soc sci complete-2

Gittens Writing for The Social Sciences Charter School Ethics

Since the vacating of a record 12 year long incumbency of the New York City

Mayor’s office by Michael R. Bloomberg this past January to incumbent Wilhelm De

Blasio the policies & respective ideologies applied to the New York City Department

of Education; especially in the arena of charter schools has seismically shifted to put

mildly. The story and those affected by it: be they political titans and juggernauts,

career educators, lifetime bureaucrats, media savvy parents and children or media

vultures circling school grounds for effective sound bites have seemingly festered

and swelled in contempt and quantity overnight ever since media outlets have

began coverage as early as mid to late January. Make no mistake blood is being

drawn and we, as New Yorkers are only 3 months into a four-year term. Unity is

dead – across the board when it comes to how policy should go about empowering

academic excellence in primary education. At the heart of this debate lies the

question, should privately run schools be allowed to exist in taxpayer supported

institutions and spaces and utilize taxpayer funding all while operating under a

different set of rules than traditional public educational structures? While charters

are clearly doing something correctly as they achieve academic excellence, are we

sending a divisive message to the children of our beloved city? By raising one group

of children as the “golden calfs” and implicitly expressing indifference and apathy to

the original public schools, are we widening an already existing achievement

disparity? Are we creating dissension not only amongst the children but also

amongst the teachers and administration of the respective schools occupying the

same locations? In a public school system meant to make academic achievement

equally accessible and possible for all students as opposed to a cherry picked few,

1


arbitrarily decided as “desirable” are we facilitating “who should have” and “who

will have not” by bureaucratic means? Is the privatization of the public school

system the correct solution to apply in closing the achievement gap?

The New York City Public School System has been all over the place to say the

very least. Since 2002 alone, it has seen four power redistributing reforms, 3

chancellors (one of which only served a mere three months) as well as an ironclad in

strength teacher’s union, which while important many argue serve as a shield to

ineffective teachers compromising the efficacy of education to New York City Public

School students. (Borzak, 2012) Since 1997 no less than a quarter of all public

school graduating classes have either dropped out or been held over to repeat a

grade indicating a serious “black hole” in achieving academic excellence within the

original city school system model. Under the current model, where the Chancellor

of the New York City Public School system (a position currently held by Carmen

Farina) serves as “the chief executive officer of the school system” by “submitting

the executive budget which must be approved by the board of education and then

sub- mitted to the mayor.” Under this model the mayor has final say and power over

all changes, implementations and alterations to policy, a red flag to many educators

who are quick to point out politicians are a far cry from career educators.

To further educate myself regarding the charter school debacle I viewed the

2010 documentary, The Lottery directed by Madeleine Sackler. The documentary

follows several primary school aged children and their families who are seeking

admission into the Harlem Success Academy, one of the more controversial of

2


charter schools who are facing disbanding in 2014. It can be found on You Tube in

eight parts and in a word is heart wrenching. The obstacles these children face in

their home lives makes a quality education imperative to pulling themselves from

circumstances that are ultimately beyond their control. What’s worse is not all of

them gain entry into these high achieving, resource bountiful facilities that often

occupy the same space as the schools that are polar opposites in quality. An

estimated 5000 parents attended the lottery drawing process occurring in April of

2009 at the Washington Heights Armory hoping for a chance at an educational

foundation of meaning for their children ("The Lottery", 2010). Eva Moskowitz, the

founder of the Harlem Success Academy said it best “the notion that one has to get

lucky to get a first-rate free public education, it shouldn’t be that way” ("The

Lottery", 2010). I could not agree more, but sadly that is the way it is. While I

commend her efforts, initiative and vision saving a select few and leaving others to

essentially “drown” is a grave mistake in my estimations. What message are you

sending to the ones looked over already by society to then further divide them into

worthy and unworthy, on top of that to do so within their immediate school

community? It is demeaning, divisive and hurtful. Of 5000 parents, assuming each

parent has one child (unlikely) 475 were chosen for Harlem Success Academy,

reminiscent of the Titanic – too many lives aboard and not enough lifeboats to save

them. ("The Lottery", 2010)

As most situations which involve communities that are lacking resources,

race is central to the comprehension of this travesties magnitudes. The NYC Public

School system produces results where the average black 12th grader performs on

3


par with the average white 8th grader; a four-year learning gap. ("The Lottery",

2010) This obviously makes preparation for higher education a distant reality and

continues the cycle of poverty, underemployment, illiteracy and sustainment of an

underclass again and again. Early childhood statistics offer little hope either, as 58%

of Black 4th graders are functionally illiterate. ("The Lottery", 2010) Some may say

“So What?” “What has that to do with me?” “Why should I care?” To quote our

current President, Barrack O’Bama a fierce proponent for charters, “African –

American, Latino Students are lagging behind white classmates in one subject after

another. An achievement gap that by one estimate costs us hundreds of billions of

dollars in wages that will not be earned, jobs that will not be done, and purchases

that will not be made.” ("The Lottery", 2010) Education – a sufficient one goes hand

in hand with a booming economy. In an emerging global economy, the absence of a

standard of uniform educational excellence will hurt America more than we know.

Looking at Harlem specifically, there are 23 zoned public schools, 19 of which

produce scholars performing at reading level below 50% of their enrollment

rosters. ("The Lottery", 2010)

I had the privilege of sitting down with three career educators, which I define

to mean persons who have spent at a minimum of 10 years in the classroom

(effectively) and another 10 or in the process of completing a decade as either an

assistant principal or a principal of a NYC Public School.

The third administrator asked, Mrs. Marianne DiGangi (former Principal of

P.S. 272 The Curtis Estabrook School in Canarsie Brooklyn) opted out of the

4


questionnaire I formulated for administrators on the grounds of what she felt would

be insufficient applied knowledge on her part to my line of questioning due to a) too

much time between her retiring in the mid 2000’s and the current debate on

charters and b) a general sense of unfamiliarity with the debate as her life has been

focused on rebuilding her life and home since Hurricane Sandy, I ask your prayers

and considerations be with her as you read on.

The remaining two administrators consulted were Mr. Larry Lord, Principal

of P.S. 235 also in Brooklyn, NY and my mother, Karla Solomon Gittens, former

Assistant Principal of P.S. 272. Between the two of them well over a half century of

experience, knowledge and dedication was applied to the answering of my

questions; what I discovered was as follows: Charters create a class system already

prevalent outside the walls of the school building they inhabit. To quote Mr. Lord

“Charter schools actually continue to create another tier in the education system.

If you get hold of the parent-student-school contracts you will find that children can

be removed for many reasons: attendance, poor behavior, low performance, not

wearing a uniform. Where do these children go? Back to their zoned schools. So

they keep the best of the best and in time remove those who are not fitting into their

mold. But then to add insult to injury they are compared to Public Schools where

we do not have the option of removing children for those reasons.” He raises an

excellent point, deemed “problem children” are not found in charter schools, once

behavioral distractions are physically removed from a classroom effective

instruction becomes probable by at least tenfold. When a teacher is allowed to focus

their talents and energy on instruction and curriculum as opposed to management

5


and disciplining it logically follows that the former environment is conducive to

learning. Charter schools are not fixing the problem of educational failure so much

as they are redistributing and reallocating deemed “undesirables” to zoned schools.

Mrs. Gittens expresses similar sentiments, “Public education should not be elitist.

There should be enriched opportunities in the same setting for all children

regardless, of ability, aptitude or institutionalized favoritism. I want a fair mixture of

all types of students. Give me the resources and I will deliver”. (Gittens, 2014)

On the message being sent to children who are not admitted into charter

schools I posed the question, “What are the consequences you perceive or have

experienced in sharing a location with a charter school?” to which Mr. Lord painted

a accurate and fair assessment. “I have not had the opportunity to have a shared

charter school but I have been is some schools which have. Imagine walking into a

building and literally seeing the first floors with old desks and chairs, old computers

and shades, worn out bulletin boards and limited technology. Now go upstairs and

see everything brand new - paint, light, desks, technology, books, and a longer day

so built in babysitting.” (Lord, 2014) Children are more intelligent and perceptive

than people give them credit for – I’m certain that in seeing this disparity day in and

day out the message being received is “I’m not capable and my city believes me less

so than the children on the floor above me”. (Lord, 2014) Even if not as nuanced an

understanding I’ve just stated there is a clear indication of “us“ and “them” and the

former being the inferior. I can’t help but reinforce my position with the separate

but equal legal discourse I had thought Americans had already decided upon in the

landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education (United States. National Park

6


Service, 2014) which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson ("Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896).

Though, the determinant of these injustices were initially hinging on race, its clear

to me that charters have only transferred the same bias, prejudice and segregated

practice on ability and arbitrary favor. Surely, this is no help in fostering an

environment conducive to learning either. “Favoritism, jealousy, unequal funding,

parental friction, elitism” (Gittens, 2014) are all reasons cited by Mrs. Gittens as

consequences of charters co habituating with the original schools.

Mr. Lord previously mentioned and referred to the length of school days in

charter schools, another integral angle from which to examine educational policy.

Like any thing that is insufficient in quality, money is usually the remedy in this

world. The funding, that is allocated in the aforementioned executive budget when

already split amongst a system spanning five boroughs catering to over 1 million

young souls is already meager, especially in these times of increasing austerity (Lee,

2014). To further fraction that by creating more charter schools, which privately

fundraise and receives support through private sector donation that traditional

public schools cannot accept without passing and satisfying a long list of

bureaucratic safeguards is highly unfair especially if they don’t even pay rent to the

city for inhabiting school buildings they are essentially “squatting” in. If rent was

collected, perhaps traditional public schools could extend school days or provide

teachers with valuable PREP periods in which they receive time where students are

in music, art or other elective like classrooms allowing them time to make lesson

plans and enrich their applied curriculum, charter schools teachers usually receive

three a day. In a school system where arts funding has systematical and consistently

7


been slashed away until mere tatters effective prep time is near nonexistent, and the

children suffer.

Some approach the issues plaguing children of lower SES’s as the culprit for

the achievement gap. While poverty without a doubt is a contributing factor to

educational failure it is by no means nor has it ever been the nail in the coffin, if you

will. Candice Fryer, a teacher at the Harlem Success Academy poignantly expressed

her feelings regarding poverty and educational success, “Every child can learn. We,

as the educators are there to give them the resources. If they don’t make it to college

then the system has failed them. Not the other way around.” ("The Lottery", 2010) I

could not agree more. Meredith Gotlin, Principal of P.S. 29 in the Bronx reinforces

the discrediting of the “poverty culprit mythology”, “In any school that you walk into

theres always going to be a unique set of challenges. Whether its that kids are too

poor, whether its that parents are too rich, whether its that parents are too involved,

not involved enough you’ll always have a challenge. The job of a school is to say

regardless of all those challenges, what can we do to address it?” ("The Lottery",

2010)

“…Excellent public education threatens the not so good or even quite terrible

public education that is being offered up. If we in the charter school movement can

provide phenomenal education at equal or less than the per pupil funding why can’t

these other schools do it? And the reason they can’t do it is because they’re saddled

with the bureaucracy of management and the bureaucracy of the district and the

union contracts and so forth and so we’re a huge threat to this institution that has

been around for a long time.” ("The Lottery", 2010) The quote provided by Ms.

8


Moskowitz while valid on numerous points is not uniformly true. Special education

is a huge part in understanding the secret to charters seemingly unbridled success.

Charter school law with regards to special education provision and what they are

obligated to provide exist in a very vague and confusing limbo like state. “Three

factors contribute to defining roles and responsibilities for those involved with

charter schools and special education: (a) a charter school's legal identity, (b) how

closely the charter school is linked to an existing LEA, and (c) the infrastructure

needed to ensure students with disabilities are served. Each of these areas must be

understood within the context of a state's charter school law and with attention to

the charter school contract and its role in defining roles and responsibilities.”

(Morando Rhim Ph. D., 2008, p. 14) Depending on this triad of factors charters can

have a finite binding obligation to special education children or none at all, making it

all but to simple to deny effective instruction suited to disabled children or not even

entertain the thought of all. Especially, if you know the right people in high places as

most charter school power structures do to even be in business in the first place.

Traditional public schools do not have this luxury. As you can hence imagine,

disabled children require more time, more resources, more money, more man

power so it is no surprise that with this added weight traditional public schools are

set out to fail from the start whether practices within the classroom are effective or

not.

The quoted educators are the people you want your children to be in the

hands of. Dedicated professionals, who know their business, know their clientele

and will meet them where they are, bringing me to my final point of examination the

9


mighty teachers union and the role it plays in promoting ineffective methodology

and protecting ineffective teachers. I believe in unions, they are necessary but they

also facilitate a marriage between underperformance and job security, which while I

believe nobody intended has occurred non-the less. Once again, Principal Meredith

Gotlin “ I have not had union issues at my school so I would not say its impeding me

of working effectively with my school community. There are definitely pieces of it

that affect my decisions on a daily basis. You know, if you were not a successful

employee in business I don’t need to write you up and really go through the entire

process; which I have to here. If I see a teacher that is underperforming and not

using best practices in their classroom and not providing a rigorous education it is a

challenge and not one that I think benefits our kids”. ("The Lottery", 2010) The

frustration on her face is visible as she says it and even towards the end of the quote

you see she is carefully selecting her words. I asked my two interviewees what their

assessment of ineffective teachers and the role they play on lack luster education

looks like in their buildings. I was told as follows: by Mr. Lord, “People in general

think that Principals have all this power. We don’t. Of my whole staff of 75 teachers

there is only one I have a problem with. One.” (Lord, 2014) The amount of time and

years it would take to deal with it with everything that is expected at this time is not

possible. Mrs. Gittens response mirrored Mr. Lord’s: at the time of her retirement in

2010 she believed 15 – 20 percent of her staff to be ineffective, 5% of which she was

able to get rid of. (Gittens, 2014) As a former UFT chair, which ultimately serves as a

teachers legal liaison within the grievance project she stressed the imperativeness

of administrators having command over the teachers contract and being able to

10


apply it in grievance/ removal proceedings. Without this honed abilities ineffective

teachers remain and children suffer. Charter schools don’t adhere to contracts and

therefore do not have this impediment, making their removal process simpler but

also allowing politics and personal vendettas as causes of termination.

As a product of the New York City Public School System I know firsthand and

was lucky to evade educational pitfalls, my parents privately bussed me out of my

district in southeastern Jamaica to District 26 in Bayside through elementary and

middle school. The process to do so was similar to that of the charter school

admissions process, I required a waiver, multiple interviews, psychological

assessment etc. The school had to permit my admission otherwise I’d be at my

zoned school which was vastly inferior in resources and educational caliber. In high

school I attended a Performing Arts H.S. started by singer Tony Bennett in the honor

of his friend Frank Sinatra, so needless to say the private funding that school

commanded was unparalleled like that of a charter school, until the space they

reside in now in Astoria had finished construction we resided in the DeVry building

in Long Island City, like a charter school, another high school also occupied that

building. Though we were kept relatively separate we were definitely looked upon

as the “gifted and favored artsy children” and while I can’t remember anything

significant occurring as a result of that the roles were very much an unspoken

understanding. We were the lucky ones who were visited by celebrities, multiple

production companies mentored us, pizza parties on a whim, spotless bathrooms

etc. and while I benefited from it all and am thankful I didn’t deserve it any more

than any other NYC Public School student especially not subsidized by public tax

11


dollars especially when we didn’t need it. If we funded schools (monitored and held

accountable for fund allocation), paid a respectable salary of teachers skilled,

passionate and talented in areas of study and specialties pertaining to the children

within their specific classrooms (what talented, phenomenal professional of any

trade is going to gravitate towards being disvalued in compensation?), stopped

solely binding the passing of and teaching to a state test that is irrelevant as soon as

its passed (leaving them no more prepared for college level work, admission or

employment), and allowed teachers to have flexibility, choices and options in the

curriculums they apply like at my school. The connection of The School System to

the Mayor’s office is a humongous mistake as with every 4 or 8 years (12 for

Bloomberg) the direction, mission and course of the educational policy shifts and

with it the children under the respective administration in powers auspices.

In closing, Mrs. Gittens words indicating of where schools need to focus their

attentions in reform and consistency “ curriculum, educator development, funding,

parental partnership, reasonable time frames and flexibility to make changes”.

(Gittens, 2014)

12


REFERENCES

Gittens, Karla. Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2014.

Lord, Laurence. Email interview. 15 Mar. 2014.

Graduation Results. (n.d.). New York City Traditional Graduation Rate Archive. Retrieved March 22, 2014, from http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/data/GraduationDropoutReports/NYCTraditionalCalc.htm

Lee, T. (2014, March 15). Will the charter school fight cripple the progressive movement?. msnbc.com. Retrieved March 25, 2014, from http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/nyc-charter-fight-challenges-progressives

Rhim Ph. D., L. M., Lange Ph.D., C. M., & Ahearn Ph.D., E. M. (2008). Special Education in Charter Schools. Journal of Special Education Leadership, 21, 14.

Plessy v. Ferguson. (1896, May 18). LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/163/537

The New York City Department of Education: A Brief History. (n.d.). My Learning Springboard. Retrieved March 22, 2014, from http://mylearningspringboard.com/the-new-york-city-department-of-education-a-brief-history/

Sackler, M. (Director). (2010). The lottery [Documentary]. USA: Great Curve Films.

States. National Park Service. (2014, February 27). Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/brvb/index.htm

13

soc sci complete-2

Documents