Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on charter schools attendance rates

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Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on charter schools attendance rates · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Charter schools have released to their first performance reports, and
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  Speaker 1: the results are mixed. Three of the seven schools missed
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  Speaker 1: one or more of their targets. Those targets include ninety
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  Speaker 1: five NCAA Level two achievement, eighty percent of students working
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  Speaker 1: at curriculum level, and eighty percent regular attendance. But while
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  Speaker 1: some schools are falling short of their goals, others are
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  Speaker 1: beating them, which is good news. Chris Ebercrombie, the PPTA president,
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  Speaker 1: joins me. Now, good morning, Chris, thanks for your time.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: What did you make of the numbers the reports?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I just wanted to clarify something. So they actually
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  Speaker 2: don't have eighty percent attendant. Each school's got their own
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  Speaker 2: attendance goal. I think one of them was sixty percent
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  Speaker 2: and they didn't hit that. So, you know, I just
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  Speaker 2: really hope Minister Seymows is forgiving of other schools, safe
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  Speaker 2: schools that don't meet their higher targets than here are
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  Speaker 2: the is of these charter schools.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what about the curriculum working at the curriculum level
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  Speaker 1: or the NCAA Level two achievement. Would you think about
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  Speaker 1: those numbers?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there's always great that young people are achieving
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  Speaker 2: at a level. We want every young person achieving at
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  Speaker 2: the best they can. And but like these are small schools,
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  Speaker 2: they're very highly resourced, so it makes sense that they
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  Speaker 2: will be able to achieve some of those results.
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  Speaker 1: Is this not a bad start though for schools that
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  Speaker 1: are starting from scratch and quite often involve children who
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  Speaker 1: are completely disengaged from wanting to go to school.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we want every young person to be able to
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  Speaker 2: have those results, and if they disengage, want their local
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  Speaker 2: school to be able to do that. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: local schools are more equipped to deal with some of
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  Speaker 2: these issues. They've had a longer time, they've got networks,
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  Speaker 2: they've got understandings of this, so we want every young person.
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  Speaker 1: To do that.
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  Speaker 2: So I look, I'm never going to disregard a young
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  Speaker 2: person's achievement. It's fantastic, but you know, we want everyone
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  Speaker 2: to be able to do that.
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  Speaker 1: And it's interesting you say that, though, Chrisy. I was
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  Speaker 1: speaking to an associate principle of the South Aukland School
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  Speaker 1: who works who was talking to me about how they
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  Speaker 1: just work tirelessly to keep kids in school and they're
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  Speaker 1: really concerned that because we're losing so much flexibility with NCAA,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to get even harder. Isn't it good that
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  Speaker 1: we have another option?
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  Speaker 2: Well, really concerned we're losing the flexibility of NCAA. The
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  Speaker 2: ministries aren't documents said lest these children will achieve, particularly
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  Speaker 2: Mario Pacifica in low socio economics. So that's a real concern.
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  Speaker 2: We've got one of the most evolved education systems in
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  Speaker 2: the world, one of the most flexible systems already. We
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  Speaker 2: don't need to add more flexibility, more fracturing of the system.
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  Speaker 2: We need to be building what we already have because
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  Speaker 2: that's where the vast majority of our young people go.
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  Speaker 1: The Maria Pacifica Boys boarding school Tipinay, they recorded some
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  Speaker 1: pretty good all the strongest gains. If we accept that
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  Speaker 1: Marie kids learn better in their own environments, why is
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  Speaker 1: there such pushback on MARI specific charter schooling.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think, Well, there's not pushback specific on Mari
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  Speaker 2: specific charter schools, but we want that an easier system.
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  Speaker 2: We want EWI we want Mario organizations to be able
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  Speaker 2: to set up special character schools. We believe that's the
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  Speaker 2: best way of doing that. We know that Mario achieving
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  Speaker 2: Maria students achieved best in Mara settings, So we want
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  Speaker 2: them make sure that's more available and not have it
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  Speaker 2: as almost as a small elite system. We want every
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  Speaker 2: EMI should to be able to have that choice.
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  Speaker 1: How long do you think these schools cannot achieve their
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  Speaker 1: targets before funding needs to be looked at.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we don't know what their contracts are, their secret
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  Speaker 2: so we don't know what what their rules are. We
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  Speaker 2: already know that they've got lesser targets for lots of
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  Speaker 2: things in state schools, and so that's the first time
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  Speaker 2: we actual knew this from this report. So we just
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  Speaker 2: don't know what what the what their rules are.
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  Speaker 1: What's the biggest issue with lesser targets if they are
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  Speaker 1: quite different from the mainstream education system.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they're they're they're they're supporting the same students. There's
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  Speaker 2: not less you know, there's not less students would need
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  Speaker 2: in the state system than there is in this and
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  Speaker 2: and you know a lot of these schools are in
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  Speaker 2: the same communities. I did find it ironic though, that
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  Speaker 2: the French language school only had fifty percent success in
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  Speaker 2: French and more success in England. I thought that was
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  Speaker 2: quite ironic.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting you point that out. I did notice that as well,
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  Speaker 1: doing very very well with the education when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to the English, but the French. It's always good to
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  Speaker 1: have something to work towards, isn't it, Chris.
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  Speaker 2: Well in even perfect are you're not loving to talk
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  Speaker 2: to you?
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. For more from Early Edition with
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd be from
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  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.