I work at a Title I school where all the kids are on a free lunch, not even a reduced lunch. Many of the kids suffer health problems. One boy had AIDS and was being raised by his grandmother. A number have parents who have died due to health issues. One little girl saw her mother die right in front of her. Other kids have family members who have been shot by gang members. Other kids have fathers who are in jail or killed by the police. There are lots of single mothers and lots grandparents raising the kids. Many kids come to school hungry, some are unwashed, and others tell me they are cold at night. Most of the parents do work, but they are the working poor, working 2-3 jobs, doing jobs such as delivering papers at 4:00am, often with their kids in tow because they don’t have anyone to watch the kids at that hour. Those kids come to school sleepy.

These kids suffer problems that do not help them be in a state of “ready to learn” every morning. Please stop dismissing poverty as though it has no affect on kids and their ability and desire to learn in school. If we want to close the achievement gap, we need to look at poverty and counter the effects of poverty.

Where is the accountability? If and when Vaughn, too, shows that it cannot raise its test scores, will it, too, be closed like so many public schools in poor neighborhoods? Will it be taken over by the state? Will it turn into another charter? These are the solutions posited by the current and previous administration and touted by conservative politicians and by many journalists. Will its teachers be deemed “failures” and “dead wood” as the teachers at every Title I (impoverished) school are labeled?

Vaughn should stop pretending to be something it is not. This school has 2x the per pupil funding (and more actually), and yet, it too, *cannot* do what all public schools are asked (being forced) in this day and age to do.

Is NCLB right? Is it fair? I don’t think so either, but I, too, am tired of the games schools play to appear “successful.” The standards and whole notion of accountability need to change. And, frankly, all kids in *all* public schools deserve the funding that Vaughn gets.

Lastly, I am not sure why you are so quick to state that charters are not the answer? Charters have never been the answer they are simply an option; an option that parents are grateful and thankful for.
Furthermore, this is not a blog that is advocating the creation of more charters. There are many charters in Los Angeles that are not “global” and do not consider a global perspective in their curricular design. VISA is special due to it’s connection with the Asia Society’s ISSN network. This national network consists of many schools that are not charters. There are even entire school districts taking on this initiative of graduating global citizens. I apologize for rambling, but I did feel the need to respond and clarify.
While I do work at Vaughn, my response represents my personal views.

While I personally do not believe in the stupidity that NCLB testing and “accountability” have produced, I also don’t believe that charter schools are the answer to helping impoverished students. (Read: “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”) Why don’t public schools get the funding that Vaughn seems to have gotten? Why aren’t all kids learning Mandarin, Spanish or French, regardless of their math and English scores? What about music? Why does everything, especially for poor children, hinge on “test prep” for Language Arts and Math rather than education?

Vaughn, however, despite it’s low scores, does seem successful in terms of keeping kids interested in education and in terms of exposing kids to a larger world.