Competition in Harlem

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One of the animating ideas of the charter-school movement is that these school won’t just help the students who attend them — though, they do that — but that they’ll also spur traditional public schools to have to work harder to keep their students. Competition, plus experimentation, should over time lead to a stronger school system.

It’s heartening, therefore, to see this article today in the Times: Pressed by Charters, Public Schools Try Marketing.

Charters have done a tremendous job in Harlem, bringing a better education to low-income, under-served parents and kids. Because of this success, they’ve gained a great reputation among Harlem parents. So much so, it appears, that traditional public schools are being forced to — of all things — try to attract students:

As charter schools have grown around the country, both in number and in popularity, public school principals like Ms. Espinal are being forced to compete for bodies or risk having their schools closed. So among their many challenges, some of these principals, who had never given much thought to attracting students, have been spending considerable time toiling over ways to market their schools. They are revamping school logos, encouraging students and teachers to wear T-shirts emblazoned with the new designs. They emphasize their after-school programs as an alternative to the extended days at many charter schools. A few have worked with professional marketing firms to create sophisticated Web sites and blogs.

Brochures, fliers and open houses have become all but required in New York City neighborhoods like Harlem, where many schools have shown lagging academic performance. Where parents once simply sent their children to the nearby school, they now can enter lotteries for two dozen charters.

“We have to think about selling ourselves all the time, and it takes a concerted effort that none of us have ever done before,” said Ms. Espinal, who is in her first year as principal of Public School 125, also known as the Ralph Bunche School. “We have to get them in the door if we are even going to try to convince them to come here.”

…

The regular schools are contending, most of all, with a perception that charter schools deliver a superior education. Many of Harlem’s regular schools, like its charter schools, received A’s last year from the city for showing progress on standardized tests. But, in general, they tend to have lower passing rates.

Of course, the traditional public schools are contending with a perception that charter schools deliver a superior education because they do. The way to change that perception is to catch up with them, or even pass them.

It would be a shame if the competition between these schools were limited to printing up brochures and t-shirts — that is, to marketing. But I don’t get the sense that that’s the case. These schools are going to have to raise their games academically, especially with the Department of Education being more aggressive on closing schools down. Chances are, they get that.