"Helping Schools Make the Grade" by Jessica Calefati

In this article, Calefati highlights the story of Steve Barr and how he started Green Dot Public Schools in 1999. Barr began the school system in Los Angeles to give the area better schools, and now has several charter schools out-competing the public schools in the state. Calefati does an excellent job of highlighting the story, and includes details from every point of Barr’s life, including his childhood, professions, and how he started the Green Dot Schools with only five teachers. Today, these teachers work hard to maintain their jobs, and provide students with a solid education.

“Unlike most charter school management organizations, whose leaders staunchly oppose teachers unions, Green Dot teachers are unionized. But one thing Green Dot teachers cannot bargain for is tenure. This is something that's inextricably linked to public school teachers unions, and often in a negative way. Though tenure's original intent was to give teachers their "day in court" if they felt they were unjustly dismissed, Weingarten says, many people now view tenure as an undeserved safety net that protects even burned-out, ineffective teachers from being fired. In Green Dot's New York school, teachers keep their jobs based on evaluations, not on the number of years of experience. And teachers also lobbied for provisions like standing professional development committees and caps on the number of students a teacher must see every day and every week, conditions that help Green Dot fill its classrooms with high-quality teachers,” Barr says.

Calefati also includes personal stories from students and parents which enhances the article, and mentions how the school is improving the lives of students in the Los Angeles Area.

Works Cited

Calefati, Jessica. "Helping Schools Make The Grade." U.S. News & World Report 147.1 (2010): 50-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.