The Urban Choice Charter School Advantages
The Urban Choice Charter School provides increased learning opportunities for all Rochester students in several ways. Preference is not given to at-risk students specifically. Based on poverty, crime, teen pregnancy, dropouts and other factors, it is well known that most children living in Rochester are already at risk.
Skilled teachers recognizing different learning styles
Skilled teachers provide expanded learning opportunities for all students. Not all kids learn the same way, and it takes a special person to get every student to excel by providing them with increased opportunities to learn through the use of modeling and differentiated instruction.
The Urban Choice Charter School employs teachers who Martin Haberman described in his book, Star Teachers of Children in Poverty, this way:
Stars describe their jobs-to themselves as well as others-as the continuous generation and maintenance of student interest and involvement. They believe that their ability to persist is manifested in several ways. First, for the class as a whole, they feel a constant responsibility to make the classroom an interesting, engaging climate that, on a daily basis, involves the children in all forms of learning. Second, on an individual level, stars are persistent in meeting the needs of the talented, those with handicapping conditions, and the frequently neglected “gray-area” kids. — Haberman, Martin. Star Teachers of Children in Poverty. West Lafayette: Kappa Delta Pi, 1995
The three individuals who are oversee the Urban Choice Charter School teacher recruitment process have long and successful careers educating Rochester city school students.
- One spent over 30 years as a City school principal and student teacher supervisor.
- The second is a K-12 professional development consultant who led the Department of Special Education Instruction for the Rochester City School District for many years.
- The third is a former Rochester City School District/Center for Educational Development Classroom Champion who proved for ten years that children can defy the demographic destiny of poverty.
They know what great teaching looks like and how it is best supported in a high-poverty, urban classroom.
Once hired, these teachers use modeling, flexible groupings, initial and ongoing assessments, and other methods and strategies that provide all students with increased learning opportunities.
Teaching Teams
There are increased learning opportunities for all students at the Urban Choice Charter School because learning is a team effort.
In many schools, and particularly in large schools, teachers can feel isolated and powerless. This has a direct affect on student achievement.
Because of their relative isolation from other adults, teachers have little opportunity to share their motivation, involvement, and satisfaction (Stenlund). Feeling overly stressed can result in erosion of one’s idealism, sense of purpose, and enthusiasm. The morale of teachers can have far-reaching implications for students learning, the health of the organization, and the health of the teacher (Mendel). — Lumsden, Linda. “Teacher Morale.” Eric Digest. Number 120. 2004
In many large school districts, teachers feel like bureaucratic functionaries. They do not feel like they are part of the decision-making process. The teachers feel defeated. The Urban Choice Charter School does things differently. The charter school promotes and supports staff participation and partnerships.
Staff positions were created specifically so that learning and teaching would be a collaborative effort. A teacher support coordinator, reading and assessment specialists, and a special education coordinator all work beside the classroom teachers, providing students with new and exciting learning opportunities. Professional development is ongoing, generated by student and teacher needs, and implemented daily in the classrooms. The learning environment invites participation.
Instructional decisions are made within the school itself. The school’s Lead Administrator visits classes daily and there are various instructional support personnel who share ideas with the classroom teachers. As a result, instruction is more thoughtful, creative and focused. Learning opportunities increase for all students because many people are participating in the process.
K–12 Design
We provides increased learning opportunities for all students by offering them a K–12 grade configuration. Our charter school is the only public school in Rochester with a K–12 design. There are no others. This is very important. This design has been shown to reduce dropout rates, and the negatve effects of dropping out cannot be understated.
Small, K–12 schools eliminate the transition that students have to make between elementary and middle school or high school. Children between the ages of 12 and 16 are going through a lot, regardless of socio-economic status. For students living in poverty these can be extremely challenging years.
Many students decide to continue or give up on school at this time and being moved from a reassuring elementary school environment to a larger, detached middle school can be unsettling. Many students get lost and drop out.
New York State has the worst graduation rates for black and Hispanic high school students in the nation, according to the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. In Rochester, significant numbers of students in public schools never graduate.
Out of 2,851 students enrolled in Rochester public schools in ninth grade in 1997–98, only 843 graduated four years later. These students often end up in tragic situations.
A small K–12 school helps students stay connected and it increases student achievement.
Although K–12 schools seem to be a thing of the past, researchers have found they have a positive effect on student achievement. The Louisiana research team of Bobby Frankin and Catherine Glascock compared student outcomes in grades 6,7 and 9–12 among four configure types: elementary, middle, secondary and K–12 schools. Sixth- and 7th-grade students in Louisiana performed equally well when their grade was part of an elementary school configuration and when it was part of a K–12 school. In addition, their achievement level was higher than that of 6th and 7th grade students who attended middle schools. Students in grades 9–12 in K–12 schools performed as well academically as those students enrolled in separately standing 9–12 high schools but scores higher on measures of attendance, expulsion, suspensions and dropout rate. — Howley, Craig B. “Grade-Span configurations.” School’s Lead Administrator. March, 2002
Our charter school will have fewer dropouts and as a result these students will be in school learning where they will be provided opportunities they certainly would not be offered out of school.
The K–12 grade configuration provides learning opportunities for all students by allowing families with several children who may not have transportation, or have limited transportation options, to visit one school to see all of their children and their teachers.
They can attend school functions as a family with every member feeling like they are a part of the school community. Relationships develop that help create a culture of pride and participation. Families, students, and teachers know each other better, and this opens up learning opportunities that would otherwise be missed. The relationship between parents and their children improve because they have a common element in their lives to bond them together.
Families in our school do not disappear. They are known.
Opening as K–4
The Urban Choice Charter School did not open as a K–12 school. It began as a K–4 school and one grade per year is added. Schools that open with too many students have both academic and behavioral problems because the students do not feel secure.
The students in our school grow with it. As students get older they will become models for the younger ones, maturing and sharing lessons from previous years. The students have a sense of belonging. This feeling is absent in many schools.
If one were to look at the structure of a traditional large urban school, one sees that intimate primary relationships have been supplanted by an impersonal bureaucracy. Students and teachers do not relate to one another as whole persons, but in narrow circumscribed roles. Communication is restricted to what one can and must do in a 50-minute hour where a highly structured setting is a sanction against all but teacher-directed behavior. The only spontaneity is too-frequent disruption, and the only ‘we’ feeling likely to develop if the ‘we against they’ which divides students and teachers into separate camps. Research shows that at each progressive level of the education system, relationships increasingly lack meaning and personal satisfaction. Not surprisingly, students at greatest risk of dropping out of school are those who have never been friends with any teacher. — Brokenleg, Martin. Reclaiming Youth At Risk. Bloomington: National Education Service, 1990
All students, and particularly those at risk, need to form attachments with the adults in the school that surround them. The Urban Choice Charter School is designed to encourage and support these relationships. Beyond this, the school hopes that the students will develop a sense a pride about the school itself.
Our charter school provides all Rochester students with expanded learning opportunities by providing them with outstanding urban teachers, working cooperatively towards a common goal within a supportive grade-span configuration.
