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Joe Nathan: The false choice of district vs. charter

Neither type of school has a lock on quality -- or lack thereof. Let's just take our cues from the best of both.

By JOE NATHAN

Last update: July 10, 2009 - 11:57 PM

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Three recent Star Tribune stories regarding Minnesota's public schools deserve a response.

The first described the paper's finding that six of the 10 metro-area public schools producing the highest scores with low-income students are charter schools, as are several of the schools with lowest achievement. The second involves attempts to compare schools, and the third is a column with questionable assertions by the think tank Minnesota 2020.

The Star Tribune's July 1 test-score analysis should discourage the lumping together of all district or all charter schools. They differ dramatically. The success with low-income students that some charter and district schools have achieved is producing encouraging, constructive conversations. For example:

•Superintendents and/or principals from districts such as Edina and Duluth met with charter directors at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute earlier this year. Additional meetings are being considered.

•The Minneapolis School District has created an Office of New Schools and has hired a director who helped create several successful metro-area charter public schools.

•Target has convened district and charter school leaders to help improve their leadership skills. Reactions were extremely positive.

•The Minnesota New Country School in Henderson has received millions of dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help district and charter educators in 13 states use its hands-on, project-based strategies.

•New Visions of Minneapolis has used federal and foundation funds to help increase achievement of students with special needs in dozens of district and charter schools.

Statistical games about which public schools are better -- district or charter -- are unproductive. A June 16 Star Tribune headline about a study done elsewhere said that Minnesota charters aren't as effective as district schools. But the report actually showed that after three years in a school, the average Minnesota charter student gained more in reading and math that did the average district student. This study also showed that African-American students in Minnesota do better in charters than in district schools.

The Star Tribune's research showed that both district and charter schools vary enormously in their effectiveness. So lumping them together makes little sense, and doesn't help improve any classrooms.

The newspaper's list of most-improved and "Beat the Odds" schools contains many whose directors are not licensed administrators, as Minnesota 2020 demands. Strong (but unlicensed) directors like Eric Mahmoud of Harvest Prep, Bill Wilson of Higher Ground Academy and Jon Gutierrez of St. Croix Prep have produced excellent results.

Minnesota 2020 could learn from them. Kate Barr, former banker asked by several respected Minnesota foundations to establish the Nonprofits Assistance Fund, reviewed 2020's claims about charter finance. She wrote: "The report's author does not have a sound understanding of school finance, nonprofit financial management or audit standards and terminology."

There have been huge financial mistakes in Minnesota school districts that licensed administrators haven't prevented. They include a suburb where licensed administrators overspent their budget by more than a million dollars, another where licensed administrators didn't deduct enough from employee paychecks to pay taxes, and an urban district whose (new) finance director discovered that no one knew how much money the district had.

Minnesota's charter-school enrollment has tripled in the last seven years to more than 32,000. Meanwhile, district enrollment has declined by more than 40,000. This also helps explain why some district educators are meeting with several of the most-effective charter directors.

Isn't it time to accept reality? Some of Minnesota's finest schools are district schools, and some are charters. We'll make the best progress by learning from the most effective schools.

Joe Nathan is director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He is at jnathan@umn.edu.

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