Newsweek hails SABIS
By Jim StergiosMay 19th, 2008
Back in February we protested the Board of Education, and particularly S. Paul Reville’s actions in decimating a proposal by SABIS International to create a 1300-student charter in Brockton. It was killed by the administration for — oh, I am shocked — political reasons. From my post to the BlueMassGroupies:
Pioneer noted that this was groundbreaking and a u-turn on education reform for several reasons: (1) there is a robust up-front regulatory process used by the Department of Ed to weed out bad proposals (and protect the public purse), (2) no other charter proposal had ever been turned down after the DOE vetting process, and (3) the proponent (SABIS International) has a great record of success.
A couple of shoes dropped when Paul Reville (BOE chair and soon Secretary of Ed) was found to be using outdated DOE reviews to criticize the proposal, and when it was noted that his own Rennie Center report found SABIS in Springfield to be one of the best urban high schools in the state.
As Alex in A Clockwork Orange (Malcolm McDowell) used to say, ah, Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. Seems we have a run-in with reality. Newsweek’s “America’s Top Public High Schools” list – a list of 1,300 public high schools in the USA - has just named the SABIS in Springfield one of the nation’s top high schools.
SABIS is one of only three urban high schools in Massachusetts chosen. The other two are MATCH (another, non-selective charter school) and a highly selective exam school, Boston Latin.
Perhaps another top urban school wasn’t good enough for the Governor or S. Paul Reville, his lead in undoing the Brockton charter proposal. What happened to making closing the achievement gap the top priority of the administration? Politics is fine. But not when it puts kids’ lives in the balance.
Entry Filed under: Education, News
5 Comments Add your own
1. Charley on the MTA | May 19th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
This would be much more productive if you would actually sum up the substantive objections to the Brockton SABIS proposal — from Reville, the local state reps and superintendents, or whomever — and address them specifically and concretely.
Instead you’re boring your readers with bald assertion about Reville’s nefarious motivations. “Politics is fine.” QED.
2. Jim Stergios | May 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Charley on the MTA (a BlueMassGroupie bigwig) asks for details. OK.
The Brockton Enterprise article he cites (http://www.wickedlocal.com/brockton/news/education/x1783675118)
does a good job of summarizing the criticisms of SABIS’s proposal to create a charter school in Brockton.
The points are: (1) local officials fear losing funding to the school; (2) a union appointment to the BOE is “wary” of for-profit companies providing education; (3) SP Reville questioned the track record of the Springfield school; (4) SP Reville and Ruth Kaplan questioned the Springfield SABIS school’s dedication to special education and repeatedly mentioned a negative DOE report from 2004/5; and (5) SP Reville noted that SABIS’ copyright policy may be a “violation of the spirit of the law” that requires charter schools to share their programs with other public schools.
Ahem. A little throat clearing as this will take some time:
(1) The SABIS charter would have served primarily Brockton and Randolph. Even without a new charter these districts are in fiscal straits. Randolph, because of mismanagement, may go into state receivership. On a larger point, isn’t it a kid’s constitutional right to have access to a good education? I am concerned about that, not the “system” which is currently centered on the adult employment (and benefits) rather than the kids.
(2) There are only two for-profits in Massachusetts. SABIS is one of the longest serving in Massachusetts. It is an international company, with schools throughout the Middle East and the US. Solid. Good product. I am more concerned about the monopoly system we currently have than about the addition of a single for-profit (out of 60+ charters, and out of thousands of public schools in Massachusetts).
(3) Problems with SABIS’s performance? Hardly worth a response on the academic side of the ledger. It is one of Newsweek’s top high schools. SP Reville’s Rennie Center called it one of the top urban high schools in 2004.
(4) On the number of special education students in the Springfield SABIS school (again, not the proposed school): when you have a lottery, you cannot exactly replicate the district population. All of the issues raised in the critical Coordinated Program Review (CPR), which dated back to 2004/5 were, and DOE officials noted this at the BOE meeting, remediated. DOE sent an official letter to that effect well before the recent decision by the Board to turn down the SABIS charter in Brockton.
(5) This is a very curious issue. It has never been raised, and it is without logic. All districts buy copyrighted material. Think textbooks. Maps. AV materials. Public schools of all kinds are flush with copyrighted materials. The “spirit of the law” is that charters will share best practices not all materials.
Hope that’s specific enough. And I hope I did not bore you.
3. Concerned Party | August 11th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
We welcome you to look at our site, sabisstinks. We are all former employees of the SABIS system, and we are doing our best to make sure that nobody works or goes to these schools ever again. We are from the Americas, Europe, S. Africa, and India. Our issues mainly arise from the PPP project in UAE, but the program is similar in a lot of ways to the charter schools in America. I would especially suggest that you read our supporting article category, as a lot of them pertain to SABIS in the US.
As someone who had taught in the system, I can tell you that I would never send my child there, and I would highly discourage anyone from working for them. If nothing else, working for SABIS has made me appreciate my own American public school education all the more.
4. Concerned Party | August 19th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Regarding copyrighted material, SABIS is not BUYING materials, it is photocopying it and/or re-printing it professionally and displaying it as “SABIS” created materials. The two most publicized cases are Penguin (settled out of court) and (rumour has it) Disney.
Regarding SABIS as a for-profit institution, that is not the concern of the Board of Education. Many of the reasons they decided not to renew SABIS’ charter in Massachusetts was due to corruption and lots of missing money, even after being given substantial amounts of time to bring their books to order. This is a completely legitimate concern for a project that handles taxpayer money, or for any investor, really. It’s one thing to get what you pay for, it’s another to pay double what you should.
Regarding SABIS’ treatment of children with special needs, all I have to say is, my regional manager insisted that learning disabilities do not exist because “everyone can learn with the point system” and that “dyslexia is a myth used for lazy children.”
You can read the recommendations for yourself if you wish. It’s available to the public
http://www.mass.gov/ig/publ/somcsex.htm
5. Jonny | September 20th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
What SABIS claim to provide and produce they do. This cannot be disputed. Why are we so afraid of the unconventional? Is it that change might actually benefit our students?
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