| Perception and assessment |
6/7/04 8:13 AM |
| Author:
Dale Roades
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1. I agree that the charter school movement is still new enough and "quiet" enough that most people, including most educators, confuse charter schools for another type of private school. The main time the movement gets public awareness is too often when there is a "struggle" to get a new school authorized, or when a failing district "sells" schools to a charter school management company after all other efforts at reform have failed. The public information is generally less than complimentary (or even accurate) at these times, and perceptions are based on emotions. We need to continue to promote public charter schools as "choice" for students and parents, and not direct competitors to (or proclaimed superiors to) the local public schools. Comparing charter schools to "magnet schools" helps, as people seem to understand the idea of collecting students with particular interests in the same location for specialization; we need to demonstrate that an interest in the charter school educational model is the same type of common interest.
2. Traditional public schools have also struggled unsuccessfully for years with the desire to offer different educational models (constructivist learning, project based learning, brain-based research on learning, multiple intelligences...) while at the same time meeting state mandates for traditional standardized testing that is not aligned with the types of progress or success found in those systems. Charter schools, which are often built around reform movements, also have to compete based on these familiar but inadequate measures of student growth. Until the educational community and the general public have a better understanding of and acceptance of authentic assessment, rubrics-based assessment, portfolio assessment, performance assessment, etc. we will continue to live professionally in a schizophrenic world.
Posted as a reply to:
Public Perception of Chartered Public Schools by Paul Krafel
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