I worked with Nate Linder and we researched the differences between public and charter schools. We analyzed three political views on charter schools, analyzed a poll, and had two interviews with teachers. For art we analyzed two political cartoons on charter schools and created our own.
Thinking Skill - Perspective
History: We researched the differences between public and charter schools in terms of curriculum, funding, and accessibility. We analyzed three different political perspectives, one from Arne Duncan, another from Betsy DeVos, and another from the National Education Association (NEA). We also did an analysis of a poll comparing the perspectives of Democrat support of charter schools by race. We originally had a poll for the students at our high school to take, but there weren't enough responses, so we decided to go with a more accurate poll.
LA: We decided to interview two teachers on their of charter schools, Mr. Wimmer, and Mr. Bailey, who both have different experiences with teaching. Mr. Wimmer has had experience in the public Central York school district and Mr. Bailey has had experience with teaching in both public schools and private schools. We analyzed both of their perspectives in our newspaper. Art: For the art portion we analyzed two political cartoons, one in support of charter schools, and the other in support of public schooling. We also decided to make our own political cartoon with a pro-charter school perspective since we didn't come across that many when we were looking for cartoons to analyze.
Newspaper
Language Arts
For language arts, we interviewed two teachers, Mr. Wimmer, a teacher at the public Central York High School, and Mr. Bailey, a teacher at the private Bullis School. Wimmer has experience with teaching in the public school district along with teaching the more open project-based program, Apollo. Bailey has experience with both public and private schooling and has experience with teaching alongside private school teachers who might have been overlooked by the public schools due to the lack of credentials. Both teachers gave much insight on the topic of charter and public schools, and while their personal experiences differed, some of their opinions were similar. Our analysis explained their answers to our questions and covered each of their perspectives.
History
For history, we researched three different political perspectives from Arne Duncan, Betsy DeVos, and the National Education Association (NEA). We were surprised to find that Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education appointed by President Obama, supported charter schools and had some very similar opinions on school funding as Betsy DeVos, the current Secretary of Education appointed by President Trump.
We also did an analysis of a poll which was on Democrat support of charter schools by race. We decided not to use our original poll that we made for the Central York High School students because the answers made it apparent that we didn't word our poll to the best of our ability and so we decided instead to use a more accurate poll to analyze.
Overall, the research we did on the different perspectives on charter schools helped me understand the differing opinions, better understand charter schools as a whole, and help me form my own opinions on the topic.
Art
For art, we did an analysis of two political cartoons, one in support of charter schools, and one in support of public schools. We decided to make our own political cartoon, and we decided to choose the perspective for charter schools since we didn't come across that many cartoons that supported that view when we were looking for cartoons to analyze. Our piece used the metaphor of ice cream flavors as the education provided by public and charter schools. We depicted Lily Eskelsen García, the president of the NEA in the exaggerated cartoony style and had her behind an ice cream stand, offering a kid vanilla ice cream which we made representative of public school education. We depicted her taping off the door to an ice cream shop where you can see many different flavors all depicting different choices and programs in education. We found that the metaphor of the ice cream flavors went surprisingly well with what we had planned.
“Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education -- Biography.” Home, US Department of Education (ED), 27 June 2019, https://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/devos.html?src=hp. This webpage is owned by the U.S. Department of Education, and is a biography about the departments current secretary Betsy Devos. Because it was published by the official U.S. government and is written about someone who works for them, it is very reputable. We used this page to learn about the context of Betsy Devos’s life, as well as her perspective on education. This page was very useful for learning about Devos’s credentials, beliefs, and views on issues surrounding education such as charter schools. Bryant, Jeff, and Education Opportunity Network. “The Ugly Charter School Scandal Arne Duncan Is Leaving Behind.” Salon, Salon.com, 10 Oct. 2015, https://www.salon.com/2015/10/11/the_ugly_charter_school_scandal_arne_duncan_is_leaving_behind_partner/. This news article was written by Jeff Bryant and was published by the Education Opportunity Network and Salon. Jeff Bryant is a freelance writer who is also a chief correspondent for the Our Schools program, and he focuses much of his writing about education and public schools. This article is about the legacy of Arne Duncan and his support for charter schools, and throughout it the author criticises actions Duncan took such as announcing a $249 million grant to charter schools the day he resigned. We used this article to research actions that Duncan took as Secretary of Education, as well as to try and analyze how his perspectives on charter schools influenced these decisions. We included this information in our politician analysis articles. Caffee, Alex. “Charter Schools vs. Public Schools.” Niche, 10 May 2018, www.niche.com/blog/charter-schools-vs-public- schools/. This webpage, Charter Schools vs. Public Schools, was published on niche blog by Alex Caffee, who is a business analyst who works with Niche and frequently writes articles about topics such as colleges and school choice. On this page, Alex takes an unbiased look at the charter vs. public school debate. She analyzes how they are run, regulation differences, and funding differences between public and charter schools. She also addresses some common misconceptions and misinformation about the two. We used this source to learn more about the differences between the two types of schools, and included much of this information in our newspaper to allow readers to learn more before finding different perspectives about this debate. “Charter School Performance in Pennsylvania.” Credo, Stanford, https://credo.stanford.edu/publications/charter-school- performance-pennsylvania. This study was performed by Stanford University, and focuses on analyzing the performance of charter schools in Pennsylvania. It looks at their performance on certain exams, and compares these performances to the performance of public schools. We used this study to further examine the NEA’s perspective on charter schools and why the NEA doesn’t support them. This study is cited on the NEA’s page as a reason to be critical on charter schools, and further shows the NEA’s perspective that having less qualified teachers and less government oversight leads to a poorer quality of education. “Charter Schools.” NEA, http://www.nea.org/home/16332.htm. This page was published by the NEA, and is their official stance on charter schools. We used this page to find out more about the NEA’s perspective, including the things they like about the charter school system and the things they didn’t like. We included this information in our NEA perspective analysis article, because it is a first hand source as to what their beliefs are. “Here's Every Time Betsy DeVos Tried to Undermine Public Schools as Education Secretary.” Education Votes, 5 Sept. 2019, https://educationvotes.nea.org/2019/03/22/devos/. Jr., Perry Bacon. “How Arne Duncan Reshaped American Education and Made Enemies Along the Way.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 4 Jan. 2016, https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/how-arne-duncan-reshaped-american- education-made-enemies-along-way-n480506. “NEA - NEA Home.” Rss, http://www.nea.org/. Richards, Erin. “Betsy DeVos Calls for More Charter Schools Even as They Spark Investigations across the Country.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 28 Mar. 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2019/03/27/charter-school-betsy-devos-school-choice/3251111002/. “The Facts About School Vouchers.” Public Schools First NC, https://www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org/resources/fact- sheets/the-facts-about-school-vouchers/. "School Funding." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3010999078/OVIC?u=pl7053&sid=OVIC&xid=1eb9383d. Accessed 8 Oct. 2019. “Study: Charter Schools Not Keeping Their Promise to America's Students.” NEA, http://www.nea.org/home/33177.htm. “U.S. Department of Education Awards $253 Million in Grants to Expand Charter Schools.” U.S. Department of Education Awards $253 Million in Grants to Expand Charter Schools | U.S. Department of Education, 28 Sept. 2017, https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-awards-253-million-grants-expand-charter- schools. Valant, Jon. “Democrats' Views on Charters Diverge by Race as 2020 Elections Loom.” Brookings, Brookings, 21 May 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/05/21/democrats-views-on-charters-diverge-by-race- as-2020-elections-loom/. Weller, Chris. “New Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Champions Vouchers and Charter Schools - Here's What That Means.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 7 Feb. 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/what-are-charter-schools-2017- 2. Wong, Alia. “Arne Duncan: 'Everyone Says They Value Education, but Their Actions Don't Follow'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 8 Aug. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/arne-duncan-how -schools-work/566987/.