Seeking a 'Gold Standard' in D.C. Charter Education

Jay Matthews:

In the charter school movement's endless quest to recruit students, some of the best independent public schools support each other by word of mouth. The KIPP DC: KEY Academy, a high-performing middle school, has sent 15 graduates to Washington Mathematics Science Technology, one of the better charter high schools. But KIPP teachers steer their graduates away from some charter schools.

"If I said which they were, the principals would kill me," said Susan Schaeffler, KIPP DC's executive director.

Now, some charter leaders in the city that is a national epicenter for their movement are planning to take the next step in this sifting process. They say they want to create a "gold standard designation," to publicly identify for the first time which charters are doing the most to raise teaching quality and academic achievement for low-income students.

Ramona Edelin, executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools, likened the initiative to a certification system to show "what high quality really means in terms of children of color from impoverished backgrounds, which is the vast majority of the students charter schools educate here."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 19, 2007 8:30 PM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas