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Aveson Charter School

Sociological Analysis
by Leah Miller

What is Aveson?
Aveson Charter School is made up of two charters. The primary school (transitional
kindergarten through 5th grade) is called Aveson School of Leaders and the secondary
school (6th through 12th grade) is called Aveson Global Leadership Academy. Both are
located in Altadena, California. Aveson also has an Independant Learning Program and a
Home School Program. Currently they serve over 600 Pasadena area students.
Mission Statement: Aveson redefines teaching and learning so all children have the opportunity to
experience an exemplary public education. We provide the right instruction for every student every
day by supporting innovative teaching methods and a personalized, experience based learning
environment to ensure no child is left unknown.
3 Focuses: Personalized Mastery Learning, Social Leadership and Healthy Living

Who are the leaders of Aveson?


Kate Bean is the face of Aveson. She is one of the founders and today holds the title of Executive
Director of both charters. Bean has a B.A. from Brigham-Young University in Deaf Studies and a
M.S. in Education Administration. She taught for LA Unified School District for 7 years before she
began working for a national educational consulting company called Co-nect. Later she focussed
her work on helping California school administrators and educators achieve goals of the No Child
Left Behind act by creating new educational models. Bean has two daughters who both attend
Aveson.
There are two other lead administrators for the school, including Sebastian Cognetta who holds
the title of Director of Curriculum and Instruction. Bean and Cognetta host informal coffee chats
twice weekly during the school year for parents to come and ask questions or voice opinions on
how the school is functioning. There is also a board of directors who have bi-monthly meetings
open to the public.
Bean is very upfront about Aveson being a work in progress. One of her guiding principles is
when identifying problems, offer strategies and solutions. She is always open to feedback and
change. She regularly speaks about how there have been failures at the school and that they arent
getting all the results that they want to be seeing.

Guiding Principles
1.

Vision means seeing what could be and what will be and


living the difference.

2.

There is no such thing as too much truth.

3.

How you say it is as important as what you say.

4.

When identifying problems, offer strategies and solutions.

5.

Everyone's time is valuable.

6.

Your commitment is to make others around you successful.

7.

Our growth together requires us to grow individually.

8.

Integrity is everything.

Aveson Focuses on.


1.

Personalized Learning: We all learn in different ways. Instead of expecting students to match their learning with the
style of the teacher, personalized learning tailors the learning experience to the individual. When you add mastery to the
model, students continue with the same material until theyve mastered it. There is no moving forward until the student is
ready. Personalized Learning is a progressively student driven model in which students deeply engage in meaningful,
authentic and rigorous challenges to demonstrate desired outcomes Allison Zmuda, Learning Personalized.

2.

Social Leadership:Aveson focuses a lot of time and attention on socialization. Empathy is a major theme, as is
investigating the world, recognizing perspectives, communicating ideas and taking action. Each classroom chooses one
global issue and works together on a Take Action project in order to make change on a personal or local level. Community
Day happens wice a year. All of the Aveson students TK-12 step away from their usual studies, gather on one campus to
create villages, and participate in special group activities.

3.

Healthy Living: Aveson understands that a healthy child is a better learner. Meditation and yoga are taught in

the classroom weekly. The Elementary school has a culinary arts program which emphasises the importance of
nutrition. Students at Aveson get ample time on the playgrounds to exercise and socialize.

What is a charter school?


Charter Schools are independent public schools with rigorous curriculum programs and unique educational
approaches. (California Charter Schools Association)
Minnesota passed the first Charter School Act in 1991 allowing citizens to create alternative educational experiences
within the public school system. In 1992, The Charter School Act of California was passed. Currently there are over
1000 Charter schools in California serving 365,000 students. 43 states now offer Charter schools and there are 6500
Charter schools in the nation.
Charter Schools are run by educators, parents or civic leaders. They have some freedom from the red tape of a large
bureaucratic school system, but are also still held accountable to the body that has offered them the charter (usually a
local school board or a state office of education). Students of a charter school are still mandated to take standardized
tests. If a school does not test well, it can lose its charter.
In California, Charters are not allowed to discriminate against any student regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic
background or disability. Charters are open to all students who are interested with no geographic boundaries or
limitations. If there are more applicants than seats for students, students are admitted through a lottery system.

Functionalist Perspective on Charter Schools

Introducing Charter Schools into the Public School System fosters innovation. Without having to deal with red
tape, educators can create new curriculums and develop new techniques for educating tomorrows leaders.
These Charter School innovations will be shared with traditional Public School systems, leading to a stronger
Public School system all around.

All schools are held to the same standards and tests. In order to keep a charter, a school has to reach certain
goals thus Charters also foster a healthy amount of competition within a school district.

Charter Schools give parents and families a greater voice. Educators, administrators and families work together
towards achievement. Greater parent involvement can only help in social integration and transmitting of
culture.

Conflict Perspective on Charter Schools

Charter Schools are taking the gifted kids and the involved parents out of the traditional public schools leading
to a greater achievement gap. Trendy new white charter schools with upper-class, vaguely artsy innuendo in
their names -- I call them "the woodsy Walden schools" -- are obviously targeted at children of a social/racial
category that does not include the kids of immigrants from Mexico or Ethiopia. The "niche" effect of charter
schools guarantees a swift and vicious deepening of class and racial separation. President Obama -- who was
educated in very good and integrated schools and sends his children to an integrated and exclusive private school
-- is now acting on the belief that consciously and unashamedly segregated charter schools represent the answer
to the race-gap in America. Jonathan Kozol, advocate for Americas low-income children, 2012.

The attack on teachers unions is a major assault on the labor movement, in a place where there is tremendous potential
for social justice unionism to emerge through the organic connections between teachers and communities. The
weakening of their unions will mean thousands more teachers who become overworked and burned out, with lower pay and
fewer benefits. This attack will have a strong negative impact on the quality of education that most children receive. Gilliam Russom, International Socialist Review

Where does Aveson fit into all this?


State Testing:
Aveson states in its Charter Documents that it views tests as only part of the equation. Californias Academic
Performance Index (API) rates a public schools overall performance and improvement. 800 out of 1000 is the state
goal. ASL (the primary school) has a score of 826. AGLA (the secondary school) has a score of 723.
Tracking:
Conlfict Theorists are concerned about tracking in the education system. Aveson does not have tracks but rather
focuses on personalized learning for each student.
Perpetuating Segregation in the Schools:
Although the schools are open to ALL interested students regardless of socioeconomic background or ethnicity, critics
say that charter schools actually create a greater socioeconomic divide. In Avesons Charter documents, they show that
45% of their student body is caucasian, 17% is hispanic and 15% is African-American. This is not reflective of the
community. They have outreach programs where they are passing out Aveson promotional materials (available in
Spanish) to local community groups. In order to attract more English learners to their program, they offer tours and
information sessions in Spanish and maintain a Spanish website page for Admission.

My Perspective as a Parent
I am very happy to have the tuition-free option of Charter Schools. Ive really enjoyed being a part of a Charter School community. I do feel
empowered by the experience and I do think that I am playing a much more active role in my daughter's education.
I am really concerned with the whole idea of the Hidden Curriculum. I had a very traditional education and I dont feel like it served me at all
(note the picture on the left). I want something different for my daughter, especially in the day and age of No Child Left Behind when there is
such a strong focus on testing and having the right answer. I think the structure of personalized learning will help my daughter to be a very
innovative and creative thinker (picture on the right). I love that she gets to collaborate with her advisors every day. She has a true love of
learning right now and I hope that Aveson will foster that rather than squelch it.
I also feel very proud that Aveson has a focus on social issues. I think students will emerge from their program with a Sociological Imagination
unlike the kids who come out of mainstream education.
Socialization is also very important to me. I think the Guiding Principles on the school really set a wonderful value system and tone for the
administrators, educators, parents and students. This is so different than the values that underly a large bureaucratic education system.

What can Aveson do to help the public


education system as a whole?

Aveson can work to bring kids of lower socioeconomic status into their school. I
believe that ethnic diversity needs to be greater than and not just paralleled to the
community. Perhaps recruiting at risk students into charters could help bring
balance to the system as a whole. Bus service from low income neighborhoods would
also help so that families with two full time working parents or single parent families
can take advantage of the charter system.

Aveson could have a sister school in the Pasadena or Altadena area that they share
some of their fundraising with to bring better financial balance to the school district.

Aveson can share with the education community about the outcomes, achievements
and failures of personalized learning.

Works Cited

Aveson Difference. aveson.org. Aveson Charter Schools, 2012-2105, all rights reserved.

Understanding Charters. calcharters.org. California Charter School Association

Cody, Anthony. Confronting the Inequality Juggernaut: A Q & A with Jonathan Kozol. Education Week. Editorial
Projects in Education., Inc. Web. July 18, 2011

Allison Zmuda, Learning Personalized: The Evolution of the Contemporary Classroom. John Wiley and Sons., Inc. San
Francisco, CA 2015

Kaufman, Peter. Cram.Memorize.Regurgitate.Forget. Everyday Sociology Blog. W.W. Norman & Company, Inc. Blog
post. April 26, 2012

Lagana-Riordan, Christine and Jemel P. Aguilar. Whats Missing from No Child Left Behind? A Policy Analysis from a
Social Work Perspective. Children and Schools, National Association of Social Workers. July 1, 2009

Witt, Jonathan. SOC. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2015. Print.

Russom, Gillian. The Case Against Charter Schools. International Socialist Review. The Center for Economic Research
and Social Change. Issue #71.

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