Community Comment : Charter Schools: ‘Quality and Accountability’

I have copies of the 1924 and 1937 education codes. They’re about 200 pages. Today’s education code fills 11 volumes, with thousands of regulations. Most of the regulations, I assume, came because somewhere along the line legislators thought they could improve education by passing all these laws.

The education code limits a lot of the things teachers, principals and communities have been trying to do. For example, if you wanted to bring in an art specialist, a music specialist or someone in science or computers to teach a mini-course or even a whole class, that’s been restricted in past years because these guest experts weren’t credentialed as teachers.

So the school said, “We’ve got a changing population, a changing body of knowledge and challenges that students will be facing in the future. We think there are better ways to do it.” The faculty, principal, community members--parents and non-parents--worked this last year developing their proposal, or “charter petition” as it is called. It represents a combination of the school and the greater school community who decided they were going to improve learning, expand the students’ thinking skills and expand the core curriculum.

The granting of charter status says to Santiago Middle School, “You’re free of restrictions on what you teach and how you teach it. You’re free to go and see what you can do to improve.” It opens up a creative faculty who says, “We’re going to have quality and we’re going to be accountable to our constituents.”

There were about 35 people at the meeting when the board finally approved the petition. They were ecstatic. I saw parents, faculty members and a principal excited about what they were capable of doing.

The community and the school board have broken away from the school district in many respects. The governance is what’s different. It now rests with a committee made up of 13 that includes parents of students at Santiago, parents of students from the feeder elementary schools, parents from the high school to which these students will go, and members of the staff. They’re going to determine how students are evaluated using the California Learning Assessment System test and other performance standards. Although there are certain federal regulations regarding equality of opportunity, and their budget must be approved by the county superintendent of schools, they’re their own bosses.

The educator’s going to be the expert on research or what experience works. The parent can provide input (on what he sees his) kid being able to do and what turns him on to learning. Home and school will be able to work more cooperatively. I see much closer involvement.

I think the district can learn that there are other ways in which students can be taught other than having 35 kids in rows with a credentialed teacher in front of them, and other ways of measuring learning.

(Working at a charter school) encourages teachers who have been excited about the teaching/learning process and wanted to do things but were inhibited by the formal structure. Students will feel good about their learning and understand that learning will be lifelong. They will enjoy what they’re doing and find school to be of value.