Arkansas Blog

Amen, Max. As the child in a family barely above poverty, I owe much of my later success to the public school education I received from caring teachers. In todays world, I would not have been able to attend a charter school. We are trending to an economically based form of segregation in our schools that will not solve our education problems. Like the heath care issues, we continue to try to fix a system that is totally broken with partial, expensive solutions rather than revising the entire system by exploring alternative, effective solutions that are being used by other countries whose bottom line results are better than ours.

I understand that the public school districts in Pulaski County are concerned, but what they aren't discussing is the PARENTS of these students that are migrating to the charter schools. Yes, these students that are moving to charter schools typically score at, or above, proficient levels, but I disagree that they are "composed of solid majorities of non-black, non-poor students". You can tour eStem or Lisa Academy and very quickly realize that there is a very wonderful ethnic balance of students.
My position is that they need to be focusing on why parents are sending their children to charter schools, rather than playing the "race card". I don't believe that these parents want their children "to attend schools with children only like themselves" because of race or household income levels. I propose that these parents want their children "to attend schools with children only like themselves" in regards to love of learning, respect for the school and their community, and respect for teachers and their parents. These children are just like other children all across the county, state, and nation - they aren't the "racist elite" that they are being made out to be, but rather a cross section that doesn't tolerate violence and disrespect in schools, and whose parents (or grandparents or fosterparents) contribute time and energy to the school and their students to help them succeed.
On a personal note, I allowed my oldest child to shadow at several schools within the district before eStem even opened - HE chose to take the chance on eStem after being shocked at the things that students were allowed to do in the hallways and the classrooms of the other schools. That is not meant as a slight towards the teachers in those schools - there are wonderful teachers everywhere that have their "hands tied" in relation to discipline because of the district's fear of lawsuits. Also, I would like to point out that charter schools ARE public schools. Students enter either on a first come, first serve basis, or by lottery so that it's fair to all students applying - students are not "invited" based on test scores or finacial donations.
In conclusion, I would like to point to some other, more solid, reasons that parents are sending their students to charter schools: discipline, structure, required parental involvement, and student/parent accountability. If you want to make the public schools in Pulaski County more attractive, focus on those aspects and watch your students and schools succeed...

ARK. BLOG: The numbers

LRSD -- 68 percent black; 69 percent eligible for free and reduced price lunch
eSTEM -- 47 percent black, 32 percent eligible for free and reduced price lunches.
LISA -- 29 percent black, 24 percent eligible for free and reduced price lunches.

One last point I would like to make...

I grew up in poverty too- food stamps, free lunches, fire department delivering handed down Christmas gifts, etc. I attended public schools and am proud to say so. But public schools are not all the same, and times have changed. We wouldn't have been caught dead doing some of the things that students are allowed to do these days. Corporal punishment has been removed from the schools and it almost takes an act of congress to suspend a student for disciplinary reasons or retain a student that needs additional help before passing to the next grade. Don't get me wrong... those are "whole other" debates for another time... but before you point fingers at public charter schools with false accusations, go and tour some schools in your area - public, private, and public charter. Talk to the teachers and really listen to the problems that they are facing. Only then can you start to understand the problems and find ways to solve them.

Max has not made false accusations. He has backed up his statements on the makeup of classes at charter schools with data that he posted on previous dates. The false assumption is that what one sees in one or two schools is what applies to all charter schools.

Please send an inquiry to Max and I'm sure he will provide you with a listing of articles and research that backs his statements. Likewise, if you have any evidence from the state department that shows anything contrary to what he has written, please post it.

The beginning enrollment of eStem still is shrouded in doubt and mystery due to the actions of one of the men who left LRSD and went to eStem with Brooks. He personally went through lists of elementary school students and collected names shortly before leaving the district. Several people who left LRSD to go to eStem also had access to LRSD software codes and still could access student data.

I have spoken to parents who were contacted by eStem officials about enrolling their children in the eStem program.

True, they did draw names, but there is a strong possibility that LRSD parents were contacted by personnel using LRSD data in a less than scrupulous manner. This likely allowed the list of eligible students to be quasi-legally tweaked to have a higher percentage of proficient and advanced students.

Still, even if one ignores all of that (and you're free to turn a blind eye, if you so wish), the fact exists that eStem elementary is already in need of AYP improvement after the results of the state tests came in last summer.

As to LRSD, you're certainly right that they have much to do in cleaning up their own house. There is too much administrative inefficiency, too little direction and leadership, and a paucity of data on students and programs that needs to be fixed immediately. Time is not on LRSD's side.

Interesting point about demographics Jake and Max is that Chenal Elementary which is almost all white iand socioeconomically sound is also on alert for missing AYP.

Again the vagaries and vicissitudes of the vile NCLB system: Chenal's shortcomings were listed as problems with African-American Math plus Economically-Disadvantaged Literacy/Math.