Charter schools

1.

Charter schools operate outside many of the regulations, rules and statutes that bind other schools.

•True or False?

TRUE – Charter schools are free from some rules, regulations and statues

http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/-issues-in-education/charter-schools/2119-no-charter-schools-nz

2.

Charter schools receive full taxpayer funding.

•True or False?

TRUE. But they are not accountable to parliament for that spending the way public schools are.

They may make profits, raise money from sponsors but may not charge tuition fees.

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Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools

3.

“Academies” and “free schools” in England are a variant of charter schools.

•True or False ?

TRUE. Free schools are all-ability state-funded schools set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education in their community.

Some academies, generally those set up to replace underperforming schools, have a sponsor. Sponsors come from a wide range of backgrounds including successful schools, businesses and charities. Sponsors are held accountable for the improving the performance of their schools.

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Q&A: Academies and free schools (BBC)

4.

results Charter schools achieve better than surrounding public schools. True or False?

FALSE. A few do better but usually because they control their student intake.

Credo Study

5.

Which of these bodies hasn’t established a charter school?

a. Andre Agassi b. The Church of Scientology c. NASA d. Microsoft (c) NASA. But any organisation can set up a school in UK and USA and receive full state funding – with predictable results.

Who’s in Charge here? A look at the companies behind charter schools

6. Charter schools are able to make profits by: a. Reducing labour costs b. Allowing sponsors to manipulate the financial model c. Providing fewer services d. All of the above (d) All of the above. In USA teachers in charter schools earn on average US$2000 less than teachers in public schools.

The 10 Biggest Pay Gaps between Administrators and teachers in Indiana Schools

7. Charter schools are responsible to: a.Their parent community b.Their financial backers c.Their students d.The Ministry of Education e.The taxpayer

(b) Their financial backers.

8.

Charter schools have a higher rate of suspension and exclusion than other public schools.

•True or False?

TRUE.

According to research into the chain of profit-making KIPP Schools (Knowledge is Power Programme), KIPP enrolled a significantly higher proportion of African American students (55%) than did the respective local school districts (32%) but approx 15% of the students from each grade cohort disappear each year.

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What makes KIPP Work? A Study of Student Characteristics, Attrition, and School Finance

9.

Charter schools do particularly well for special needs and minority students.

•True or False?

FALSE. Charter schools have been shown to exclude special needs students and increase ethnic and polarisation.

socioeconomic – presumably in an effort to manipulate their achievement results.

Ravitch: Why states should say ‘no thanks’ to charter schools

and

Failed Promises Charter Schools

10. Teaching conditions in charter schools are likely to be better?

•

True or False.

BOTH.

Common features of charter schools are: Lack of process in managing employment issues, particularly in respect of dismissals, more fixed term appointments, longer days and school years and more unspecified “professional hours”, lower pay, much reduced union coverage but also, more avenues for teacher involvement in workplace decisions.

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Are charter schools worth the bargain ?

11. KIPP Schools receive on average $18,491 per pupil. The comparable amount in public schools is $11,991. Yet KIPP spends only $457 per students.

Where has the rest of the money gone?

Have no idea. Admin? Management bonuses? Shareholders?

3. PPTA recommendations to the New Zealand Model of Charter School Working Group 1 THAT in recognition of the disruption to schooling Christchurch has already suffered, there be no charter schools established there.

2 THAT rather than being free to "pick winners", charter schools rolls should be made 3 up from nominations from surrounding schools of students whose life circumstances render them most in need of any extra support and funding a charter school might deliver.

THAT charter schools be made subject to the Official Information Act so data about 4 5 6 7 selective roll practices, suspensions and expulsions can be publicly scrutinised.

THAT a credible independent research organisation, such as NZCER, be commissioned to investigate and evaluate the charter school trial. THAT should improved resourcing levels and smaller class sizes be found to be correlated to improved educational achievement in charter schools the government commit to providing similar resourcing levels to all public schools.

THAT schools that lose students to a charter school retain the funding they would otherwise have received for that student so the education of the majority of children, who remain outside the charter school, is not compromised. THAT no "for profit" charter schools be established in New Zealand.