taking over the area. ESL Kids take up all the teachers time,and don't learn anyway,because they don't belong in the USA. The American kids don't get taught because all the teachers time is "wasted" trying to educate children who aren't even suppossed to be here. The law needs to be changed so only "legal students" with "Legal" parents" are "allowed" to go to school. School is a "priviledge",not a right,and any law "forcing Parents" to send their children to school,to disrupt the class,is "unconstitutional". The Government does not "own" anyones children,and has no right to force any children to attend school. All those trouble making kids should be kicked out.
Congratulations to Desert Trails Parents. Since the law was past, not one school before you has succeded in reaching this point in CA. Your strength in staying strong and fighting the fight will help the parents at the 2 schools in LA Unified School District to hopefully see there is a light at the end of the tunnel for them as well. It always amazes me that this Liberal state, who claims to care for low income, and minority populations turns around and are the very people who have fought this tooth and nail since day one.
Privitization has had a poor record when it comes to replacing government programs. Privitized police departments going way over budget, private military contractors in Iraq committing war crimes and charging way more than equivalent soldiers would cost, private food inspection companies dropping the ball, un-regulated medicine producers infecting people with meningitis...
Some times privitization works. So far it hasn't worked for education: costs increase, results do not. Perhaps this company can do better.
I know you're trolling, but I thought I'd be the better person and explain why you are wrong instead of arrogantly claiming things as you did.
The mistake that most people make is thinking that schools have much of an effect on the kids' education. They don't. Education happens at home and school is just the proving ground. If your school is failing on standardized tests it is the parents' fault. If you think the well-to-do kids in Cupertino are doing well because of their schools, you're probably uneducated yourself. Here in Bay Area, the parents themselves are well-educated (and so can actually educate their kids) and also involve their kids with intense personal tutoring. If you're not preparing your kids BEFORE they set foot in the school, your kid has no chance. If these parents really wanted to be involved, they'd educate their kids rather than focusing on shaking up the school.
This is a very good point. But what to do about the low income kids who have un-educated parents? What is the solution there? My wife and I are educated and work office jobs. We have plenty of time in the day to help our kids learn. Poorer parents, even if they had the education, tend to have less time.
A 2009 Stanford study on math performance shows that 47% of charter schools have indistinguishable results when compared to public. 17% of the charter schools did better, and the 36% remaining charter schools did worse.
Not sure if I can post links here, but here goes: http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf
@Fat Sean: The difference is that charters can be withdrawn for poor performance.
Regarding what to do with the students who come from low income and uneducated families...you teach them the same way that you teach other children. The problem is that there is no accountability in schools today. More money is not a solution. One would only have to look at the Chicago Public Schools to know more money doesn't work. Charter schools are working in Massachusetts...even amongst the students from low income and uneducated families. I use Massachusetts as an example because it annually ranks amongst the highest in the country for academic performance.
Will be interesting to see if the private group can do better. I bet you the teachers will get paid less and the administrators paid more.
I'll agree that it should be interesting to see the results. To my knowledge, the majority of "charter schools" have out performed traditional "public schools". Of course that's not to say this one will but time will tell.
And the teachers might very well earn less than the unionized public school teachers. However, in other "charter schools", the teachers actually did the best they could and did not depend on the union to protect their job, they did that themselves and the beneficiaries were the children.
There are good and bad aspects of both approaches. Unfortunately, the educational system we currently have is doing nothing but failing the children and supporting too many, not all by any means, but too many teachers that should not be in the classroom.
Do you have any links to evidence of the charter schools out-performing?
@FatSean: You can "Google" Massachusetts charter schools. It shows a fair assessment regarding performance within the same districts. The Massachusetts charter schools had a higher percentage of minority and low income family students than the public schools. In Boston, the charter schools, not only outperformed the Boston city schools, but the wealthier Boston suburbs as well.
Charter schools and performance measurements are often a misleading stat. When schools go charter they often become a school of choice, meaning they do not have to take every applicant. That is the role of public neighborhood school. So, for most charter schools they eliminate the most problematic students with low test scores, high behavior problem and special education needs through the application process as the student no longer fits the model of the charter school purpose or goal. Families of these children are then encouraged to enroll their children in regular public school because it can better meet their more specialized needs....and poof you see improvement in a struggling school. It is not a mystery what has happened, it is cooking the academic books. But the parents feel well, the education company is making a profit....and the struggling students are still left behind.
thrakenglarv: Although, it may be true that parents make the choice to select educating their child in a charter school. The school limits enrollment by available facilities. These guidelines are set by the state or district. In the event that there are more students than available slots, a public lottery is held to see who will get to attend the charter schools. It is true that charter schools will not tolerate problematic students and that expulsion is the ultimate accountability measure. But, that is what's lacking in the public school system. There is no accountability for problematic students; Which, it doesn't take a child psychologist to figure out, increases the number of problematic students. But, if students see that there are consequences to disruptive behavior, the majority fall in line.
I spent 23 years in the military. Not once...did anyone ever suggest that the standards for achieving certain skills should be lowered. You only get to be the best by increasing your goals and standards.
We owe it to the majority of children to raise the standards in our classroom and hold disruptive and problematic students accountable. We owe it to our country as well. We have spent the last three decades teaching our students that participation earned everyone a trophy, while almost every day we cheered for the winners and champions. The dumbing down of America. So, so sad.
So what happens to the "problem" children, Dave? If your ultimate goal is accountability, and "problem" children harm your goal, do the problems get thrown out of school completely? Where do they go? Might as well just give up on them now, right? Public education is not something that can be measured. You do the best with the kids you are given. I know, the cerebral palsy, behavior problem and learning disabled students should just drop out of society and take up permanent residence as wal-mart greeters. No need to educate.
Your example of the military is not accurate. The military is a volunteer organization. Presumably, the people that are there WANT to be there. They WANT to be doing the best they can. There is no comparison to the public schools. Students did not volunteer to be in class, they are required by law. The idea that all 25 students in a class will be of similar skill level and motivation level is absurd.
Yes, lotteries are held, but only of qualified applicants (not just parent choice, but the schools get choice) not of all applicants. As for your military example, if you are advocating that public schools should have the right to discriminate in its ability to accept applicants like the military then I understand (as a vet.) However, public schools do not have the choice, per numerous court rulings at both state and federal levels. Education is a Constitutional right (with very little personal responsibility) and must be provided to all, so public schools must take all applicants and continue to work with them no matter their performance in any regard. If the military or any business was run this way failure is the only option..see the mortgage market where they did business with any willing to take the risk and all they could legally qualify under sketchy financial law....and failed big time.... I think where you and I can agree is that personal responsibility for education need to rest more on the student..with parents (teaching basic reading and writing, good behavior and social skills, continued involvement their child educational growth and interest), teachers (continued professional development, best practices, good resources) and politicians (funding, good education laws, student to teacher ratio, resources) taking a heavy dose of their own responsibility. When we realize that every student can maximize their potential and that not all student have the same maximum potential we may begin to resolve our performance issue.
@thrakenglarv: Now we are getting down to the details. Truth be told, I do not think that the majority of students should be held back from raising the standards of the majority of students. It is true that there is legal precedence that public schools have no choice but to provide an education to students who want it until age 18 and allow students to quit at age 16. But, there is no law (state or federal) requiring disruptive students to be educated with the majority of students. The other problem is that schools have routinely promoted disruptive students to the next level regardless of ability. The reason is for social assimilation.
We owe it to our country and to our youth to increase standards or we will continue to dumb down our population while other countries are advancing. The only point of my military example is to show that standards should not be lowered.
I realize that I am advocating an increase in private and charter schools and voucher systems allowing parents to have a choice (with stipulations and potential consequences). I realize that this may leave many public schools with the majority of disruptive students. But, there must be consequences for personal behavior and the earlier in life that this lesson is learned, the greater the potential to intervene and get these disruptive students on the right track.
@badger411: Children with learning disabilities are different from disruptive or problematic students. Let's not insult each other's intelligence by grouping them together. Public schools already have the facilities and the professional staffing to provide an education for students with special needs. I concede that charter school student percentages reflect a lower enrollment compared to public schools for students with disabilities. But, it does not mean that charter schools have no children with disabilities.
The whole principle in this particular story, is that these parents believe that a private company can educate their kids better, so the whole, "leave the bad kids in public schools idea" cannot apply. These so-called-gains in Mass. schools that have been referenced do just that, in selecting students and weeding out the "Disrupters to the test scores". You're no longer comparing apples to apples. These companies should be required to educate every student in the district, and then lets truly compare numbers at the end of the year. All of this, "down with public schools" ideology that's been floating around the country is unsubstantiated rhetoric and no where is there a proven example that Company A is better than Public School B when the playing field is leveled. This particular school is 100% reduced-and-free lunch. The only comparison that can fairly be applied is with another school, run by a charter company that is also 100% reduced-and-free lunch. It doesn't exist. The best way for true reform is to hold EVERYONE accountable including the parents. You can't say the teachers are at fault, because my kids would've gotten the same education had they gone and stared at a wall every day from grades 1 through 12, because I would've made sure it happened. I am, believe it or not, the one TRULY responsible for my kids.
@emoney: The Massachusetts results do compare "apples to apples". The inner city Boston charter schools with the lower income and uneducated families outperformed the affluent suburban Boston schools as well as the other Boston schools.
Also, I am not saying it is the teachers' fault. The public school system is set up to fail by our legal system. We must provide an education to all students who want it until age 18. This means that if a disruptive student wants to go to school, they can do it and there are limited consequences for the disruptive behavior. Unfortunately, this promotes more disruptive behavior and steals the time for learning in the classroom. Other countries that are surpassing the US do not have these challenges from their legal systems or within their public schools. If we do not find a way to work around these challenges, US students will continue to fall further behind other countries and we will fall further behind an innovation, science, technology and medical research and advancements.
Parents should have a right to choose what schools their children go to!
So, only people who signed the petition get to participate in the vote that chooses the charter school? Did I understand that right? That's pretty undemocratic. Usually each vote should stand on its own. Voting against a previous step in a process shouldn't preclude you from participation in the further steps. Democracy isn't about just whittling down the voters based on the winners of the previous vote.
This bothers me also. Its good to parents involved in their kids education, but its not good that some voices are being shut down.
The people who don't get to vote shouldn't have to pay for the new school either.
badger411 ...(#4.2)..."The people who don't get to vote shouldn't have to pay for the new school either."
They don't get a "New School" ...those that voted for the change get to hire the teachers and staff..( The Charter School "Company").
Funding still comes from the State and Local School District....One might think that those parents that voted "NO", may have some Union Teacher sympathy reason behind their thinking...that they are Union supporters in general....
...Double posted me....
There is no solution that doesn't involve picking the taxpayers' pockets. Schools should be a place where people who want an education for themselves (or their children) can go to get it. Recruiting students should be beyond the scope of their work.
What will happen is that parents will still not be around to educate their kids. This won't have any affect on performance. Plus no, charter schools don't outperform, some may seem to do better because they specialize.
Nice to see that discrimination is alive and well in our school systems! Coming to a school near you very soon! [:-(]
The thing is that our present system is not working. To continue to do the same thing again and again and think the result will be different is the definition of insane. My two will finish college this year but I still benefit from a good education system in the quality of our culture, our society. We need to quit being politically correct all of the time and look at why some of our schools do so poorly. Parent involvement is huge, long summer vacations, are they learning English before they start school or not, (I am bilingual and so are my children) they are all getting free lunches, are they eating healthy. I believe the teacher unions are part of the problem but only part.
when these charters finally discover that they must cut teacher pay and benefits in order to maintain just the current level of an operating budget, they will find it difficult to attract non-union teachers. A charter may work for a few years, then what? Who would want to teach even with current pay and benefits is beyond me - especially in troubled schools!
"Never let schooling get in the way of ones education"
Schools are great for keeping society trapped in a box..... sorry I meant "secure in a box"
thewaronkids.com
And when the children still don't improve under a charter school, what will be the excuse? Any chance of parents stepping up to acceept some responsibility for their children's education?
Must be a teacher!
I'm not a teacher and I agree with Judy's question 100%. There are zero true cases, where all things are exactly equal, that prove charter companies are better than the public school system. Zero. Oh sure there are cases where the charter schools don't have to deal with disrupters, as an example, that claim they're doing better, but that's not the same school. 100% free-and-reduced lunch. That's the factor and that's how the schools should be compared. What I'm looking forward to is a Public School that starts a petition that the under-performing PARENTS be removed from the child's lives because they are failing them. It's only fair and it would be the best for kids, wouldn't it?
@emoney: That is exactly the problem...you can't legislate good parenting. Knowing that you can't legislate good parenting and you must provide an education to any child who wants it until age 18, what is your resolution to eliminate the distractions and disruptions in the classroom in order for the majority of our students to receive an education that allows them to compete with countries who are performing better? Our country cannot afford to continue losing ground in the areas of innovation, research and development in science, technology and medicine.
Like I've taught my children, life isn't always "fair". There are almost always winners and losers.
" teacher morale will suffer"! That's what wrong with the system in Mexifornia now! After two whole years,teachers get tenure.That means you can't get them out short of blowing up the school.Doesn't matter if they are the worst teachers on earth,they can stay.Who sufferes? The children! It's nice the playing field is leveling out! Screw teachers.Most are so fat they can't make to the restrooms without having to stop and rest in some other classroom than theirs!
Lesson plan 101: If you don't like fixing the same problem every "Election", then do this.
1) Apply one way to Address the problem?
“Math: 30 students with 2 parents have 180 days school/year. If 1 parent attends each class, how many times do they need to attend?"
2a) What is it about? (A short warm up to the topic entry.)
I posted this short comment, it’s not about me, it’s not a comment someone made about what I said, nor is comment about made by others I copied, it’s not about the tides, the rain, the possibilities being real or imagined.
2b) What is it about? (More, in brief bullet format,)
• It’s not about education, since 1956, it’s is politics.
• It’s not about success against the odds; it’s about improving those odds.
• It’s not about gifted students; it’s about the whole team winning.
• It’s not about early enrollment, it’s about available parents.
• It’s not about the uncounted unemployed; it’s about a viable jobs market.
• It’s not about tactics, it’s about strategies.
• It’s not about this year; it’s about the decades ahead.
• It’s never going to be me convincing you, it’s about you convincing you.
• It’s never been that absence of suggestions; it’s an absence of application.
• It’s never the short attention span; it’s the span of inattention.
3) Repeat lesson for the small screen: (Then explain.)
“Math: 30 students with 2 parents have 180 days school/year. If 1 parent attends each class, how many times do they need to attend?"
Each parents attending one day of class three times a year, does not sound like much, but the effect would be a stunning source of information for fertile thought. Yes I will be accused of all sorts of things, but if we accept these new ideas involving commitment, awareness, attention to details, it can help to push aside many of the long term, well considered, habituated ideas, that given the intelligence of the past developers and of the lengthy debate educating liked minded individuals to document their best ideas, without dynamic verifiability.
So why start with a word problem, using arithmetic, as the point of a beginning of a discussion? It is because it could be eye catching enough, to remember, and for those remember and able to think to make that important first step. It not for me to list long resume of education credentials, drag the world through list of positions held, papers written, and then at the apex of some summit to pontificate on opinions and modest detail, that are too broad to adequately address. The education community, would not possibly be interested in having they every assumption challenged, deal with incomplete ideas and be broken of habituation that everything needs to perfect and just so. After 200 years of ideas of modern education, we need not take 400 more years to seek the benefits needed in a few years.
This note above suggests or asserts that there are more/less 30 students in a class. The exact number is not as important as the fact that there is a number, or that you understand what a number is. It is about finding some else you know to help you understand its meaning and the gentile notion that it good to have classes with students.
This note above suggest that each student has 2 parents, brother and sisters count, and at least pair of adults should be responsible to the home lives of those students. It’s just a number, aunts, uncles, grandparents all have responsibilities, and we all have surrogate parents at one point or another and we need as many teachers we can get.
This note suggests 180 days school/year; it also is number, less snow days, less field trips, more additional days. You know someone is counting those days and making arbitrary decisions right down to the minute to save the almighty dollar. It’s just a number that says it good to have a school year.
This note finally ends with the number three; it means more than 180 divided by 30 divided by 2. It means that each school day will be held with one parent in attendance every day of the year, and reach parent should be able to participate 3 times a year. It’s just a number, means nothing unless it actually applied.
4) Questionnaire Common Notions of What is wrong: (A 5,000 item list is not useful.)
You already know, and have in mind your comment, please pause, and consider responds to one of the following blame list. Pause just enough not consider just numbers from the math test, but those things that need to be recognized today. Today is more important that all those gone by yesterdays.
Working Parents – Both parents have to work to maintain a standard of living in an economy good, bad or ugly.
Day/Child Care – Whether is home sitters, infant care those children should not be left to entertain themselves.
K1, Grade 1 to 6. – Yes these programs have to structure around the basics, team work, cooperation, and success with basic skills – You’d think that 6 million teachers and 50 years’ experience would provide more facts, pick those that work.
Jr. High 7-8. – This is period where we need to teach children to be civilized, to hold back on some behaviors, and notice the average, above average and below average each must find a place in society.
High School. – Traditionally named, for the academically included, we drag along others unproductively; those must also find a place in society. These are the make or break it years, students need but one inspiring teacher, one hard no nonsense class, here is learn it, and as little idle time as is possible.
Toys. – Yes you have to consider everything, dump toys, good toys and toy that teach, you better off in mud puddle than in room full of plastic toys from someone else’s imagination.
TV Shows. – No comment, I have watched TV programs for decades, when I see one now I turn it off.
Video Games. – We lose, none would be allowed, and unless it contained all those basic things we could have learned in school, it could grade you, track your improvement, and even allow you do your teacher to assign homework, with the teacher module. That’s too much for imagination, but a foreign country could save a buddle developing it for their people.
Internet. – The internet is a capable enabler put to good use, but every time it lacks interactive feedback with a human being, it tends to produce monsters, uncivilized, anonymous degenerates and people shouting at the tops of their lungs in isolated empty rooms. The internet is international psychology problem, maturing in silence, and advocates levitate in comfortable malfeasance.
Quality time. – Does not mean what’s left of the parents after working the swing shift, it does mean being acclimated to the real world of real people, away from electronic distractions.
5) Negative Feed Back
The following is a typical reply from the internet, it not a contribution of any kind, solves no problem, and helps no one. It is included as an example of the type of nothingness that received when taking advantage of this form of communication.
Non Contributor Commenter, please get some help, you do not know what you are talking about and I am tired of hearing from your personal sob story. You are speaking from only one person’s experience, yours, you are incapable of generalizing to see that larger view and you are not seeing the world around you. The fact that you believe your story, it but it is one of hundred million.
Mark you so completely missed the point, I will promote it the next conference where one person's solution contradicts that of hundred million others. Stopping all the Discussion!
You are one of the many who cannot read and not follow directions. You made no effort to understand, you swearing is indication of the blowhard ignorance that would no doubt stop more communication.
If you do not have the intellectual capacity to understand what was asked, how it was asked and why it was asked, then put your comments elsewhere.
What compels you to attach your comment to my request for dialog?
If we have problem for many decades and your attitude is wrong for the majority of the country. No one cares a twit about how hard your life has been, or the fact that hard life has made you and your children willing slaves.
6) What do you think?
“Math: 30 students with 2 parents have 180 days school/year. If 1 parent attends each class, how many times do they need to attend?"
What effects, changes and possibilities can you see if a one child's parent would attend day of class once every three months?
There will be many, but the first would be for the teacher to accommodate the parent as something along the lines of class monitor. This would be a powerful attention getter; apply lots of pressure on the teacher, who needs assistance not more pressure. The parent would need to be instructed and may want to review the curricula, but remain in the back of the class room as the observer.
The teacher would be faced with meeting the average American parent, often as not to have a positive school experience. We have Homer Simpson, as model parent, and having known parents of many school mates, this would be cathartic experience. From burly Joe, to matronly May, from busy body Beth to silent Sal.
It sounds like a situation comedy, but from the child's point of view, having Mom and Dad in class once I while, would impact the homework activity.
As the program gets past its nervousness, the substance and relevance of what us being taught, the content, progression and the overall plan, the teacher and the school system would have to prepare a parent participant guide for the weeks lesson. Thus the parent is made aware of the teacher's problems of education, and will be better informed. If the lesson plans it not up to snuff, a parent might be tempted to offer suggestions.
The parents become educated about teaching and schools, the teacher are made aware if the education is meeting the needs the student and the community, and the students become aware of the seriousness of the business at hand.
Having parents attend class three time year, is not glorified babysitting, or training for parents, or an easy task for teachers and administrators.
This program would achieve a level of parent, student and teacher participation that not at all like the current system, a system that needs changed, disruption and constant adjustment.
7) Conclusion
It is not a goal or test that is being targeted, but the anticipation of how what is being done and why. It might standardize what needs to be standardized, but not more than is practical. It is it entirely possible that a "class about classes", can be taught to parents, "learning about learning", and "teaching about teaching" taught to the willing. The ideal situation would be for bright students to help out, to help teach each other, improving their own understanding, and adjusting the attention, content and participation to those 'few' students who are going to be magna cum laude of Coststomuch University.
Have I written enough? Or should I go on and on when there are my betters to do this task better? Get this; there are always people who are better than you or me, but how many times to they show up to help?
Have you been to Adelanto? It's a total disaster. Besides being ugly, there is a permanent gang injunction against their home gang, the police department had to be disbanded completely because of massive corruption, and the place is home to a privately-run detention center for illegals. If these parents really cared about their kids, they'd pack up and move away --- far, far, away.
There is only so much teachers can do with limited time and funding to beat violence, poverty, and in some cases a lack of basic English language skills.
I remember in elementary school there was ALWAYS someone who had to translate for the English language learner. "Do any of you guys know how to speak Chinese, Korean, Spanish, etc? Great, help him."
On the plus side, this blue-ribbon public school was situated in a middle class community with no violence and lots of funding. The ESL students usually didn't need help after one or two years. Going off of what Nyegere said, Adelanto probably doesn't have those positives in their favor. But, for the kids's sake I hope this works.
It is incredible that is is necessary for a revolution by the taxpayers in order to force their government servants to do what they are told to do.
Is there any democracy in our nation?
Finally a way to get the School boards, teachers union and all the corruption out of public schools.. GO PARENTS GO...
What people don't understand is that the data on charter schools indicates that few are doing well. The ones that are, are in affluent neighborhoods. The "For-Profits" are just that- they are for making money. This has little to do with what is best for kids. California would be better off trying to work with public schools to address the issues of why the school is not doing well. My guess, being from another part of the country, is that it is is a low income area. Poverty does matter.
@sundisk: Research the charter schools in Massachusetts. Specifically, the Boston charter schools. The Boston charter schools have a higher percentage of minority students than the public schools. Yet, they out perform the public schools in Boston. Also, the inner city Boston charter schools out performed public schools in nearby affluent neighborhood public schools. Massachusetts is regarded as the highest performing state in the nation.
dave: I am glad to see that Boston is having success. There is mixed data in the middle school data for Bean town, however. Pennsylvania and Florida are not seeing those same successes as any google search will indicate. In Indiana, of the 25 lowest performing schools in the state, 23 are Charters.
sundisk: The advantage that charter schools have for the state is that the "charter" can be revoked for poor performance. I do not think that charter schools are the only solution, but they are a contributing piece to the puzzle. I think that vouchers are another contributing piece of the puzzle. The big picture is about creating an education system that provides the opportunity for American students to lead the globe in educational excellence. Other countries that do not have laws requiring educating all children who want an education until they are 18. That means, if any of the students become disruptive, there is accountability. Teachers no longer have that authority in the US. Since we can't effectively hold disruptive students accountable, it promotes an environment for more disruptive behavior, which takes away from the learning process. Obviously, we cannot legislate "good parenting" either. By allowing vouchers and charters, good students will have the ability to thrive in an environment that promotes the learning process. At the same time, there will be less disruptive students because they will realize that there are consequences to bad behavior. Unfortunately, because of our laws, we have to let this play out in the public schools. Also, I think that this gives the students from a low income, uneducated household more opportunity to succeed.
My guess is most of these kids will drop out of school anyway at some point.
@XDm9mm, the sentiment of good luck is appropriate. Unfortunately, these parents of poor Black and Latino students are probably being misled by false dreams and wishful thinking. Charter school operators are corporations driven by profit incentives in an endeavor that is not "profitable" in a capitalistic sense. As a result, the "failure to deliver results" rate is high. As the article notes, for every operator approved, there have been two rejected for weak or faulty financial planning. Scam operators will try to get a management contract and secure funding from the public taxpayer trough, but then be gone in five years or less. No way to recover the lost funds either.
In a down economy, unemployed teachers who are desperate for a job will take positions at such schools with questionable operators and no job protections or security - and often at below market wages so the operator can make a "profit." When the economy improves or another opportunity comes available, those teachers will leave, and the negative impact will be felt by the children through instability and loss of continuity.
No doubt "reform" will take place, but the old adage of "be careful what you wish for" applies. Clearly, they want a better situation for their children. Hopefully, this group of parents will get lucky and find one of the very few reputable and reliable charter operators. But the odds are about like winning at the race track, and are stacked against them.
The issue is not whether or not charter schools on balance perform better than public schools, or even whether the charter school here will perform better than the public school administration.
The issue here is the abject failure of Desert Trails Elementary School in regards to students and parents it was supposed serve. Time and time again, parents disappointed in the administration fought to make changes and improve the school, and the results continued to be disappointing. Promised changes never came, or failed to produce results.
Should the parents in such a school district be forced to continue to accept such disappointment and frustration, simply because teachers are union and administrators draw paychecks from the public treasury? Are pleas of "we're doing the best we can with what we've got" sufficient to keep their jobs, or should parents have the right to try something new?
Yes, it's unclear whether a charter school will constitute an improvement. But what's clear is that it likely cannot do worse than the status quo for this school. Public servants serve at the pleasure of the public. These public servants clearly did not please the public, and therefore the change is justified.
As a teacher, I want each and every one of my students to be successful. It is frustrating to no end that we cannot have the students who chronically disrupt class removed from the regular class for awhile to a class specifically set up for their particular needs, with a military-type persona leading the class, with fun taken out of the equation. It is unfortunate that those children are allowed to disrupt learning for the other 20+ in each class, when both they and their classmates would learn better through their removal. Many of them want the audience that regular class provides, but they would lose that motivation after experiencing a good dose of alternative school for a spell. So many times, the parents of these students are totally at a loss as to how to stop the behavior, or else they encourage their children to act out and "not to take no crap from nobody!" At least 5 students every year in my class have a low attention span and difficulty learning, usually many more than 5, and these seriously disruptive students steal away their attention and chance to learn along with their own. It is not fair to cripple the many so that the disrespectful few can stay in the regular class. Instead, regular class should be a privilege one earns by displaying usually respectful behavior to both peers and staff.
@Old Teacher: 30 years ago, disruptive behavior wasn't tolerated and they were removed from the classroom.
But, many court decisions have sided with the exception at the cost of the majority for years. I think that a "military" style format could be effective. However, I see the lawsuits lining up because of them as well. Unfortunately, the only solution I see is to continue promoting charter schools and vouchers. Yes, that means that many of the disruptive children will remain in the public schools since they will have been expelled from the other schools. But, it teaches the majority that there are consequences to bad behavior and promotes an environment of respect for authority while improving the learning process for the majority.
In order to create high paying, high tech jobs of the future, we must have an educated work force capable of innovative thought. It is the only way our country can keep up with advancing students in other countries.
<For the first time, a group of parents is going to take back power of the educations of their own kids>
...while I admire the sentiment greatly, it's not the first time. It's not even the hundredth time. Homeschoolers have been doing this for decades. And California has quite an active homeschooling community. So even within their state there are already parents who are "radically" different in that they think they can educate their kids better than the current system can. But I am all for any shakeup of education. Particularly if they can stop testing the desire to learn out of children. One of the reasons I pulled my kids out after doing everything the "right" way was that I was continually seeing them learn less in a month than I could teach them at home on a weekend. And literally watching their love of learning drop away (which took me years to reverse-grrr). My kids' successes no longer need any confirmation. Their records have started speaking for them and I just step out of their way now. I wish this new school luck and that they will not think one size fits all in their approach. My on-going advice: if the educational system approves of it, question it. Sometimes they are right but often they are wrong. It's more than a shame when bright kids think they are dumb because they "fail" in the system. It's the system, not them. And time and again I read about how the more parent (s) are involved the better their kids do, regardless of income levels. It's the one thing that can level any playing field. I do not pretend to understand why so many in this country just think that popping their kids in school and having 1 teacher in a classroom of 30 can possibly teach to each kid's level. It's not good enough and it never has been because parents and caretakers are the key. They need to do more in and out of the schools. So I am glad these parents are doing what every parent in America has the ability to do more of, get more involved with their kids' schooling at every level. Every subject has reams of information on-line, in books even on television now. Parents don't need to know everything. They just need to make sure they can help their kids learn how to learn, even if it means they are learning with them. It's all there at their fingertips. Hope they use it. And keep switching it up.