The Daily News
July 21, 2004

Like manna from Haven, 5 charter schools coming
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/214149p-184414c.html

By JOE WILLIAMS

An outfit founded by Yale Law School grads has been invited to open five charter schools in the city by 2006, Education Department officials said yesterday.

Achievement First will seek to duplicate the formula that bumped test scores at the middle school it runs in New Haven above local and Connecticut averages.

Doug McCurry, director of the nonprofit organization, said Amistad Academy in New Haven assesses student progress every six weeks, operates a 9-1/2-hour school day, recruits the best teachers and runs a "disciplined, achievement-oriented school culture."

"We sweat the small stuff," McCurry said.

As a result, 66% of the school's students pass Connecticut's eighth-grade test, compared with a statewide average of 56% and a New Haven average of 23%.

McCurry said his organization hopes to put all the new city schools in "high-need areas" and to teach students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Three schools would open in 2005 and two in 2006.

The proposal is part of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to open 50 charter schools in the city.

"Creating high-quality charters is not an easy task," said city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. "That's why we're bringing in groups that have demonstrated they know what they are doing."

Charter schools are public schools that operate independently without many of the restrictions applied to traditional schools. Achievement First will have to go through a formal approval process.

Klein already has tapped several other established groups - including the Knowledge is Power Program and Harlem Children's Zone - to open charter schools in the city.

Eight charter schools will open this fall, bringing the total to 31.

Until now, the closest Chicago has come to such a break was the 2002 closing of three elementary schools for academic failure. One was Williams Elementary, adjacent to the Dearborn Homes housing project on the South Side. Cassie Sweeney taught there in the four years before its shutdown.

"It had a failed culture," Ms. Sweeney said. "There was always yelling, hostility from parents, students assaulting staff."

During its last year before closing, less than one in five students at Williams performed at grade level, she said, yet many teachers appeared complacent.

"Teachers get burned out, but with the union contract they felt well-protected, and they just weren't putting everything into their jobs," she said.

When Mr. Duncan ordered the school closed, Ms. Sweeney was required, like other teachers at the school, to apply for work elsewhere. After the school was closed for one year, during which it was redecorated and new administrators and consultants developed a new curriculum, Ms. Sweeney and a physical education teacher were the only teachers from the old school rehired for the new Williams Elementary, which opened in fall 2003.

Since the building now encompasses kindergarten through 12th grade, it is shared by the elementary school and fledgling middle and high schools, all of which have hired a mix of experienced educators and young, high-energy rookies.

"The new teachers have a save-the-world attitude, and we needed that," Ms. Sweeney said. The proportion of students performing at grade level rose to 36 percent from 16 percent in its first year, she said.

Success at Williams and at other new small schools that Mr. Duncan has started or strengthened, which include some 20 charter schools, emboldened him to draft Chicago's sweeping new plans for the 100 new schools, which are to open by 2010 and include 30 additional charters and another 30 new contract schools, created by private groups that sign five-year, renewable contracts with the district.

"I want a real break with the past," Mr. Duncan said, driving in July to a meeting with parents and the staff at a charter school. "We're looking for dramatic change, not to tinker around the edges."