In Which I Am Courted by Big Charter
One of the most prominent and praised charter schools recently had a teacher/tutor recruitment fair. At the recruitment fair we were given brochures gushing about the amazing qualities of this amazing charter school. We were reminded that this charter school even had a movie made about it, and there were glowing quotes from the New York Times, Oprah, about this uber-school.
The actual job fair, however, left a lot to be desired if you were a middle or high school teacher. Nearly all the openings were for elementary school teaching positions, and that is because the vast majority of the students are in elementary grades. The high school 10th grade cohort currently has 62 kids. This charter school prides itself on a cradle to college approach, but I guess many kids accepted while they are in the cradle don’t ever make it to the charter schools’s upper grades. What happened to them?
It didn’t seem to matter to the principal, who told me, “We have a 100% graduation rate and 100% college acceptance rate.” Well I guess that’s easy if you’ve dwindled your 10th grade class to 62 kids. The principal also awkwardly explained that the school had graduated a senior class, but then there was a “gap” so they now only have 10th graders. I later learned that this “gap” was because an entire cohort had been expelled.
I was called back for another interview. This interviewer was actually a nice guy. He said, “You know, this school isn’t like this utopia. Just because we had a movie made about us and our leader was on Oprah, doesn’t mean it’s easy every day. Our kids have a lot of issues that have to be handled.” The DOE statistics seemed to back up this interview, as test scores for this charter school have proved unimpressive, despite all