Sunday, November 06, 2005
Letter To The Editor On Small High Schools
November 6, 2005
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
Dear Sir:
Diane Ravitch is exactly right in questioning the recent trend in this country toward smaller high schools. I have direct experience with the issues that arise from this movement.
As a past board member of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy I can attest that we struggled with how to catch socially promoted kids up to grade level at the same time that we were expected to offer advanced or AP classes in a variety of subjects for those students who are academically ahead of their peers. We had neither the money nor space to be able to provide such resources.
Unfortunately, the facility issue in regard to charter schools in the nation's capital makes any other option unreachable. Ms. Ravitch sites a study by Valerie E. Lee and Julia B Smith that found that the highest performing high schools have between 600 and 900 students, which translates to a building of between 60,000 to 90,000 square feet. Even if you said to charter school leaders that anything was possible (which we believe it is) it is way beyond our imagination to even think in terms of obtaining this much space in D.C.?s hot commercial real estate market.
So it looks like we will continue creating small high schools and going down a path of which education reformers have been extremely critical; namely educating the future leaders of our county in a manner unsupported by scientific research.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Lerner
Chairman, Board of Directors
The William E. Doar, Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts
PermaLink | 2:02 PM |
|
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
Dear Sir:
Diane Ravitch is exactly right in questioning the recent trend in this country toward smaller high schools. I have direct experience with the issues that arise from this movement.
As a past board member of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy I can attest that we struggled with how to catch socially promoted kids up to grade level at the same time that we were expected to offer advanced or AP classes in a variety of subjects for those students who are academically ahead of their peers. We had neither the money nor space to be able to provide such resources.
Unfortunately, the facility issue in regard to charter schools in the nation's capital makes any other option unreachable. Ms. Ravitch sites a study by Valerie E. Lee and Julia B Smith that found that the highest performing high schools have between 600 and 900 students, which translates to a building of between 60,000 to 90,000 square feet. Even if you said to charter school leaders that anything was possible (which we believe it is) it is way beyond our imagination to even think in terms of obtaining this much space in D.C.?s hot commercial real estate market.
So it looks like we will continue creating small high schools and going down a path of which education reformers have been extremely critical; namely educating the future leaders of our county in a manner unsupported by scientific research.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Lerner
Chairman, Board of Directors
The William E. Doar, Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts
PermaLink | 2:02 PM |
| 
