The Brain weighs in
Cesar Chavez Charter school, one of the highest performing public schools in Colorado, was recently approved to open 2 new schools in Colorado Springs. Cesar Chavez ended up receiving approval from the state chartering authority after D11 administrators and board members placed roadblocks in its way.
D11 board member John Gudvangen was one of the lead opponents of Cesar Chavez. The school is known for helping minority students in Pueblo, so Gudvangen could not think of a reason to offer his support. Additionally, his labor union handlers would not authorize him to support the school because charter schools are not unionized, and the labor union does not receive political funding from charter school teachers. The Gazette reported on Gudvangen's response to the approval of Cesar Chavez by the state:
D-11 Board President John Gudvangen said it was probably better for the state to hold the schools’ charters than the district because it won’t tap district resources, but he said the district and the academy are not adversaries.
It won't tap district resources? Really, John?
For every student who chooses Cesar Chavez over a D11 school, D11 will loose about $6500 annually. Looks like a loss of resources to me. If Cesar Chavez had been chartered by D11, each student that came to the school would add to D11's student count. D11 is funded based on total student enrollment. D11 would have received money for each student who enrolled in Cesar Chavez and business services would have received money for administering the charter school.
Cesar Chavez will undoubtedly be one one of the highest performing schools in Colorado Springs, and D11 will not be able to claim it as its own. The attitude that people like Gudvangen display about charters that tend to help minority students is not surprising. His ally Lois Fornander was previously quoted in the Gazette when she criticized the Parents Challenge organization, which is run by Steve Schuck. Fornander was not impressed with the organization because it only helps a handful of kids each year, and those kids happen to be poor and minority. This racist/elitist attitude is very common among those who run D11.
The good news is that Cesar Chavez won approval in Colorado Springs. Students of all colors and backgrounds will have an excellent school to attend if they so choose. Congratulations Dr. Hernandez and Cesar Chavez.
D11 board member John Gudvangen was one of the lead opponents of Cesar Chavez. The school is known for helping minority students in Pueblo, so Gudvangen could not think of a reason to offer his support. Additionally, his labor union handlers would not authorize him to support the school because charter schools are not unionized, and the labor union does not receive political funding from charter school teachers. The Gazette reported on Gudvangen's response to the approval of Cesar Chavez by the state:
D-11 Board President John Gudvangen said it was probably better for the state to hold the schools’ charters than the district because it won’t tap district resources, but he said the district and the academy are not adversaries.
It won't tap district resources? Really, John?
For every student who chooses Cesar Chavez over a D11 school, D11 will loose about $6500 annually. Looks like a loss of resources to me. If Cesar Chavez had been chartered by D11, each student that came to the school would add to D11's student count. D11 is funded based on total student enrollment. D11 would have received money for each student who enrolled in Cesar Chavez and business services would have received money for administering the charter school.
Cesar Chavez will undoubtedly be one one of the highest performing schools in Colorado Springs, and D11 will not be able to claim it as its own. The attitude that people like Gudvangen display about charters that tend to help minority students is not surprising. His ally Lois Fornander was previously quoted in the Gazette when she criticized the Parents Challenge organization, which is run by Steve Schuck. Fornander was not impressed with the organization because it only helps a handful of kids each year, and those kids happen to be poor and minority. This racist/elitist attitude is very common among those who run D11.
The good news is that Cesar Chavez won approval in Colorado Springs. Students of all colors and backgrounds will have an excellent school to attend if they so choose. Congratulations Dr. Hernandez and Cesar Chavez.
posted by Craig Cox | 2:27 PM
9 Comments:
As someone who pays attention, I'll tell you why Cesar Chavez succeeds - they use curricula which actually teaches important topics, and the teachers actually teach, i.e., the kids are not put in groups and told to teach each other. Pardon me if I want a real professional in charge of teaching my kids, not another 4th grader. Then again, most graduates of current teachers' colleges don't even have degrees in real subjects like math or literature or history. Most degrees currently given are in "education" which means a lot of classes on how to "facilitate," bolster self-esteem and how to make pretty posters. When a school like Cesar Chavez has teachers teaching real subjects, kids learn. Amazing concept.
Wow Ms. Albers, did you receive your education degree? There is no such thing. In CO teachers have to earn a degree in a specific area and then get teaching accreditation after. Please get your facts first.
Second, constructivism is not 4th graders teaching each other. It's a process for giving those that have trouble learning on their own to share the learning experience with others and perhaps learn themselves. I know it's all about your children however, not the learning of the whole.
Curriculum is only as good as the delivery. Bring in the charters and let them go for it. Whatever helps children to do better. Just don't place the bill on taxpayers when ALL children aren't being served. All of the studeies done on the private learning centers vs the public show no advantages...and those were studeies done by your gov't that supports privatization. When you have the hard data to show that your ideas are superior I'm willing to give it a chance. Until them...pay for your advantages on your own and allow us to serve those that you've discarded.
A couple of years ago I visited the classroom of the AR representative at Rogers Elementary. (AR, of course, is the labor union representative for a school). This 5th grade teacher actually bragged to me that there were days when she literally did not have to leave her seat because her students handled the days' lesson all on their own.
The good teachers teach, and in those classrooms in D11 or any other district where good things are happening, I will guarantee you that the teachers, not the students, are doing the teaching. Cesar Chavez makes sure that happens in each of their classrooms. The results speak for themselves. They have a 61% free and reduced lunch rate, by the way. The D11 administration will tell you that kids in that category are not able to learn. Low expectations have the expected low results.
Drat. I post for the first time and I'm unmasked. Yes, I, Mrs. Albers do pay attention. So tell me Anonymous, do you? I don't have an education degree - but I taught 4th and 5th grade using a solid curriculum, you know, the kind where we NEVER used a calculator in math. My student was advanced in 3 out of 4 areas tested and I don't even have an education degree. Anonymous - how many of your students were proficient or above?
So, you say curriculum is only as good as the delivery. Well, you have just condemned a majority of the teachers in D-11, because according to CSAP scores and other tests results, our average scores are poor, very poor. You have just accused the teachers of this district of not being able to teach.
I, on the other hand, believe we have some terrific teachers who are hamstrung by curricula that don't work, and who have fads pushed upon them without their say-so. Too many teachers already close the door and do what they know is necessary to give kids the foundations they need. I know. I've talked to them.
You say "don't place the bill on taxpayers when ALL children aren't being served." Wow. Isn't that what you and your friends are doing right now? Right now, only 19 of our 67 schools per the Gazette report have a report card of high or excellent. That's 28%. (p.s. I figured that out wihtout using a calculator.) As a matter of fact, the taxpayers are footing the bill for thousands of kids who aren't being edcuated this very minute, but that's okay with you and your friends. Why?
As to the studies you cite, there are a lot of union supported studies out there which say exactly what you say. Never rock the boat, no matter how bad a job the traditional schools are doing. Then again, there are research papers that show the opposite.
As to constructivism, here's what I know: college level and university level professors are increasingly raising the alarm as to kids who come to them unprepared to do higher level math because the constructivist programs they've been taught under have not given them the foundation to be successful in higher level math. Call your local colleges - ask how many students are required to take remedial math classes. The numbers are alarming, and getting worse. Maybe you are fine with kids teaching kids. I'm not. I want a teacher teaching my kids.
Finally, would you engage in an honest debate and stop throwing out words like "privatization." I have no idea what you people mean when you use that word - it is an effective scare word, though, which explains it all. So, let me explain what I would like to see in education: Public schools that do what they are supposed to do - give the kids the foundational underpinnings necessary for them to succeed in school. I know it's an inconvenient truth - but I'm a product of the public schools system, and in my view, that's where we need to focus attention. I am also a big supporter of charter schools - public schools that get to avoid all of union rules which drag down the education of thousands of kids. Last I checked, public doesn't equal private. Then again, I suspect you don't care as long as you can try to scare people with the word.
Congratulations, Craig. You're officially GONE ! Glory hallelujah!
Gone? I really don’t understand what you mean. I am a parent and a taxpayer in D11. Where do you think that I have gone? I haven’t stepped down from the board, I have stepped up from the board. That board works for me and every other parent and taxpayer in this district. Only your side gains identity from being on boards, whether it is you on your union board or your little mouthpieces on the school board (by the way, I notice that you have yet to identify which of the ideas of this group of fine citizens that you support the most. Remind me which of their ideas will do most to improve my schools).
Your comments are very illustrative of how you in the union leadership view parents and taxpayers. We pay your salaries, we give the district almost ½ billion dollars per year, yet you think that we are nothing to be taken seriously. You in the union leadership want to be called “experts,” yet you literally cannot produce one single idea that will improve this district. Who is marginalized?
Your attitude highlights perfectly the ineptness of this and past boards. Your heroes like Gudvangen live to give themselves titles – nothing more, nothing less. He served for 8 years on the D2 board, allowing it to continue to be the lowest performing school district in the county. He contributed nothing, but that did not matter to him. He felt self-important. Karen Teja sat for 8 years on the D11 board. She contributed nothing, but by God she got plenty for herself and her family, didn’t she? Even though you owned her, she still had to sue her own district to get her way. Having never contributed to her community by doing something as difficult as working, she continues to try to get herself elected to feel self-important yet again. Those are the types of people who need to have titles to be somebody, not me.
Now you face a real dilemma: are you going to place the blame for your academic failures on the sole remaining person on the board who actually cares about academic achievement? Are you going to say that Willie single-handedly prevented you from accomplishing all of these wonderful things on behalf of kids? My guess is that you will. Excuses are all that your side has.
Craig and well wishers,
I made my first appearance at a board meeting on Friday. I have to say, a bone chilling experience.
You must be saying why would you do that and I honestly don't know. I guess the needed to actually see, in person, what people are saying or doing. I was the witness to a new board that, simply said, was ecstatic. I've seen happy faces before, but smurky smiles? Craig, I'm sorry you will miss the up coming Board Retreat, a Teacher Retreat would produce better results. Have a Merry Christmas!! You will be missed!
Temo,
I'm glad that you went to one of those meetings. People need to experience the "bone chilling" feeling when you are in the room with that crowd. You get used to it after awhile. This group can be ecstatic all they want over a political victory. What they will never celebrate is any academic victories because they have proven over the decades that they are incapable of achieving any. Look what Gudvangen did to D2. These people are truly all about themselves, not the community.
I agree that there should be teacher retreats vs. a board retreat. There won't be anything of value taking place at the board retreat. All feel good stuff, no substance. With a site based approach, I hope that the teachers will be able to have some very productive retreats where they develop some realistic and impactful plans for their schools. That is the idea, anyway.
Merry Christmas to you as well, and all the best for 2007.
You have to feel for people like the poor union hack who chimes in on these types of websites and offers nothing but excuses for our disgraceful performance. These looters are devoid of any real critical thought process and yet they teach our kids? Good gawd.
We all need to get our kids out of these traditional public schools and get them into working schools like Cesar Chavez, TCA and CMCA.
Post a Comment
<< Home