Judith D. Murray

EDF 660

Listserv Summary

I chose to subscribe to the Charter School Listserv. I had known very little about Charter Schools before I enrolled in this class. As a matter of fact, I always wondered what the Common Ground Charter School was, because I would read the signs on classroom doorways in Davis Hall as I came to graduate classes this past year. I learned quite a bit about charter schools from our article reading assignments, and from the guest speakers we had from the Common Ground. I found the subject to be very interesting, and therefore, I decided to subscribe to the listserv to learn more about this type of reform.

Some of the discussions I followed concerned past, proposed, and new legislation in different states. It was interesting that the legislation varied from state to state. For instance, Maryland only allows existing public schools to become charters, and forbids any private schools from obtaining charters. I learned that the Democratic political party supports charter school legislation; the U.S. Secretary of Education and President Clinton favor charter schools. Rosa Parks has asked the Detroit legislators for a charter to form a school there.

The point was made a few times that some states are creating legislation as a means to obtain federal money. Some listserv members felt that providing more choice to parents and students, and truly benefiting the system was not a priority. Weak legislation in some states sells school choice short.

I was surprised to learn that charter-like schools were created in Virginia to avoid integration in the past, and therefore the NAACP was very outspoken in their opposition to the charter school bill, which was recently proposed there. Slow progress is expected to be made in Virginia on charter school reform, due to the deep mistrust of racial issues. In California, charters can only be started with teachersí signatures, and approved by the local school board and the state. Parents and community members become heavily involved because funds are short and many volunteers are necessary in the schools.

During part of the time I followed this listserv, a senior college student named John Erickson entered the conversation. He had been assigned a debate on charter schools and knew nothing about them. Everyone on the listserv came to his aid, answering his questions. This worked out very well for me, because I knew only a little more than John Erickson, so I gained a lot of information about how charter schools work. When John Erickson had gained all the information he needed for his debate, he thanked all the members for their help, and proceeded to state his entire debate platform on the listserv to show everyone how much he had learned. One of the members wrote back to him that she hoped his debate opponent was not also subscribed to this listserv, because he had just shown his whole hand!

I learned of a report assessing student achievement in charter schools from this listserv. It was prepared by the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesotaís Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. It is called Making a Difference? Charter Schools, Evaluation and Student Performance. This report evaluated 31 charter public schools in eight states. It reached four main conclusions:

Most charter schools are using a combination of standardized tests and applied performance measures to assess student performance.

Two-thirds of the charter schools examined appear to be improving student achievement using standardized tests and other measures.

It is not yet clear whether the other chart schools are improving student performance.

Organizations which sponsor charters, and the people who propose charter schools should agree prior to the schoolís creation on the measurable goals the school will have, what assessments will be used, and what level of progress will be required. It was found that if this is not done beforehand, it became difficult to decide whether a charter should be renewed.

Most of the mail on the listserv was pro-charter schools, but a few members were opposed to them. I found one interesting woman who is a committee member in Massachusetts. She reported that students from public schools who went to charters are now scoring lower on standardized tests than previous classmates in her district.

There were many viewpoints on parental choice, and why it is important. One man wrote that the most important reason for parental choice of schools is that we all love our children and want them to get the best possible education; since he and his wife do not have the financial means to send their children to private schools, charters are an option to work within the existing education system and help to improve it.

Another point made for parental choice was the issue of power and control. Some members felt that all the power currently rests in the hands of the school boards. Most parents do not have the opportunity to choose the form of schooling they believe is best for their children. Therefore, teachers and parents are joining together out of frustration to take control of schooling through charters.

Issues of choice increase parental satisfaction, and they may reduce parent mobility. If the parent is content with the school, there may be strong desire to remain in the school district. Any impact on parent mobility will have a direct impact on developing a continuity of learning for a child.

I read a report from the Center for Education Reform Issues, announcing the 1997-1998 National Charter School Directory. This directory provides an overview of the momentum of the charter school movement. It projects that there will be over 1,000 charter schools in the 1998-1999 school year. Charter schools presently educate over 166,000 students. They generally are small, enrolling on average 241 students. 65% of charters had a waiting list. This directory provides state by state profiles of operating charters, as well as pending schools. It includes contact information, enrollment figures, grades served and a brief description of each schoolís educational program. It also includes data of the Centerís first annual survey of charter schools. Some of those findings include:

24% of charter schools offer a back-to basics curriculum, 11% offer a home or independent study program, and 19% use E.D. Hirschís Core Knowledge curriculum

40% of charter schools serve drop-out or at-risk students, 24% serve gifted and talented students, and 10% serve adjudicated youth

68% of charters are new schools, 19% are converted public schools, and 14% are converted private schools

44% are sponsored by a state chartering body, 43% are sponsored by a local school board, and 16% are sponsored by a college or university

22% are run by and/or started by parents, 17% by teachers, 7% by for-profit firms

33% of charter schools are located in a district facility, 24% in a retail or commercial facility, and 12% in a church facility

19% of all charter schools have multiple school sites.

In conclusion, I think that subscribing to this listserv was very informative and educational for me. I am very computer literate, but I had never subscribed to a listserv before, and found it to be an excellent avenue for information. I will definitely follow other interesting listservs now. I hope you will continue to assign a listserv as a requirement for this course. If it were not required, I probably would not have stumbled across the concept of listservs for a while. By assigning a listserv as a requirement, you will enable other students to learn about listservs and how to gain information from them.