On charters, the MCAS, and education

Michael Mayo's column in yesterday's Boston Globe on what is happening with charter schools, the MCAS, and education:

In charters across the country, there's a movement toward "paternalistic schools," a term used favorably by David Whitman of the Fordham Institute. Their argument is that "urban" students need schools with the highest levels of student compliance and routine. In some of these schools, children don't speak from the moment they get off the bus until they get back on again. Others have disobedient students wear a certain-colored shirt and order other students to "shun" them. When we were starting our school, some of these schools were saying, "We're not for everyone." These schools continue to get enormously positive attention and deep private funding.

At Uphams Corner, we knew other approaches were valid, too, and we believed in the charter movement's philosophy of diversity and choice. Research and experience told us that the conditions for long-lasting achievement were the same for all people, young and old, "urban" and otherwise. We knew from our own teaching in city schools that compliance and routine are nowhere near as powerful at addressing the needs of all children than the cultivation of robust relationships, strong but nurturing boundaries, and enormous support for all aspects of a child's life.