On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope [Kindle Edition]
Author: Richard Whitmire | Language: English | ISBN: B00JUV070S | Format: PDF, EPUB
Direct download links available On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope for everyone book 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link The face of American education is evolving—and the roadmap is clear
On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope examines the rise and expansion of leading charter school network Rocketship, revealing the "secret sauce" that makes a successful program. A strong narrative with a timely message, the book explores how Rocketship started and the difficulties encountered as it expands. Designing schools for children who have been failed by traditional schools is extremely challenging work. Setbacks are inevitable. Later in the book the narrative shifts to the national picture, exploring how high performing charter schools are changing the education landscape in cities such as Denver, Memphis, and Houston. The book emerges just as charter schools are running into stiff political opposition in New York City and elsewhere. Even in San Jose, Rocketship's home base, the pushback against charter schools is gaining speed. On the Rocketship becomes a valuable resource for explaining what's at stake in this battle. Lose these schools, in New York, San Jose and other cities, and low-income and minority students lose their best shot at a quality education.
Written by a veteran journalist who followed Rocketship through a school year, the book explores some of the factors that make Rocketship and other charters successful, including the blended learning that was pioneered at charter schools, especially Rocketship.
Many schools around the country are looking to Rocketship as a model for implementing blended learning, and over three million K-12 students have taken an online course. The interplay between charter schools and blended learning is setting a change in motion, and the American education system is ready to evolve. On the Rocketship details this phenomenon, providing insights for educators across the nation. Books with free ebook downloads available On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 2488 KB
- Print Length: 357 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1118607643
- Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (May 15, 2014)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00JUV070S
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,328 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #24 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Teaching > Teacher Resources > Education Theory > Philosophy & Social Aspects
- #53 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Anthropology > Cultural
- #71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Social Psychology & Interactions
Whitmire tells the story of how K-5 (rationale - closing the achievement gap in the early grades) charter school network 'Rocketship' (founded in 2006) and the difficulties encountered since then while expanding. Rocketship originally used a 'blended learning' model in which pupils spend about a quarter of their day watching videos and practicing skills on individual PC terminals (individualized/adaptive-learning computerized instruction, augmented by paraprofessionals in small group instruction activities) located in a large computer room (about 2,000 square-feet, with 100 cubicles) with the remainder in a traditional classroom grade level setting augmented by low-cost tutoring and 10-30% higher teacher pay. Its lead teachers are used for the large-group presentations. It is now experimenting with variations of that model that provide more small-group instruction time; students are re-grouped based on ability every six weeks or so.
Early Rocketship plans were to serve at least 25,000 pupils by 2017, one million by 2030. Early results far exceeded state (California) targets, especially in math, and brought immense parental demand for expansion. As the network added schools and pupils, the percentage of pupils scoring proficient on California state tests steadily declined (30 percentage points over the past five years to 51% in English/language arts, 14 points to 77% in math); these declines also coincided with revisions to its flexible classroom approach (increased learning lab time to 50%, largely because reduced state funding required financial cuts).
Teacher unions were seen as something to be avoided - at the very least because of their limitations on flexibility. While the eg.
This book fully hits my two criteria for non-fiction five stars: (1) it is a great read that keeps you entertained and interested throughout; and (2) it is very important reporting that told me about things I wanted to know more about and about things I had never heard of but should know about.
GREAT READ: Richard Whitmire reports and writes very well. The book is hard to put down and you really get a sense for the characters and circumstances he is describing. For example, he writes of the first visit that the Rocketship charter school's Silicon Valley based team paid to a gritty site in Milwaukee where they would be locating their first out-of-state school. After a hilarious description of the environment and a woman who flagged them down to talk to them, he concludes, "An omen about rough times ahead in Milwaukee? At the moment, the deer carcass lecture from the cat-hunting lady in the motorcycle jacket was nothing more than a great story for entertaining others. But, in fact, trying times were ahead in Milwaukee. Maybe the wild cat lady knew something." I gulped this book down in part because it was just a fun read.
IMPORTANT READ, Part 1: Whitmire takes us into two of the most important cutting edge aspects of this moment in education reform. After about twenty years of charter schools and other reform work, it has become clear that a number of non-profit charter networks are able to produce schools where high poverty students dramatically outperform expectations and past trajectories. These Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) include KIPP, Uncommon Schools, YES Prep, Aspire, Achievement First, IDEA and a number of others.
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