Valerie Strauss has raised a key problem with the education reform movement in the U.S.: The central experts in the education system, teachers, are essentially ignored.
I have a long history now of rejecting the charter school movement and the “no excuses” ideology that is driving many charter schools. Because of my position, I have been criticized for not visiting KIPP schools and I have detailed why that falls short against my central point about the racism and classism inherent in “no excuses” ideology.
So I want to offer a connection between my position on charters and “no excuses” with listening to a teacher.
I received an unsolicited email from a teacher who has recently taught in a “no excuses” charter school; this is the teacher’s central point:
Their system does not work. Their philosophy is to teach the kids over extended hours at school. We taught from 8:00-4:00 every day. The teachers have added responsibilities on top of those hours. Then most children went to after school care where they continued teaching and received dinner [1]. Guess what our report card score is? It’s an F.
The children were worn out all the time. The parents expected us to take care of the children no matter what. One day I had a parent not pick up their child and I was expected to stay at school until their parents came for their child. After calling every number I had, no one arrived to pick him up until 7:15 at night.
I have never seen such chaos in all my years of teaching.
Disillusioned, this teacher has moved to a different school, but I find the story and impressions hit on exactly what is wrong with “no excuses” ideologies: the unnecessarily harsh school environments for students and teachers, the remaining disconnect among all the stakeholders, and the inevitable negative consequences of relying on accountability metrics to determine if a school is successful or not.
If you still feel compelled not to listen to me, then at least listen to this teacher.
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[1] Please consider this in the context of the teacher’s experience: A Few More Points About Charter Schools And Extended Time
dr. p.l. (paul) thomas 
Sounds like those “No Excuses Charter Schools” are not very successful. I bet they make the study boring as well. Great way to turn off kids.
Leslie
I should have linked this issue to my discussion of teacher working conditions better. Good stuff.
This is an example of schools just serving as a day care center with over the top emphasis on teaching ………… it does not work….
“the remaining disconnect among all the stakeholders,”
This is the most telling part. These no excuses schools ignore everything that we know about how to educate students in favor of the “if only these lazy students work harder then they will have better lives” mantra. Now the free marketeers will say that the parents ail then vote with their feet, but unfortunately that will not occur because the ideal free market with pure rational and infinitely educated consumers free from coercive advertising does not exist.