Secretary of Education to visit Mesa charter school

Andrea Falkenhagen, Tribune

March 29, 2007 - 11:49AM

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will visit a Mesa charter school known for beating the odds in a low-income neighborhood.

Spellings will visit classrooms Monday afternoon and attend an assembly at Mesa Arts Academy, an arts-based charter school operated at the East Valley Boys and Girls Club, 221 W 6th Ave.

“They called me and said they had seen our test scores increasing and they know about our demographics,” said Susan Douglas, the school’s director. “We’re beating the odds, so to speak, so she wanted to come and visit our school.”

More than 79 percent of the school’s 215 students live in poverty, and more than half come to the school speaking no English, Douglas said.

Yet this year, 100 percent of the school’s eighth-graders passed the math and writing portions of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards exam.

Spellings will be in Phoenix next week to attend an education roundtable organized by the Arizona Business and Education Coalition.

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My comment disappeared! What's going on?

Todd Stallion

If republicans were actualy conservatives and not some sort of personality leader worshiping cult... they would eliminate the Department of Education Suggest removal of this comment

March 29, 2007

elementary teacher

Charter schools and reporting on charter schools are often misleading. I teach at a public school where parents are unwilling to get involved in their child's education. You can't get the parent in the door for a parent-teacher conference, the parent won't even sign and return the report card, the parent often fails to pick up the child after school and CPS or the police have to be called. Charter school parents are COMPLETELY the opposite by the mere fact that they WENT to the charter school to enroll the kid! This is the first of many differences between charter school students and parents and public school students and parents. Not to mention the fact that during AIMS our students may or may not show up. Or they may come late and interrupt everything. And because they are late they probably are hungry but missed their free and reduced breakfast because they were late in the first place. Way to go parents! While I am happy for any school's success, there is no fair comparison between charter and public schools and discussing "the odds" is misleading. Suggest removal of this comment

March 29, 2007

C

on fair comparisons, please read an assessment of what works -- independent of charters and parents.
http://www.arizonafuture.org/latinoEd/index.html

if you think that it is hopeless, you may be right, but not in the way that you think. Had a local principal tell me that she could never run a top school given her constraints -- and she was right: she never could. But others could.

consider what an action plan and successful role model might be and take courage to implement it! Suggest removal of this comment

March 30, 2007

realist

C--are you in the classroom? Are you working with a student population which is largely Hispanic AND monolingual? Those who teach there show tremendous courage every day by the mere fact that they are willing to teach there. IF there are parents working with their children, they still can't communicate with the teacher because the teacher is an English speaker. Any action plan would involved MAGIC! Presto--the child is an English speaker overnight instead of the 3-5 years it takes. Presto--the family remains in that school during those 3-5 years. Presto--neither parent goes to jail or prison during those 3-5 years. And on and on and on! Suggest removal of this comment

March 30, 2007

MAA Parent

While I am sympathetic to your responses, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I am a parent at this school and I am not one of the 79% in poverty. My daughter's education is important to me and this school really believes in the children and will do what it takes to help them succeed.

Sue Douglass is a stellar director. She takes an interest in the children and does what it takes to encourage the children. She is challenged by the same thing that "elementary teacher" said. Parents aren't involved. This school is located in an underprivileged neighborhood. The kids go there because it is close and offers a whole lot more than the average public school, for example their longer school days to incorporate the arts.

To trivialize their recognition is a shame because both the students and faculty work their tail ends off in order to succeed.

Way to go Mesa Arts Academy Suggest removal of this comment