The AMAZING Charter School

After home schooling for seven years, I made the abrupt decision in October of last year to enroll our teenagers in a local charter school.  With the varied and profound needs of the drug-exposed adopted three-year olds, I did not have the time to lesson plan, grade, for a middle and high school student.  I wanted them to have *the best* education.

I searched around and found a charter school that said all the right things.   

"mastery based"

"diagnostically prescribed"

training kids to become "highly motivated critical thinkers"

"charactered faculty"

charter school that is "independent, freed from rules, but accountable for results"

"learn at their own pace"

So having heard how college preparatory charter schools rock the research and transform learners, I signed on.  Fortunately I found one that had a spot for each of my girls.

But here's what all of that really means.  The girls take entrance tests and I turn over homeschool records.  The 9th grader placed into 9th grade.  The 8th grader placed into 7th/8th, but I said, "I want NO gaps.  Let's put her in 6th grade and let her catchup, since she can work at her own pace."  Great idea, they said.  

The girls are issued 10 of 12 "pacs/paks/packs" in various subjects.  Though it is 3 months into the school year, they have to restart at one, which I am told is no problem if my girls are hard workers. They are.

Months go by and Good Teacher texts me at least once a week, conferences with me every 2 months minimum.  She tells me how hard 6th grader is working and is going at a good pace.  She wants her to go fast enough to catch up by the end of the year but slow enough to fully grasp and learn.  I love Good Teacher.

9th grader's teacher, on the other hand, "Cool Teacher" never contacts me.  I text her randomly and she tells me 9th grader is a hard worker, she does more work than the other students in the class. I'm relieved that everything is on track.

March 7, "Cool Teacher" calls us to a conference  to tell us that 9th grader is half a year behind.  She has been writing books instead of doing school work...for months.  She does the minimum and then writes books.  9th grader may possibly have to repeat 9th grade if she can't do half a year's work in less than 3 months.  I ask her who that can be that she is behind when her report card 10 days before just said "she is progressing well, grades are up. she is a very hard worker."  Turns out "Cool Teacher" doesn't actually follow the rigorous school rules at all.  Her students talk about making babies and pot and atheism most of the day.  She sees no problem with this, nor does she take responsibility that she let 6 months go by telling us 9th grader was on track when she was hideously behind.  To make it seem like less her fault, she tells us 9th grader has a lot of focus problems.  I schedule an appointment with a doctor to reevaluate 9th grader's ADHD, which we have not treated with medication for 5 years.   I ask the school for detailed list of what she needs to complete.  I happen to know they have a sheet called the "Yearly Progress Record" that has all the information on what they've done and not done at a glance.  But the school refuses to copy it for me.  They have their teachers scribble stuff on paper and tell me to make sense of it.

I ask what 9th grader and 6th grader are doing at school if they are both so far behind in math paks.  Oh, they get their one-on-one tutoring, as the website says.  30 minutes turns into 2 hours a day turns into all day, 3, 4, 5 days a week...math tutoring.  I ask how they are not progressing in math at all, not even a page, if they are getting math tutoring.  

Here's where I get REALLY pissy.  Tutoring is for them to pass the state TAKS test.  Because if the students of the school do poorly on the TAKS test, the school gets an academically unacceptable rating and loses their charter funding.  In order to avoid that, they have my girls work on TAKS practice tests and practice books in math instead of doing their real math work.  As of right now, 6 weeks from school end, 9th grader still has 6 paks left in Algebra to pass.  It takes a month to do a pak.  She has to do one a week now.  Why? Because they need tutoring.  In what you ask?  Geometry.  Are they supposed to have taken geometry before? No.  But its on the TAKS test.

Let me break it down.  My father-in-law gets up and takes the girls to school every morning by 8, driving in traffic to a city south of us where the charter is located.  The teens work on tutoring and socialization and PE and lunch and clubs until 3:15 pm.  They report they got alot done in the 2 hours they were actually able to WORK on their Pak work.  Fabulous I say.  I work with them at the kitchen table while my three tots wreak havoc, because my hubby is working in Houston since November.  Then every night from 8-11 we work on PAKS.  We are making progress. Grades are up, Paks are getting done. I feel better.

Then a letter comes from the school that any student who does not pass the TAKS test has to pay $110 and go to their summer school. WHA?  So now in addition to working 2-6 hours a day AFTER SCHOOL, I now have to do extra tutoring on TAKS prep, so we add in all day Saturday school.  This notice came out 3 weeks before the TAKS test, you see.

I emailed the principal telling her my concerns about all of this: the Cool Teacher slacking off, her class being wild, her communication being nil, and her apathetic attitude.  Not to mention she told 9th grader she was horrible at math and would not pass anyway, so just do Art Paks.  I tell her many other concerns, like the bullying, drugs, etc.  But I control my blistering invective.  10 days go by.  She calls me to conference with her immediately.

Conference was Tuesday.  It went like this.  She talked, I listened.  I tried to speak, she interrupted.  I told her my concerns, she enlightened me on the brilliance of them tutoring my kids and me not having to pay KUMON after hours. Not on their schoolwork, but on how to take standardized tests.   I have to give it to her...she is highly skilled in deflecting responsibility. She acted like she had given me a "Come to Jesus" revelation on how wonderful they are.  "How we are different than other schools is we can offer in depth tutoring....etc."

Let me tell you what this year has meant for us...Over $300 on uniforms, and that was only 3 outfits each.  Lunch money, PE fees, fundraisers, various school fees, and the gas we pay at almost $4 a gallon to take them to the city below us and back in the afternoons.  It has meant they learned there are flavored condoms and which ones taste best, according to the 9th grade girls.  It has meant I offered multiple times to buy their classmates pregnancy tests. It has meant a school-wide scare when a 6th grade girl was made at my 9th grader because of a lie someone told, and the school was afraid she would assault my 15 year old. Why?  Oh, apparently she is very violent and has been kicked out of every other school. I'm glad she does well at this school. Its a great alternative for wayward kids.  But should I be concerned about assault?  Then there are the drugs.  Someone is passing around shrooms.  Someone plants pot on various people and then calls in the K9 unit anonymously. My kids are searched.  So I tell them not to take backpacks anymore so no one can plant drugs on them and get them arrested.  This has meant that boys call my 13 year old a milking cow because of her chest size.  It means they have a song about her hanging out with her classmates that goes like this: "T...hangs out with the *itches and Hos."  It means they have learned what tea bagging is.  It means we have to have conversations about sexual techniques, innuendo, etc. on an almost daily basis to make sure what they are hearing is accurate.

So why didn't I withdraw them?  Well, withdraw them and do what?  If you make a charter or public school mad at you and you withdraw and say you are homeschooling the rest of the year, they consider that child neglect.  So we finished out the year.

Its been educational.  They have learned in spite of the school, because the Paks did have educational content.  

I'm sure many other charter schools are excellent.  This one, not so much.

Naturally, my girls will not be returning to the charter school in the fall.  They are transferring to a virtual charter school.  They will have work just like every other students, but it will be from home.