Close Underperforming Charter Schools, Reward Those That Work

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You hit the nail on the head with your comments Robert. In my area, the standard procedure is to start smaller schools or pseudo schools with failing and general "problem students" so that they do not affect the bigger school grades. Sad, but true. Instead of looking at what their needs are, they are brushed aside and disregarded. I work at a Charter School and know that they deserve more. All schools are not good schools, but the ones that try to help students progress, regardless of the dreaded school grade deserve and A in my book.

Helene' of FL 5:54PM August 27, 2009

This link will provide you with information about demographic engineering at one set of those "no excuses" schools. As you'll see, the dramatic change was not wrought with the original types of low-achieving students.
http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2009/05/dear-mr-finn.html
It makes me wonder how much of this goes on at other "high performing" charter schools.
And as for my local KIPP school, a few months ago I compared the Parent Educational Levels (PEL) at Oakland middle schools, charter vs. traditional.* The average PEL at the charter middle schools was 2.42. The average for the traditional schools was 2.08.
The PEL for the Oakland KIPP was 3.27, the third highest of the charter schools (the highest charter PEL was 3.63). This school has an API (state accountability index) of 760; 800+ is the goal. In comparison, the PEL’s for the two traditional middle schools in the same neighborhood were 2.20 and 2.15.
This difference in parent education levels clearly demonstrates self-selection. So once again, even though most of the KIPP students are low-income and African American, their parents are quite educated. The school is not serving the very most disadvantaged of Oakland's children.
By the way, when Oakland’s middle schools (charter and traditional) are combined (36 schools total), the KIPP parent body is the fifth most educated, rivaling our highest achieving middle school with a PEL of 3.37 and a state accountability index of 794.
When sorting out the effects of those "outstanding" charter schools, these types of details must be considered.
*The Ca. Dept. of Ed. defines this figure as an average of the student responses where 1 = did not graduate from high school, 2 = high school graduate, 3 = some college, 4 = college graduate, 5 = graduate school.

Pondoora of CA 1:19PM June 19, 2009

You're right when you say "Charter schools were not supposed to be about just replicating mediocrity." They were intended to provide choice and to meet the needs of students. Closing a school prematurely - before it is given the same opportunity to improve as do their traditional counterparts - effectively removes the choice from the students and their families. Additionally, the needs that charter schools were designed to meet go beyond the academic standards set by state departments of education. They also meet the physical, social, geographical, safety, and environmental needs of students who for too long had those needs overlooked or under-served by the traditional school system.

Robert Letcher of PA 8:06PM June 18, 2009