US educator to speak about charter schools on UC campus next week

A touring American education advocate will deliver a public lecture at the University of Canterbury (UC) on Wednesday September 26 to discuss charter schools in New Zealand.

Mike Feinberg is co-founder of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Programme) Foundation, an American network of 125 charter schools.

``We have made good progress in the last two decades to prove that all children, regardless of socio-economic status, can succeed in school and life,’’ Dr Feinberg said today.

``As more and more people start to believe and we turn “can” to “will”, we start to think more and more about what kind of public school system do we need to set up schools, leaders, teachers, parents, and especially our children for more success.

``It’s hard for our public school system’s leaders to drive all the reforms in a top-down approach, and our schools are looking for reforms and leadership to help them as well. This points to ensuring our education reform efforts have both a top down and a bottom up approach.’’

He said the public school systems needed to evolve into a system of schools that were more responsive to the specific needs of specific communities, all aimed at the same expectations and outcomes for all of children.

Charter schools are one of the Government’s initiatives aimed at addressing student under-achievement.

Associate Education Minister John Banks has defended his support for non-registered teachers working in charter schools. Mr Banks and Education Minister Hekia Parata have said charter schools would be able to negotiate a percentage of unregistered teachers.

The lecture is part of the UC’s What if Wednesday lecture series. See the website:  http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/wiw/