‘Solace for the skeptics and fodder for the fans’
Less than 1 percent of public school students in Oklahoma attend charter schools, and Oklahomans make up less than half a percent of the nation’s total population of charter students.
But there were still 4,708 students enrolled in charters here last year — more than 4,000 students to whom charters do matter.
That figure is according to the new Annual Survey of America’s Charter Schools by The Center for Education Reform.
Jeanne Allen, the center’s president, calls the results “educational for the uninitiated, solace for the skeptics and fodder for the fans.”
So whether you find this information to be educational, solace or fodder, here are some highlights:
- -There are 1.2 million students in about 4,100 charter schools nationwide. There are about 4,700 students in 15 charters in Oklahoma.
-Demand is growing, based on the size of wait lists that grew 33 percent over the previous year. However, growth dipped for the first time ever due to caps in some states.
-Charter schools operate with less public funding than regular schools.
-About 40 percent of charters serve majority-minority populations.
-A sampling of state data shows charter schools consistently outperform their conventional counterparts. (Locally, Dove Science Academy, a charter school in Oklahoma City, has the highest API score in the state.)
And while the report did not draw the conclusion that all schools should be able to close the racial achievement gap because charter schools are raising minorities’ performance, others have used this type of data to make that argument.
That thought reminded me of something a presenter said at the Hechinger Institute seminar I attended earlier this month in New York.
Professor Douglas Ready said that there is a selection bias in play, that the low-income, single-parent, minority children in the charter schools are not the same as the low-income, single-parent, minority children in traditional schools.
Their parents are in some way different in that they found reason and time to take a proactive stance in enrolling their children in such a school, Ready said.
Share your thoughts on charter schools in the comment section below.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
A teacher’s plea for help
Seven Oklahoma schools are in a national running for a $10,000 grant from Big Lots. A teacher at one of those seven schools — third-grade teacher Dawn Dilley at Putnam City’s Apollo Elementary — sent me an e-mail about it.
She hopes the school will get the money so they can build a fitness track, and wrote an essay and put together a 90-second video with some of the school’s students as part of the application.
Twenty-five runners-up will get smaller amounts of money; there are 100 schools nationwide all trying to win.
The thing is, online voters choose the winner, and she wants some help. Here’s what she told me in an e-mail.
Apollo’s is very important because we are considered a 100% Title 1 school. All our kids qualify and get free lunch & breakfast through a federal program. Now, due the economic issues facing our students, we don’t have a lot of PTA funds or giant fundraiser budgets to draw money from. We are also aware that kids in poverty have a higher rate of obesity and a lower rate of overall health. Knowing this, we applied for this grant to get our school a walking track. This grant would allow us to easily motivate our kids to get in shape and help the regular classroom teachers at our school comply with the OK Legislature’s new longer PE times, since we will be taking on this burden.
What I need from you is your vote and possibly the vote of all the people who read your education blog, or anyone else you know who might vote. I would also like to get the word out to support all OK educators. This competition costs nothing but 5 minutes of time from now through July 22nd.
It would be great if we could win, but it would be even greater if all 7 Oklahoma schools won some money.
Here’s how to vote: Go to www.lots2give.com. Use the drop-down menu to select Oklahoma, and Apollo Elementary’s video as well as the others will appear. Vote by clicking the “Vote for this school” button. People can vote up to three times a day through July 22, and you don’t have to watch the video each time.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
School foundation gets a makeover
An education foundation in the metro area has just undergone a makeover of sorts.
The Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation is now The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, a.k.a. The Foundation.
The organization has a new logo to match.
“First, the logo reflects the hand of the community supporting our kids,” foundation chairman Stanley Hupfeld said in a news release. “Second, the logo shows a child growing into an adult with the support of the community.”
The nonprofit was created in 1984 to support the work of Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Pizza, ice cream and security
Oklahoma City School Board members are in their executive session now, so it seems like a good time to share some things with you.
Among other action tonight, board members just approved a smorgasbord of contracts on a consent agenda, including one item worth up to $60,000 for food from Pizza Hut.
The list of consent items on tonight’s agenda is the longest I’ve seen yet — 135 items, compared to 34 at the board’s previous meeting. Board members approve all the items on the consent agenda with a single vote, unless someone wants to discuss a particular one separately.
Here’s a taste of the other types of contracts approved Tuesday:
- -BUILDINGS: Building leases and architectural contracts.
- -MAINTENANCE: Repair needs for electrical, roofing and other systems, and custodial services for daily upkeep.
- -SAFETY: School security services, asbestos and lead abatement, and fire extinguishers and alarm monitoring.
- -TEACHING TOOLS: Library media services, art supplies, software programs and truancy intervention programming.
- -MEMBERSHIPS: District memberships to various civic organizations.
- -LEGAL: Legal counsel.
The cheapest item is district membership to the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with a maximum price tag of $125. The priciest is a contract with ONEOK Energy for $3,403,939.82 for natural gas.
Someone also had the bright idea to include light bulbs on the list.
Still, my favorite just might be the $90,000-maximum contract for “ice cream/novelties” from Blue Bell Creameries, which is, as their commercials say, “The best ice cream in the country.”
No disagreement there. In fact, that sounds pretty good right about now.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Thank You RCC
When people ask me where I went to college, it takes me a second to form an appropriate reply. I claim credits from three institutions (and a failed attempt at another). Generally people want to know where I graduated (UCO), if I went to OSU (I did for a year and still look good in orange apparel) and which alma mater was most influential (Redlands Community College.)
Redlands, then called El Reno Junior College, was most influential for several reasons, the most important being my family could afford to send me there (if I also worked a job or two.)
I don’t remember what I paid for tuition per hour, but I’m sure it was far less than the current rate of $97. That said, Redlands and all other state community colleges remain the best bargains in higher education.
If you look at the cost of 30 credit hours (a year’s worth), the tab at Redlands is nearly $1,000 less than at the least expensive four-year campus, Langston University. It’s less than half the cost to attend the University of Oklahoma.
Yes, you could argue that the OU professors might be more highly qualified, holding doctorate degrees and using better equipped classrooms. None of that matters if you can’t afford to go there in the first place.
Without Redlands, I wouldn’t have started my college journey, and gotten some necessary scholarships to continue on at bigger campuses. Without Redlands, I wouldn’t have gained the confidence in my education abilities to carry me forward.
So next time someone asks where I went to college, I won’t hesitate to say Redlands Community College – even if I’m wearing orange.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Lights out
An economic squeeze and environmental awareness are generating incentives for schools to cut back their energy usage.
For instance, a Texas-based program called Watt Watchers encourages selected students to monitor classrooms, rewarding those that turn off lights at times like lunch and recess and leaving reminder notes on the doors of energy offenders.
In Hawaii, the education department recently notified more than 100 schools that they can receive rebates of between $2 and $45,000 for saving electricity. Another hundred-plus schools, though, have to reimburse the state thousands of dollars for excessive energy usage.
In Oklahoma, two education centers are listed on BuildGreenSchools.org as being registered with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design): Oklahoma City Educare and Fort Sill’s Child Development Center.
What kind of incentives do you think would get Oklahoma schools to cut back their energy consumption?
I’d like to hear your ideas – especially from students – so share them here on NewsOK’s Education Station.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Because money doesn’t grow on trees
I wrote a story for today’s Oklahoman about a newly approved increase in school lunch prices in the Oklahoma City School District.
Steve Gallagher, director of child nutrition services, said at Monday night’s board meeting that the increase is needed to keep up with general rising food costs. He gave some reasons for the price jumps:
- Shifting corn and cropland to bioenergy uses.
- Using healthier but costlier foods like whole grains.
- Unusually severe weather patterns.
- Mandatory increases in minimum wage.
- Exporting food overseas to stronger markets.
“I wish that I could say that prices will go down and maybe we’ve maxed out, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Gallagher said Monday.
“It’s having a major impact on the entire food industry, as I’m sure Ms. Vines can attest to,” said Gallagher, referring to school board member Gail Vines, who co-owns Flip’s Wine Bar & Trattoria, a restaurant in the city.
Gallagher said another reason for the price hikes is the rising cost of fuel, which also was cited in a report Monday night about the transportation department.
The district started the year paying $2.70 per gallon for unleaded and $2.35 per gallon for diesel, transportation director Stephen Foster Jr. said.
The district is now paying $3.35 and $4.04, respectively.
Some NewsOK.com readers already have shared their feedback about the increasing costs. Add your thoughts to the mix on this online forum.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Good Grades = Cash Back
I never lived in on-campus housing. My community college didn’t have dorms at the time, and after I transferred I lived in rental houses off campus.
I think I missed out on an important college experience. Living with other students surely adds camaraderie to college life, and studies show it can also help keep students on track academically.
OU students have lots of options, both on and off campus, and at all price ranges. OU is hoping to lure more upper division students back to campus housing with a rebate program that gives back $100 to $400 a semester if the student maintains a high GPA.
Here’s the breakdown: GPAs of 3.25 to 3.49 would get $100 back; GPAs of 3.5 to 3.74 would get $200 rebated; GPAs of 3.75 to 3.99 would get $300, and 4.0 GPAs would get $400 back.
OU’s Traditions Square apartments rent for $480 a month and include all bills paid. So students earning a perfect GPA would get most of one month’s rent back in reward for their academic success.
What do you think about the plan? Would it entice you to live on campus and make better grades?
E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
A Bathroom by Any Other Name
I’ll probably never be wealthy enough to buy naming rights to any public building. But the Susan Simpson Honorary Toilet Stall — that’s a real possibility.
It’s not a novel idea. Colorado venture capitalist Brad Feld recently made an offer the University of Colorado couldn’t flush away. He paid $25,000 to have his name on a second-floor men’s bathroom in a technology center on campus.
He’s named on a plaque with the quote “The best ideas often come at inconvenient times.”
Feld said it’s good advice. “Sometimes my best ideas have come to me while I’m in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet or taking a shower. It’s a good time to reflect.”
All-righty then. Maybe CU should install pens and note paper in each stall for recording such good ideas.
Maybe I could start my own donor profile by sponsoring rolls of toilet paper in college restrooms. Or would that be a wasted endeavor?
Tell me what you think? Have campus “sponsorships” gone too far?
E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
RICE. a) grain. b) new. c) lesson. d) good deed.
I donated rice to the United Nations today and built my vocabulary at the same time, on a new Web site that’s close to magnanimous and far from plebeian.
In simpler words, the site www.freerice.com donates 20 grains of rice to the U.N. for every vocabulary word you click the correct definition for.
The site gives you harder words as you answer correctly, and simpler words when you get hung up. How was I to know that a tilth is cultivated land?
Still, I showed the site I wasn’t a blockhead, racking up 540 grains of rice.
The rice is paid for by advertisers, whose banners display at the bottom of the screen.
According to the U.N., about 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes.
And with just a few minutes a day, you can virtually donate food while developing a new bond with the English language and becoming your local vocabulary queen or fugleman.
Every word in italics, by the way, came up in my surprisingly fun and altruistic little vocab quiz.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Staff Writer
