c:\doc\web\98\03\marvchar.txt Date sent: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 18:44:20 -0500 From: marjorie/gene malone (by way of Fred Battey ) Subject: Marva Collins-Charter School! Marva Collins-Charter School Can any Loopers help/give advice on yet another Kenosha, Wisconsin restructuring? A Marva Collins charter school is to be set up/discussed tonight at a school board Meeting. I am aware of the famed-basics teacher in Chicago and her programs-but... I have these questions: l. Is it to be incorporated into the public schools with 2 other charter schools (Paideia and Brampton (religious-founded)? 2. Is it to be funded by a foundation? public taxes? or private concerns? or other? 3. Will it be subject to the same assessment (OBE "results") tests given statewide to observe the 8 National Goal mandats? 4. In Chicago, the school served a need for black students to achieve-with public funding, will all Americans be eligible for attendance? 5. I believe Marva Collins opposes federal aid and "fuzzy/present goals/fads"-what does she think about Kenosha's partnership with the federal mandates under Goals 2OOO/OBE process/STW? 6. If this is a learning school for excellence and discipline is this not in conflict with the aims of the Paideia Charter school where equity not excellence is the goal according to Mortimer Adler's views in his books? 7.Will systematic phonics be used rather than th national government's bias toward whole/guess reading? 8. Will graduates at a Marva Collins charter school here be part of the national apprenticeship called School to Work or School to Careers in Kenosha? 9. How long is the "pilot program-Marva Collins School to be contracted? lO. With unequal expectations from the OBE/Systems -equity schools -to the basics/excellence school at Marva Collins to the experimental/equity school called Paideia, how can all be tested in fairness with varying degrees of depth in the curriculum? ll. Does any model of the local, academic school before the national system was established exist in Kenosha on the primary or secondary level? l2. What other public schools have Marva Collins Charter Schools? How are they doeing? Superintendent Michael Johnson- As a citizen/researcher on education today/past, please send me your answers on the above questions in a timely manner. Thank you. Gene Malone Freedom 2OOO/US Box ll24 Kenosha,Wisc. 53l4l Quotes of Marva Collins -"We must never forget that the true aim of education is to teach men and women how to think for themselves, and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain." (Insight magazine-Dec. 29, l986) -"If children cannot read, they usually cannot achieve in any other area." (l993) -"I love liberty." -"Federal funds are not the solution but part of the disease." Dec. l, l98l -"We haave two ears and one mouth so we'll listen twice as much as we talk." -"If you do not wish to learn, you have the right to fail." -"Think for yourself." -"We never say can't in this school." -"There are no free rides, you pay a price for everything." Question to the_ board and Superintendent- Would the Marva Collins model be good for all Kenosha students/schools with a return to local control with goals to excell the weak proposed national/Wisconsin proposed standards?________________________________?