“WATCHDOGS ARE SUPPOSED to BARK”: a CASE STUDY of the CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK by LINDA KIGHT WINTER (Under the Directi
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“WATCHDOGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BARK”: A CASE STUDY OF THE CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK by LINDA KIGHT WINTER (Under the Direction of Nancy F. Knapp) ABSTRACT In the late 1990s, a group of prominent citizens in Charleston, South Carolina, became increasingly concerned about the deteriorating performance of their public schools and the seeming unwillingness or inability of the district administration to improve them. Students in Charleston County schools, especially those serving poor or minority children, have for many years scored near the bottom in a state ranked consistently 48th-49th nationally. Forming the non-profit Charleston Education Network (CEN) in May 2000, these citizens, most of whom had no children in the school system, undertook “to be a staunch advocate for children, a dynamic catalyst for change, and an unrelenting force for accountability to achieve excellence in public education.” Their tactics toward this end include activist strategies and adversarial stances uncharacteristic of most community school reform groups. This study, informed by critical theory, investigates how and why these citizens felt compelled and equipped to leverage school reform from the “outside.” It outlines specific goals and strategies they have adopted, looks at evidence of the effects of these strategies, and considers what similar communities might learn from their story. Describing their role as “both the conscience and watchdog of public education,” CEN members successfully advocated for a policy allowing Charleston parents to transfer their children out of failing schools two years before federal No Child Left Behind legislation required it. They won a civil suit forcing the repeal of a 90-mil property tax cap that was crippling school tax revenues. They are politically active, initiating and shaping public debate on education, encouraging the election of better informed and qualified school board candidates, working for legislation to reform the outdated local school board governance system, and playing a significant role in the selection of the new district superintendent. Members acknowledge that their “edgy” stance, often unpopular with the district, is not for the timid, and on occasion must be recalibrated by CEN itself. However, they believe only such activist strategies will move a cumbersome and seemingly unconcerned district establishment to action to improve the education of Charleston’s children, especially that of children of color or living in poverty. INDEX WORDS: community-driven school reform, educational reform, community activism, achievement gap “WATCHDOGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BARK”: A CASE STUDY OF THE CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK by LINDA KIGHT WINTER B.A., Marshall University, 1975 M.A., Marshall University, 1976 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Linda Kight Winter All Rights Reserved “WATCHDOGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BARK”: A CASE STUDY OF THE CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK by LINDA KIGHT WINTER Major Professor: Nancy F. Knapp Committee: Martha M. Carr Lew Allen Elizabeth Pate Shawn M. Glynn Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2004 iv DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my parents, Roy and Crystal Kight, for all that they have given me that made this dissertation possible – their genes, their encouragement, their values about learning and accomplishment, their love, and their emotional and financial support. I simply could not have done this without them. Special Thanks I offer special thanks to my doctoral committee, Nancy F. Knapp, Lew Allen, Martha M. Carr, Shawn Glynn, and Elizabeth Pate. I am especially grateful for their feedback, support, and flexibility in allowing me to explore this passion. I also want to thank all of the members of the Charleston Education Network, especially Executive Director Jonathan H. Butzon, and others in Charleston, whose generosity with their time and ideas contributed immeasurably to this research. With love To my daughters, Erin and Lauren v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 The Study...........................................................................................................6 Context...............................................................................................................9 Summary..........................................................................................................40 2 LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................41 Assumption 1: There Is a Persistent Achievement Gap...................................42 Assumption 2: There Is Adequate Research Knowledge and Evidence that the Achievement Gap Can Be Corrected...................................................46 The Historical Failure of Urban School Reform..............................................49 Changing Roles for the Community in School Reform...................................59 3 METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................74 Purpose of the Study:.......................................................................................74 Data Sources: ...................................................................................................75 Data Analysis...................................................................................................79 Personal Subjectivities.....................................................................................82 Specific Limitations in This Study ..................................................................85 4 FINDINGS.......................................................................................................90 History of CEN ................................................................................................91 vi The Charismatic Leader.................................................................................110 Perceived “Hidden Agendas” ........................................................................128 What is CEN’s Agenda? ................................................................................154 CEN Strategy, Initiatives, and Results...........................................................169 Future of CEN................................................................................................190 5 DISCUSSION................................................................................................196 What can we learn?........................................................................................214 Final thoughts.................................................................................................224 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................230 APPENDICES A PARTICIPANTS INTERVIEWED FOR THIS STUDY..............................246 B “CAST OF CHARACTERS”........................................................................250 C TIMELINE FOR HISTORY OF THE CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK...............................................................................................252 D THE CONTINUUM OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN URBAN PUBLIC EDUCATION REFORM ...........................................................253 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As the late Harvard professor and former deputy superintendent of New York City Schools, Ronald Edmonds, once said, “We can whenever and wherever we choose successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need in order to do this. Whether we do must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far” (www.gse.harvard.edu). Dr. Edmonds should know. As one of the “founding fathers” of the Effective Schools Research, he and others produced extensive empirical research during the 1980s that demonstrated that, indeed, all children can learn (Taylor, 2002). Yet, in America year after year in district after district, public schools fail to teach many of our children, 1 especially children of color and children living in poverty. Brown v. Board of Education “made equal access to public education the law of the land,” yet America has not delivered public schools that provide “all children with equal access to success in school” (Wang and Kovach, 1996, p. 10). This disparity in educational performance between white and minority students, called the achievement gap, has persisted since that 1954 Supreme Court decision (Balanced View, 2000). Today, on most educational measures, the average African American or Hispanic student scores with the bottom quarter of white students (Greene, 2001). The national graduation rate for African American students is reported at 56%, and for Hispanics 54%, compared to 74% for White students (Greene, 2001). 2 Further complicating the picture for minority students is the element of poverty; studies show that in schools serving a high percentage of students in poverty, children who are non-poor also perform below expectations. Since minority students are far more likely to attend high poverty schools, both poor and more affluent African American students who attend high poverty schools are adversely impacted (Balanced View, 2000). Moreover, this cycle of poverty is perpetuated. As adults,