Un-Chartered Waters?
The recent firing of Principal Ron Russo by the Board of Directors of the Wilmington Charter School has left El Somnambulo with more questions than answers. That’s why he needs your feedback on those questions. But first, a brief history of Wilmington Charter and the current situation.
The Delaware General Assembly, as part of Tomas Carperito’s education reform initiatives, authorized the formation of charter schools in 1995. The Charter School of Wilmington was chartered through Red Clay Consolidated School District in 1996. Red Clay also provides assistance (including not charging any rent, possibly only charging for utilities) to Charter. Charter of Wilmington emphasizes an intensive math and science curriculum.
Wilmington Charter is unusual in that it is a public/private school, receiving state funds and district assistance from Red Clay, while being governed by its own board. The school is actually operated by six companies, Astra Zeneca, Christiana Care, Delmarva Power, duPont, Hercules, and Verizon. The Board of Directors is largely comprised of members from those corporations.
Last week, Principal Ron Russo was fired by the Board for alleged sexual harassment. No details have surfaced, although plenty of rumors have. It looks like there will be an ugly (or beautiful, if you enjoy train wrecks), confrontation between Russo and the Board. In ‘Bulo’s first 2009 Quote of the Year nomination, the News-Journal quotes Russo’s attorney, Tom Neuberger, as follows: “All those board members will be defendants in a court case and will be held liable in punitive damages. It is their houses we’re going to sell.”
While Charter’s students almost invariably score very high on tests, and while almost all of them go to college, ‘Bulo wonders whether it’s a ‘pollo vs. jueva’ situation. With that, please help the Beast Who Slumbers answer the following, or please post questions of your own:
Because of the universal admission test required for Charter, are scores high b/c Charter has skimmed the cream from Delaware’s students, or are scores high b/c of the caliber of the school itself?
How can any school receiving public funds selectively pick and choose who may attend? Is it right or fair?
Is public education better or worse off with self-selecting schools like Charter?
Do corporate interests, other than the need for a well-educated work force, in any way drive the curriculum and/or the selection process? ‘Bulo asks this in part b/c, for example, Christiana Care’s corporate lobbyist Wayne Smith, made resegregation his top legislative priority when he served in the House of Representatives. And Christiana Care partially runs the school.
Was Russo treated fairly? Even if you determine that he was not treated fairly, how do you react to his lawyer threatening scorched-earth tactics on the school Russo presumably loves?
Is Charter likely to be a long-term success or, as suggested by Russo, is it likely to falter without its supposed visionary leader?
Because of the universal admission test required for Charter, are scores high b/c Charter has skimmed the cream from Delaware’s students…?
Yes. The cream (froma math and science perspective) has been skimmed. Just as Cab probably skims form performing arts talent from the other schools.
Overall, the process seems to hurt the cause of public school education.
Wow! If Neuberger took this case….those corpse’s should probably be pretty skittish.
On the other hand these corporations having a say in this school presents more questions than answers.
Did the Corpse’s help cherrypick the brightest, highest scoring students? Of course they did.
And yes these charter schools all hurt public schools. Charter schools are presented because the “powers that be”, do not want a highly educated work force, or grown up critical thinkers….they just want robotons who have just enough education to pass their stupid “every child left behind act”.
Nice opening post. Let’s see if I can get the ball rolling.
Because of the universal admission test required for Charter, are scores high b/c Charter has skimmed the cream from Delaware’s students, or are scores high b/c of the caliber of the school itself?
Ah… the chicken and the egg scenario. IMO, the CSW scores reflect it’s selective student enrollment. What would you expect your test scores to look like when you handpick your student body through a screening process?
How can any school receiving public funds selectively pick and choose who may attend? Is it right or fair?
I have a big problem with public/private schools. It seems CSW has all the benefits of public schools and none of the drawbacks, and then when they succeed we hold them up as some sort of educational miracle.
Is public education better or worse off with self-selecting schools like Charter?
There’s no doubt that public schools take the hit. You can debate whether that’s good or bad, but there’s no denying they take a hit.
Do corporate interests, other than the need for a well-educated work force, in any way drive the curriculum and/or the selection process? ‘Bulo asks this in part b/c, for example, Christiana Care’s corporate lobbyist Wayne Smith, made resegregation his top legislative priority when he served in the House of Representatives. And Christiana Care partially runs the school.
I’m not sure about this. Wayne Smith? *shudder*
Was Russo treated fairly? Even if you determine that he was not treated fairly, how do you react to his lawyer threatening scorched-earth tactics on the school Russo presumably loves?
I would expect (hope?) that the board has a leak tight case, especially given that letter that was circulating. If not, Russo may have a case, but who knows.
Is Charter likely to be a long-term success or, as suggested by Russo, is it likely to falter without its supposed visionary leader?
The graveyard is full of indispensable people.
Nice De Gaulle reference…
Don’t know if Russo did what they say he did but there is only one way to find out… via law suit. I just chalk up the inflammatory comments to vapid rhetoric.
I see the argument against charter schools in general but it is at least a worthwhile experiment in my view.
donviti thinks this has to be the first post where a del lib contributor asks a dozen questions instead of answering them….
The board members have nothing to fear. The acted within their legal responsibility unless you can prove that they manufactured the claim. They had to decide whom to believe. They would get sued no matter who they did. Dismissing someone with a sexual harrassment complaint and evidence of a cover up would be the decision I would sleep best with if the evidence backed it to my satisfaction.
I praise the board for having the courage to make a tough decision. Russo was a star. He will be hard to replace. That is what makes this decison all the more laudable. Standards matter no matter who is gored by them.
I see the argument against charter schools in general but it is at least a worthwhile experiment in my view.
The experiment in charter schools pretty much just puts into practice and proves out much of the CW about how to make schools more successful at serving their kids in the first place. Probably the one place where they aren’t touching the CW is in raising teacher pay. There isn’t much that charters are doing that everyone involved in the equation doesn’t already know is better/best practice. The real fight is in getting that into the public school system, where they have to live with certain fixed issues and serve broader populations.
‘Bulo thanks you for the early feedback. Just a couple of comments/questions.
1. Liz is right that Neuberger is a force to be reckoned with. And he doesn’t give a bleep about the Delaware Way (from which Charter seems to have sprung fully-formed). El Somnambulo LIKES Neuberger.
2. Pandora wrote that the graveyard is full of indispensable people. In this case, though, at least part of the subtext of the battle between Russo and the Board is who controls Charter? Charter is only about 12 years old. It is not engraved in stone that the school either will or must survive. And (presumably volunteer) Board of Director members have better things to do than defend themselves in court.
3. Dorian Gray is probably right that the attorney’s comments are merely vapid rhetoric. However, by definition he is Russo’s mouthpiece. Isn’t he implying that he and Russo are willing to pursue a ‘Vietnamization’ strategy with Charter? Perhaps this, more than anything, is what ‘Bulo finds so intriguing about this situation.
4. In general, El Somnambulo agrees with most of what David wrote. But fear of withstanding a lawsuit is different than the fear that Board members will have to devote an inordinate amount of time and perhaps $$’s in defending themselves against the charges.
Cass – I guess I should have mentioned (full disclosure and all) Mrs. Gray is an administrator for a local public school system. She was in the classroom for several years as well. We follow these issues very closely.
Understood, DG — my father is a retired from admin and teaching in the Baltimore City school system and is approached occasionally to be involved with a local charter. Much of my info comes from him, and from a neighbor here whose kids are in charter schools.
Great first post ‘Bulo! I happen to love posts with discussion questions – it’s like taking a test.
Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about charter schools. WCS definitely has good test scores because they get to choose the best students, I have no doubt about that. My father is a (retired) teacher and we have had many conversations about school performance. The Isotope family position is that public school generally perform more poorly because they have to accept everyone. If you have to accept the behavioral problems, the disabled and the disadvantaged that lowers the overall test scores. In fact, studies have shown that public schools actually perform no worse when scores are “normalized” to include the same population of students. So, as long as we ignore this fact, as well as the disparities in funding we’re never going to solve the education gap.
On the other hand, I like the idea of magnet schools. I really wish I had an opportunity to attend one when I was a student. I understand that the idea is that everyone should get an equal opportunity, so I think the ultimate solution is to improve the quality in all the schools.
Oh I also should have mentioned that I am in agreement with you!
B-more CITY huh. That’s good stuff. My wife has some colleagues in the county but the city is the real deal. (See also ‘The Wire’, season 4.)
Bulo
1) I don’t think nearly as highly of the attorney in this case as others do; unfortunately, I cannot explain why in this venue.
2) The most amazing thing the board did was comment on an ongoing EEOC complaint before that complaint had been completely ajudicated. This surprises me, as it is one of the few things the board could have done that–under certain limited circumstnaces–would open some members to individual suit.
3) There seem to be some significant due process problems with the way the board has handled this case thus far. Any attorney would rather have due process issues on his side than substantive issues any day. Much easier to argue and win.
4) Absent possibilities mentioned under (2) above, the board members do not have any personal liability for their collective acts as a board, though comments by any individual remain actionable.
5) Russo brought a history with him to CW; the board knew what it was getting.
6) The whole “impact of charter schools” is one that Delaware should have had before it passed the legislation….
Here’s the letter released by the CSW Board. Steve’s #2 comment says it all. When I read this letter, all I could think was “What were they thinking?” and “Boy, I hope they have their ducks in a row.”
http://issuu.com/charter/docs/statement
El Somnambulo thinks he understands what Steve is saying. Characteristics that make one an admirable human being are not necessarily the same traits that make one an effective crusading attorney.
BTW, everybody, EVERYbody, interested in this issue should read the document posted by Pandora, especially the Q & A. Wow.
What I’d love to see (and this regards the effectiveness of this charter school) is the average score of the DSPT (8th grade I think) of all of the students who entered the school. Next time they take the test compare the deviations from the mean of the entire state and if the school is effective, then the number of standard deviations should be a bit higher after the students have been in the Charter for a couple of years
For instance, let’s assume that as a whole, the freshman class entered the Charter at 1.2 standard deviations from the mean and two years later, if the Charter School is effective, the 1.2 number should be a bit higher.
Anyone have those #’s?
Not sure if such a list exists for public consumption, Mark. You would need to track individual students’ DSTP scores to form a new group.
Great idea, tho!
It’s really the only numbers that could be accurate for any schools’ effectiveness. Where’s Kilroy when we need him? 🙂 I’m sure the numbers are out there somewhere.
True, Mark, but my point was that 9th graders entering CSW come from all different schools, and while CSW has access to their personal test scores I don’t think they’d be available for the public… unless CSW agrees to it.
‘Bulo asks this in part b/c, for example, Christiana Care’s corporate lobbyist Wayne Smith, made resegregation his top legislative priority when he served in the House of Representatives. And Christiana Care partially runs the school.
*
sweet.
“Is public education better or worse off with self-selecting schools like Charter?
There’s no doubt that public schools take the hit. You can debate whether that’s good or bad, but there’s no denying they take a hit.”
In what sense? In a true educational sense, or a test-score sense?
Both, Geezer. Test scores are the obvious hit – since everyone can see the results and instantly (if not always fairly) rate a school.
Now lets tackle the educational sense. Each public school is allotted teaching units for classroom teachers, math specialists, music, talented and gifted, etc. When a school has a balanced population these units tend to be balanced as well, but when the population shifts these units will change to reflect the new population. When you lose a large section of a certain group you will notice that you’ll lose courses targeted towards that group as well.
Also, by shifting the population you leave traditional public schools with “high needs” kids. Again, balance disappears, and a lot of time and teaching units are dedicated to this group – which they should be, but at whose expense?
Then there’s behavorial problem students. And I’m not getting into how to deal with this type of student. What I will point out is that public schools have to, unlike charters, handle these kids. And since this population is the one left behind by most charters their impact on traditional public schools is felt.
In a financial sense, at least. Or that’s my take on it
You forgot to mention school choice as the state of Delaware should enhance a parent’s ability to choose a school not hinder it.
Russo is a solid educator.
El Somnambulo will try to make sense of Rebuild’s post.
1. You forgot to mention that, in the case of Charter, it’s the school’s choice who gets in and who doesn’t. It as far removed from true school choice as you can get.
2. Tom Capano was a solid lawyer. Like Russo is alleged to have done, he harassed and sought to control women. Should Capano still be practicing law?
Perhaps what is needed to rebuild the Delaware GOP is, assuming it’s not putting the ox before the moron, intelligent Republicans.
Another reality is that the Neighborhood Schools Law is killing choice. If a school reaches capacity with its attendance zone, choice to that school is closed.
Thanks for the history of Charter.
Sooooo, Craper helped create a free private school for his sons to attend? Nice.
He could have paid for his kids to go to an ‘independent’ school and not taken up two precious slots, however, with Charter Craper gets to tout his kids going to ‘public schools’. This always looks great on lit pieces.
We need to create some ‘awards’ and present them annually to those who best exemplify the most lowlife application of the Delaware Way.
I nominate Mikey Mouse & Torturin’ Tom Craper for the first annual awards……