In an interview with NorwalkNet earlier this week, Rev. Curtis who is the president of the NAACP of Norwalk said that he hopes to submit the "charter" for the South Norwalk Community Charter School to the state by the end of the year.
In addition, the school's planning committee has begun to identify possible locations for the school, including the Norwalk Community Health Center on Water St. (the Health Center is moving to South Main St.).
"As of today, the goal is to open Fall 2010, but we are expecting some bumps, so it may be delayed a bit," said Rev. Curtis sitting in his church office on West Ave.
One of the main tasks ahead for the planning committee is to find a leader for the school. "We are looking for someone with passion, creativity and drive," said Rev. Curtis.
Initially, the school intends to open two kindergarten classes and two fourth grade classes, with 20 kids each. The plan is to expand the school to a K-8 school.
According to Rev. Curtis, the first step for the South Norwalk Community Charter School (the name may change) is to get the charter. After that, he said that even if the state is not able to fund the school immediately given its budgetary constraints there is enough private funding and support in Fairfield County to get the school started for the first couple of years.
Plans for the South Norwalk Community Charter School were announced this time last year. According to a Concept Paper prepared by the planning committee the need for the charter school exists because:
Only 30% of Black and low income students and 40% of Hispanic students scored “At or Above Goal” in grades 3-8 on the Connecticut Mastery Tests in 2007. Many of these students are bused from their homes in South Norwalk to schools elsewhere in the district."Look at what is happening with black and brown kids," said Rev. Curtis. "There is an achievement gap and they are on the low end of the test scores. We need to look for alternatives that will address these low test scores, high school drop out rates, parental engagement."
"While we are not denying anyone--everyone is welcome at the school--we are looking to serve a certain type of demographic."said Rev. Curtis
According to the Concept paper the school will have a heavy emphasis on basic skills like reading and math. They plan on having longer days than the typical public school days.
Rev. Curtis has not been working with Norwalk's Board of Education on the project to date. "Sal was passive about the idea," said Rev. Curtis referring to former school superintendent Dr. Sal Corda.
The charter school is, however, receiving support from other quarters. State Rep. Larry Cafero, who is also Norwalk's expulsion officer, Mayor Dick Moccia, State Rep. Bruce Morris, a Human Relations Officer for Norwalk Schools, and State Sen. Bob Duff and are all behind the project. Last October, the Norwalk Republican Town Committee also endorsed plans for the school.
If the Community Charter School's application is approved it will become the second charter school located in South Norwak. The Side-by-Side school was started in 1997 and has students K-8. There are 16 charter schools statewide.
Charter schools are schools that organized by individuals and groups. They operate as autonomous public schools, through waivers from many of the rules and regulations that govern district public schools. Charter schools are partially funded by the state, but they also receive money from private foundations and sometimes companies. Charter schools try to differentiate themselves from public schools by specifying their mission, program, and ways they measure student success.
There is some evidence to show that charter school students are helping to close the achievement gap. An article in the New York Times last week reported that Caroline M. Hoxby, a Stanford economist found that in New York City "students who attended a charter school from kindergarten to eighth grade would nearly match the performance of their peers in affluent suburban communities on state math exams by the time they entered high school, a phenomenon she characterizes as closing the “Harlem-Scarsdale” achievement gap. The results are somewhat less striking in English, where students closed 66 percent of the gap, according to the study."
The South Norwalk Community Charter School is planning to model itself after successful charter schools in under served communities in CT like Amistad Academy in New Haven and KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) which has schools across the country.
At Side by Side, test scores are for the most part consistent with those of Norwalk Public Schools according the school's principal, Matthew Nittoly. He said, however, that they prefer to look at student progress over time.
"We now focus on longitudinal data—measuring student test scores for various cohorts over time to determine individual progress. We have seen a lot of evidence of this (progress made) in students attending our school," he wrote in an email.
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"We are looking to serve a certain type of demographic" is code for something. I wish someone would ask Mr. Curtis to explain.
ReplyDeleteI have very little respect for Sal Corda, but there may have been a reason for his "passivity" with regard to this project. Could it be that Lindsay Curtis has views that aren't grounded in reality?
It's code for saying: Whites stay away.
ReplyDeleteNot that anyone in their right mind would want to send their kids to Rev. Curtis' "Brown school."
Such a shame that everything has to be about race and they just can't get over it.
Provided they keep children with emotional/behavior problem instead of shipping them back to their Norwalk public school, I say go for it!
ReplyDeleteI strongly suspect that Anonymous #2 is right in saying that, based upon Mr. Curtis' own comment, his charter school would discourage Whites from enrolling. It's wrong to use taxpayer money, it's wrong to use private foundation money, and it's wrong to use one's standing in the religious community to promote racial discrimination, reverse or otherwise. A man who professes to be a Christian should know better, but people are afraid to question him.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I believe it is equally wrong for White clergy to do the same.
I don't understand why they would approve another charter school in such close proximity to Side By Side. Why is Side By Side not acceptable to Rev. Curtis? Is it because Side By Side does accept children from all over Norwalk? I am just curious....
ReplyDeleteI think that Rev. Curtis and his group are sincerely trying to address the achievement gap that exists among poor non-white students.
ReplyDeleteThey're solution is to have an educational environment that concentrates on the particular needs of these children.
To the outsider this type of structure seems a lot like segregated education. Fifty years ago there was a long fought battle over the integration of schools that culminated in Brown vs Board of Education.
Separate but equal and its companion notion that a Black educational environment was better for Blacks was thrown out.
Rev. Curtis' plan to set up a neighborhood school in South Norwalk, a privately run one at that, cause many to wonder whether the clock is being moved back?
However it may be more correct to say that the educational philosophy on teaching children has matured to the point where we recognize that a one size fits all approach does not work for everybody.
I applaud the maturity of the previous comment that recognizes that teaching children today from all walks of life facing all the various challenges they face supports the argument that one size does not fit all.
ReplyDeleteNo, the clock is not turning back, I would like to think we are moving forward, seeing a need and doing all one can do to fill it. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Failing kids of any demographic is a problem and it needs to be corrected.
The Community Charter School, as the poster above notes, needs to be viewed as a step forward and an attempt to solve, at the local level, a nationwide problem, namely, the achievement gap in literacy and numeracy for high-poverty African-American and Latino students. The cost of illiteracy at the personal and societal level and the limits illiteracy places on a child’s future are painfully well-documented. But also, as a nation in a rapidly shrinking, globalized world, to have half our nation’s children not performing at the top of their game is economically unsound.
ReplyDeleteA type of charter school that the Community Charter School intends to model itself after is New Haven’s Amistad Academy. Some of the strategies that Amistad Academy incorporates in its school structure to help its students are intensive community outreach to increase parental involvement, an increase to the length of the instructional day, a provision for before and after school tutoring for struggling students and interim standards-based assessments for every student every 6 weeks. Connecticut charter schools are only partly funded by the State thus the high-cost strategies noted above are not an added burden to taxpayers. To make up for the difference in funding, charters look to foundations, non-profits and companies.
The Community Charter School will target high poverty children, children from single parent families, children from housing projects and children who have not had high-quality pre-school. It will also target children from zip code 06854, South Norwalk, and the only part of Norwalk that has no neighborhood school. Not having a neighborhood school has meant that, for the last 20 years or so, these children have been bussed to schools elsewhere in the district, a distinct inconvenience. The Community Charter School has bipartisan support and is a wonderful opportunity for, first and foremost, the children, but also for the community at large.
I'm all for it. It's been working in other cities, and Norwalk should be following suit, if not leading the way. If the system isn't working for these children, then we have an obligation to make sure that no child is left behind. Let's stand behind and support this bold new school.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of outrage would we be hearing if there was a plan for an all white charter school. Sure we need to address the disparity issues in relation to test scores among different ethnicities, however, there are children at all of our public schools doing quite well. Maybe the problem isn't the school, but the home environment that causes the gap in test scores. That is the only constant variable.
ReplyDeleteBefore I give my opinion on this proposed school, I need to know the entrance criteria, as well as the dismissal criteria. I need to know that it won't accept only those students who are already good students and who are already motivated, and I need to know that it can't rid itself of those students who are difficult to teach and whose behavior is difficult to manage.
ReplyDeleteRead educators are those who can work effectively with the most challenging students, as well as with the most compliant.
Anonymous, I can tell you that they will be ONLY taking motivated children and parents. Go look at the Amistad Academy criteria. Any teacher can be successful with this population.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of a charter school is that it offers an alternative methodology for teachers to be creative and innovative in their approach to teaching, particulary, when it comes to kids who need that extra help. Teachers are more free to spend their day concentrating on the basics,spend more time on task, utilize a longer school day, all with the commitment and belief that at the end of it all, is a child who can measure up and can compete in a global environment and be a contributing member of society.
ReplyDeleteWe can not continue to ignore this failing population of kids and not try to offer solutions. In the perfect world of education, every child in school will be a star pupil, however, we know that even in a charter school, there will be kids who may not be stars but at least will be given the best hope of reaching their best selves.