San Jose, California: Not all charter schools succeeding

[alp227]

Sharon Noguchi, of the San Jose Mercury News, reported today:

Locally, MACSA Academia Calmecac in San Jose and MACSA El Portal Leadership Academy in Gilroy had their charters revoked last year for financial irregularities. Two other schools were threatened with revocation this year. In perhaps the most embarrassing example, Stanford New Schools in East Palo Alto, a venture of the vaunted university's school of education, two weeks ago was denied a renewal by the Ravenswood City School District.

Charter schools have steadily multiplied, with 809 this year in California, including 34 in Santa Clara County and 16 in San Mateo County.

But the same independence that fosters charter success also hinders outside intervention when schools are flailing.

Take the case of South Bay Preparatory in San Jose, which won a charter two years ago for grades sixth-ninth. The school's opening was delayed a year because it couldn't find a facility. It finally opened last fall with 65 students instead of the 200 planned.

Then South Bay's sponsor, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, determined the converted church auditorium the school was using wasn't appropriate for classes. While South Bay looked for another location, its entire staff resigned or was fired amid infighting and a financial squeeze, and enrollment fell to 39. Students transferring to other schools were denied credit for their studies at South Bay. And the school reported that its $25,000 debt could grow to $75,000 by June.

And sadly, that great local university known as Stanford suffered an epic fail in the charter business:

But even schools that pass the facilities hurdle face tough challenges.

Stanford University had all the predictors of success when, in 2001, it opened a high school serving East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park — where no public high school had existed for decades. It added an elementary school in 2006. The purpose, said Dean Deborah Stipek of Stanford's school of education, was to provide practical experience, "so when we're training teachers and school leaders, our work is well grounded in the realities out there."

But the school posted test scores so low that it landed on a list of the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state. It's in its third year on a federal watch list known as Program Improvement.

Last year, Stanford New School students scored 605 on the state's academic performance index, nearly 200 points below the state's goal of 800 for all schools.

Full story: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14978039

[stray cat]

1. Is it wrong to judge a charter school or is it only public schools that can not be judged?

[Catshrink]

2. Thanks for posting this.

Charter schools must be held accountable and open to scrutiny just as public schools are.

[mzteris]

4. charter public schools are MORE accountable...

they fail, they close.

[Hannah Bell]

6. since when?

District allows troubled charter to stay open

The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to allow a low-performing charter school to remain open even though for two years it flouted city rules and a district agreement not to operate in an unsafe building.

The renewal of Academia Avance by a 6-1 vote was based on recent improvements in the school's academics and facilities, officials said. The board's action extended the operation of the Highland Park charter by one year, a qualified endorsement.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/25/local/me-charter25


Failing Cincinnati charter finds loophole to stay open
Sep 1, 2009 11:11 AM

From The Cincinnati Enquirer: W.E.B. DuBois Academy, a charter school that in recent years fell from Ohio's top academic rating to its lowest level, is scheduled to become the first Cincinnati charter school to be shut down by the state for poor academics. But officials at the school say they have a way around the law: they'll open another school in the same building...

http://asumag.com/dailynews/dubois-academy-charter-cincinnati-audit-2090403/


FROM NOVEMBER 2008: The founder of a charter school founder in Cincinnati, Ohio, has pleaded guilty to five counts of theft and records tampering in relation to charges he misused school funds and services to improve his home. Wilson Willard III, 39, founder of the W.E.B. DuBois Academy, had faced 14 charges, including theft, telecommunications fraud, tampering with school records and unauthorized use of property. Willard founded DuBois Academy in 2000. State officials say falsified enrollment records resulted in some $356,000 in overpayments to the school. Willard also was accused of spending $27,000 in school funds on home improvement projects. He resigned in 2006. (Cincinnati Enquirer)



In Los Angeles, the astroturf (fake grassroots) organization Parent Revolution has been working to get petitions signed to dismantle five schools....Parent Revolution organizer Ben Austin (a paid employee) told me, in a private e-mail, that Parent Revolution was only targeting "failing schools."

Well, by Parent Revolution's definition, 14 out of 15 Green Dot Schools are failing...

APIs for the schools Parent Revolution is targeting with parent trigger campaigns:

- Garfield High School (parent trigger petition campaign successful): 594

- Mark Twain Middle School (parent trigger petition campaign successful): 657

- Emerson Middle School (petition campaign under way): 709

- Mount Gleason Middle School (petition campaign under way): 744

- Peary Middle School (petition campaign under way): 647


Well, as we can see, by Austin’s definition, an API of 744 or below constitutes a “failing” school.

So that makes it a little eye-catching that only one Green Dot school, Animo Pat Brown Charter High School, achieved an API above 744 in 2009, at 753. By Parent Revolution’s own definition, Green Dot’s other 14 schools are “failing.”

- Of the schools targeted by Parent Revolution’s parent trigger campaigns, only Garfield High (API 594) has an API below Green Dot’s average (632).

-- Eight of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than successfully targeted Mark Twain Middle School’s 657. *

-- Eight of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Peary Middle School’s 647. *

-- Twelve of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Emerson Middle School’s 709 (and of the three that outperform Emerson, one of them, Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School, has only one point on Emerson, at 710). *

-- As noted, 14 of Green Dot’s 15 schools have APIs lower than targeted Mount Gleason Middle School (API 744).


I’ll share one other view Austin expressed when we discussed this by e-mail. He pointed out, in response to my citing APIs, that demographics impact test scores.

Well, yes, but that’s exactly the kind of disclaimer that education reform advocates disdain as “excuse-making” when it’s used about public schools. “No excuses” for the goose is “no excuses” for the gander.

- CarolineSF

http://educatedguess.org/blog/2010/02/01/model-by-example-shut-down-failing-charter-schools/

[noamnety]

9. I'm not sure everyone in the thread

gets the concept of more. ;)

Charters are closed more than schools that limit enrollment based on residency for the reason you said - if they are dysfunctional enough, the charter can be pulled as some of the OP shows. Opponents of charters will simultaneously point to the fact that some charters are pulled as proof the system is broken - and then point to the fact that some aren't pulled as proof the system is broken. They view checks and balances as proof of a bad system, and then complain that they aren't used enough - but they don't want them used at all on most schools.

On a deeper level though, charters that are a failure close because parents are allowed direct input in a way they don't get at a traditional school. If it's not working for them, they vote with their feet.

[Hannah Bell]

12. "direct input" = move to another shitty charter.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. "schools that limit enrollment based on residency"

Did you work for the Bush administration? Such a gift with words.

[noamnety]

28. I just happen to live in an area

where schools hire full time enforcement officers to keep the wrong sort out of their so-called public schools if the families aren't rich enough to live in their neighborhoods.

It's an accurate description of how schools limit enrollment; if you have a problem with the policy, don't blame the messenger.

[leeloo]

3. According to your post 809 charter schools opened in CA this year

4 have failed according to your article,i would think that is a positive news?
Am i missing something?

[noamnety]

5. One of the key differences I see

is that when a charter school is clearly mismanaged or failing its students, it closes. When a traditional public school is clearly mismanaged or is failing its students, they stay open. The detroit public schools were on the verge of filing for bankruptcy - amid a huge number of scandals related to embezzlement. If that were a charter district, they'd be getting crucified in this forum.

The public school in Rhode Island which fired all their teachers was defended vehemently on DU despite their failing test scores, with people weighing in on how test scores are not an accurate measure of learning because of wide variances in student achievement when correlated to other factors like poverty. When a charter school has the same results as the Rhode Island school for the same reason, the low test scores are blamed on the school staff.

One charter school identified in the last quote of the OP landed in the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state. This is used as an indictment of charters. But what does that imply about the traditional public schools who also landed on that list?

What I'm getting at - it's true that not all charter schools are succeeding. It's equally true that not all traditional public schools are succeeding. People are very quick to point to management and staff as the primary reason for failure in the charters, and equally quick to insist that management and staff aren't the cause of failure when it comes to traditional public schools.

There are some inconsistencies in thinking, likely affected by personal bias and the way humans tend to perceive facts to support existing beliefs.

[Hannah Bell]

7. "when a charter school is clearly mismanaged or failing its students, it closes" uhhhh, sure.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=219&topic_id=24138&mesg_id=24148


besides which, in what respect does a constantly changing menu of opening & closing schools & yearly transfers & readjustments (e.g. transportation, childcare) constitute a good learning environment?

[noamnety]

8. The closing of schools and mandatory transfers and all that

goes on in traditional public schools as well. My daughter was force transferred mid year at her neighborhood junior high.

The local school here is closing several schools over the summer due to financial shortfalls - not mismanagement in that case, just changing demographics and population patterns. Same effect on the kids.

[Hannah Bell]

11. baloney.

[mzteris]

10. double standards, anyone?

Same thing I was recently thinking about "test scores"...

If a charter public school gets good test scores - they cheated.
If they get bad scores, then they're awful and should be closed!!

If a traditional public school gets good test scores - then obviously their teachers are great!
If a traditional public school gets bad test scores, then it's not the teachers' fault (it's not), TESTS are bad and biased, and it's the kids' fault (circumstances, home life, poverty, attitude, support . . . . . .

The other thing that is so frustrating to me is the assumption that all "charter public school supporters" must be some kind of bad person that hates education and children or something. How utterly ridiculous is that?? To say Obama wants to "destroy public education" is so completely removed from reality . . . to look at this man anid his background, to look at the background of all of the Sr. Staff in the education department - look at what they've done and who they are - and to condemn them across-the-board as some kind of "corporate sellout"? As people who want to ensure the failure of kids? Do they really believe this or have they just not stopped to think about what it is they're saying and who it is they're saying it about.

[noamnety]

13. no kidding!

How many posts about the spycam school are in the education forum? And what is the content of the posts that are here?

How would that be different if the school that spied on kids in their bedroom was a charter?

What would you want to bet that even the most vocal defenders of that school would be singing a whole different tune if that had happened at a charter?

I find what that school did to be much more appalling and damaging to children than anything in the OP. If that had occurred at a charter, people would be using it as justification to close every charter school in the country. But it happened at a neighborhood school, where the citizens can't as easily just enroll their kids in another school.

In fact I read that the spycam school buses black kids to another school farther away even if they live within the boundaries of that school. Imagine if a charter denied entry to a black kid and gave the reason that they didn't think it was best for the black kid to be at their school because it is more for white kids. The education forum here would explode. But instead the reaction is ... crickets.

[mbperrin]

14. 13% if charters perform better than the average public school.

87% perform at the same level or worse.

Considering the advantages they have in funding and facilities, pretty woeful.

[noamnety]

15. Can you clarify what you mean when you say "perform better"?

The teachers perform better? Or do you mean the student test scores are higher?

Do you believe student test scores are a good measure of teacher performance?

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. LOL nice try

Please explain to us how they are comparing teacher performance. Some new standardized teacher test I am not aware of?

[noamnety]

23. I'm just asking for clarification.

If the charters should be closed because they are underperforming - and that statement is based on low student test scores, then what conclusion can we make about the schools in your area that have poor test scores?

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Please explain how we will know if teachers perform better

[noamnety]

27. I thought you were a teacher.

I'm guessing you've already given that some thought - and I'm guessing your answer wasn't "evaluate them based on student standardized test scores."

Think about what you would tell Obama if he asked you that question. ;)

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. I would tell him it is impossible

I would also tell him teachers are public servants, just like police officers and firefighters, yet we would never in our wildest dreams decide to give merit pay to cops and firefighters. I would tell him that current merit pay systems being proposed are not paying teachers for going to school to learn to be better teachers. And that is insane.

I would also tell him Arne Duncan is incompetent. :)

[mbperrin]

21. Student test scores measure student performance. Good tests measure

well, poor tests poorly.

If we use someone else's test scores to judge another party, we end up with results like this: doctors who specialize in pancreatic cancer are lousy, because their patient score (live or die) is mostly die. So we should fire all the pancreatic doctors, because they're incompetent.

And by perform better, we mean, students perform better on tests used to measure student achievement and performance.

OK?

[mzteris]

26. but if you judge pancreatic cancer docs

against other pancreatic docs . . . and you look at each doc's particular patients - how long did they live, what was their quality of live while living, is he an @ss who runs 'em through for the paycheck, or does he spend the time and care necessary to ensure that EACH PATIENT gets the care and attention and treatment they need?


I don't like "testing" in general. I hate "teach to the test"...

[mzteris]

16. what advantages in funding and facilities?

Most charters operate on a less per student spending than traditionals. A lot of charters are operating in "strip malls" and "industrial parks" without benefit of gyms, lunchrooms, or spacious playgrounds.

When you "compare" performance, make sure it's apples to apples.

Couple of other points to keep in mind. Most charters have been open 6 years or less. Very few 10 or more years.

Parents will transfer their children to a charter because of they are BEHIND in the school they are attending. It takes time to catch up, erase old/bad habits, instill new learning techniques.

And quite honestly, it doesn't reallly "matter" if any one charter is better than any one trad because even if the "education is exactly the same" - the kid WANTS to be there and that can make all the difference in the world, don't you think?

[mbperrin]

22. These advantages -

Given the research base, any explanation of why some charters succeed and others don’t is speculative. A possible answer is that successful charter schools use strategies that research has proven are often effective—smaller schools, smaller class size, more school time, and greater parent involvement. It is not known whether hallmarks of charter schools—such as a lack of collective bargaining or greater autonomy—affect achievement. It is an area that should be researched.

Frederick Hess, education policy director at the American Enterprise Institute and a strong advocate for charter schools, notes that many charter sponsors rely on dedicated staff and a “missionary zeal” to succeed (Hess 2009). “The most successful charter ventures to date have been boutique-style operations that are extraordinarily reliant on talent and passion, philanthropic funding, and exhausting work schedules,” (Higgins and Hess 2009). Yet, he notes, the “means of bringing them to scale have been elusive.”


http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lvIXIiN0JwE&b=5868191&ct=8089273¬oc=1

Smaller schools, smaller class size, more school time, greater parental involvement. AND
Missionary zeal, talent, passion, philanthropic funding, exhausting work schedules. Recipe for burnout, but in the short term, certainly has its place in achievement.



Oh, and kids are certainly no judge of schools or their education. They have neither the critical thinking nor the fact base to make such choices. Just as surely as many kids would prefer Butterfingers for supper over roast beef, the health outcome won't be good.

Right?

[mzteris]

25. those "advantages"

are the same ones that trads COULD have, but they don't.

I have and will continue to advocate for smaller schools, smaller classes, (more time? eh - if it's done right, you need less time...), greater parental involvement.

Teacher ZEAL wouldn't fade as quickly if the above criteria were met so they wouldn't have to be "missionaries". Teachers have passion and talent... let's keep it that way by not burning them out, ya know?

Philanthropists try to fund traditionals and people get mad about their "agendas" and won't let them...


As far as letting a kid judge, well, it's not like having them prefer butterfingers over roast beef, but (using the meat analogy) boeuf bourguignon (or my mom's potroast) over Arby's...

You make sure the food is not only nutritious - but that it tastes good, too!

[mzteris]

17. spending info:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2009/09/spending_disparities_tracked_a.html

Spending Disparities Tracked Among Charter and Regular School Districts
By Debra Viadero on September 9, 2009 9:24 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

It's no secret that school districts vary widely in how much they spend per pupil. Among the 100 largest public school systems, for example, per pupil spending in 2007 ranged from a low of $5,048 in Alpine, Utah, to $19,435 in Boston. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009338 . . . It's also clear from the report that charter schools in these special districts seem to operate, for the most part, on far less money than regular schools in traditional districts. Check out the full report here and let me know what this data says to you. You won't find any interpretations of the results from the feds.

******

Interesting example of money and education I stumbled across: (Pennsylvania) http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/research/detail/budget-facts-2009-state-education-spending

# K-12 Public Education spending has skyrocketed:
* Since 1970, public school spending increased from $2.3 billion to $24 billion—a 956% increase.
* Over the past 25 years, per-pupil spending has increased 364% (vs. inflation of 141%).
* Under Gov. Rendell, state spending on K-12 education has increased 43%.

# Taxpayers saved approximately $3.622 billion from other school choice options in the 2007-08 school year.

* Charter schools saved taxpayers $80.03 million in the 2007-08 school year.
45,560 students were served at an average savings of $2,589 per student.

* Cyber charter schools saved taxpayers $94.14 million in the 2007-08 school year.
19,715 students were served at an average savings of $4,775 per student.

* Private and nonpublic schools saved taxpayers $3.15 billion in the 2007-08 school year.
260,000 students were served, with an average savings to taxpayers of over $12,000 per-pupil.

* Home schooling saved taxpayers $297.5 million in the 2007-08 school year.
22,316 students were served at virtually no cost to the taxpayers.


***


Here's a good "factcheck" source - it's from NC - and fairly indicative of how charter funding "works" - though each state has their own specific rules (yeah, it's a pro-charter source, but they're not just making this up. )

FACTS: Public Charter Schools are not taking any money from the traditional public schools, but rather are relieving the traditional schools of the burden and expense of providing a building, teachers, textbooks, etc. when students enroll in a Public Charter School. The Charter Schools do not “take” any of the traditional school’s money for
school construction or maintenance.

 Each school system receives a designated amount of “operating” money from the state and the county for each child living in the county who attends a school in that system.

Each school reports its actual enrollment during the first 20 school days each year. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction determines the total number students in each school system and provides a set amount of funding for each student in the system for operating each school.

 The county likewise determines the number of students attending each school and provides per capita funding for school operations for each student in the system.

 The county also provides “capital” funds for school construction for the local school system. The state may also provide some capital funding for school construction, but the primary source of capital funding is the local government.

 The “operating” money the state and local government allocate for each child follows the child to the charter school, but the charter school, not the traditional school, then has the responsibility to provide an education for that child, including providing school buildings.

 Public Charter Schools also receive the same state and local “operating” money for each student attending its school along with the responsibility to provide an education for that child. However, unlike traditional schools, Public Charter Schools receive no “capital” fund-ing for school construction or maintenance from the State or Local County.

When a student attends a Public Charter School instead of a traditional public school, the Charter School receives the state and local “operating” money that would have gone to the traditional public school had the child attended that school. The Public Charter School has to provide a building, teachers, textbooks and administrative support, in short everything the traditional school provides except that unlike a traditional school, the Charter School must build or rent its facilities without any “capital” funding from the state or county.

 Most Public Charter Schools spend around 20% of the money they and the traditional schools receive for operating each school in order to fund their facilities because they receive no capital funding for buildings.

Public Charter Schools use private capital funding to construct buildings and facilities so that each charter school building costs the taxpayers nothing.

[mzteris]

20. More on that Stanford school...

Stanford New Schools hires well-trained teachers who use state-of-the-art progressive teaching methods; Stanford’s student teachers provide extra help. With an extra $3,000 per student raised privately, students enjoy small classes, mentoring, counseling and tutoring, technology access, field trips, summer enrichment, health van visits, community college classes on campus, and community service opportunities. The goal is to send graduates to college as critical thinkers, lifelong learners, and “global citizens.”

The school provides students a web of support, reports the New York Times:

High school students have one teacher/adviser who checks that homework is done, and when it is not, the teacher calls home. Teachers know students’ families and help with issues as varied as buying a bagel before an exam to helping an evicted family find a home. Teachers stay late and work weekends, and tend to burn out quickly — causing a high rate of turnover.

EPA Academy enrolls very disadvantaged students: Most are the children of poor and poorly educated Spanish-speaking immigrant families; the rest are black or Pacific Islanders. Their English skills are poor. Those who come in ninth grade are years behind in reading and math.

In comments on the news stories that have run, I see a common refrain: It’s impossible to teach these kids. Not even Stanford can do it.

But other schools with demographically identical students are doing much better. The top-scoring school in the district is East Palo Alto Charter School (EPAC), a K-8 run by Aspire Public Schools, Stanford’s original partner. An all-minority school, EPAC outperforms the state average.

Rather than send EPAC graduates to Stanford’s high school, Aspire started its own high school, Phoenix, which outperforms the state average for all high schools. All students in the first 12th grade class have applied to four-year colleges.
It seemed like a great idea, at least on paper: Stanford education professors would create a model school to demonstrate how to educate low-income minority students. Or, as it’s turned out, how not to.
April 24, 2010 - by Joanne Jacobs


. . . Aspire co-founded East Palo Alto Academy High with Stanford, but bowed out five years ago. There was a culture clash, Aspire’s founder, Don Shalvey told the New York Times. Aspire focused “primarily and almost exclusively on academics,” while Stanford focused on academics and students’ emotional and social lives, he said.

Deborah Stipek, Stanford’s dean of education, says the elementary school is too new — in its fourth year, but with only two years of scores — to be judged. Stanford considers the high school a success.

In an email to Alexander Russo, Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who helped create the high school, defended the high school’s “strong, highly personalized college-going program.” The graduation rate of 86 percent exceeds the state average. “In addition, 96 percent of graduates are admitted to college (including 53 percent to four-year colleges) — twice the rate of African American and Latino students in the state as a whole.” Half the students enroll in Early College classes on campus.

. . . Downtown College Prep, a charter high school in San Jose designed for underachievers from Mexican immigrant families.

As at East Palo Alto Academy, DCP started with a progressive philosophy and very high ideals. But the two high school teachers who started the school had no trouble acknowledging mistakes. When things didn’t go as they’d hoped — which happened a lot — they tried something else. No time or energy was wasted blaming the students’ poverty or the tests. The unofficial motto was: We’re not good now but we can get better. And they did.

Will Stanford education professors learn from their mistakes? I fear they’ll write off the elementary, claiming the program didn’t get enough time, and continue to claim the high school as a success. That would be a waste of a “teachable moment.”

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-model-school-flops/?singlepage=true