Make Every School a Charter?

Mary Beth Hertz (a.k.a. mbteach on Twitter) over on the Philly Teacher blog recently posted a very thought provoking article–A New Model for School Reform: Could it Work?. With all the talk of Charters and Renaissance schools lately, it was great to read such a well thought out and well articulated model of school reform. Her idea in a nutshell–do away with catchments and let every student/parent rank the schools that they would like to attend, and award all spaces based on a lottery system, similar to how seats in charter schools are awarded today. This system would be superior, because, in her words,

Giving students and families a choice helps keep them engaged in a child’s education.

Choice fosters competition among schools to attract the best students, no matter what neighborhood they are in.

Services are more evenly distributed throughout the district since no one school is overwhelmed with high-needs students and families.

I like the sentiment and how Hertz is thinking outside the box.  I liked this idea a lot at first.  However,

Philly Teachers Need Anger Management?

I started this blog just before the new contract was signed with the Philadelphia teacher’s union.  At the time, I was supportive of the contract and the innovative/proactive changes to the traditional structure of the contract.  It also seemed like public and media reaction was generally positive.

Now that the new contract is off of the front pages, however, there is a vocal group of teachers who seem to be quite unhappy with the new contract.  Reading several Philly teacher blogs and news articles out there, it is clear that teachers are experiencing a  wide range of emotions–fear in some cases, distress or jitteryness.  Yesterday, this blog received an anonymous submission

Reactions to the New Philadelphia Teachers Contract

I posted before that I feel positive about the contract from what I had heard at that point but that I was interested to hear what the experts had to say.  Here are some more reactions from local media sources.

• Valerie Russ, The Daily News, 1/23/2010, Teachers, school district approve contract
• Dale Mezzacappa, The Notebook, 1/23/2010, AFT president: New contract a breakthrough
• Ron Whitehorne, The Notebook, 1/24/2010: A Qualified Thumbs Up for the Contract in which he praises in part, the extension of the site selection process.
• Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/25/2010, Plaudits for Philadelphia Teacher’s Contract: “Groundbreaking” pact may help win federal Race to the Top money
• Pat Loeb, KYW 1060, 1/25/2010, New Teacher Contract Amazes School Reform Advocates

The reactions seem to be generally positive across the board for the contract itself, though some teachers were (rightfully, in my opinion) unhappy at the way that the contract was presented to them.  I am hopeful that this contract is steering the School District of Philadelphia in the right direction for the long term.  As I read more and more about the contract, I feel more comfortable with the idea of enrolling my kids in the Philadelphia public school in the coming years.