– but get results
The American Indian Public Charter Schools in Oakland are “Spitting in the eye of mainstream education” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The American Indian schools waste no time making the point that they are different, saying they, "…are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."
That’s a slap in the face of most of the education philosophies we hear in Kentucky.
The only problem for Kentucky-style education philosophy is that the inner-city Indian Public Charter Schools (97 percent of students are disadvantaged) outscore almost all the rest of the schools in California on state tests. The middle school ranks fifth in the entire state of California on that state’s public school assessments.
That includes some of the nation’s most upscale residential areas.
There is a lot more, as well. According to American Indian’s School Accountability Report Card, Reported for School Year 2007-08 the school is doing an outstanding job academically on the California Standards Tests (CST). The school’s trend over the past three years is strongly positive, showing students perform far above California and Oakland District averages.
The school is also covering education gaps very well.
Except for African-Americans in History-Social Science and Latinos in English-Language Arts there are no significant gaps. And, even for those two groups and subjects, test scores are remarkably high.
Note that some groups of students are so small in number that their scores are not reported. The biggest standout is that this is strongly a school of color. About half the students are Asian, and the rest divide pretty evenly among Hispanics and African-Americans. Whites are virtually nonexistent here. However, because the Asians are high poverty, and they are balanced by the combined numbers of normally low-scoring Hispanics and African-Americans, the test results are most unexpected.
One last point: the school has no problem with discipline.
Thus, this charter school really does look like a school to watch, by any measure.
To learn more, and to see some of the remarkable, in-your-face philosophies in this school, check out its Web site here.
Monday, June 22, 2009
California charter schools raise eyebrows
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
"That includes some of the nation’s most upscale residential areas."
That sort of underscores the importance of wealth and education. That's the result of high wages.
High wages produces greatness and wealth said Adam Smith, the father of capitalism.
That exposes you for the two-headed monster you really are, what with you constant bickering about "prevailing wage" laws that you want to see undone.
High wages, wealth and greatness is a threat to your social, political and economic philosophy of feudalism.
Hempy,
You are way off target concerning the subject of the original post, but I will leave your diatribe here as it helps make another point.
Why do you support taking money from school kids and their teachers to support way out of line expenses that only benefit special interests? How does that benefit anyone other than a small number of politically connected members of the chosen few?
Why do you think it is acceptable for the taxpayer to have to pay way above customary wages for construction projects? How does that benefit the working poor you claim to be so close to?
You also don't understand the concept of feudalism.
Feudalism was built around a very small number of privileged few, who called themselves royal, and had absolute political control over everything. Entry into that closed system was impossible for the rest of the people.
Compare that to the very large middle class we have enjoyed up until now in the United States. Entry into that large middle class, and even into the upper class in this country, has always been far more open than in any other country on the plant. Our system is totally different from feudalism and benefits the vast majority of our citizens.
In fact, due to its special interest character and control by the few, the concept of prevailing wage that you seem to support could in a sense be considered a feudalistic, dictatorial approach.
That taking money from school kids is just your spin on the issue as that's the way you want to present it to go after paying good wages.
Feudalism was built around the lords of the manor. It was the economic system that followed the system of slavery of the Roman Empire.
The feudal lords and the Roman Catholic Church controlled the masses. Under feudalism the serfs were required to fulfill obligations that the feudal lords said they owed to them. These obligations were expected to be performed without pay. Adam Smith discusses that in Wealth of Nations
By your judgment, Smith evidently didn't understand the concept of feudalism either.
You said to "Compare that [feudalism] to the very large middle class we have enjoyed up until now in the United States."
I'd remind you, that the middle class you're describing was the result of FDR's Alexander Hamilton and Adam Smith's capitalism, not the mercantilism, which emerged from feudalism, and was imposed on the American colonists. That mercantilism and feudalism was practiced by Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Warren Harding.
As as result of FDR's capitalism, workers were able to form unions and bargain for higher wages. Unions, along with the GI bill for WWII vets were what created the middle class in this country.
It's the feudalism-mercantilism that the Republicans have imposed on this country with Ronald Reagan's (R-CA) voodoo, smoke-'n'-mirrors, feudalistic trickle-down economics, which didn't work in feudalism and didn't work in this country.
Government debt was incurred but not to benefit the American people as our founders intended. Neither were Republican tax policies designed to help wage earners. They was to help their favored few friends who are the modern-day equivalent of feudal lords.
W. Bush's (R-TX) tax cuts for the wealthy was a scam to transfer $1 trillion from working Americans into the hands of the favored few. That's much like mercantilism that our founders revolted against.
Only you would try to consider prevailing wage as feudalistic concept. You clearly don't understand feudalism.
Yet the Cato Institute, Bluegrass Institute, most Republicans and conservatives are ardent champions of feudalism and mercantilism.
Hempy,
Your worldview is certainly interesting.
Richard:
An interesting world view comes from a study of history and current events.
Post a Comment