Seven Hills Charter School

SEVEN HILLS CHARTER SCHOOL FAILS TO MEET BENCHMARKS, FACES PROBATION; February 26, 2011; Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA) 

WORCESTER —  The state commissioner of elementary and secondary education has recommended that Seven Hills Charter School be put on probation, according to a memo he sent to the state board.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to vote on Seven Hills' charter Monday, and Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester recommends that the board impose several conditions on the charter's renewal, including that it demonstrate that it is an academic success by December 2012.

Mr. Chester's concerns include that the school has not met federal and state improvement benchmarks (called adequate yearly progress) in any subject since 2005, although some subgroups of students have met their goals in some subjects. The department's review of the school also found that eight teachers (one-fifth of instructional staff) were fired or left at the end of the 2009-2010 school year (including all of the fourth- and fifth-grade teachers) and that the school has had a different governance model for each of the last five years, although it has had the same leader throughout those years. During the 2009-10 school year, the school's board of trustees, which is supposed to have nine to 25 members, dwindled to four, three of whom quit the following year, when eight more joined….

Read More

Brighter Choice charter schools in Albany (three schools)

ALBANY ORDERS CHARTER SCHOOL SIGNS DOWN: BANNERS ACCUSING CITY TREASURER OF RAISING TAXES ARE TOO BIG, OFFICIALS SAY; March 2, 2011, Times Union (Albany, NY)

Several large signs slung from three city charter schools this week targeting Treasurer Kathy Sheehan violate the city's sign law and were to come down Thursday, city and school officials said.

"Any organization has a right to express a political opinion. However, the size is an issue," said Bob Van Amburgh, a senior aide to Mayor Jerry Jennings. "If they want to express a particular opinion, that's fine, but they're going to have to change the size."

City code limits the size of temporary political signs to 16 square feet in a commercial district, Van Amburgh said.

The signs accused Sheehan of voting to raise property taxes -- a reference to the vote by a city economic development panel, Capital Resource Corp., that denied the Brighter Choice Foundation and a related nonprofit access to up to $42 million in tax-free bonds…

The signs -- which read "City Treasurer Kathy Sheehan just voted to raise your property taxes" -- were hung from the Brighter Choice School for Boys on North Lake Avenue, the Brighter Choice School for Girls on Central Avenue and the Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls on Hackett Boulevard on Tuesday…

"I don't intend to respond," Sheehan said. "I've heard this type of tactic referred to as street theater. Economic development for the residents in the city of Albany is far too serious an issue for me to engage in street theater."

Read More

Tubman Village Charter School

THE FIGHT OVER A FIRED CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHER; December 3, 2010; Voice of San Diego (CA) 

The San Diego teachers union plans to fight the firing of a teacher who spearheaded union efforts at Tubman Village Charter School, where teachers became unionized nearly a year ago.

The battle is an unusual one because while Tubman is unionized, its teachers have yet to hammer out a contract. That leaves them in labor limbo…

The firing goes to the heart of why Tubman is unionizing and why unions argue their protections are needed. When Tubman teachers joined up with the union in January, they said they wanted to be able to air concerns without worrying about retribution from the principal.

Unlike a teacher at a unionized public school, who would get to argue their case before the school board and a panel, the Tubman teacher had no chance to contest the decision beforehand because charters don't have to follow the same labor rules…

Read More

Serious quality challenge in national charter school sector: Stanford CREDO study

NEW STANFORD REPORT FINDS SERIOUS QUALITY CHALLENGE IN NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOL SECTOR; June 15, 2009; CREDO Press release 

Report Recognizes Robust Demand, Supply and Exceptional Charters, Faults Quality Controls, Authorizers and Charter Caps

Stanford, CA – A new report issued today by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

While the report recognized a robust national demand for more charter schools from parents and local communities, it found that 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public school counterparts, with 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no significant difference.

The report found that the academic success of students in charter schools was affected by the individual state policy environment. States with caps limiting the number of charter schools reported significantly lower academic results than states without caps limiting charter growth. States that have the presence of multiple charter school authorizers also reported lower academic results than states with fewer authorizers in place. Finally, states with charter legislation allowing for appeals of previously denied charter school applications saw a small but significant increase in student performance.

The Stanford report, entitled, “Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States,” is the first detailed national assessment of charter school impacts since its longitudinal, student-level analysis covers more than 70 percent of the nation’s students attending charter schools. The peer-reviewed analysis looks at student achievement growth on state achievement tests in both reading and math with controls for student demographics and eligibility for program support such as free or reduced-price lunch and special education. The analysis includes the most current student achievement data from 15 states and the District of Columbia and gauges whether students who attend charter schools fare better than if they would have attended a traditional public school.

“The issue of quality is the most pressing problem that the charter school movement faces,” said Dr. Margaret Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University. “The charter school movement continues to work hard to remove barriers to charter school entry into the market, making notable strides to level the playing field and improve access to facilities funding, but now it needs to equally focus on removing the barriers to exit, which means closing underperforming schools.”

The report found several key positive findings regarding the academic performance of students attending charter schools. For students that are low income, charter schools had a larger and more positive effect than for similar students in traditional public schools. English Language Learner students also reported significantly better gains in charter schools, while special education students showed similar results to their traditional public school peers.

The report also found that students do better in charter schools over time. While first year charter school students on average experienced a decline in learning, students in their second and third years in charter schools saw a significant reversal, experiencing positive achievement gains.

The report found that achievement results varied by states that reported individual data. States with reading and math gains that were significantly higher for charter school students than would have occurred in traditional schools included: Arkansas, Colorado (Denver), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana and Missouri.

States with reading and math gains that were either mixed or were not different than their peers in the traditional public school system included: California, the District of Columbia, Georgia and North Carolina.

States with reading and math gains that were significantly below their peers in the traditional public school system included: Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas.

"If the supporters of charter schools fail to address the quality challenge, they run the risk of having it addressed for them," said Dr. Raymond. "If the charter school movement is to flourish, a deliberate and sustained effort to increase the proportion of high quality schools is essential.

The replication of successful charter school models is one important element of this effort. On the other side of the equation, however, authorizers, charter school advocates and policymakers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain, which is accountability in exchange for flexibility."

To download a copy of the full report and executive summary, visit: http://credo.stanford.edu

About CREDO at Stanford University

CREDO at Stanford University was established to improve empirical evidence about education reform and student performance at the primary and secondary levels. CREDO at Stanford University supports education organizations and policymakers in using reliable research and program evaluation to assess the performance of education initiatives. CREDO's valuable insight helps educators and policymakers strengthen their focus on the results from innovative programs, curricula, policies or accountability practices. http://credo.stanford.edu

Read More

Charter schools movement a civil rights failure: UCLA Civil Rights Project study

CHOICE WITHOUT EQUITY: CHARTER SCHOOL SEGREGATION AND THE NEED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS STANDARDS; January 2010; The Civil Rights Project of UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies 

The charter school movement has been a major political success, but it has been a civil rights failure. As the country continues moving steadily toward greater segregation and inequality of education for students of color in schools with lower achievement and graduation rates, the rapid growth of charter schools has been expanding a sector that is even more segregated than the public schools. The Civil Rights Project has been issuing annual reports on the spread of segregation in public schools and its impact on educational opportunity for 14 years. We know that choice programs can either offer quality educational options with racially and economically diverse schooling to children who otherwise have few opportunities, or choice programs can actually increase stratification and inequality depending on how they are designed. The charter effort, which has largely ignored the segregation issue, has been justified by claims about superior educational performance, which simply are not sustained by the research. Though there are some remarkable and diverse charter schools, most are neither. The lessons of what is needed to make choice work have usually been ignored in charter school policy. Magnet schools are the striking example of and offer a great deal of experience in how to create educationally successful and integrated choice options.

Executive Summary

Seven years after the Civil Rights Project first documented extensive patterns of charter school segregation, the charter sector continues to stratify students by race, class and possibly language.  This study is released at a time of mounting federal pressure to expand charter schools, despite on-going and accumulating evidence of charter school segregation.

Our analysis of the 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students reveals that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation. While examples of truly diverse charter schools exist, our data show that these schools are not reflective of broader charter trends.

Four major themes emerge from this analysis of federal data.  First, while charter schools are increasing in number and size, charter school enrollment presently accounts for only 2.5% of all public school students.  Despite federal pressure to increase charter schools--based on the notion that charter schools are superior to traditional public schools, in spite of no conclusive evidence in support of that claim--charter school enrollment remains concentrated in just five states.

Second, we show that charter schools, in many ways, have more extensive segregation than other public schools.  Charter schools attract a higher percentage of black students than traditional public schools, in part because they tend to be located in urban areas.  As a result, charter school enrollment patterns display high levels of minority segregation, trends that are particularly severe for black students…

Third, charter school trends vary substantially across different regions of the country.  Latinos are under-enrolled in charter schools in some Western states where they comprise the largest share of students.  At the same time, a dozen states (including those with high concentrations of Latino students like Arizona and Texas) report that a majority of Latino charter students attend intensely segregated minority schools.  Patterns in the West and in a few areas in the South, the two most racially diverse regions of the country, also suggest that charters serve as havens for white flight from public schools.  Finally, in the industrial Midwest, more students enroll in charter schools compared to other regions, and midwestern charter programs display high concentrations of black students.

Fourth, major gaps in multiple federal data sources make it difficult to answer basic, fundamental questions about the extent to which charter schools enroll and concentrate low- income students and English Language Learners (ELLs).  Charter schools receive public funding and therefore should be equally available to all students regardless of background.  Approximately one in four charter schools does not report data on low-income students.  Since eligibility for receiving free lunch is proof that families cannot afford to provide it, the lack of a free lunch program at school would impose a severe economic barrier to attending a charter school. There is a similar lack of information on ELLs…

Read More

Charter schools show no significant overall impacts on achievement: Mathematica study

CHARTER SCHOOL STUDY SHOWS NO SIGNIFICANT OVERALL IMPACTS ON ACHIEVEMENT: MATHEMATICA’S EVALUATION FINDS WIDE VARIATION IN ACHIEVEMENT IMPACTS ACROSS SCHOOLS; June 29, 2010; Mathematica Media Advisory 

Issue: Charter schools are an important and growing component of the public school system in the United States. As of the 2009-2010 school year, more than 5,000 charter schools served over 1.5 million students—approximately three percent of all public school students—in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Charter schools are intended to play a key role in school improvement under the existing Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), as well as the programs established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, there remains considerable debate as to whether, how, and under what circumstances charter schools improve the outcomes of students who attend them.

Study: Mathematica Policy Research recently completed a large-scale randomized trial of the effectiveness of charter schools, the most comprehensive charter school study of its kind to date to use an experimental design. The evaluation, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, covers 36 charter middle schools across 15 states and a sample size of 2,330 applicants. It compares outcomes of students who applied and were admitted to these schools through randomized admission lotteries (lottery winners) with the outcomes of students who also applied to these schools and participated in the lotteries but were not admitted (lottery losers). This experimental research design produces the most rigorous estimates of charter school impacts on student outcomes. The study’s results apply to this group of participating charter middle schools that held lotteries, and do not necessarily apply to the full set of charter schools in the U.S.

Findings:

On average, charter middle schools that hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving student achievement in reading and math. However, these averages mask wide variation across individual charter schools in their impacts.

Study charter schools were more effective for lower income and lower achieving students and less effective for higher income and higher achieving students. In addition, charter schools in large urban areas had positive impacts on students’ achievement in math; those outside these large urban areas had negative impacts on achievement.

Study charter schools did not significantly affect most of the other outcomes examined, including attendance, student behavior, and survey-based measures of student effort in school.

These charter schools did positively affect levels of satisfaction with school among both students and their parents.

Quote: “This report helps us make sense of previous charter school studies that have generated a wide range of findings,” said Phil Gleason, senior fellow and lead author. “In this study—the most comprehensive and geographically diverse using charter school lotteries to date—our findings are consistent with prior evaluations that focused on a broad range of schools. We found that the average charter school in our sample did not have positive impacts on students’ math or reading achievement. And like previous lottery-based studies that have focused on single, urban districts, we found that charter schools in large urban areas and those serving a more disadvantaged student population had positive impacts on students' achievement in math."

Report: “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts.” Philip Gleason, Melissa Clark, Christina Clark Tuttle, and Emily Dwoyer, June 2010. Executive Summary.

Read More

Majority of charter schools not following basic financial guidelines: Minnesota 2020 study

CHECKING IN ON CHARTER SCHOOLS; June 15, 2009; Minnesota 2020 study

Seventeen years after the first charter school opened in Minnesota, this examination of fiscal year 2007 charter school financial audits shows that the vast majority of charter schools do not follow basic financial guidelines or, in some cases, state law. Since this analysis agrees with a recent report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor and audit examinations written in 2001, 2002 and 2003, we conclude that these financial problems are not being adequately addressed by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and, further, are endemic of the charter school system.

Efforts by the 2009 Legislature to provide more accountability to charter schools was welcome, but shorthanded. The charter school program is financially flawed and basic concepts about charter schools - such as unelected school boards and under informed business management - need to be changed.

In November and December, 2008 and January, 2009, Minnesota 2020 combed through the financial audits of 145 charter schools for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2007 - reports that were filed with MDE by December 31, 2007. Our research found several trends in charter school financial management:

    * 83 percent were found to have at least one financial irregularity in their audit - five years earlier, that figure was 73 percent;

    * 51 percent of those schools with problems identified on their 2007 financial audits had the same problems identified on their 2008 audits, according to the MDE;

    * 29 percent did not respond to a request for board minutes - five years earlier, that figure was 33 percent;

    * 55 percent were found to have "limited segregation of duties," a requirement that ensures no single charter school official has control of the school's funds;

    * 26 percent didn't have proper collateral for deposit insurance, a requirement that ensures the charter school can pay its bills…

Read More