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Keeping the Promise? The Debate over Charter Schools Written by Leigh Dingerson, Barbara Miner, Bob Peterson, & Stephanie Walters Rethinking Schools, 2008. 122 pp., ISBN 978-0-942961-38-6
Keeping the Promise provides a series of case studies of the charter school experience in four cities: Boston, Columbus (OH), New Orleans, and Washington, DC. The authors examine whether charter schools are "keeping the promise" to provide an equitable education for all children or have become part of the free-market, privatization agenda. The opening of the book explains how the charter school movement was initiated as a means for strengthening the public education system. It was based on two core principals. First, charter schools were started to offer learning experiences that were not being offered in district public schools. Second, they were expected to share their innovations with their traditional public school counterparts. The cases in the book demonstrate how charter schools are not keeping their promise around the nation.
The fi rst breach of trust involves achievement. In Chapter 3, for example, Hanauer examines charter schools in Ohio. The case of Ohio echoes the national trend of the under-performance of charter schools (Carnoy, Jacobsen, Mishel, & Rothstein, 2005). Related is the issue of teacher quality, the single most important factor in student learning (when poverty is controlled for). Quality teachers know their subject area and also know how to teach. The percentage of teachers who need to be certifi ed in a school varies across states, but in general, the percentage is lower than in public schools. Only 75% of the teachers in charter schools need to hold teaching degrees, while the percentage is higher in traditional public schools (87%). Additionally, charter schools are often free to hire and fi re teachers based on an annual contract. These teachers are provided neither mentors nor regular and ongoing professional development. (Dingerson elaborates on New Orleans in Chapter 2, for example.) As a whole, the charter school movement has rejected unions to avoid bureaucracy. However, the authors point out that the union contracts are the result of struggles fought and won to protect workers' rights, such as due process, adequate pay, and decent working conditions.
Second, charter schools are not keeping their promise with...