THE PATRICK administration's education priorities should come into focus with the spring release of its 10-year strategic plan - the so-called Readiness Project - for classroom improvements. Until then, one reliable way to judge the administration's commitment to innovation is to track its willingness to expand charter schools.
Acting Commissioner of Education Jeff Nellhaus has recommended that the state Board of Education approve four new charter schools at its Tuesday meeting. Like the existing 61 charter schools in the state, these newcomers would have the ability to get ahead through flexible scheduling, budgeting, curriculum building, teacher hiring, and a longer school day. The charter hopefuls that survived the rigorous application process are: the SABIS International Charter School of Southeastern Massachusetts in the Brockton area, grades K-12; Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School in Haverhill, K-5; Hampden Charter School of Science in the Springfield area, 6-12; and Dorchester Collegiate Academy in Boston, 4-12.
Charter schools, which operate free of restrictive union work rules and central-office meddling, consistently outperform their district counterparts on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam. The all-important longer school day is routine in charter schools. In traditional districts, parents and students would be lucky to find one of the extended-day pilot programs. School superintendents and teacher union officials express deep fear for the future when watching their students and the per capita costs for educating them depart for charter schools. But they aren't worried enough, it seems, to quicken the pace of reform. And some are so busy mounting lobby days against the state's high-stakes MCAS test that they don't even notice the 19,000 students on charter school waiting lists whose goal is to ace the exam, not duck it.
The most contentious application is likely to be the proposal for the for-profit SABIS International Charter School, which intends to draw 1,300 students from more than a dozen cities and towns. The school department in Brockton, a struggling urban district, is especially concerned about a student exodus. But SABIS results in Springfield are simply too strong to ignore, especially in the area of closing the achievement gap between white and minority students. Instead of resisting, districts with large numbers of failing students should be exploring how to secure SABIS's successful lesson plans and weekly testing tools.
Governor Patrick expressed unequivocal support for the MCAS test in a recent interview at the Globe. His support for the new charter school applications would also show that he wants no part of any retreat to the pre-1993 state of flat expectations, phony promotions, and torpid teaching.
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