From the Los Angeles Times comes this profile of a no-nonsense charter school that services mostly poor kids in the Oakland, California area. High expectations and no excuses are the name of the game. Imagine that – classrooms full of low-income kids and they’re able to excel.
The Academic Performance Index, the central measuring tool for California schools, rates schools on a scale from zero to 1,000, based on standardized test scores. The state target is an API of 800. The statewide average for middle and high schools is below 750. For schools with mostly low-income students, it is around 650.
The oldest of the American Indian schools, the middle school known simply as American Indian Public Charter School, has an API of 967. Its two siblings — American Indian Public Charter School II (also a middle school) and American Indian Public High School — are not far behind.
Among the thousands of public schools in California, only four middle schools and three high schools score higher. None of them serves mostly underprivileged children.
At American Indian, the largest ethnic group is Asian, followed by Latinos and African Americans. Some of the schools’ critics contend that high-scoring Asian Americans are driving the test scores, but blacks and Latinos do roughly as well — in fact, better on some tests.
That makes American Indian a rarity in American education, defying the axiom that poor black and Latino children will lag behind others in school.
Indeed.
Let’s hope North Carolina legislators finally increase, or completely lift, the arbitrary 100-school cap placed on charters in this state.
Meantime, however, the education establishment continues to cry about proposed budget cuts. Advocates are using the tried-and-true approach of saying that thousands of teachers will lose their jobs. I agree that classroom teachers should be last on the list of potential cuts, which is why recent analysis of the growth in non-classroom personnel by JLF’s Terry Stoops is so important to the current debate.
