Do you know which schools are never accused of “creaming” for enrollment?—Crappy schools.
I have never, not once, heard of a school with an awful reputation and terrible academic ratings be charged with attracting the best students. Suppose it would be difficult to imagine a school drawing the best of the best and achieve the worst of the worst education results.
What does the word “creaming” mean anyways?
Answers.com defines the term as:
The yellowish fatty component of un-homogenized milk that tends to accumulate at the surface The FREE dictionary has the same definition as well as this explanation:
The choicest part: the cream of the crop.When it comes to public schools of choice, the first definition can hardly be used. I have yet to see a charter school with accumulating fat layers of either money or unnecessary administration.
Instead “creaming” is a term sometimes hurled at charter schools by its non-supporters as an attempt to play down the school’s successes.
The tale goes that the charters achieve such shiny results by simply attracting the highest performing students because they are the best program in town.
Before we begin chatting about this claim, let’s clarify a couple of facts—charter schools are public schools and must abide by the same anti-discrimination laws as any other public school. Secondly, the word “creaming” is sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably with the phrase “hand picking.” Technically these are two separate* accusations and today we are only covering the term creaming.
As my regular readers know by now, I am not against anyone’s choice of schooling “type” for their child. Charter schools are our family’s choice and passion, but I don’t intentionally walk around and knock other people’s preferences.
High and low quality schools come in all sorts of titles. So to level the playing field let’s just take the word charter out of the statement and reduce it to its true origin.
Do high quality schools attract better students?
Personally I have a problem with labeling anyone better or worse. In my mind we all have strengths and weaknesses and all students are loaded with potential.
But given the choice the majority of families would choose a proven school over the one ridden with problems. It’s just human nature. I mean, when you’re in the produce department do you gravitate toward the banged-up rotting fruit, or the orchard fresh selection? Do you read labels or check the expiration date? What if they cost the same to the customer? Which one do you think would fly off the shelves faster? Did the quality product attract the better consumer, or just more satisfied consumers? Shall we all stock our grocery shelves full of nasty produce just to prove a point? Which point?
Good schools will always be more popular than the bad ones regardless of what “type” of school it is. In an area where neighborhood schools are thriving, property values and home sales tend to do the same. A top notch private school usually carries a lengthy wait list. And where there are high caliber charter schools you can count on a whole lot of families filling out interest in enrollment forms.
In conclusion, the word “creaming” is a weird form of back handed compliment.
So the next time someone says my school is creaming (translated: the more popular choice as it is a quality school) I will practice my new reply–”Well, thank you.”
Stay tuned this week as we will define the term “hand picking” and explore the different types of charter school enrollment procedures. Not only will this be an insider’s guide to how to enroll your child in a charter school, but it will dispel the fallacy of the “charter school litmus test.”
If you are interested in what President Obama had to say about the myth of charter school cherry picking, read this weekend’s post here.
*Creaming refers to a school attracting good students. Hand picking means that the school chooses which students get to attend. Huge difference.
Great posting