Column: Charter, magnet schools worth a look

While members of a carefully selected redistricting committee met in the Iowa City school district's administration building last Wednesday evening, a very different group convened only a few blocks away.

They filtered into the Englert Theater - a couple of dozen adults and kids - to talk not about which of the students should be sent to what school building, but about what they'll learn while they're there.

District parent Mark Nolte is trying to get people talking about the idea of building a charter or magnet school in the district. He hosted Wednesday evening's free screening of the film “2 Million Minutes: A 21st Century Solution” to kick-start the conversation. Not because he thinks Iowa City schools are bad, Nolte stressed as he introduced the film, but because we can do so much better.

That both meetings were Wednesday was a scheduling fluke, but, to me, it also was telling.

Charter schools are publicly funded and privately run schools with more autonomy than traditional public schools, so long as they meet performance and financial goals. Magnets are public schools that offer specialized courses of study.

Both accept students from throughout the district and can act as crucibles for teaching innovations that can be applied elsewhere. Neither apparently is on Iowa City school leaders' radar.

But a magnet or charter school devoted to math and engineering would do more than house extra student bodies. It would help our kids - the star students, the average and even a little below average - be more competitive in the global economy.

Thus Wednesday's film, profiling the BASIS Tucson charter school in Tucson, Ariz. That school consistently is named one of the best - if not the best - high schools in the country.

It was founded on the principle that if we hold students to higher standards, they will meet them. It appears to be working.

The school has no admission criteria, but the course work is rigorous. Students start pre-calculus as high school freshmen. All classes except foreign languages are at least honors level. Students meet state graduation requirements by the end of 11th grade.

If they want to, they can stay for another year of capstone courses and internships.

BASIS students out-test their peers even at elite Arizona schools with selective admissions. Something is working.

It's worth discussing how such a model might work here, too.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com