They are similar in almost every way, khaki-panted and backpack-stooped, entering the squat, four-story building through the same door. The first wave arrives before seven in the morning, just as sunlight begins to slant across the street. The second surge shows up around eight. They sip Arizona Iced Teas and carry black plastic bags bulging with Doritos and foil-wrapped sandwiches from the bodega on the corner. They wear t-shirts and polos in gray and blue and maroon, with the name of their schools emblazoned on the front. They talk and laugh in groups or trudge silently alone. The scene repeats itself morning after morning – normal students on their way to a normal day of middle school. Upon entering the building, they head to different floors and begin their lessons. One doubts that they consider themselves on the front line, soldiers in a political battle being fought throughout their neighborhood, their city, and across their country.
The building these students enter, located at 1224 Park Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, houses three schools. It is this building that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña hope will serve as a model for collaboration between charter schools and traditional public schools as well as a rebuttal to the small schools movement championed by de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.
Any conversation about public education will, at some point, turn to a discussion about the impact of charter schools. In Mayor Bloomberg’s New York, charter schools expanded rapidly, from 17 in 2002 to 183 by 2013. These new charters were often housed in buildings that contained traditional public schools. Along with his support for charters, Bloomberg also focused on closing down large, struggling schools in favor of creating several smaller ones in the same locations.
But after a decade of expansion, New York has seen a pushback against charters and a reconsideration of the small school policy. De Blasio, with strong support from the United Federation of Teachers, campaigned on a promise to reign in charter schools, and even went so far as to attack Success Academy Charter Schools founder Eva Moscowitz by name. Many of his supporters expected strong action against charters once de Blasio took office.
The past year, however, has seen something of a stalemate emerge. After a court decision earlier this year blocked his plan to charge charter schools rent for the buildings they occupy and a public rebuke from Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, de Blasio has toned down his attacks. Professor Jeffrey Henig of Columbia University Teachers College says that de Blasio “effectively got his wrist slapped by Cuomo and the legislature. Partly because they did get their comeuppance from the Eva Moscowitz-Andrew Cuomo alliance, de Blasio and Fariña have tried to do a couple things – soften their rhetoric and be more careful to adopt the language that students in charters are our public school students, too.” For her part, Moscowitz surprised many when she announced last month that she would not challenge de Blasio in the 2017 mayoral primary.
These events in the city with the nation’s largest public school system, combined with the recent departure from Washington of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have perhaps provided room for a more nuanced look at the actual impact of charter schools in the neighborhoods they serve.
Though some charter schools have achieved remarkable successes, a report by The Washington Post notes that national data shows mixed results for charter performance, with wide variations by state. The performance of students at stand-out New York charters like KIPP Infinity, Harlem Success Academies, and Promise Academy is often cited as evidence that charters can outperform traditional public schools. But the larger picture is much more ambiguous.
One place in where this ambiguity is evident can be found in the three schools located at 1224 Park Place, collectively known as the Maggie L. Walker Campus. The campus houses two public district schools, Middle School 334 and M.S. 354, and one public charter school, KIPP: AMP (Always Mentally Prepared), that is part of the national Knowledge is Power Program network.
An examination of the schools co-located there provides an alternative to the often black-and-white debate that casts parents, teachers, unions, politicians, and – ultimately – students as players in an “Us versus Them” battle. To understand the forces at play in this building requires a bit of history.
In 2005, as part of his administration’s effort to create smaller schools, Mayor Bloomberg closed the large and underperforming middle school located at 1224 Park Place, and replaced it with the three schools that exist there today. Over the last decade, M.S. 354, led by Principal Monique Campbell, has consistently outperformed its downstairs neighbor, M.S. 334. While the two district schools went their separate ways, the Knowledge is Power Program launched KIPP: AMP Middle School on the fourth floor of the building. Students at KIPP schools have a longer school day, and parents must sign contracts promising to monitor their student’s work and fulfill several requirements in order for their children to attend the school. KIPP also launched an elementary school, which currently provides classes from kindergarten through second grade.
In terms of performance, M.S. 334 is the outlier of the schools in the building. Just three percent of its students met state standards on the New York State English test. For math, the number was one percent. Students at KIPP: AMP fared better, with 16 percent of students meeting standards in English and 23 percent in math. M.S. 354 saw the best results, with 17 percent of students passing the English test, and 42 percent meeting standards in math.
Source: NYC Dept. of Education Quality Snapshot
The racial and socio-economic demographics of the three schools are similar, and they draw mostly from the same neighborhoods, though KIPP: AMP does attract students from other school districts. The only major discrepancy in the make-up of the respective student bodies is that KIPP: AMP serves fewer English Language Learners and students with special needs than do the two traditional public schools.
The outcomes of Crown Heights students sharing this building attest to a reality descripted by Professor Henig of Columbia, who prefers a nuanced, apolitical position in the education reform conversation. “The picture is more complex than many want to admit,” Henig says. “There are good charters and bad charters, just like there are good traditional schools and bad traditional schools.”
From its start, M.S. 334 was one of those bad traditional schools. When the large, failing I.S. 390 was broken up in 2005, its principal, Kathleen Clark-Glover, was placed in charge of the new M.S. 334. By 2008, M.S. 334 had been placed on New York’s list on “persistently dangerous schools.” A 2008-09 Learning Environment Survey found that “only 61% of students feel safe at school” and “only 43% of teachers feel order and discipline are maintained at the school.” The city planned to close the school altogether in 2010, but was blocked by a union lawsuit. Last year enrollment was down to 129 students (from a high of 242 in 2008-09), of whom 44% were chronically absent, nearly double the city-wide average.
While M.S. 334 has struggled, M.S. 354 has excelled. In 2005, Monique Campbell was installed as the new school’s leader after completing the New York City Leadership Academy’s principal-training program. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Campbell described the tactics that she employed to build a strong learning environment. She made students walk the hallways in neat lines, hired a dean of students to improve discipline, and instituted daily meetings between teachers to discuss strategies. Earlier this year, Fariña lauded Campbell’s leadership, saying the the principal had done “a fabulous job.”
Over its decade of existence, AMP has been challenged by under-performance of its students and has weathered a protracted unionization battle. In recent years, however, KIPP: AMP has stabilized, and is now hoping to expand its space allocation in the building so that it can offer a full kindergarten through eighth grade program. Currently, KIPP: AMP provides a K-2 elementary school and a fifth through eighth grade middle school.
This year, Mayor de Blasio Chancellor Fariña, announced plans to combine the two traditional schools under the leadership of Principal Campbell, which would free up enough space to allow KIPP to expand.
Far from the media spotlight that covers the clashes between de Blasio and Cuomo and Moscowitz, parents, educators, and Department of Education officials hope that the building at 1224 Park Place will provide a new model of the ways in which traditional schools could be improved and charter advocates could gain the space they desire. “We’re inventing this as we go along,” Fariña told The New York Daily News in May. “The most important thing is to energize schools that in some cases don’t have enough resources.”
At a town hall meeting on November 9, principals from all three schools, along with District 17 superintendent Clarence Green and Senior Deputy Schools Chancellor Dr. Dorita Gibson, met with parents of students in the building to hear public input on the merger plan. The comments, both from officials and parents, was overwhelmingly in favor of consolidation, which would go into effect next year.
“Our parents are understanding. There hasn’t been a lot of pushback,” Principal Campbell said. KIPP principal Latasha Williams nodded in support as half a dozen parents stepped to the microphone to express their support for the proposal.
Speaking after the event, Deputy Chancellor Gibson expressed hope and looked to the future. “We’re working very hard to have our charter schools and our traditional schools really communicate. This is a good example of when you have good leaders working together and not fighting over space, but working for together for the betterment of all the children in the school. You can watch it happen here, and I think it’s going to be very positive.”