The best District School/Charter School article you’re likely to read

by David Safier

A very long piece in the NY Times Sunday magazine presents simply the best picture of the challenges facing district and charter schools who try to educate poor kids I have read in a long, long time. The author has no dog in the hunt. He's not for or against district or charter schools. He simply wants to explore what's going on, and what's working.

His subject is M.S. 223 in Brooklyn, serving kids from the local projects. If this were a charter school, we would be hearing regular, high praise for the school and its principal, Ramón González. But it's a regular district public school.

González has been principal of M.S. 223, on 145th Street near Willis Avenue, since the school’s creation in September 2003. One of the first schools opened by Joel Klein, the New York City schools chancellor at the time, 223 was intended to help replace a notoriously bad junior high school that the city had decided to shut down. Thirteen percent of its first incoming class of sixth graders were at grade level in math and just 10 percent were at grade level in English. Last year, after seven years under González, 60 percent of its students tested at or above grade level in math and 30 percent in English. Not something to brag about in most school districts, but those numbers make 223 one of the top middle schools in the South Bronx. According to its latest progress report from the Department of Education, which judges a school’s growth against a peer group with similar demographics, 223 is the 10th-best middle school in the entire city.

Success stories like this in high-poverty neighborhoods are becoming more common in the era of charter schools, but 223 is no charter. There is no clamoring of parents trying to game a spot for their kids in a lottery, no screening of applicants, no visits from educators hoping to learn the secret of the school’s success, no shadow philanthropist supplying Kindles to all of its students. M.S. 223 is just a regular public school. González isn’t even allowed to see the files of incoming students before they arrive. “You know what you have to do to come to school here?” González told me. “Walk through that door.”

Charter schools have the advantage of getting a somewhat better selection of students, and they can kick students out pretty easily. Where do the expelled students go? Back to district schools, of course. Many charters also get philanthropic money to augment their city and state funding. González gets no extra money. He gets kids from the worst possible home situations, and he gets kids who just moved into the neighborhood and walk in the door to enroll throughout the year, and he can't say no. Still, through his energy and brilliance, and with a team of mostly dedicated teachers and support staff, he manages to make significant, though not miraculous, progress.

[Note: Be suspicious whenever you hear about "miraculous progress" in education. You're likely to find a snake oil salesman behind the microphone.]

I don't usually quote myself, but I wrote this a few days ago in a review of the film, "Waiting for Superman," and it goes doubly true for what you learn in this article:

"When it comes to education, don't hope for miracles. Spend the money. Do the thinking, planning and just plain hard work. Try your damndest to give kids the best education you can. Then come back the next day and try even harder."