Editorial Staff

Public Statement on Alma del Mar Charter School Expansion

/in , , , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Last night, Jeffrey Riley, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) made a recommendation concerning Alma del Mar Charter School’s application to serve 1,188 more students in New Bedford.

Commissioner Riley is recommending that Alma be expanded to serve 450 more students, that the school accept students from a neighborhood rather than through the usual district-wide lottery system, and that the New Bedford district make one of its underutilized buildings available to Alma.

As these maneuvers are outside the bounds of the Department’s power and the statutes related to charter school approvals, they will require approval by the city and state legislature. Should the politicos fail to get behind the necessary compromises, the Commissioner will likely have to put forward a second, unconditioned recommendation.

Three facts should not be lost in the swirl of all this detailed maneuvering:

  1. Alma del Mar is a K-8 public school that serves a demographically representative student body and dramatically outperforms other New Bedford public schools. Alma’s original expansion request, if granted, would have significantly improved the city’s public education outcomes.
  2. While in a civil society compromises are necessary, it should be remembered that Massachusetts’ charter school laws are already the result of compromises among elected officials. The Department is advancing a negotiated settlement that is particular to this situation but in districts that are clearly failing their students, the law gives the Department the power to enforce the constitutional rights of students to a quality education.
  3. New Bedford is the fourth-lowest performing public school district in the Commonwealth and there has been persistent talk about the need for a state receivership of the city’s schools.

For the 450 families whose children may one day attend Alma, this is a victory. But the DESE recommendation is tacit approval that even 25 years after the passage of the landmark Education Reform Act, the Commonwealth will allow the continued violation of the constitutional rights of hundreds of New Bedford students.

###

Watch: Alma del Mar Charter Public School is a K-8 school in New Bedford, MA, that is using a high-demand, high-support model to help all of its young scholars and teachers meet and exceed expectations for academic performance and behavior. In this video, Pioneer talked with Kaitlin Goldrick, Principal; Taylor DeLoach, Dean of Culture; and Xiomara Palmieri, Lead Kindergarten Teacher about the specific student supports and teaching requirements that contribute to their success.

Learn more about how you can help expand access to charter schools

Related posts:

Charter School Success: Importance in Suffolk County and College Enrollment

Learn about how charter schools set students up for success, especially in urban areas like Suffolk county. MCAS scores and college enrollment are stats that point to the impact of Charter schools.

Poll Finds Charter Schools Widely and Broadly Popular in Massachusetts

More than six years after the failure of a statewide ballot initiative that would have increased the number of charter public schools in Massachusetts, a poll shows that 62 percent either strongly or somewhat favor them, with only 16 percent opposed.

Room to Grow: Study Identifies Opportunity for New Charter Schools in State’s Gateway Cities

0 Comments
/
The Commonwealth’s 26 Gateway Cities represent a strong opportunity for the establishment of new charters and/or expansion of existing schools, according to our new study.

D.C.’s Kevin Chavous on National School Choice Week

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Kevin Chavous, president of Stride K12, Inc. and a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia, on the growing movement toward school choice in education. Chavous discusses recent Supreme Court rulings and the expansion of school choice programs, education savings accounts, and vouchers.

NACSA’s Dr. Karega Rausch on Charter Public School Authorizing

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Karega Rausch, President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Dr. Rausch shares some of his background, his interest in K-12 education reform and charter public schools, and lessons from Indiana and other states that inform his work.

Accelerating Learning at KIPP

KIPP Academy Charter School is working hard to ensure that all students have access to high-quality instruction, especially as children everywhere struggle with post-COVID learning recovery. In this video, KIPP Academy Executive Director Nikki Barnes and KIPP Academy Lynn Middle School Principal Jimmy Seter allowed us into their in-depth discussion of the principles, objectives and strategies they use to foster an environment of encouragement, informed guidance, learning growth, and equity. 

Andrew Campanella on National School Choice Week

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Andrew Campanella, the president of National School Choice Week. They discuss why 2021 was called the “Year of School Choice,” and the implications of more academic options for K-12 education reform across America.

Match Charter Public School Founder Mike Goldstein on School & Teacher Prep Reform

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Gerard Robinson and Cara Candal talk with Mike Goldstein, the founder of the MATCH Charter School and MATCH Teacher Residency in Boston.

A Conversation about Massachusetts Charter Schools: Retention Rate and Age Trends Among Public Educators

Massachusetts was home to 400 school districts in the 2020-2021…

Nina Rees on the 30th Anniversary of Charter Public Schools in America

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara celebrate the 30th anniversary of charter schools with Nina Rees, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews on An Optimist’s Guide to American Public Education

This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Jay Mathews, an education columnist for The Washington Post and author of the recent book, An Optimist's Guide to American Public Education. Jay describes the three key trends in K-12 schooling that he views as cause for hope.

Best-Selling, Netflix Author Loung Ung On Surviving Pol Pot’s Killing Fields

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Gerard and Cara talk with Loung Ung, a human-rights activist; the author of the bestselling books First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, Lucky Child, and Lulu in the Sky; and a co-screenwriter of the 2017 Netflix Original Movie, First They Killed My Father. Ms. Ung shares her experiences living through genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, which resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population. 

UGA Prof. Valerie Boyd on Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance, & Black History Month

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard celebrate Black History Month with Professor Valerie Boyd, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence and Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia, and the definitive biographer of Zora Neale Hurston. Boyd discusses why Hurston is such an important novelist and cultural figure, and the influence of Hurston’s 1937 classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, on American literature.

Eva Moskowitz of Success Academy on Charter Schools, Achievement Gaps, & COVID-19 Learning Loss

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard kick off the new year with Eva Moskowitz, CEO & Founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 47 schools enrolling 20,000 K-12 students in New York City. Eva shares her own education path, and how it influences her leadership and philosophy.

SABIS® President Carl Bistany on International Education, Charter Public Schools, & At-Risk Students

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Carl Bistany, the president of SABIS® Educational Systems, an education company founded over 130 years ago that serves young women in the Middle East, and poor and minority students in the U.S.

Wall Street Journal Columnist Jason Riley on the 2020 Election, School Choice, & Race in America

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Jason Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Jason shares insights on the 2020 election, its implications for the next two years, and assuming Vice President Biden becomes president, how he may govern on K-12 education.

Harvard PEPG’s Prof. Paul Peterson on Charter Schools, Digital Learning, & Ed Next Polling

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Paul Peterson, the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.

President of D.C.’s AppleTree Institute, Jack McCarthy on Charter Schools and Fall Reopening

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Jack McCarthy, president and CEO of AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation and board chair of AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School. Jack shares what animated him to establish this highly innovative early childhood charter public school network that serves the most vulnerable children in Washington, D.C.