Alternative to High Stakes Testing

[Chris_Wendt]

Non-public schools. Read the story in today's Newsday.com:
LI Catholic High Schools Enrollment Going Strong (link).

This is more than just a little interesting, because more than one report in the past couple of years have indicated that part of the declining enrollment scenario in public school districts on LI has been caused by increasing enrollment at non-public schools.

Non-public schools do not partake of NCLB Assessments and are not required to toe-the-line by conforming to the Common Core.

Now, check the article and notice the amenities, particularly the science and student facilities. Note, too, the endowments paid for by alumni. (Wantagh...got endowments?)

Note also the piece about uniforms (or dress code). After my first semester at Chaminade, I did not wear a jacket...because I had earned my letter-man's sweater. We had them back then. Red with gold trim until senior year, when they were all white. The "Letters" were block "C" in crimson & gold. The Beach Boys sang about letter-men sweaters in "Be True to Your School".

Those were the days.

But, these are the days, right now, when public education is beginning to feel its first real competition from more than one quarter. Charter Schools, Private and Religious Schools, home schooling, virtual schools, magnet schools, oh, and those 23% of the nations high schoolers who just don't make it to graduation day.

Chris Wendt

[rr]

Maybe the reason these alternative schools have been on the rise is because our public schools have been failing for too long and people are looking for alternatives to ensure their kids are ready for college and real life. Maybe a more rigorous curriculum in the public schools would create less demand for reaching out for alternatives...

The thought has crossed my mind more than once but the school taxes we are forced to pay make it a very difficult financial decision. If I was given a school tax credit it would make the decision a little more difficult to make. All in all though I feel like Wantagh is a good school district with a solid group of teachers - if I lived in an area with a poor performing district and didn't have to pay through the nose for school taxes it would be a no brainer.

[Chris_Wendt]

Good points, all.

Where the public schools have failed, charter schools seemed to have helped to varying degrees. Voucher programs have also helped, and in Indiana and Ohio, vouchers can be used by parents to pay for tuition in religious schools. None of that helps or cures the real failing or failed schools, of course. But it could be rationalized that "saving" some kids is better than losing all of them, in those places.

Around here (LI), our public schools are top shelf, upper echelon, compared to most of the rest of the country. So the motivations to seek and find competition are different than those of parents from the inner cities.

One, religion, is extremely important to many. Accountability is another strong motivator; not just for your own kid, but all students at schools like Chaminade or Kellenberg. Kids who do not behave, kids who do not cut it, academically, leave. Kids who make it through four years do so by virtue of their beliefs and dedication to making it, for themselves and for their parents, and for whatever calling they may receive. There is a bond that develops among the student body and the faculty and the families that is very strong and lasting.

In the obverse, if parents to not believe in God, or do not practice religion (there are Catholic, Lutheran, Hebrew and Islamic religious schools on LI, as well as Friends Academy), then those schools are not for their kids. There are non-religious private schools as well, but generally much more expensive than the religious schools.

Not only taxes play into this decision. But the drivers of our high taxes, public school teacher salaries, NYSTRS, and OPEB costs devalue the "Value Equation" in public schools, in comparison to their non-public competition. Although you spend a lot of money on taxes, far too much of that tax money goes to pay and benefits and far too little goes to program enhancements. Exactly the opposite is true in the religious high schools: high value for dollars received, and as a result, a high "return" in future dollars from grateful alumni into endowment funds.

As good as Wantagh is, look how long it took us to implement Full-day Kindergarten! We have (in my opinion) a less than adequate foreign language program, meaning, too few offerings (choices). Our technology is nowhere near the leading edge, but we do have a 500-plus-page APPR Program in place to evaluate our faculty and to hold them "accountable" for assessment scores!!!! Teaching to the tests and meeting the mandates, we've got that covered in spades. And no doubt but that we are very good at what it is that we do in Wantagh.

An additional form of competition is arising: virtual school districts, virtual schools, virtual classrooms; online AP Courses, and the Khan Academy (link)is really doing well.

(Sound of drums beating in the distance....)

Akiwawa!

Chris Wendt