This piece is absurd -- yeah, that's coming from an Arizona progressive leftist Democratic cuck, or whatever it is you wanna call me!
Continuing to look at "all" charter schools as if they're the same makes no sense. We now know -- 25 years into the Arizona charter school experiment -- that there are awful charter schools, there are average charters, there are good charters, and there are great charters.
Soooooo... how about we look at student results and school success -- instead of maligning every last charter school? What some of the great charters in Arizona, and in Tucson, (like, indeed, BASIS Oro Valley, mentioned above -- among other charters in this area) have done for students is extraordinary. I don't want these charter schools to go away; I, for one, find value in kids here being well-educated.
Look at what matters most regarding schools: giving kids an excellent education.
And as with most issues, nuance is key. Find some.
This article said that "established BASIS schools scored lower" -- actually, that's not true. In fact, BASIS Tucson North and BASIS Scottsdale are the two oldest BASIS schools, and both scored VERY high!
BASIS Tucson North was #6 in the nation. It is the oldest BASIS campus; it just has a different name than it used to! (It was called BASIS Tucson from its inception in 1998, until a few years ago. Its name changed when it moved to a new building in about 2012, but its reachers / principal / curriculum stayed the same. (The school now known as BASIS Tucson is a K-4 school which opened in autumn, 2013).
And the other "established" BASIS school is BASIS Scottsdale -- opened in 2003 -- which scored highest of all of the BASIS schools and was therefore named to the "Public Elites" list (for the third straight year). That list means it is essentially higher ranked than the schools which are numerically ranked, according to Washington Post senior education writer Jay Mathews, in his piece accompanying the new rankings.
So, 4 BASIS schools in the rankings. 2 old schools, 2 new schools -- all ranked VERY highly. Just thought you'd want to get your facts straight, Tucson Weekly!
I'm an Arizona charter school supporter, and am not a right winger at all -- I'm a liberal, a Democrat, an Obama voter (twice). To group all charter schools in one category is as inane as grouping all state universities, or all Jesuit schools, or all public high schools, into one category.
In Arizona and elsewhere, some charters are terrible, true. Some are middling. But some are excellent. And I'd rather have the option of a BASIS charter school for my kids, while having to actively avoid the "bad charters" -- than to not have BASIS as an option at all. BASIS (for example) has 10 Arizona charter schools, all of them fantastic, especially the first two - Tucson North and Scottsdale have been in the top 10 schools in America for years now.
The knock against any one charter doesn't apply to the others; the bad part of the bad charters doesn't apply to the good ones -- or the great ones. Instead of complaining about all charter schools, let's do what smart people (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) do: avoid the crappy charter schools, and attend the great ones, like my BASIS kids.
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Continuing to look at "all" charter schools as if they're the same makes no sense. We now know -- 25 years into the Arizona charter school experiment -- that there are awful charter schools, there are average charters, there are good charters, and there are great charters.
Soooooo... how about we look at student results and school success -- instead of maligning every last charter school? What some of the great charters in Arizona, and in Tucson, (like, indeed, BASIS Oro Valley, mentioned above -- among other charters in this area) have done for students is extraordinary. I don't want these charter schools to go away; I, for one, find value in kids here being well-educated.
Look at what matters most regarding schools: giving kids an excellent education.
And as with most issues, nuance is key. Find some.
THAT'S why BASIS.ed schools are no longer ranked by Newsweek.
The Newsweek methodology is easy to find on their rankings site.
BASIS Tucson North was #6 in the nation. It is the oldest BASIS campus; it just has a different name than it used to! (It was called BASIS Tucson from its inception in 1998, until a few years ago. Its name changed when it moved to a new building in about 2012, but its reachers / principal / curriculum stayed the same. (The school now known as BASIS Tucson is a K-4 school which opened in autumn, 2013).
And the other "established" BASIS school is BASIS Scottsdale -- opened in 2003 -- which scored highest of all of the BASIS schools and was therefore named to the "Public Elites" list (for the third straight year). That list means it is essentially higher ranked than the schools which are numerically ranked, according to Washington Post senior education writer Jay Mathews, in his piece accompanying the new rankings.
So, 4 BASIS schools in the rankings. 2 old schools, 2 new schools -- all ranked VERY highly. Just thought you'd want to get your facts straight, Tucson Weekly!
In Arizona and elsewhere, some charters are terrible, true. Some are middling. But some are excellent. And I'd rather have the option of a BASIS charter school for my kids, while having to actively avoid the "bad charters" -- than to not have BASIS as an option at all. BASIS (for example) has 10 Arizona charter schools, all of them fantastic, especially the first two - Tucson North and Scottsdale have been in the top 10 schools in America for years now.
The knock against any one charter doesn't apply to the others; the bad part of the bad charters doesn't apply to the good ones -- or the great ones. Instead of complaining about all charter schools, let's do what smart people (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) do: avoid the crappy charter schools, and attend the great ones, like my BASIS kids.