Depending on who you talk to, Charter schools in Arizona were enabled for the purpose of innovating and improving education; or for destroying the public school system. In an oppositional political system, probably both have some truth – and perhaps both are happening. Charters undeniably pull students away from district schools. But can they also benefit districts by developing innovative models that work, that districts can then replicate at scale?

Pamela Cornell is aware of the difficulties faced by public schools. The last thirty plus years she’s worked on alternative programs for Project Moore, run the STAR Alternative HS for Sunnyside and a gifted and talented school in Richmond, VA and helped open a comprehensive high school in Colorado Springs. Now “retired”, she is the co-founder of Las Puertas Community Learning Center, a new southside charter school that she hopes will model successful programs that can then be integrated back into the public schools.

“One of the unique things we’re doing that is very different than others, is we’re not in the business of setting up a whole bunch of charter schools. Our goal is simple – we want to improve education in Tucson.”

“We went to leaders in some of the districts, the Sunnyside Superintendent, said we will open a charter in the district if you give us the freedom to do it. They said no, which was fine….We hope at the end of 3 years we will have some really strong research based outreach so we can go to our neighborhood schools, and say ‘here are the things that are working with young people who are underserved’, not in a competitive fashion but to start targeting schools in our regular districts to serve as a model to bring some of that new stuff in.”

What kind of stuff? Las Puertas will be based on four primary foundations:

– Community

– College Prep (Academic)

– College Readiness (non-Academic)

– Strength Building

Community

The community aspect may include non-traditional features such as a health provider on the campus, offering early childhood education, a financial institution (bank or credit union), and hopefully an engineering program. Pima college and ASU are being tapped as partners; ASU will provide the social work interns so that all students’ families “will have social work access if they need it to connect them to whatever resources they need.”

“Also we are bringing in from community what we call a design team, we have wonderful people who are just artists, my pharmacists who developed the pharmacy tech program for walgreens, Dr Storm from JTED, retired principals, UofA students. They are being invited in to help us shape the school. Closely working with the Sunnyside neighborhod association. The school is a reflection of what the community is looking for. We will work directly with the teachers to integrate the project based learning, they will help the teachers develop the curriculum and help evaluate it. College readiness, very strong curriculum. We are doing interdisciplinary blocks: math/science, humanities/language arts, “specials” – I think it will be an interesting approach”

Academic College Prep

A key goal of Las Puertas is to serve a traditionally underserved population with a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. This isn’t just lip service: the school will have a longer year of 204 instructional days vs the state mandated 180, will have a longer school day, and will pay the staff appropriately for the longer days and hours with higher than standard wages.

“Special ed kids, English language learners, all will be in the same core curriculum together. Every three weeks, they will be assessed, and immediately get whatever support or enrichment they need.

“Research has shown that kids in 6th grade who fail one core subject or have more than 3 referrals to the office have a 60% lower chance of graduatiing. So we really feel its critical to get in there and help these kids move forward, but also have enrichment. The kids who may need help in math, would get supported in half of that specials block. The other block they still choose whatever they want. They may choose to do more than one remediation level but they will only be required to do one.

“So that is our very strong curriculum level where we support them to reach that [level]. There is also a before and after school tutorial block. We will be strict that this is a college prep school. They may not all choose to go to college, but if they don’t have the readiness they don’t have the choice.

“We will use the CWRA – College Work Readiness Assessment. Its more of that critical thinking curriculum. We want students to understand the concepts not just the subject. We are going to pay better for teachers, they will be in leadership positions. They will have collaborative time together during the day and more instructional days.”

College Readiness

How is college readiness different than the academic college preparation?

Cornell calls it “social capital”. During her time at Richmond Community High, “We had very traditional GTE kids, but we also brought kids in from the hood – very bright kids, we had to give them separate books for school and home because they would be in trouble if they walked home with these books. They got into all kinds of colleges, but they didn’t feel in place – some of them only lasted a semester or a year. So we will be building into the curriculum some of the realities of college readiness. How you work with others, manage time, and so on”

Strength Building

“Our fourth piece is the strength building. Its a process that I ran into when I was in Sunnyside district. We brought strength building partners into our school. They worked with the teachers for 9 years, they liked it so much they asked them to come in and work with the students. The STAR Alternative High School that was underperforming..now is recognized as an exemplary model. Twenty-five percent of kids got scholarships to go on to college, and in 2008 we received an award as an exemplary model for dropout and AIMS intervention.

Pamela Clark-Raines, the co-founder of Las Puertas, started StrengthBuilding Partners twelve years ago as a nonprofit mentoring organization serving children, parents, teachers and businesses.

“The idea is that most of us doing know our strengths, and work on a deficit model. Schools will talk about what’s wrong with kids, how do we fix it. They don’t feel included, respected. So we want to work on not the deficit model, but what are the strengths of our staffs, our families, our students, and our communities as we bring them in. We don’t ignore problems, but instead of always looking at deficits we build on our strengths.

“We’re not going to be administratively top heavy at all, so the lead teachers will be making decisions. We want to demonstrate that the capacity of teachers to make determinations – keeping the busy stuff off of them, but giving them the power that they deserve to do their jobs, to move that forward.

* * *

If Las Puertas is not successful, it won’t be for lack of thought and planning. With the Charter Starter grant, Cornell and Clark-Raines are taking an extra year to plan, acquire facilities and line up teachers, opening in fall 2014 rather than 2013 as originally anticipated. The two co-founders aren’t doing all this in isolation – rather, they are inviting community members to design teams for everything from math and science curriculum to discipline policy, and taking ideas from successful models in other schools around the country. Cornell delves into the details of each aspect with calm enthusiasm and confidence from her years of experience.

Take-home computers: Each kid will have a take-home computer paid for from the grant money. “We don’t know what yet – there is a new assessment called the Parc that they are going to do on line, that right now doesn’t fit the Apple platform. We not only want this for our kids, but we want to have access for our families…people are so worried, ‘they’ll all be stolen’. No they won’t. I find young people to be very responsible when treated responsibly”

Positive Discipline: “We’re designing the discipline policy – highly accountable, but not punitive. We want to ask, what does a really positive campus look like? Zero tolerance doesn’t work – it doesn’t take into consideration the difference between actions and different ages. We really want a nurturing environment – one of the big things we’re hearing from parents is no bullying. So its very important to have that really positive kind of learning. As part of our schedule we have advisory blocks with small groups of kids, we also have group meetings, so we bring all the kids together for group meetings once a week.”

Math and Science: “There’s a program called ‘Think through’ math that is really interesting. We’ve looked at programs from the University of Illinois, California, Indiana that are state of the art that we think really highly of. Our model school is High Tech High in San Diego. So we’re not feeling like starting from the ground level.” High Tech High managed to integrate art with math in a program called Calculicious, doing art projects with geometric solids.

Las Puertas will start in fall 2014 with 200 students in grades 6-9, 50 per grade level. “We don’t want it to be bigger than that – its a model, lets see what we can do with our years of experience and really talented teachers to demonstrate what we’ve learned.”

Anyone interested in being involved in the design and planning stages is welcome, either to come to a single meeting and share thoughts, or to be involved long term.

“The big thing is that we are really welcoming ideas about the school because we hope it will impact Tucson.”

I hope so too.

~~~~~~

Interested individuals can check check out the Strength Building website for general information, call the office at 520-546-9296 or email Pam Cornell at pam_cornell @ msn . com or Pam Clark-Raines at pamsuecr · gmail · com

Last word from Cornell: “PLEASE DO ask them to contact us! We are forming focus groups for parents and students and also welcome interested community supporters and interested teachers for our Design Team meetings. The design teams will help shape the partnerships and help develop the project based curriculum. It is a good way for prospective staff and families to learn more about the plans.”

Yes, because of education funding. Yes, because of money. Yes, because of balance of power and the ability to make rules that change how the game is played.

But also, because it sets a precedent for what wins.

Ken Larsen (disclaimer: my cousin) wrote a fascinating piece on why the Bush-Dukakis election was so important. No, Dukakis and Bush are not particularly fascinating folks. But that election set a precedent that negative campaigning swings votes, no matter how much the voters say they hate it.

The 2012 election could set a precedent that lying works.

Do we really want that? VOTE. Tell your friends to vote.

Here’s a couple links to cheat sheets on the propositions and candidates. Vote for Betts for TUSD, she is great. But anyway you do it, just Vote.

Thanks to blogger Cell-out Arizona for pointing out that not only do private prisons cost more than public ones, officials apparently knew, didn’t care, and changed the law to allow it : Documents Show Arizona Officials Knew Private Prisons Weren’t Saving Money

Not that I’m terribly surprised. But now we have the smoking gun, what do we do with it?

Election season may be our best chance to shove the stink under the noses of those running for office and get them to answer questions, or at raise the issue at debates and public appearances of candidates.

Here’s some sample tough questions to ask candidates for the AzLeg. If you call or email a campaign office, they should give you some kind of response, and it lets them know that this issue is important to voters. Tell me if you try this and get any answers!

While we’re at it, how about some positive leadership? Dr Dave Wells of the Grand Canyon Institute has a proposal for saving anywhere from $30-70 million while impoving outcomes by implementing an Earned Release program involving drug rehab and intensive probation. Most states have something similar, Arizona is the only state that makes all nonviolent prisoners serve 85% of their time behind bars at $21K/year. We also may be the only state with a governor whose campaign chairman and policy advisor is (not was) a lobbyist for a private prison corporation.

Mental health services, drug rehabilitation, intensive probation are all effective tools to reduce recidivism (read, repeat crime) and they are cheaper than locking people up. More effective, less expensive – sounds like an ad campaign. But why should we care? Prisons are big business in Arizona, and business makes jobs! Prison guards have steady pay and good health benefits, who could say no to that? Teachers smeachers, prisons are the real growth industry in this town.

Interview with Dr David Wells, author of Reducing Incarceration Costs While Maintaining
Public Safety: From Truth in Sentencing to Earned
Release for Nonviolent Offenders

I’ve shopped at Fry’s for years. They have good prices, pretty fresh fruit, and the store is clean. But for the last several months, I’ve been noticing the cashiers are really stressed. There seems to be some timing system which is micromanaging the checkout line wait times, and imposing consequences on workers who are seconds behind expectation. The other day a label was stuck over the bar code on some tortillas, and the guy behind the counter was just sweating trying to get it to scan. Who needs that kind of stress?

Apparently this is some sort of pilot project to reduce wait times. Now I don’t care for waiting in line, but I don’t think the cashiers were slacking off before. This seems to me an example of central management run amuck – the people on the floor have no control over their own environment, but are being managed by numbers. Let the stores be judged on a store level and let the local management decide how and whether to use the timers. Give people tools, don’t put them on leashes.

Here’s an open letter to Fry’s/Kroger management, feel free to add your comments.

Bob Fu was the last person to speak to He Peirong, the woman who drove Chen Guangchen to freedom. In his op-ed to the Washington Post, he recalls “I was talking to her last week when she said “guo bao lai le,” that state security had arrived. Now, she is under arrest at an undisclosed location, and her blog has been erased. “.

Chen Guangchen has left the embassy – possibly because his family was threatened. Pearl, He Peirong, has not been heard from since she spoke to Fu.

A brave activist who risks her life for others deserves our support. Freedom is a bipartisan issue, and I hope progressives and conservatives can join forces to make sure Pearl doesn’t have to die in a cell. Call your congressperson.

Update 5/4/2012 : Here is a Facebook page with a petition: http://www.facebook.com/FreePearlHer – please Like or sign

—————-

Note – I think not all Pearl’s blogs have been blocked – I believe this is her site: http://pearlher.org . I love her motto: “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cage”

Chen Guangcheng’s Rescuer Needs to be Rescued: He Peirong (wire)

Two of my kids go to Paulo Friere Freedom School (middle school), and they love it. Really love it, to the point where they count down the days of vacations until they can go back, and look forward to Mondays. Disclaimer – my cousin, JoAnn Groh, is one of the co-directors. But I don’t think that influences my kids. So I sat down with her and asked her how they do it.

The full interview text is here: Choosing a Middle School? The scoop on Paulo Freire Freedom School (charter) and I won’t repeat it word for word; but what struck me is the key factor of connectedness. Being known, being safe, and being connected are key ‘best practices’ at the school – JoAnn asserts ” If those things don’t exist, learning won’t happen; if they do exist learning is more likely to happen. That is research based.”

I tend to agree – and more, that maybe connectedness is a key component in the workplace as well. Not if its fake, just manipulation to get employees to work harder for the company profit. I am thinking more of a nonprofit, or a B Corporation – a way for individuals to effectively work together and get paid, while working on common goals. Companies certainly have uses in making a more efficient work environment, and the corporate structure is useful for raising money. I have issues with the legally required profit-only motive that corporations must currently follow (read The Corporation by Joel Bakan for some well-written background), and would like to see alternative beasts arise that have profit-plus-principles written into their mission and articles of incorporation. Investors would invest with open eyes, knowing that the company was not only intending to make maximum profit but also promising to balance profit with other factors. Such corporations are legal now in five states and hopefully more coming soon.

But back to connectedness – I have certainly worked hardest, for pay and for free, when I felt a team was depending on me and that what I did mattered to people I know. Although I might be evaluated at the end of the project, that was not much of a factor in my daily motivation. I’ve worked at companies where we were monitored down to the half hour, and companies where weeks would go by without any official check on our work. Neither is particularly motivating. But if I know that my buddy needs the stuff I’m writing, I’m going to be careful and on time if I have to stay up all night to get it done. Army units are much the same, from what I understand, though I’ve never been in one. The guys aren’t risking their lives for their commanders back at base, or for their country – they are doing it for their buddies in the field. This sort of thing works on a certain level whether or not the overall goal makes sense, but more so when all the team members actually do give a damn about the eventual goal.

Back to Paulo Friere and connectedness, and other principles. PF uses several national models, one of which is the Common Principles for Essential Schools. These talk about assessment, depth over coverage, budgets, personalized and authentic learning and so on. Are there such principles for the workplace?

Most employees I know want to be respected and left alone to do their jobs, with as many perks as possible, and that is always an option. But, different work environments certainly make some difference, and there are principles even if unstated ones – in an engineering culture, for instance, all team members generally open themselves to criticism and it is acceptable to straightforwardly and publicly tell people they are wrong. This might not be the case in other types of work, but in software at least it is the norm to have one’s work always exposed to public comment and to learn from peer review.

Toyota certainly thinks workplace culture is a critical issue, with a focus on continuous improvement (kaizen) and respect for people, and using a long-term philosophy. These principles might well apply to many kinds of organizations, though perhaps not all the detailed procedures that work for Toyota, such as chaining assembly lines together so that problems become highly visible immediately.

Tucson has several excellent models of well-organized nonprofits: The Community Food Bank has won high marks for accountability and transparency and been rated one of 50 best nonprofits to work for nationally. They must be doing something right.

All this ‘cultural technology’ fascinates me. After all, what really separates Tucson from Tripoli? And how will Libyans change from a violence-ridden society into a working democracy? Somehow it has to do with connectedness, respect and other invisible cultural puzzle pieces that we take for granted in our daily lives, but which might just be the most important technologies for solving thorny global problems.

Dear Tucson City Council

The Rio Nuevo board appears to be trying to execute a ‘land grab’ to take ownership of property that should belong to the city of Tucson. As a Tucson taxpayer and voter, I want you – my elected representatives – to control this property, NOT an unaccountable, governor-appointed board that I cannot contact and do not trust.

I know that if there is a problem – and yes, there have been some – I can go to my city council representative and talk about it. I know that as elected officials who have to face the voters regularly, you will be responsive to our concerns.

I also know that the Rio Nuevo board is extremely difficult to contact, that they have lawyers answer their messages (at what cost per voice mail?) and that they were appointed by the governor, thus several layers removed from any accountability to me as a voter. Unlike the city council, the Rio Nuevo board meetings do not have audio or text transcripts online and even the minutes are only updated thru last March.

Please stand up to them and do not give them our land. I hope there is something we can do to get their hands out of our tax money and off our property. Mistakes were made with Rio Nuevo management, but I would rather have you guys fix it than have them steal us blind.

Suing the city is just taking our tax money that should be paying for police and pools, and putting it into the pockets of their lawyers. Let me know if there are steps we voters can take to make this stop.

Sincerely,

Golda Velez
[address deleted from online version]

See also editorial at Grinnell wants to be mayor – but his board is suing the city and Jonathan Rothschild’s statement on the lawsuit

Tomorrow at the University of Arizona is a unique opportunity to connect with just about every active entomologist in the Tucson area – a well as a variety of creepy-crawly-critters.

Kids like bugs, and they are a very accessible part of nature. Kids of almost any age can cultivate arthropods successfully – and our own Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute will set you up with a free habitat every month at Community Day. See http://sasionline.org

High school students might find opportunities to volunteer in an active research lab, extremely valuable experience and maybe credit depending on your school. Southern Arizona has a huge diversity of insects and arthropods, with new species of ants discovered right here in the Tucson mountains.

Check out Dung ball races at Old Main! for more information on the event tomorrow.

Frank Antenori was quoted in the Star as calling the TUSD board ‘pathetic’ for not making deeper cuts into our schools. Excuse me? Antenori represents the Vail district, which gets a free ride at the expense of the rest of us. Let me explain.

The Research Park owned by the University of Arizona is host to a number of high tech firms, for-profit entities such as IBM, Raytheon, Canon, and others. This is a great thing for the economy and local job market, and the research park does an excellent job managing their property with a 98% occupancy rate. But they don’t pay any property tax, because the park is owned by the University of Arizona. When this was brought up to the legislature, their solution was to give free space to Vail Academy and High School. Again, this is great for Vail students, who not only have high quality school resources, but also get to intern with high tech firms and learn valuable job skills. That part is wonderful. But the rest of us don’t get any compensation for the loss of property taxes, and then Antenori has the gall to call our elected representatives ‘pathetic’ and tell them to make deeper cuts to Tucson schools

Antenori has also sponsored several anti-Tucson measures in the legislature. I seem to recall something about ‘cities over 600,000 but less than 2 million’ having restrictions on their ability to pass revenue measures – why not just say ‘Tucson’ and be done with it? And this guy is thinking about running for regional office?

Antenori, you owe the TUSD board and community an apology. I don’t allow my kids to engage in namecalling, I wouldn’t put up with it if I heard it at their schools, and we shouldn’t have to hear it from someone who supposedly represents part of our community. I request that you apologize.

This letter is also mailed directly to Antenori’s email. I’ll let you know if he responds.

Despite the budget pressures and large classes, our kids’ success mostly depends on us, their parents. We just went to our elementary open house, and a few thoughts of note:

– Attendance matters. Kids who miss days in first grade are the ones who struggle in fourth and fifth.
– If your child is a first grader this year, they have to be reading by the end of third grade in order to be promoted. The AIMS reading test requirement starts in the spring of 2014.
– Making friends, and family connections is really important to kids. One way to help out is to make a class directory for your child’s classroom. Bring a sign-up sheet to open house or ask the teacher to send home forms with each child asking parents to give their contact information for a class directory that will be shared with everyone in the class. Then assemble the info and give it back to be handed out. This needs to be a parent initiative since teachers are generally doing all they can just to teach!
– Reading at home is key! Here are some ideas for teaching reading: http://bteaching.com/subject/language/reading

Pima Library has lists of recommended books for kids of different ages:

http://www.library.pima.gov/kidsweb/books/

The teen site even has recommended books for guys and girls, writings by teens, and a link to the lexile test to help recommend books by reading level:

http://www.library.pima.gov/teenzone/read/

– If you have time, volunteer to tutor or help out at your school. Family involvement can make a huge difference to your child’s community.
– Holladay Elementary will be offering ESL classes onsite for parents who want to learn English. Is your school doing this?

Do you volunteer at your child’s school already, or have other ideas to help out? Please spread the word. I posted these ideas also to http://btucson.com/194474 and http://btucson.com/194475, feel free to post yours as well.