I strongly recommend reading this article if you’re interested in school choice.
This is a riveting story about a single mother of three who wanted to send her youngest daughter to a strong public school in New York City. The child started out at Dewey, a failing school with low test scores. To find a strong middle school, the mother had to practically memorize the education department’s vague and confusing guide to middle schools, attend middle school fairs, tour schools, and ultimately, invest hours and hours of her time into doing so.
The results: Dewey. “Dewey,” Ms. Otero said. “A complete waste of my time. She should have gone straight into Dewey.”
I couldn’t imagine the efforts parents must invest in having to choose an elementary, middle, and high school for multiple children. School choice sounds good in theory, but in reality, few parents have the time to sort through all the research and make the best decisions. Remember how stressful it was applying to colleges? Imagine the same process for elementary school, middle school, high school, and college? It’s overwhelming, and I’m not sure that it’s the answer. And I can’t imagine how terrible it feels for parents like Ms. Otero, who did invest hours and hours of her precious time, only to have to send her daughter back to the same failing school.
With anything else, I wish we’d just focus our efforts on making the public schools that we do have great. The system we have in place has the potential to educate our students; why are we investing millions of dollars into opening up charters, providng vouches, etc., when we could pour that same money into attracting strong human capital to fix the schools we already have?
4 comments:
I agree that there needs to be more done to improve public schools. Characters, vouchers, and other alternatives to public schooling appear to be an easy way out for politicians. Local, neighborhood schools are convenient, accessible, and provide meeting grounds for families and students to interact, share ideas, and strengthen communities. Charter schools may be a good place to try innovative instructional strategies and act as laboratories for experimentation, but they are not the replacement for public schools. It is sad to see families have to return to failing schools when other options do not work out, but I wonder if there are ways for those families to get together and put that effort into working in partnership with schools to better the schools. How can families become active in the education reform process? I think teachers would be even more motivated to close the achievement gap with families were next to them encouraging them and working to make their schools better. How do we motivate families to get involved and how do we provide avenues for family involvement to be meaningful?
This was definitely an interesting (and heartbreaking) article. Stories like this one make a strong case for reinvesting our collective effort and resources toward improving public schools. It's especially powerful because it focuses the fate of one student and reminds us of who is truly affected by school reform (and school failure).
Earlier today at Starbucks I overheard a conversation between two teenage boys. They were middle school-aged, discussing high school possibilities (mentioning Poly, City, Mervo, and others) while they researched these options on a laptop. The confusion in their faces reflected the confusion I saw in the faces of my 8th graders as they entered the high school application process last year. I agree that it must be incredibly overwhelming not only for students but for parents as well, who must choose an elementary school for their child (a choice that, in a way, seals their fate). I attended public schools growing up and had zero choice about which high school I attended. There was one high school in my zone, so I went there. Fortunately for me, I lived in a suburban district with good public schools. Kids in urban districts are not so lucky.
While I am aware of the power of a good charter school in a child's life, this article and stories like it make me wary of the choice movement.
Lydia I often think and feel the same after reading articles such as this, hear about different reforms, and readi that millions are being put into this and that. And all for what? Are we any closer to solving this achievement gap that we talk endlessly of? All the while students like Aaliyah will continue having a poor education, and not because of their own ability, but because of a lottery (and I hate that word lottery. I'll never expect to win the "lottery" because it happens to one in a million people, and students shouldn't have to feel that way about their education!) She is lucky to have one thing though, and that is a mother who will advocate for her and her right to a good education. Parents could possibly be a powerful piece to education reform, if those leading reforms truly began listening. If choice is just another distraction from improving public schools, then creating powerful initiatives with local and parental support to revitalize the schools we already have. I think it's great that parents advocate for their own student, and they should. But the parents that I see at my own school, who are going in every day to help tutor other students, or are just a part of the school atmosphere in general, I've noticed have my principals attention a lot quicker than a parent entering the office to just complain.
As a defender of school choice during class a couple weeks ago, I feel a responsibility to weigh in. I think this post brings up a great point about choice regarding its implementation. I think here, choice was not implemented effectively. The point of having school choice is to, in theory, force schools to compete with each other, thereby increasing their quality to do so, consequently creating a kind of school marketplace. However, as with any market, the consumers need to be able to easily access high quality information in order to compare their choices and make the best one. This is where New York City failed. Yes, they have school choice and set up a market for parents to compare and choose schools. But if it's so hard to gather information and make a decision, one defeats the purpose of setting up a school marketplace. I think New York City should improve how parents get information and the ease with which they enroll their child in order to give school choice a fair shot.
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