*UPDATED

While LA Unified is firmly committed to online credit recovery classes as a means to the district’s newly stated top goal — 100 percent graduation — Los Angeles charter school operators use these classes much more sparingly, as their graduation rates tend to be far ahead of the district’s.

At three of the city’s largest charter management organizations, no more than 5 percent of students have taken an online credit recovery course. LA Unified has yet to report how many of their 2016 graduates used credit recovery to gain a diploma. A $15-million credit recovery program took LA Unified’s projected graduation rate from 49 percent last fall to an estimated 75 percent this summer, a record. The official graduation rate will be reported later this fall.

The three CMO’s also have more stringent policies for testing out of a course. LA Unified allows students to test out of much of a course if they can score 60 percent on a pre-test. The charters set that bar higher or don’t allow testing out.

“I strongly support the use of online learning, not just for credit recovery but for enrichment and for broadening the curriculum. That said, across all of our schools, only 1.3 percent of the course credits are provided through online learning,” said Caprice Young, who is CEO of Magnolia Public Schools and also a former LA Unified school board president.

Last school year, as part of a $15 million program, LA Unified for the first time implemented a major push for online credit recovery courses across the district. The move was in response to a looming graduation crisis, as the school board raised the bar for graduation requirements and installed a series of courses called “A through G.” Students would need to take and pass the A-G courses before the end of their senior year, and if they earned all C grades or above would be eligible for admittance into California’s public universities, although the district allows D’s for graduation.

The district was unprepared for the raised bar, so part way through the fall of 2015 the credit recovery program kicked in. This year the courses were offered as soon as school started.

The dramatic increase in the graduation rate has turned some heads in the academic world, with some experts questioning the validity and rigor of online credit recovery courses. In that program, students without enough credits to graduate retake classes during free periods, after school, on Saturdays and during the winter break. The courses are online and have either a teacher running the class along with a computer program, known as blended learning, or an all-online course known as virtual learning. If students prove proficiency with the material they receive a C grade at LA Unified. A’s and B’s aren’t an option.

But LA Unified is not alone in using online credit recovery programs despite their controversial nature. Most large districts across the country also use them, as do at least three of the largest CMOs authorized by LA Unified, although each one appears to use them on a far more limited basis. And each CMO — PUC Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and Magnolia Public Schools — had a different set of guidelines regarding if students could pre-test out of some course material.

PUC SCHOOLS

“We most definitely use it very sparingly. It is not our goal to use it in place of intervention and support,” said Leslie Chang, superintendent of leadership and instruction for PUC Schools. PUC operates 16 schools, of which six are high schools.

Chang said PUC used Apex Learning for its online programs, which is one of two companies that LA Unified also uses. Chang estimated that 4 or 5 percent of PUC graduates last year had taken at least one online course and said it was most commonly used when a student transferred into a PUC school already behind in credits.

“If the child is behind and we determine that based on their current schedule they may need to take an additional course, then we will offer that option to them. We want to make sure it is not the go-to for everything that is required for graduation for our schools. Typically, a select few number of students will use the blended learning approach,” Chang said.

PUC also has different guidelines on pre-testing. While LA Unified allows students to skip chapters or units if they pass at least 60 percent of a pre-test, PUC sets the pre-test bar at 70 percent.

“I think there is a place for online learning in the academic experience of every student in today’s day and age. I do not think it can replace the power and effectiveness of a teacher, and if a student is behind in credits or content, then blended learning can have a very powerful effect,” Chang said. “But they really do have to be in tandem with teacher support and done very strategically and intentionally.”

MAGNOLIA

Young said she thought that LA Unified’s approach to online credit recovery will become more balanced in time. Magnolia operates eight independent charter schools within LA Unified, and four of them are schools for grades 6-12.

“I think LAUSD is going in the right direction, and the next step is to get more nuanced in how they use it. This is pretty common when school districts implement online learning. The first year it may be overused or underused or inappropriately used, but as they get more nuanced about how to match the right kids with the right courses and the right content it makes sense,” Young said.

Magnolia has an 80 percent pre-test bar and they use Fuel Education for their programs. Young estimated that 5 percent of Magnolia’s graduates last year took an online credit recovery course.

“And that’s because kids don’t always start with us in 6th grade, they may come to us in their junior year and they are already behind and we have to help them catch up, and sometimes that requires them to essentially take more than six courses in the semester. Adding more online can catch them up,” Young said.

Young also defended the idea of pre-testing.

“One of the things that the online learning is for is at the beginning of each unit the student can demonstrate their knowledge, and then if they can demonstrate their knowledge that they know it, there is no sense in boring the student and making them retake it,” Young said.

ALLIANCE

Perhaps the biggest reason the large CMOs use online credit recovery on a more limited basis is because they tend to be far ahead of the district in graduation rates. Magnolia’s graduation rate in 2015 was 96.4 percent. Alliance’s grad rate in 2014-15 was 95 percent, and PUC says they exceed 90 percent every year. With fewer students in danger of not graduating, fewer are obviously in need of credit recovery.

“Graduation is what we do. It’s part of our DNA. It’s what we do. And it could be what LAUSD does too and hopefully they will,” Young said.

Robert Pambello, an area superintendent for Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, said Alliance’s use is “very limited. Every student has a graduation plan, and so we track students on a regular basis for being on track for graduation, and there are very few kids that actually need the credit recovery.” Alliance is LA Unified’s largest CMO and operates 28 schools. Eighteen of them are high schools.

Pambello said less than 3 percent of Alliance’s graduates last year took an online course and that Alliance does not allow pre-testing.

“We do not have that feature. The student takes the whole course because they did not pass the course,” he said. “We don’t do pre-testing at all, they are assigned the course and they work through the course at their own pace.”

GREEN DOT

Not every large CMO is as centrally organized with its online curriculum as PUC, Alliance and Magnolia. Green Dot Public Schools, which manages nine high schools in Los Angeles and Inglewood, has online credit recovery programs but does not centrally track how many students are taking them. The courses are viewed no differently than its regular curriculum, according to Sean Thibault, communications director for Green Dot.

“It’s not like there is an online department or a whole team working on online programs, this is just part of what the whole curriculum team does,” he said. “Every one of the Green Dot schools in high school are offering A-G curriculum as the baseline, there is no friendlier curriculum they could do. So all the schools are doing assessments and doing what they can with proficiency and to catch some students up in the school year.”

As far as what the guidelines are, Thibault said “as a general rule, where students need that kind of option (with credit recovery) we have made it available. I don’t think that there is a model that is enforced or universal for pre-testing, but it is more school-by-school, or depending it could be course-by-course or instructor-by-instructor or student-by-student. And that’s Green Dot’s approach, to identify the student’s needs and develop the instruction they need to be successful.”

Pacific Palisades Charter High School is not a CMO but a standalone independent charter school. While it also offers credit recovery, like Green Dot it does not centrally track how many students are taking the courses. The school has been offering online credit recovery courses for five years during summer school, but this year it also began offering them throughout the school year as well. Like LA Unified and the large CMOs, the online courses are overseen by a licensed teacher.

“We do not know (how many take online credit recovery). We don’t track it in that way, because when the student passes the course, because it has a highly qualified teacher running it, it doesn’t have a separate designation,” said Jeff Hartman, director of academic planning and guidance.

Palisades does not allow for any pre-testing out of chapters or units. Randy Tenan-Snow, an English teacher at Palisades who helps oversee online credit recovery, predicted the school will be expanding its program in the coming years.

“I believe that as we gather more data and we start enrolling more students, I see that online and blended programs will be the wave of the future for most students that are trying to do credit recovery,” she said. “It is very difficult to add a class when you are already taking six classes, so to take a class online it definitely helps our community and our students. We will probably expand as we move forward.”

*UPDATED to reflect PUC operates six high schools, not four. 

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl

*UPDATED

A California Administrative Law judge has issued a number of rulings in the year-plus legal battle between Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and the LA teachers union, UTLA.

Friday’s rulings on several complaints that were brought to the California Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) were mixed, with some in favor of the independent charter school operator and some in favor of the union.

In a sign of how contentious the struggle between the two organizations has been, both issued news releases claiming victory. Alliance called the rulings a “major win,” and UTLA said the rulings showed Alliance “repeatedly and illegally violated teachers’ rights.”

Alliance operates 27 independent charters in LA Unified, and Alliance’s management has for more than a year been resisting an attempt by UTLA to unionize its teachers.

Judge Kent Morizawa‘s rulings dismissed a number of complaints that UTLA had brought accusing Alliance officials of making coercive and threatening statements to its employees in a series of official communications. But he also found that Alliance officials had unlawfully denied UTLA organizers proper access to two schools and unlawfully denied UTLA access to its email system when it redirected a union email to teachers’ spam folders. He also found that an Alliance official made a coercive statement to a teacher by implying that the teacher’s views on unionization could impact her official evaluation.

“The email and campus access have long been a non-issue. UTLA has had access to Alliance emails for more than a year and has access to Alliance campuses,” Alliance Chief Development and Communications Officer Catherine Suitor said.

She added, “We admitted the singular statement of one principal was ill-advised – and not a reflection of Alliance policy in any way. The principal is no longer at the school. We agree with judge that no one should feel coerced or intimidated.”

The rulings order Alliance to cease and desist from blocking emails or UTLA access to its schools. A news release from Alliance focused on the rulings in its favor, including that official communications from Alliance leaders to its employees about UTLA were not coercive.

“In a major win for Alliance College Ready Public Schools, Judge Morizawa with Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) rejected UTLA’s claims of coercion and dismissed the union’s attempt to block the Alliance’s First Amendment rights to communicate with their employees,” the release stated. “This important decision has deemed that Alliance has, in fact, acted in good faith and lawfully during the prolonged unionization effort. After reviewing Alliance’s communications with its schools and staff—the Judge shared an opinion that Alliance has been sharing accurate information that is within its legal boundaries.”

UTLA focused its release on the rulings in its favor.

“Alliance has been ordered to ‘cease and desist’ its illegal behavior,” said UTLA attorney Jesus Quinonez in a statement. “That’s not a ‘major win,’ as Alliance management tried to claim in an internal communication to employees. It is a finding of fact that the executives of this company have violated the law by interfering with the rights of teachers and school employees.”

UTLA represents the teachers at a number of independent charter schools, but the majority of the district’s charters, including Alliance’s, remain non-union. After UTLA started trying to organize the Alliance staff, it filed a number of complaints with PERB claiming Alliance leaders were illegally blocking unionization efforts.

Alliance leaders have continuously denied the claims. In December, PERB received a temporary injunction against Alliance on behalf of UTLA regarding the complaints, and Alliance was ordered to cease a number of activities, including maintaining or sponsoring petitions on its website soliciting employee signatures that affirm opposition to unionization, polling certified employees about their positions on unionization, denying UTLA representatives access to school sites after-hours and blocking UTLA emails to Alliance employees.

Suitor said that Friday’s rulings were the first two of five complaints UTLA has filed with PERB and said she expects positive rulings on the remaining three.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl praised the PERB rulings as a victory for UTLA.

“The educators at Alliance involved in the organizing campaign are dedicated to their students and their profession; they want to work together through a union to improve education for students and improve retention of teaching staff, but rather than being heard they were harassed,” Caputo-Pearl said in a statement. “This court ruling sends a strong message that the rights of teachers should be honored and that union activity in public charter schools is a protected right.”

The battle between the two organizations has also reached Sacramento, as the California Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted in May to audit Alliance to find out if it was improperly using funds in its public campaign against Alliance.

*This article has been updated to add two statements from Alliance’s Catherine Suitor.

For more on the legal conflicts, read these previous stories:

• Judge grants injunction against big LAUSD charter in battle with UTLA
• Judge issues restraining order against Alliance in union battle
• Alliance charters says some of its teachers ‘feel harassed’ by UTLA 

California Senator Tony Mendoza

The California Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted Wednesday to audit Alliance College-Ready Public Schools over the charter management organization’s use of funds in its unionization conflict with the LA teachers union, UTLA.

Alliance operates 27 independent charter schools in LA Unified. The organization’s management has for more than a year been resisting an attempt by UTLA to unionize its teachers.

The audit was requested by state Sen. Tony Mendoza, who wrote in a letter to the committee that he wants to determine if the public funds Alliance receives were used to “advance student achievement and improve the quality of educational programs” and were not used to resist unionization, which Alliance would have to use privately raised funds for.”

“Alliance schools are publicly funded,” Mendoza said in a statement. “The purpose of those funds is to educate children inside the classroom – not to intimidate teachers and parents.”

The audit also will look into matters beyond Alliance’s finances, including if information about Alliance parents, students and alumni was shared in conflict with confidentiality laws.

An Alliance press release characterizing the audit as politically motivated pointed out that Mendoza does not have any Alliance schools in his district and also is a former board member of UTLA. Mendoza represents District 32 in the eastern area of Los Angeles County.

Top-ranked Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies

In the extensive U.S. News & World Report ranking of all the public high schools in the country, LA’s top 10 include four independent charters, three magnets and three traditional schools.

The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies was the top-ranked LA school and the only LA Unified school in California’s top 20. It was 18th in the state and 138th nationally. The school was just honored last month for exceptional merit and innovation by the Magnet Schools of America.

The magazine evaluated nearly 20,000 public high schools throughout the country and ranked them on several factors, including state test scores, the number of students taking Advanced Placement and college-level courses and overall college readiness.

The rankings showed that 47 LA Unified schools, or 19 percent of all local high schools, rank above the California average.

“These results affirm our commitment to prepare our students for college and careers,” said Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson. “LA Unified is proud of our students, teachers and leaders for their scholarly accomplishments, both locally and nationally. This recognition represents the best of the best.”

LACES Principal Harold Boger pointed out that 90 percent of students at LACES take Advanced Placement classes, and minority enrollment is 72 percent.

“Obviously we are thrilled to get recognized for creating a culture where students are not afraid to challenge themselves by taking AP courses,” he said. “We have made a special effort to eliminate middle school courses that have the effect of tracking students at an early stage of either being AP or non-AP students. In fact all of our students know that they will take AP World History in the 10th grade and that all of their prior courses will have been sufficient preparation to succeed in this course.”

But they may be a victim of their success. Boger added, “On the other hand we are a little concerned that we have done such a great job in developing this AP culture among students that maybe it is time to encourage students to consider taking less AP courses. Presently about 40 percent of our juniors and seniors take four or more AP courses. Even though students continue to find ways to ultimately be successful in these courses, we have noticed that the stress level of some students has increased. This has led us to pay more attention to students’ emotional development as we strive to maintain high academic standards.”

The second-highest ranked LA Unified school is Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy at 196 nationally, and third is the charter school Magnolia Science Academy 2 at 223. Two charter schools, Wallis Annenberg High and Bright Star Secondary Charter Academy, rank 246 and 247 nationally, and fourth and fifth in the LA Unified rankings.

Listed at sixth in the district is the magnet school Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High, at 252 nationally, seventh is Elizabeth Learning Center at 277, and eighth is Downtown Business High at 360.

Rounding out the top 10 locally are the charter school Alliance Gertz-Ressler Richard Merkin 6-12 Complex at 383 and, at 406, the traditional school Foshay Learning Center.

Five Alliance College-Ready Public Schools are in the top 20 California schools in the rankings.

Dan Katzir, Alliance’s CEO, said in a statement, “A record-breaking 14 Alliance high schools were recognized. Six were ranked among the top 10 percent of high schools in Los Angeles County. We are proud to announce that, once again, Alliance schools rank among the best in the nation.”

Green Dot has one school in the top 200 high schools nationally, Animo Leadership Charter High which came in at 168, and six schools in the top 200 charter schools nationally.

KIPP had two schools in California’s top 20, both in Northern California.

Magnolia Public Schools had two schools in California’s top 100 and also had the top charter in LA Unified, Magnolia Science Academy 2 in Van Nuys. It was the 66th highest-ranked charter high school in the nation.

In California, Magnolia Science Academy 2 was ranked 32, and Magnolia Science Academy Reseda was ranked 96.

“We’re proud to once again have our schools recognized as among the best in the state and nation,” said Magnolia CEO Caprice Young. “When our charter schools repeatedly rank high on this list, it’s further validation of Magnolia’s successful track record of ensuring that all students—no matter their socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background—graduate prepared for college because they’re already succeeding in college-level work in high school.”

For more: Read LA School Report’s in-depth look at one of the top schools, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet. 

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction yesterday against Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the latest development in the effort by the LA teachers union, UTLA, to unionize Alliance teachers.

The injunction, which was sought by the California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), follows a temporary restraining order the judge issued in late October when he ordered Alliance to cease activities that PERB and UTLA claimed were blocking the unionization effort.

The injunction is another legal blow to Alliance, which is LA Unified’s largest charter organization with 27 schools and around 700 teachers who are currently not represented by any union. After PERB sided with UTLA, the union won the restraining order, and PERB took the rare legal step of going to court itself against Alliance, filing a formal complaint in August.

Alliance officials have made no secret of their opposition to its teachers’ unionizing and have maintained that their actions are legal. Alliance spokesperson Catherine Suitor asserted that PERB and the court based their rulings on inaccurate information provided by UTLA and that UTLA is using delay tactics in court because it has not garnered the support of a majority of Alliance teachers.

“The filing of unfair labor practices is a standard tactic in labor organizing, particularly when efforts are not accelerating at a rate deemed acceptable by union leaders,” Suitor said today in a statement to LA School Report. “Despite an intense year-long unionization campaign, the majority of Alliance teachers have shown no interest in allowing UTLA leadership to speak on their behalf.”

She added, “The recent ruling on UTLA’s request for injunctive relief changed nothing in the earlier decision by the court. We continue to respect the rights of our teachers’ rights to freely and openly discuss unionization.”

In his  ruling, Judge James C. Chalfant said Alliance administrators should be enjoined from:

• Maintaining or sponsoring petitions on its website soliciting employee signatures that affirm opposition to unionization.
• Polling certified employees about their positions on unionization.
• Denying UTLA representatives access to school sites after-hours.
• Blocking UTLA emails to Alliance employees.

The judge also ruled that Alliance officials must refrain from approaching any UTLA official within 100 feet outdoors or within 40 feet indoors (unless student safety is involved) and that Alliance officials must meet with UTLA officials to discuss implementing the preliminary injunction.

Chalfant’s earlier order invited the parties to argue in court on Nov. 17 why a preliminary injunction of 90 days should not be issued. But he ruled yesterday that his injunction would remain in effect until Alliance complied with the PERB administrative proceedings on all complaints.

“We are very pleased that the court has granted this injunction,” Xochil Johansen, a resource teacher at Alliance’s Stern Mass High School, said in a statement. “Schools are places that should foster the freedom to engage in active learning, creativity, discussion and innovation, not places for coercion, fear and intimidation.”

Suitor said that Alliance met almost all the requirements of the temporary order but did not explain why the judge still ruled against it.

“Alliance complied with every portion of the TRO, except one small administrative error which occurred when one school inadvertently posted the TRO incorrectly on their campus,” she said. “That mistake was rectified as soon as we realized it. We are deeply disappointed, though not surprised, that UTLA continues to cynically place Alliance students and teachers in their political crosshairs.”

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Catherine Suitor, Chief Development & Communications Officer of Alliance, said in a statement to LA School Report the charter group looks forward to arguing its case before the state Public Employees Relations Board on Aug. 21 in response to charges by LA Unified’s teachers union.

“We respect the rights of our teachers to organize a union, and we also respect the rights of those teachers who do not want a union – and we repeatedly state that fact,” Suitor wrote. “Our teachers have freely expressed their opinions on the issue. We have received legal counsel on everything we’ve done as it is relates to the unionization efforts as our goal is to be fully transparent and within the letter of the law.”

The union’s accusations are detailed in two complaints (here and here) to PERB.

“We absolutely disagree with UTLA’s assertion of anything different, and we will defend our position with PERB,” Suitor added. “ On the contrary, we’ve heard from a number of teachers that they feel harassed by UTLA’s communications tactics to strong arm them to join a union that they have no interest in being a part of.”

Alliance is the largest charter group operating in LA Unified, with 27 schools serving 12,000 low-income students.

William Morales, a teacher at Alliance Susan and Eric Smidt Technology High School, said in the statement, “There has been a lopsided discussion about unionization at Alliance schools. We have received a doubled amount of information from the union to our work emails and mailboxes, leafleting at our schools and during our professional development, in comparison to Alliance’s outreach.”

Morales added, “However, we’ve had conversations pro and against unionization across the entire staff email list. I think it’s healthy to hear and discuss all sides – with equity – so we can make an educated choice.”

The union’s accusations are detailed in two complaints (here and here) that were submitted to state Public Employee Relations Board. Alliance is the largest charter group operating in LA Unified, with 27 schools serving 12,000 low-income students.

The unionization efforts at Alliance schools, which began earlier this year, have touched off the latest proxy war in LA Unified between the union and charter schools, which typically hire non-union teachers. While the faculty at some charter schools within the district have joined ranks with UTLA, many others have not. Alliance teachers are split, with many eager to join UTLA and many others who still prefer to remain independent.

In their complaints filed with the PERB, UTLA provides a chronology of how the Alliance officials have responded to the unionization efforts. Alliance officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In one instance included in the complaints, an after-school union meeting on March 18 was canceled at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School by the principal Lori Rhodes after a UTLA representative, Jessica Foster, who was meeting with school teachers, was told she was not allowed on campus and was escorted off the property.

On March 26, UTLA organizers Glenn Goldstein and Jessica Yeh were refused entry to a scheduled teachers meeting on the campus of Alliance Renee & Meyer Luskin Academy High School in Inglewood by principal Chalio Medrano.

The complaint says the schools did not give UTLA the right to represent the teachers, in violation of state law.

And, on April 7, UTLA argued that Alliance Area Superintendent Ena Lavan removed teacher Elana Goldbaum from a professional development meeting and told to stop handing out union-related flyers.

In a second complaint, the Smidt Technology principal is accused of questioning a teacher, Michelle Buckowski, about the UTLA meeting and told that it was “an uneducated position” and “that she should focus on her upcoming formal performance evaluation.”

The complaint also quotes from email messages and letters from Alliance officials warning against unionization. One document cited said, “The union can say or promise anything to get you to sign. The union can even lie or mislead you.”