{"id":848,"date":"2015-12-19T09:19:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T13:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bakeramitchell.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2015-12-19T09:19:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T13:19:19","slug":"a-clps-is-a-clps-is-a-clps-a-clps-by-any-other-name-would-perform-as-poorly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/19\/a-clps-is-a-clps-is-a-clps-a-clps-by-any-other-name-would-perform-as-poorly\/","title":{"rendered":"A CLP school is a CLP school is a CLP school: and by any other name would perform as poorly."},"content":{"rendered":"

In a fit of legislative hocus-pocus, the same Perdue regime which left NC $3.5 billion in debt and cut funding to schools passed Senate Bill 704[i]<\/a> in the twilight hours of 100 years of Democrat control in May, 2010.<\/p>\n

The 553-word SB704, with an ungainly 248-word title, pretends to offer a fix for incompetent local school boards that breed \u201ccontinually low-performing schools.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0The bill allows a local school board controlling a \u201ccontinually low-performing school\u201d (CLP school) to \u201creform\u201d it by one of four \u201cmodels\u201d: transformation; restart; turnaround; or closure.\u00a0 The key stipulation in the bill is that regardless of which reform model is chosen, the CLP school remains under the control of the same incompetent local board that allowed the low-performance to persist in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A School Board<\/p><\/div>\n

Although thankfully moribund since its passage five years ago, of renewed interest is the \u201crestart\u201d model that would bestow quasi charter-like school status to the CLP\u00a0school\u00a0thereby exempting it from certain regulations.\u00a0 Unlike real charter schools which receive no funding for buildings or other facilities and which must operate on about 70% of the per pupil revenue as do district schools, the restarted CLP\u00a0school\u00a0might\u00a0get a free building, fully 100% of its district funding, and have its overhead and back-office functions provided by the district. Also unlike real charter schools, the law states, \u201cA school operated under this subdivision remains under the control of the local board of education, and employees assigned to the school are employees of the local school administrative unit with the protections provided by G.S. 115C-325\u201d <\/em>\u2013 all of whom created the continual low-performance in the first place.<\/p>\n

Alamance Superintendent Bill Harrison has\u00a0been quoted as saying\u00a0that funding one or two schools the way charters are funded \u201ccould open some opportunities for extended school days, extended calendar, extended employment for some of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Really? \u00a0Take away thirty percent of your district school funding to match the way that charter schools are funded and you could then extend school days, extend the calendar, and extend employment for some people?<\/p>\n

But maybe Harrison was not speaking literally when he implied that he would like to be funded as charters are; \u00a0maybe he meant that district CLP schools could keep all their extra funds so the state would then have “rich” quasi-charters operated by districts and “poor” real charters operated by volunteer boards. \u00a0This arrangement is sure to warm the hearts of the 60,000 families and staff members of the real charters who have struggled under their reduced funding for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n

In general, well-trained teachers using proven curricula with help from knowledgeable coaches are the agents for positive change. \u00a0No policy or \u201cmodel\u201d ever educated a child. \u00a0A low-performing traditional district school restarting as a quasi-charter school will just result in a low-performing quasi-charter school so long as the same local board remains in control.\u00a0 Changing the name over the door will not improve the students\u2019 education.<\/p>\n

The solution being tried in Tennessee, Louisiana[ii]<\/a>, and a few other states is to take the CLP\u00a0school\u00a0out from under the control of the demonstrably incompetent local district board and place it into a separate state-wide district, which Tennessee calls the \u201cAchievement School District” (ASD)[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 .The ASD is administered separately and contracts out the day-to-day operation of each CLPS to management companies with proven track records.<\/p>\n

While the results are still out on this ASD concept, it has the potential for allowing real change to occur in the failing schools.\u00a0 North Carolina should repeal S704 entirely, study the ASD approaches in other states, and craft its own version.\u00a0 Until control at the top by the local districts breeding these low-performing schools is changed, no substantive improvement will occur for the children trapped in these failed schools.<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> http:\/\/www.ncleg.net\/Sessions\/2009\/Bills\/Senate\/PDF\/S704v5.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rsdla.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> http:\/\/achievementschooldistrict.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a fit of legislative hocus-pocus, the same Perdue regime which left NC $3.5 billion in debt and cut funding to schools passed Senate Bill 704[i] in the twilight hours of 100 years of Democrat control in May, 2010. The 553-word SB704, with an ungainly 248-word title, pretends to offer a fix for incompetent local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,8,1],"tags":[16,23,24,35,47,61,75],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-k-12","category-learning-and-education","category-politics-nc","category-uncategorized","tag-asd","tag-charter-legislation","tag-charter-schools","tag-elementary-education","tag-k12","tag-perdue","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bakeramitchelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}