JOE WILLIAMS'S Jan. 21 op-ed "Take the brakes off the charter movement" skews the facts and dismisses legitimate concerns about lifting the cap on the amount of district money that can be diverted to charter schools.
Williams asserts that charter schools are successful because "many" urban charters achieve better test scores than regular public schools. Whenever someone relies on anecdotes or generalizations to make a case, beware.
National studies have found that, on average, charter school students perform no better than public school students from similar backgrounds.
Our biggest concern is that the state's charter school funding system drains millions of dollars from the regular public schools. Associations representing teachers, superintendents, and school committees are calling for changing the formula so that it imposes less of a financial burden on schools that are already imposing new fees on parents and cutting art, music, physical education, and other essential services because of tight budgets.
Williams dismisses these concerns as coming from special interests. The primary interests at stake are the nearly 1 million students who attend the regular public schools in Massachusetts. To us, they are indeed special.
ANNE WASS
President
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Boston
IF THE recipe for success were as simple as Joe Williams claims - charter schools, standards, and high-stakes testing - then Massachusetts would not face a growing urban dropout crisis and large achievement gaps between rich and poor students.
Massachusetts schools have long performed with distinction. Before MCAS testing, Massachusetts' students already had among the highest test scores in the country on national exams. We also had the nation's highest percentage of high school graduates enrolling in college.
Then, as now, the challenge is to ensure that all children get what they need to succeed, in school and out. Massachusetts' high-stakes testing experiment holds students accountable for the failure of adults to meet their educational, physical, social, and emotional needs. It is wrong to use standardized tests as a barrier to graduation for students who can demonstrate that they have met state standards in other ways. We must reduce the weight of MCAS and use a range of evidence to determine graduation, as has been done successfully in other states.
Testing is not education. It's time to use assessments to improve education for all, not simply to punish the disadvantaged.
MARY ANN
HARDENBERGH
Board member
Citizens for Public Schools
Boston
IN HIS discussion of charter schools and the MCAS graduation requirement, Williams asks, "Will state political leaders summon the courage to continue down the successful path?"
Beyond this rather obvious concern, I cannot help but wonder: Will the teachers unions continue with their blatant opposition to changing the status quo in our public schools?
As a retired teacher, I would challenge them to become more receptive to concepts such as accountability, charter schools, and merit pay, all part of the dialogue of education reform in this country today. Their resistance to charter schools is clear. These schools present competition to their longstanding monopoly. Their resistance to MCAS is equally transparent. If progress cannot be assessed, there is no way to hold anyone accountable. Their resistance to merit pay is also obvious. It would effectively foreclose the stranglehold they have held over their membership and thereby eliminate an enormous portion of their political clout.
PAUL HOSS
Marshfield
