Families rally outside the NAACP board meeting in Cincinnati on Saturday. (Courtesy: publiccharters.org Twitter)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reiterated its opposition to charter schools Saturday when its board of directors ratified a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter school expansion until more oversight is established.

The board’s vote followed months of intense pressure to reject the proposal from other black education advocates, who argued that charter schools give children in poor neighborhoods better school options. Demonstrators from a group called Memphis Lift protested and at one point disrupted the board meeting.

The NAACP’s wariness is rooted in its decades-long support for making traditional public schools more equitable for black children, said board chairperson Roslyn Brock.

“The NAACP has been in the forefront of the struggle for and a staunch advocate of free, high-quality, fully and equitably-funded public education for all children,” she said in a statement. “We are dedicated to eliminating the severe racial inequities that continue to plague the education system.”

The resolution was first proposed by the NAACP branch in California and Hawaii and was unanimously supported by 2,200 delegates at the organization’s 2016 annual convention in July, according to Hilary Shelton, senior vice president for advocacy and policy.

The 64-member board ratified the resolution by a voice vote during a meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, said Shelton.

“It was clearly unanimous,” he said. “It was unquestionable.”

He added that the board also agreed to start a task force that will take comments from charter school families and experts to develop more specific goals for the moratorium.

The NAACP has already outlined conditions for the moratorium, including holding charter schools to the same transparency and accountability standards as those that govern district schools.

It also called into question the way charters are funded, saying a moratorium should continue until “public funds are not diverted to charter schools at the expense of the public school system.”

Charters were also faulted for expelling students “that public schools have a duty to educate” and separating “high-performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious” as their peers’.

“The NAACP stood by its position,” said board member Amos Brown, who supported the resolution. “We made it very clear that our position was an affirmation for public education, which is where the least of these (are educated). We must make public education work for all. So that is where we still stand on that.”

At least one board member disagreed. Phil Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and current Democratic candidate for governor in New Jersey, said the resolution went too far.

“I remain committed to bringing both sides of this issue together in New Jersey to figure out what works, what hasn’t, and how district schools and charter schools can best coexist in our communities,” he said in a statement.  “Communities may disagree as a matter of opinion, but leadership requires a careful examination of all facts and a shared goal of arriving at a consensus, when possible. I could not support today’s resolution without having such clarity.”

Education advocates pressured the board to reject the resolution until just before the vote this weekend.

The Black Alliance for Education Options and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools co-hosted a “meet and greet” breakfast with board members earlier to discuss the potential impact of the resolution on black children. Only one board member attended, according to the Alliance.

Advocates also presented a petition with more than 3,000 signatures opposing the moratorium. Last month, the two groups launched a “Charters Work” campaign, when more than 160 black education and faith leaders sent a letter to the NAACP urging the group to rethink the resolution.

In a separate demonstration, more than 100 pro-charter African-American parents and grandparents from Memphis piled into buses on Friday in advance of the vote. The protesters, part of the Memphis Lift advocacy group, gathered in the square across from the hotel, chanting, “I won’t stop. I can’t stop,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“We have charter schools that are good,” Sarah Carpenter, a grandmother of 13, told the newspaper during the protest. “We are not against public schools. We want good schools of any type. Where was the NAACP when so many public schools were failing our children?

In a video that surfaced on social media over the weekend, a man who appeared to be a representative from the NAACP can be seen arguing and fielding questions from a group of protesters. The man says “in some cities (charter schools) are not getting what they are supposed to get,” referring to their performance.

“But that’s in public schools too,” one woman yells in response.

Later, some of those demonstrators marched into the hotel and disrupted the board meeting with chanting until police were called. There were no arrests and it was likely the hotel who called the police, according to Shelton.

“They shared what they wanted to share,” said Shelton, who talked with some of the protesters on Saturday. “Hopefully it’s just a down payment on what we will hear from these parents and many other charter school parents.”

The vote quickly attracted response from education groups across the country.

“On behalf of the membership of the United Federation of Teachers, we support the NAACP resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.  “Charter schools claim to be public institutions, but in too many communities, charters take public funds yet are not accountable to parents, lawmakers or taxpayers.”

But Democrats for Education Reform President Shavar Jeffries argued that the NAACP was acting counter to its mission.

“W.E.B. DuBois is rolling in his grave,” he said in a statement. “The NAACP, a proud organization with a historic legacy of expanding opportunity for communities of color, now itself stands in the schoolhouse door, seeking to deny life-changing educational opportunities to millions of children whose parents and families desperately seek alternatives to schools that have failed them for too long.”

The debate among minorities over charter schools dates to their inception in the 1990s. Even the NAACP was divided in 1997 about whether supporting charter schools undermined their long-held demand for a better and fairer public education for all children.

The next year, the civil rights group passed a resolution against charter schools arguing they are not subject to the same accountability standards that public schools are.

More resolutions against charter schools followed. In 2010, the NAACP argued that too much emphasis was placed on charter schools. In 2014, the group passed another saying it opposed the “privatization of public schools.”

Given the NAACP’s long history of advocating for equal resources for all traditionally public schools, it was no surprise the board voted in favor a moratorium, said Brown.

“All these schools should be working,” he said. “There should not be inequality in school districts.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. 

A new report shows that growing numbers of the 12 million Hispanic children in American public schools are turning to charter schools, where they tend to reach higher levels of achievement than at traditional district schools.

“While district public schools still continue to serve the majority of Hispanic students, an increasing number of Hispanic families are choosing to enroll in charter public schools,” the report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools reads, “as new charter schools continue to open their doors in neighborhoods with concentrated Hispanic populations, they are also investing in the future of the Hispanic community.”

Hispanic students make up approximately 30 percent of charter school enrollment and 25 percent of the total student body of traditional public schools. (LA Unified is 74 percent Latino.)

The study found that charter students get more instructional time than traditional counterparts. Charter students have additional learning equivalent to 22 extra days of math and six extra days of reading instruction as compared to peers in traditional schools, the report said. For Hispanic students living in poverty, this number jumps to an extra 48 days in math and 25 extra days of reading.

Read the full article from Watchdog.org.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/report-finds-charters-lead-the-way-in-closing-achievement-gap-in-la/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:47:26 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=39119

KIPP Raices founding principal Amber Young Medina and students.

A new report that analyzed how effective schools and cities are at closing the “achievement gap” between students from low-income families and their more advantaged peers found that nine of the top 10 schools in Los Angeles were independent charter schools.

The first-of-its-kind Education Equality Index from Education Cities studied data from schools in the 100 largest U.S. cities, and in each identified up to 10 schools with small or nonexistent achievement gaps that serve a student population where the majority are from low-income families. In LA, the following schools were recognized:

• Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High School
• Alliance Environmental Science and Technology High School
• Alliance Gertz-Ressler Richard Merkin 6-12 Complex
• Celerity Octavia Charter School
• Equitas Academy Charter School
• KIPP Empower Academy
• KIPP Los Angeles College Preparatory School
• KIPP Raices Academy
• Renaissance Arts Academy
• Solano Avenue Elementary School

Nine of the 10 recognized schools were charter schools, with the lone traditional district school being Solano Avenue Elementary near Chinatown. KIPP Raices, a charter school in East Los Angeles, was named a 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools winner.

“We are honored that three of our campuses are among the top 10 schools in Los Angeles paving the way to close the achievement gap for low-income students,” Alliance Chief Executive Officer Dan Katzir said in a statement. “Alliance has served traditionally underserved communities in LA for 11 years, and we remain committed to providing a world-class education and creating opportunity for our students and their families. The Education Equality Index affirms that our schools are making a difference in the lives of students who might not otherwise have access to pursue the education they deserve.”

The report was funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and developed in partnership by the foundation, Education Cities and GreatSchools. The report’s methodology gathered data from 2011 to 2014 and compared statewide standardized test scores from low-income students with their more advantaged peers.

Overall, California ranked No. 10 on the list out of 34 states that qualified for the report, and Los Angeles ranked No. 57 out of 100. (Because California did not record 2014 test results, 2013 scores were used in place of 2014 scores.)

Of the 610 schools recognized in the study for closing the achievement gap, nearly 30 percent are charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

“The findings from the Education Equality Index clearly illustrate the large achievement gaps plaguing our K-12 education system. Nevertheless, many schools are making significant strides in providing high-quality opportunities to all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background, and charter public schools are leading the way,” Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.

Nationwide, the achievement gap stagnated or grew between 2011 and 2014, but in 90 of the largest cities, there are individual schools that are closing or have closed the achievement gap, the index found. Eight of the cities have small achievement gaps, 25 have large achievement gaps and 67 have massive achievement gaps, according to the index, which also found that only two of 10 students in the cities attend schools that are closing the achievement gap.

“Equality of opportunity is an American ideal,” Gray said. “The Education Equality Index shows that while we, as a nation, have a long way to go to ensure our most vulnerable children have the opportunities they need to thrive, there are schools in almost every city proving that equality is possible.”

As educators from around the state head to Long Beach next week for the 23rd annual California Charter Schools Conference, California is holding steady in its friendliness to charter schools, says a January report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), a pro-charter advocacy group that releases an annual study of state-level policies.

The survey ranked 43 charter laws — the 42 states that allow charter schools plus the District of Columbia — in regards to how successfully they encourage charter expansion, autonomy and accountability. As has been the case in recent years, California ranked near the top of the list.

Five takeaways — and one important caveat — from the report on the state of California’s charter schools:

1. California has held steady, remaining slightly above average in its friendliness to charter schools.

NAPCS ranks California’s charter laws as 15th friendliest in the nation. This represents a slight decline from 2015 when the state was ranked 11th, but the report is quick to point out that the slide came from other states gaining ground, not because California’s laws have become less supportive of charters.

2. One in 12 students in California attend charter schools.

About 8 percent of California students now attend charter schools — above the national mark of 5.8 percent. As of the 2014-2015 school year, the state has nearly 1,200 charter schools operating today, by far the most in the country — though this statistic is mostly a reflection of California’s large population.

3. California has a cap on charter schools, but it’s not restricting growth.

NAPCS opposes state caps on the number of charter schools, and thus gives full points to states with no such limitations. California gets substantial credit, however, because although it does have a cap, charters still have “ample room to grow.” Specifically, California began with a charter cap of 250 in 1998, but by statute the ceiling increases by 100 schools each year. The current limit is 1,950 charter schools; there are just under 1,200 schools operating in California presently. The number of charters is California has more than quadrupled since 1999.

4. California gets extra points for allowing virtual charters — but that might not be a good thing.

NAPCS awards points to states that allow a “variety” of charter schools, including start-ups, conversions — in which a district school is turned over to a charter operator — and online schools, in which students receive some or all of their instruction via computer.

But according to a recent study, online charter schools do much worse than traditional public schools, and California’s virtual schools are no exception (the results were particularly bad for student achievement in reading). According to data from 2009-2010, about one in five California charters were virtual schools.

5. California does not require charter teachers to participate in collective bargaining agreements.

NAPCS credits states for not requiring that charter school teachers be unionized and participate in collective bargaining. In 2009-2010, only about 15% of California charter schools were unionized. Recent controversy has erupted as L.A.’s Alliance College-Ready Public Schools chain has aggressively fought efforts to unionize its teaching staff. Research has found that when some California charter schools unionized, student achievement was largely unaffected.

Caveat: These rankings don’t seem to say anything about student achievement.

One important thing to remember about the NAPCS rankings: Just because a state scores well (or poorly) doesn’t say much about the quality of the state’s charter sector, as measured by student achievement. There just doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the two.

For instance, Rhode Island received poor marks from NAPCS, but its charters perform extremely well relative to traditional public schools, according to one study. On the other hand, Indiana was ranked No. 1 as having the best laws in the nation, but charter schools there only slightly outperform district schools.

California charter schools, despite getting relatively strong ratings from NAPCS, perform slightly better in reading and slightly worse in math than traditional public schools.

Earlier research suggests that “permissibility” in charter law — how easy it is to get a charter started and authorized — is negatively related to student achievement. On the other hand, charter autonomy — the degree to which existing charters are free from certain regulations — is positively associated with achievement.

This article was published in partnership with The74Million.org. 

For the 2013-14 school year, charter enrollment in LA Unified jumped 15 percent, giving the district a total of 139,174 charter students, which totals 21 percent of its student body. In 2005-06, the district had a total of 35,310 charter students, with increases coming each year since.

Although it has by far the most total charter students of any district in the nation, LA Unified is behind 33 other districts in regard to the percentage of students enrolled at charter schools, the report found.

Nationally, the report found that at least one in five students now attends a public charter school in 43 communities across the country, up from 32 last year, and that 12 urban communities now enroll at least 30 percent of their public school students in charter schools, a jump from seven urban communities last year.

Over the past five years, charter enrollment nationwide has grown by 70 percent, the report found.

“This is a remarkable increase in the number and percentage of students attending public charter schools nationwide, and that is a major success for the growth of the charter school movement,” Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a press release. “We now have 11 more communities that enroll at least 20 percent of their overall student population in public charter schools.”

The topic of charter schools — which are schools that receive some public funding but operate independently — is one of the most polarizing in education.

While many of LA Unified’s charters have demonstrated increases in student achievement, critics say the success of charters comes at a cost to traditional public schools. Moody’s Investor Service recently concluded that the coming expansion of KIPP charter schools in LA Unified was a credit negative, as it will result in a loss of $35 million to the district, according to Education Week.

“We are heading toward a dual school system: one, privately managed and free to choose and exclude students; the other, public, which must take all kids,” NYU professor and education blogger Diane Ravitch told Forbes recently. “Billionaires support the privately managed sector, in part because they love the fact that 90 percent of charters are nonunion.”

Despite the critics and potential downsides, charter schools keep opening up in LA Unified. The NAPCS report found that growth in LA Unified is in line with a recent report from the California Charter Schools Association, which found that LA Unified saw 33 new charters open this fall, the largest increase in the state.

The state saw the start of 104 charter schools, bringing its total to 1,130. Almost 520,000 California students of more than 6 million now attend charters in the state. Other states with big charter school gains were Arizona, with 87 new ones, and Florida, with 75.

LA Unified continues to lead the growth among school districts, with 32 new charters that serve about 15,000 students, according to the California Charter School Association (CCSA).  There are now 263 charter schools serving 143,580 students in LAUSD. That’s about about 20 percent of the student population.

According to a report issued last month by the CCSA, charter high schools in Los Angeles are outperforming traditional district schools in graduating college-ready students of all backgrounds. Charter schools enroll 19 percent of Los Angeles high school students and deliver 37 percent of the city’s college-ready graduates, the report found.

In California, charters are publicly-funded schools that are generally overseen by local school boards but exempt from some laws governing school districts. While they must operate as non-profit organizations by state law, they receive most funding directly from the state, bypassing the district, thus drawing criticism by supporters of traditional public schools.