Report Says Charter Schools Need More Money and Monitoring (MO)
February 14, 2011
After a decade, many of Missouri’s charter schools are not doing much better than traditional public schools, a national watchdog group concluded.
& #x0A;Two reasons: not getting their fair share of education money or enough monitoring, contends a report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Chronically low-performing charter schools, the report concluded, should be closed.
When charter schools opened in 2000, families flocked to them as a publicly funded alternative to the traditional district classrooms that turned out poor test scores and low graduation rates.
In the Kansas City district, enrollment in charter schools has more than doubled, from 4,000 students the first year to 8,800 now.
So, the findings of the alliance’s report must be described as sobering.
The report was commissioned by the Kauffman Foundation, which plans to open a new charter school — the 28th in Kansas City — in the fall.
“We were really pleased to see the report,” said Chris Nicastro, state commissioner of education. “I think some of the things in the report confirm what we have known, such as that there is a need for greater oversight and accountability.”
But closing a charter school?
As of now, the state has no authority to shut down or take over a low-performing or poorly managed charter, Nicastro said. This authority rests with the schools’ sponsors.
Nevertheless, the report chastises the state for not closely monitoring the performance of the schools’ sponsors, such as the University of Central Missouri, Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley and University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Nicastro said the state was looking into ways to hold sponsors more accountable.
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“Very few Missouri charters currently reach state proficiency standards,” the report said. “There are clusters of strong performances, especially in Kansas City where charters represent six of the state’s top 11 public schools in communication art and six of the top 12 in math.”
No specific schools were recommended for closure in Kansas City.
Only two of the 26 schools measured — Academie Lafayette and Allen Village — met the standard for math proficiency. For communication arts, the two charter schools with proficiency were University Academy and Academie Lafayette.
The district schools fared little better.
“I would say that this report gives a good historic perspective of where we have been,” said Cheri Shannon, executive director of Missouri Charter Public School Association. “I think it represents a call to action for more evaluation and holding all schools to high standards.”
Despite the low performances found, the author of the report, Todd Ziebarth, agrees with Shannon that charter schools should expand outside Kansas City and St. Louis.
“Every family should have a choice between the current district school and putting their child in a charter school no matter where they live in the state,” Shannon said.
Legislation has been introduced for just that kind of expansion, as well as better accountability and funding.
The report cites a May 2010 study by Ball State University that revealed a 25 percent funding gap between charters and other public schools in Kansas City. The difference is worse, 35 percent, in St. Louis.
As more Kansas City families choose charter schools every year, the funding gap puts more children at a disadvantage, the report said.
Shannon said charter schools don’t have access to public-school funds for facilities, yet are required to help the Kansas City School District pay down capital bonds on buildings the charters can’t use.
Kansas City, where the public school district last year closed 24 of its schools, is sixth among U.S. communities in the percentage of students enrolled in charter schools.
Shannon noted, however, that charter schools are not guaranteed access to vacated district buildings designated for repurposing.
In the 10-year existence of charter schools in Missouri, sponsors in Kansas City and St. Louis have closed a few for seemingly insolvable low performance, and fiscal and management problems.
The state charter school association doesn’t keep a list of schools currently in danger of being shuttered, but UMKC, which sponsors 12 charters, “does a really good job of putting its schools on probation,” Shannon said.
When a UMKC charter drops below the Kansas City district’s average for proficiency in math or communication arts, it must develop a plan for raising test scores, said Steve McClure, assistant program director for UMKC connected schools.