The Takeaway

Continued from above.

It is hard not to want Esperanza to be more like Camino Nuevo. They test less and score higher. They have art, music, dance, computers, and field trips to The San Diego Zoo. All parents volunteer at least 15 hours during the school year. If they cannot help during the day, they can translate documents on the weekend or sew costumes for the school’s annual dance recital at the end of the year. Conferences are mandatory; so are school uniforms, punctuality, and attendance at four different workshops (how to start a college fund, how to prepare for the CST). Even their building makes more sense. L.A. Unified hired architects who built Esperanza’s classrooms out of concrete, so that it is nearly impossible to hang student work or even the alphabet outside of the designated boards on the walls. The windows are lined in bars. At Camino Nuevo’s Burlington site the classroom walls are all bulletin boards (and if not bulletin boards, then wipe-off boards that open into ample amounts of storage space) and student work is everywhere. There are skylights in the classrooms and perforated panels outside the building so the kids can enjoy natural light without staring right into it. None of the windows have bars.

The Odds

The problem is that it is no way guaranteed — and in fact, the odds are less than likely — that if Esperanza were to be taken over by an outside entity that it would perform similarly to Camino Nuevo. Stanford’s latest research on charter schools finds that, nationwide, only 17% of them perform better than traditional public schools while 46% perform at about the same level, and 37% perform worse. Mr. Cole-Gutierrez, featured, added to this that charter-takeovers have a much lower success rate than those that start independently and then dimly noted that the scores at Locke High School, which the Mayor took over in 2008, “didn’t exactly jump off the page.” (In fact, they stayed almost exactly the same.)

And remember:

Founders, funders, and board members of charter schools vary widely. The Walton family, of Wal Mart, gives millions to charter schools; so do CEOs and boxers and politicians (Donald Fisher, of The Gap, Oscar de la Hoya, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, respectively. The latter two each have their own charter academies in L.A.). Some charters are run for-profit, others have imbued themselves in controversy over their use of the bible or classroom instruction in Hebrew.

The Difference

Charter schools are publicly-funded, but independently run so that they do not have to hire and fire teachers based on seniority and they do not have to have unions. In fact, few of them do — Mr. Cole-Gutierrez told MPM that only 30 out of 161 charter schools in L.A. are unionized.

Camino Nuevo is one of these 30 schools. (Actually, since they are K-12, with three different sites, they constitute three of these 30 schools.) The Camino Nuevo Teacher’s Association has bargained for competitive salaries and extended contracts for teachers who have worked at the school for more than five years. (First-year teachers with a credential make $50,100 at Camino Nuevo; similar teachers make $45,637 in L.A. Unified.) But Camino Nuevo’s teachers also work a longer school year (195 instructional days, compared to 180) and a longer school day (8-3 p.m., compared to 7:45-2:15 p.m.) and they have part-of-the-job after-school committee obligations that teachers at traditional public schools do not. (Listen to Shanna Burbank, above.)

The Concern

Mostly the traditional public school teachers, and even some district personnel, that MPM talked to are concerned that charters do not admit students with learning disabilities, a history of behavioral problems, or a low-level of English. Many teachers at Esperanza insisted that this regularly happens; Mr. Cole-Gutierrez admitted that this sometimes happens. (Also that it is illegal.) Ms. Casallas was unequivocal in saying that this so-called cherry picking does not happen at Camino Nuevo. Their numbers support this — 10% of Camino Nuevo’s student body has special needs which is the same percentage of students who have special needs nationwide.

The Appeal

That charter schools may or may not screen for the most motivated students likely obscures the larger point which is that most charters don’t actually need to screen for these kind of students, because they already, inherently attract them. Academies like Camino Nuevo appeal to families who are willing to commit to a longer school year and a longer school day, who want to volunteer their time, who want to go to workshops on college preparation, who like the word academy. The school’s incredible success — Camino Nuevo High School’s 2008 graduating class sent 100% of its students to 4-year universities or community colleges — may or may not have to do with managerial differences fundamental to charter schools, but it seems wrong to ignore that, similar demographics aside, the parental priorities vary greatly. MPM interviewed a teacher at Esperanza who said that in 14 years of teaching, he had never had a parent volunteer. Turnout at Open House is 50%, at best. Every year, there are parents he never meets: they don’t pick up their kids, they don’t come to conferences — they need to work and can their child’s fourth grade sister come to the conference instead?

Ms. Gutierrez works full time, during the day, but makes it to every conference. They are mandatory. She completes her volunteer hours on the weekend. She likes Camino Nuevo because she thinks it has more choices than traditional public schools. In fact, she thinks so highly of it that she has decided that it is too advanced for her older daughter, newly arrived from Mexico, and not yet able to speak English. Where to send her eldest daughter then, who needs a lot of work? Ms. Gutierrez put her in Hollywood High School, a traditional public school down the street from her house.

Notes

*The resolution also makes 51 new schools available for outside management. These schools are set to open over the next four years.

Esperanza Elementary is located at 680 Little Street, Los Angeles 90017. (We need to include this so The Takeaway will appear on news aggregate sites like Everyblock.)

Credits

Written and produced by Devin Browne. Graphics and media programming by Alex Amerri. Photographs by Devin Browne, Alex Amerri, and Louise Baker.