Fifteen years ago this December, Downtown College Prep was authorized by San Jose Unified School District as the first charter high school in Santa Clara County. My co-founder, Greg Lippman, and I were district teachers committed to the idea that all students can and should be prepared for higher education. Together with families desperate for the promise of college, we seized the charter school legislation to build a college prep school for academically underserved first-generation students.
Today, there are dozens of charter schools, most of them concentrated in the lowest-income neighborhoods. Many of them rank among the highest-performing schools. People will often remark that I must be proud of what DCP started referring to the growth and success of charter schools. And while true, I am most proud that because there exist high-quality school choices, low-income families are more determined than desperate in their pursuit of a great school.
“Choice” not “charters” is the operative word for the current environment. We should be vigorously promoting expanded choices in the types of learning and schools offered to families. Choice doesn’t only help the charter movement. It also benefits district schools by optimizing talent and facilities to establish different school models.
Districts throughout the region are embracing choice. San Jose Unified has undertaken school redesign as part of its plan to turn around low-performing schools. Burnett Academy now offers criterion-based grading in a blended learning environment. On a recent visit to the campus it was evident how the new model leverages individualized delivery to ensure deeper engagement with the content.
East Side Union is converting James Lick High School to a New Tech Network School, a nationally recognized project-based learning model. Franklin-McKinley’s College Connections Academy is an award-winning middle school-to-college partnership with East Side Union, Evergreen Valley College and San Jose State University. Alum Rock Union, where small autonomous schools and charter schools have lifted expectations, has replicated its highly successful choice school, Renaissance Academy.
Choice by its very nature creates competition, and competition drives better performance. Districts should embrace the authorization of quality charter schools to promote their equity and achievement agendas. This not only increases their level of charter school oversight and engagement, it better positions district and charter schools to find operational efficiencies and solve challenges that arise.
It also allows districts to better understand the reasons families and students are seeking charter alternatives. Unfortunately, too many high-quality charter schools still have to appeal their authorization to the County Board of Education because districts are not embracing the transformative role charters play in improving outcomes for their students.
Several urban school choice models around the country have learned critical lessons we should be incorporating. The Center for Reinventing Public Education in a comprehensive study, “Making School Choice Work,” published in July 2014, outlines the pitfalls and barriers of school choice across eight U.S. cities. We should be convening civic, parent, district, and charter leaders to anticipate how our region could sidestep these hurdles.
Recently, I was talking with an immigrant mother who is researching middle schools for her child. She was “tocando puertas”, knocking on doors, to find the right fit. She possessed the authority and selectivity reserved for affluent families who can choose from among private or public schools.
Fifteen years after founding Downtown College Prep, this mother represents everything I am proud of and makes me hopeful for what’s ahead for our region.
Jennifer Andaluz is co-founder and executive director of Downtown College Prep. She wrote this for this newspaper.