Cleveland Ohio Charter School story on CBS.

[Ilsa]

CBS is reporting the fantastic turnaround for kids in an "intergenerational" (?) chartered school. Funny thing, though, only 15 kids per class. No wonder the kids are doing well.

The kids are taught social skills, too. I can remember a time when conservatives screamed about "social programming" in public schools.

I'm sure Rahm E. and B. Gates would love to rejoice in this story. I bet they'll not mention the low student/teacher ratio, though.

[rocktivity]

1. Hmm, a PUBLIC school with that kind of student/teacher ratio

couldn't be at least as successful -- especially if they could ALSO pick and choose their students?


rocktivity

[Ms. Toad]

2. It will be interesting to watch the Cleveland schools -

they just approved a large levy, with part of the money going to charter schools within the borders of the district that meet certain criteria (and the system also adopted a merit based retention/raise scheme).

I am skeptical that these changes will end up benefiting the same people private schools always have - and that a "merit" based system won't wind up motivating the most talented teachers to reject assignments with the most challenging students for fear of either losing their job or their raises.

But the system is in such dire straits anyway, that it is probably worth a try. (I pay a minor amount of taxes there via our church with a commercial rental which is taxed - but had no right to vote on the levy.)

[Ilsa]

3. Exactly. The best

elementary school I am aware of had a student/teacher ratio of 13/1. There were very few behavior problems and the school received top marks from the state. Naturally, the school district looks at shutting it down every couple of years because of the slightly higher cost of running it, but doing so would mean the kids would have to travel an extra 15 miles to get to school.