Published in YDR's Sunday News, February 17, 2013
We have an opportunity before us to create a change that
will have a dramatic effect on the children of York City. We promised bold and
innovative ideas and we have delivered on that promise. The ideas that
YorkCounts and the Community Foundation researched, debated and examined in
minute detail during the past year are game-changing ideas. Our recommendation
to create a 100% charter school district within York City has the potential for
positive outcomes for our children, our families and our community. We believe
that if implemented well, the concept of Community Charter Schools will become
a model that other communities will seek out to emulate.
As Eric Menzer said in May, “It is time to be alarmed, and
it is time to get engaged.” We believe that charter schools will give families
choice, a powerful word that evokes engagement in its very definition. Charter
schools empower educators to determine how best to educate the children.
Charter schools empower the administration to hold those educators accountable
for results. Charter schools encourage engagement by leaders and
philanthropists who will support an innovative idea that they believe has
merit.
Our Education Workgroup determined that a successful school
reform must:
• Produce
systemic, sustainable improvement.
• Benefit 100%
of the students attending public school in the
City of York.
• Ensure
ongoing, adequate and stable financial resources.
• Establish
visionary and inspired leadership over an
extended period of time.
• Institute
evidence-based educational approaches that
sustain a focus on student achievement.
• Ensure that
accountability and rewards are aligned with
effective implementation of the pedagogy.
• Ensure
effective and collaborative management on the front lines.
• Obtain full
engagement of families and community.
Our process to arrive at the following conclusion was a
year-long, researched-based evaluation of options. The Community Charter School option is the
unanimous choice by the Community Foundation’s Board of Directors and
YorkCounts committee. Consolidation of
school districts and reform of the current system are not considered to be
viable options to achieve the best results (please see the report “A New Model
for Education” at www.yorkcounts.org/publications). A district-wide system of
Community Charter Schools would be privately run, high-performing nonprofits
that would educate 100% of the students in the district. In addition, the Community Schools model
should be implemented throughout the district to provide coordinated support
for students and families at every school.
The Community Schools model is an evidence-based approach that focuses
on students’ needs beyond academic development, such as being healthy, well-fed
and having social support.
It is our opinion that converting all of the city’s schools
to charters will generate the kind of excitement and support needed for York
City schools to succeed. A district-wide
charter system would create a new operating structure and culture that could
attract students from other districts, potentially de-concentrating poverty.
In order for the transition to Community Charter Schools to
succeed, the following is needed:
• State
funding to facilitate the transition to an all-charter model.
• Changes to charter school legislation
to strengthen accountability
for academic and financial results.
• Adoption of
shared responsibility for student learning
between the District and charters.
• An improved
long-term governance structure for the District.
• Continued efforts within the School
District of the City of York to improve
academic achievement until the charter
school system can be fully implemented.
Economically disadvantaged students in well-led charter
schools perform significantly better than the same demographic in traditional
public schools. In New Orleans, 82% of students attend charter schools, with more
charters planned. In just five years,
New Schools New Orleans reduced the city/state achievement gap by half, from 26
points behind average statewide test scores to only 10 points. Propel Schools in Pittsburgh operates eight
schools and serves 2400 children. It
also took Propel students only five years to exceed statewide averages for
Pennsylvania students.
York has the opportunity to make a bold, positive move that
will tell our children that they deserve the best we can give them. Through
empowering educators, engaging families and inspiring leaders, we will create
an environment where York provides a premier education to 100% of our
children. We strongly encourage the
Chief Recovery Officer for the School District of the City of York and his
advisory committee to draft a recovery plan that incorporates these
recommendations and helps re-create the district into one that is
high-performing, with top quality and motivated educators, engaged parents and
children who love learning.
A report by the Education Policy and Leadership Center as
well as the joint Foundation/YorkCounts report “A New Education Model for York”
can be found online at www.yorkcounts.org/publications.
Michael Newsome,
Board Chair, York County Community Foundation
William Hartman,
President, York County Community Foundation
