Upon reading a chapter within Educational Foundations by Alan Canestrari about Inclusion, the first school that came to my mind was Opportunity. Opportunity is a charter school out of Harlem in New York City. I found this school to be inspiring and share a same unique issue with inclusion as found within the book. I particularly became interested within the topic of inclusion at Opportunity, because I plan on teaching in NYC and Opportunity seemed an interesting example of inclusion and the challenges a charter school can face. My question is "Is a charter school the answer to special education?"
Opportunity is an inspiring school on 113th street in New York City. The school has been open since 2004 and services grades 6 to 12. There are roughly 3.5 students to every teacher and out of the total number of teachers there are nine clinical teachers and nine behavioral teachers integrated throughout the school. Within their website, Opportunity boasts a strong statement
"We welcome students in grades 6 through 12, regardless of their previous academic success: students who are yearning to learn, students who have fallen behind, students who have been told their aspirations are beyond reach. Through a positive belief in every student's promise, we are committed to bringing their potential to life." (Opportunitycharter.org)
This should be the basis of education to begin with. The idea of harnessing potential, but recent articles by The New York Post and Gotham Schools have portrayed the issues that Opportunity faces. The New York Post article written by Leonard Goldberg on August 8th, 2009 portrays the strengths of Opportunity Charter School and seems inspirational and optimistic. He explains that the city of New York had officially decided to foot the bill for special education students to attend charter schools avoiding costs of up to 50,000 dollars per student. Goldberg manages to convince the public that the taxpayers money is well spent due to their success in education the learning disabled by creating and following IEP's and constantly monitoring progress through evaluation. Goldberg pleads for taxpayers to support lifting the charter cap and agreeing to spend money investing in the charter school with the promise that it will not cost extra tax paying money. The reasoning being that less money will be spent in taxes to private special education institutions. Goldberg is the CEO and head of the Opportunity Charter School and hence he creates an impressive argument, but is the school going smoothly?
It seems with an academic layout of courses ranging from music and arts to standard English, Math, History, etc. curriculum that this school is something worth backing. It STRONGLY depends on inclusion and qualified teachers to produce results from their special education students. How well is it working? The school seems to come upon some scrutiny from the city and state expectations. An article by Anna Phillips titled "A School has a year to prove it can do the (almost) impossible." show issues that the school has faced more recently. This article was written only two short months after Goldberg's convincing plea. Phillips examines the school and labels it as roughly half special education students and half general education students. She finds that the school has the outcome of some of the lowest test scores in the city. Phillips finds that in an interview with Mr. Fazio, Vice Principal of Opportunity, “Lowest achieving kids in New York City. Bottom 10 percent,” is all he could respond. The city has given the school an ultimatum, improve the test scores in one year or lose it's charter. Phillips finds teachers still optomsitic, doing their best for the students, but Opportunity is definatly under some pressure. Why would Goldberg go through all this effort at a charter school instead of teach at a regular school?
“I felt marginalized as a teacher,” he said. “The schools’ attitude was: ‘Why bother with your kids?’” According to Goldberg, Opportunity is on its way to meeting its charter goals, which include having the majority of students score Levels 3 or 4 on the state tests by the time they enter high school, seeing that all eighth graders are promoted to high school, and ensuring that all high school seniors have the ability to go to college." (Phillips)
The school is making some improvements in test scores, but having issues with students reaching a plateau at a certain level without improvement. The improvements the school sees with their students are ones that are impossible to measure by city and state standards.
“I don’t think they [the city and state] understand that you can’t measure students who are four or five years behind on one state standardized test and expect the school to be accountable for a system that has failed them for six or seven years,” Fazio said. “I think that’s a very unfair judgment, but it is a judgment we have to work with.” (Phillips)
With all of these issues fighting against Opportunity, the staff, administration, and principal remain hopeful that their charter will be renewed. However, this seems like an issue that faces many charter schools. Opportunity is willing to take on any students with any conditions. There is no limit to the potential of a student and although inspiring, the city and state seem hesitant to be fully supportive.
Is a charter school the answer to special education? No, but it can't hurt.
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