Closing Schools When They Suck Less

Great article from The Times about the effort to close an under-performing public charter school in New York.  Like some other closure situations in New York the school is outperforming the surrounding traditional public schools but not achieving the goals of its contract.  And as is generally the case with school closures the stakeholders at the school are opposed and the situation is complicated.  But what’s fascinating is how this situation showcases a big delineation on school reform today: The state charter school association supports the closure while Pedro Noguera, a leader of the “bigger bolder” approach to education was the only member of the SUNY authorizing board to vote to keep the school open. 

In other words, this is a road test of Matt Candler’s “sucks less” doctrine.   Is it OK to just suck less?  Thankfully, more and more people say no and hopefully that will extend to public education more generally as time goes on.

2 Replies to “Closing Schools When They Suck Less”

  1. closing the school will add more people to jobless for the teachers. instead of thinking for closing the outperforming schools, why not think how to make them perform will and give some support to bring great education to the community.

  2. both of my parents were teachers (special ed) and schools have been “sucking” for a long time. underfunded and overworked. there’s got to be a better way than just closing the school though. there’s good people who are really trying to make a difference. there’s so many contributing factors to the suckiness.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.