Posted on November 17, 2009 at 6:00 pm by Amy Fagan
Mathews on closing schools
Interesting new column here by Jay Mathews. In it, he writes that striving to turn around chronically low-achieving schools is “a noble quest I have long supported. But I have come to wonder if it might be a big waste of time and money. Most efforts to save such places have been failures. Why not just close them down and start fresh? Why kill ourselves trying to root out the bad habits of failing schools?” He then goes on to cite and discuss (at some length) Andy Smarick’s recent article in Education Next, “The Turnaround Fallacy.” Andy is a distinguished visiting fellow here at Fordham. All in all, it’s a discussion that’s definitely worth checking out….
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November 17th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Yeah, some sense is seeping into this discussion!
November 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
How often do start-ups work? In any industry? Not that often. Same with education. When will people like Mathews realize that chartering is not the systemic answer? Less than 2% of students go to charters. Even fewer go to charters that outperform district schools. It is maddening. Charters are a nice niche market, it isn’t the answer. Aside from variable performance of the sector at large, charters are not financially viable organizations in the long run. Entities that rely upon philanthropic contributions for their survival and can’t operate within their means are doomed for collapse. Turnarounds, with use of district facilities, transportation, and infrastructrue, are sustainable solutions. Do they always work? Nope. But neither do charters. Wake up, Mathews. And start reporting on the vairablity of charter peformance, timidity of charter school accountability efforts, and the financially instability of even the giants like KIPP et al.