Yeah, a lot of it is petty and pointless. With the job market where it is and so many qualified teachers laid off nationwide, districts have no trouble at all finding highly qualified applicants for jobs, even if the state doesn't always require it.

Charter schools are a mixed bag, in my opinion. They're often poorly implemented and for the wrong reasons, but when implemented in areas where public education has completely failed (i.e., L.A. Unified), they look better, at least on paper. This guy's point, though, is that Washington state won't even allow charter schools to form. The option should at least be available to voters if they're not happy with their local district.

 

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You're asking what color the cars are in a state with no roads, Ash. How can students be lumped together for an evaluation that doesn't exist? The state does track the standard socioeconomic indicators (Special Ed, ELL and Free/Reduced meals) with respect to test performance, though.

 

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I won't rant about the public school system but there should always be legal options for citizens of a free society. My daughters go to a semi-charter school and it is the best school I have seen locally. But in some states they are putting up more regulations against homeschools and charters. This should be a non-starter but for some reason Democrats are pursuing anti-competition with public schools. This should be a hot topic for local office elections against democrats who think they are everyone's daddy and mommy.

 

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Charter school quality is all over the map but that is mostly due to the districts in which they are in. Plus many charter schools target specific groups of kids to try and develop talents that are outside the standard curriculum.


Charter schools are not a fix all issue but most of the fight against them surrounds teacher unions who don't like them because they are not required to hire union teachers.


There is a clear need to provide choices to parents and charter schools are a better option than vouchers IMO.

 

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The laws are now forcing charter schools to have the same test and curriculum standards as public schools. This doesn't make much sense to me, why would we teach all the children the exact same stuff? The state wants the kids to all be clones.

 

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Actually all kids should be given the same test as a way to provide information to the parents so that they can make choices.


The idea that testing is a good way to determine funding is the real problem with NCLB, not the fact that testing is being done.


There is also a desperate need to remove the massive economic and educational incentives to segregate based on income and class.

 

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They've done some remarkable things with ESL Latinos in charter schools in Chicago. They've expanded their curriculum to include parents whenever possible. One of these charter schools is a focal point for community activity [which is traditional in some countries] as well as enjoying a very high parental participation in the school itself. Meetings that include parents are SRO events. As you said, this does not apply to all charter schools. So much depends on the community/parental support it gets.

 

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Evaluating teachers by any means is a pipe dream, the teachers unions won't allow it and it is painfully obvious that they are calling the shots.

 

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Teachers are evaluated already. I don't know what world you live in.


The fight is over what to evaluate based on and what to do with the evaluations.