Why the People of Gloucester Should Ask the State to Reject the GCA Charter Proposal

1. The GCA charter school plan isn't fair. 240 of 3600 students will enjoy mandated, capped class sizes of no more than 20 students. Charter school proponents and district officials agree that keeping class sizes down correlates with effective teaching and learning. Class sizes for the rest of the district's 3,360 students will not be capped. When staff is cut to accommodate charter school funding, class sizes will increase for the remaining students in the district. Why should some students have small, capped class sizes while some students try to learn in classes as big as 25 or more? This is not consistent with the MA Education Reform Act of 1993 that states that all students should have access to a high quality education.

2. The GCA charter application is a faulty, misleading document. On page 5 of the document applicants state that, "A charter school will bring the innovation that the district desperately needs and has shunned. Attempts by parents, teachers, volunteers, and others actively advocating for change have largely fallen on deaf ears...At present no schools in Gloucester offer arts-integrated curriculum--or any of the alternative approaches we intend to use." These statements are simply not true and the innovative approaches taken by Gloucester's teachers were demonstrated over and over again by teachers, parents and school administrators at the 12/11/08 public hearing officiated by the state. Teachers in Gloucester have been required to teach using the MA frameworks since 1993 (link to frameworks in sidebar). This has involved curriculum development using alternative approaches to teaching. Teachers in every school in Gloucester have been applying Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences since at least 1998. Furthermore, it is insulting to suggest that the district's teachers and principals have not been implementing alternative teaching strategies, especially since the state requires that all teachers have master's degrees and that graduate programs teach students about the MA frameworks and how to develop curriculum using said frameworks. I graduated from Tufts University with a Master's of Arts in Teaching degree in 1998 and applied the "new and innovative" approaches described in the charter application at Gloucester High School, as did other teachers at GHS and throughout the system, 10 years ago.

Is it true that some teachers should be using better alternative approaches? Yes. Is it true that the district could do a better job recognizing and recording the efforts of its innovative teachers? Absolutely. Most teachers can and want to do better and we should give them this opportunity. Instead of making false claims about lack of innovation in our district, show teachers exactly how and when and where they can be innovative by citing numerous examples of the groundbreaking work that is taking place around our city.

The analysis of MCAS data in the document is misleading and leaves out essential analysis and information regarding Gloucester's demographic. Our district's low income population is 26% and our special needs population is 21% (see "selected populations" link in sidebar). Substance abuse, domestic violence (HAWC--number of restraining orders issued each year in Gloucester), mental illness, heroin use (AGH--methadone clinic and waiting list) and its persistence in Gloucester are not analyzed by the applicants thus showing a lack of understanding of the complex needs of our community. There are factors that a school, despite outreach and education, cannot change. Evidence that the applicants considered these factors when analyzing test scores cannot be found in the charter application.

Visit the links in the sidebar to help you understand how special populations compare in neighboring districts such as Rockport, Manchester/Essex, and Ipswich, districts to which students from Gloucester are "choicing" into for obvious reasons--smaller size, more money, fewer complex needs. Information about how much a district spends per student, how much teachers get paid, as well as size of a district can also be found at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website (was DOE, now called DESE).

3. Our city's recent efforts at change need to be given time to take hold i.e. a school closure and redistricting efforts to more equally distribute Gloucester's poorest students. The small, neighborhood school model has proven effective in many districts. Give Gloucester's small, neighborhood schools a chance to strengthen and grow. Other changes are underway in our schools. There is qualitative and quantitative improvement regarding O'Maley. The word on the street is that fewer parents have concerns about O'Maley. "Don't take the legs out from under O'Maley," pled John Doyle, a parent in the know at the 12/11 hearing. The word from the state is that there has been significant recent O'Maley test score improvement. Principal Tracy reports, "O’Maley Middle School made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress--No Child Left Behind) in ELA (English Language Arts) and Math in the aggregate this past year and 76% of our 8th graders were in the advanced and proficient categories for ELA-the highest percentage of advanced and proficient designations in the district. MCAS results for Gloucester have numerous examples of longitudinal trends from Grades 3-10 that demonstrate the shrinking gap between Gloucester Public School students and their state level peers— the same students heralded by the Commissioner for leading the nation and ranking alongside some of the highest performing nations in the world. But standardized test scores are just one measure of a student’s progress."

4. The city doesn't have the money to fund the charter school. The argument being made by GCA charter school proponents such as founding member Kate Ruff is that we'll find the money; schools don't have to close. I implore you to attend city council meetings, talk to building principals, talk to well-informed people who work on city budgets and ask where this so-called money can be found. In order to understand the school budget making process, it is necessary to understand how fixed costs and special education mandates affect a budget. Analyze the answers you receive in context of what is happening in our city and state. Fire stations are closed. We're in need of money to make major infrastructure repairs--our roads and public buildings. Deval Patrick recently announced the need to make 1 billion in cuts. The "bloated budget" argument doesn't fly. Do we have 2.4 million identified ways to save a dollar (without cutting staff and closing schools)? The answer from city officials and proven budget visionaries alike is a resounding NO.

5. It is dangerous for the state to override a city's elected officials without excellent reason to do so. The GCA charter applicants do NOT make the case for this kind of intervention. See item two on the list.

6. The application does not focus enough on Gloucester's poorest children. Where is the outreach? There is a clear lack of understanding of social dynamics in Gloucester on the part of the proponents. There is an assumption that poor families will want to leave their schools--underestimating the power of community in each of Gloucester's schools. The charter applicants and letter supporters, as demonstrated at the public hearing, are a college-educated, homogenous group. This applicant group and "arts school" will attract a certain type of student. Because the school is so small (240 students), because the low income population is so large--approximately 900 students--and the applicant group is as homogenous as it is, the school stands little chance of helping the city's poorest children. How might the applicants have better targeted the subgroups performing most poorly on the MCAS?