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October 20, 2006
"Boutique" schools or...?
Over in his blog, Sean's talking about the InterCity Leadership Visit he recently took to San Diego. Included in the trip were two visits to local charter schools. Sean left us with these quick thoughts:
- In each school, the students and staff were motivated to be there for the same reasons. Each group catered perfectly to a specific category of student. Each had highly-motivated staff (and lotteries to become a student), and a focused curriculum.
- At Preuss, they simply spent more time on task. More hours and days in class.
- Strong and sustainable leadership and accountability strategies for staff and administrators.
- The bureaucratic freedom to adapt quickly.
- Strong external partnerships.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the first bullet: the schools they visited each catered perfectly to a specific category of student. This point is especially worth talking about because it's a big issue in the education policy world right now -- it's what drives conversations about charter schools, vouchers for private schools, and other school choice initiatives. It just makes sense that students will do better in schools that are tailored to their particular needs and interests -- and anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that it works. I've visited charter schools around the metro area that are focused on immigrant students from particular backgrounds, and they do great work with students who have been failing in traditional district schools.
But I wonder if we lose something as kids and families self-select into these "boutique" schools. Certainly all schools lose some diversity (and by that I don't mean only students of color, but the rich diversity of thought, experience, background, perspective, ideas and knowledge) -- and the kids lose a shared experience that most of us participated in when we were in school. But does that matter - or does it matter enough to argue against the potential benefits of organizing individual schools around a particular group of kids?
I'm not sure, and I haven't seen enough (or any) evidence on either side to make a rational argument -- but I would love to hear thoughts from anyone out there on this.
(There are some very smart people working on these issues in Minnesota -- especially the crowd at Education Evolving.)
Posted by Victoria Ford at October 20, 2006 2:27 PM
Comments
Victoria: Great post -- I wish I was this thoughtful in my post. Great question. Worth a discussion.
I would have to say that at the two schools (and for the brief time I was there) I would be willing to bet that there was still a great deal of diversity among the students.
I think how these students are able to interact with each other might have been the most impressive thing I saw.
I'm probably not offering much new here.
Posted by: Sean Kershaw | October 21, 2006 10:20 PM