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The Lottery and High Quality Schools
By Joe Keeney

November 04, 2010

The Lottery was screened at the Manship Theater in Baton Rouge tonight, sponsored by Nancy Roberts’s excellent Louisiana Resource Center for Educators (LRCE). It was followed by a lively panel discussion that reflected the panelists’ diverse range of perspectives about education reform.

Likewise, there is a range of opinions about how to hold lotteries. Many schools prefer to reduce the spectacle of the process, because so many parents and kids who deserve a better option end up walking away disappointed -- screwed by the system again. But the big production lotteries are intended to galvanize parent outrage over the shortage of seats in high quality schools.

High quality schools. If I were starting a charter school today, the first thing I would do is camp out at some of these high-performing charter schools in Harlem, at Noble Street in Chicago, at Friendship in DC, at Amistad in New Haven, or at KIPP. Every time I step into a classroom at one these schools, I am staggered by the quality and intensity of the experience.

After the show, I mentioned this to Karl Reichman, new principal of the Career Academy Charter School that will open next fall. It turns out he had just gotten back from visiting Sci Academy and KIPP in New Orleans – and he was similarly staggered.

There is so much to learn from high-performing charter schools – go out and see what works!

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