N.C. charter scrutiny getting tougher?

There's a new crew vetting the latest batch of N.C. charter applications,  and the early signs hint that they're tough judges.

Seventy-one boards applied to open charter schools in 2015-16.  Panels are currently reviewing those applications,  each of which can be more than 100 pages,  to recommend which should be interviewed by the new N.C. Charter School Advisory Board.

So far those subcommittees,  made up of advisory board members,  N.C. Office of Charter Schools staff and hired consultants,  have reviewed 24 applications and endorsed only eight, according to a tally kept by Eddie Goodall of the N.C. Public Charter Schools Association.  The advisory board,  made up mostly of charter school leaders,  will meet as a whole this spring to decide who actually gets an interview and which applications are recommended for approval by the N.C. Board of Education.

On Monday I listened in as a subcommittee reviewed two Charlotte applicants:  FOCUS Charter School and Heritage Learning Academy.

The FOCUS board wants to open a high school in west Charlotte's Severville neighborhood.  It would cater to students who have been incarcerated or failed ninth grade,  according to its application.  The school would have a STEAM theme  (science, technology, engineering, arts and math),  and groups of no more than 25 students would work together in 20-day instructional sessions.

Advisory board members Helen Nance, Paul Norcross and Mike McLaughlin and charter school staff Robin Kendall and Deanna Townsend-Smith said the group has an innovative approach for meeting a serious need.  Panelists praised the strong board and the positive attitude toward working with at-risk teens.

But they questioned the plan to mix what sounds like an alternative school with a STEAM program catering to the general population.  They voiced doubts about the staffing and the plans for 12th graders to finish at Central Piedmont Community College.  Several said the plan to open with 600 students in grade 9-11,  expanding to 800 in 9-12 the second year,  is too big for this kind of start-up.

In the end,  panelists said they hope this group will revamp its plan and bring it back next year,  but they didn't recommend that FOCUS get an interview this year.  "There are just too many questions,"  Kendall said.

The group was even more critical of the Heritage Learning Academy plan,  which was rated  "inadequate"  in many categories.  That board wants to open a K-12 school,  starting with about 150 elementary students the first year,  in southwest Charlotte.  The application said the school would relieve crowding in CMS' Berryhill and Reid Park K-8 schools.

The Heritage plan is based on the Charlotte Mason education model,  which the application describes as "developing the habit of narration"  and using  "relational education"  to develop each student's talents.

Subcommittee members said the application didn't explain the method clearly enough,  didn't articulate how it would be different from what students can get in CMS,  didn't describe the demographics of the students the school hopes to serve and didn't include specific,  measurable academic goals.  They voiced concerns that salaries budgeted seemed unrealistically low,  that the bylaws lacked a clear conflict-of-interest policy and that the board didn't bring enough financial know-how to run a school.

Not surprisingly,  the subcommittee didn't recommend an interview for Heritage, either.

How this plays out remains to be seen.  Last year's charter advisory panel got 70 applications,  eliminated 25 as incomplete,  interviewed 45 and recommended approval for 26.

Some charter critics had complained that the new advisory board,  appointed by the state legislature last fall,  might be too easy on applicants because it was so heavy on charter administrators and board members.  Instead,  those members seem to be trying to strike a balance between expanding access to charters while screening out applicants they believe aren't ready to pull of a venture they know is difficult.

"You've got charter school leaders who have excellent charter schools,"  Goodall said.  "They know what they're doing and it's pretty tough for an applicant."

Documents tell tale of StudentFirst struggles

The question is bound to arise:  Why did the Observer dedicate so much time and space to a story about problems at StudentFirst Academy,  a new charter school serving just over 300 students?

The answer: Access and timing.

Certainly other public and private schools in our area have faced financial,  academic and management problems.  But in this case,  there was extraordinary public documentation of StudentFirst's high hopes and quick fall.

Recent charter applications are online at the N.C. Office of Charter Schools site,  and they provide a wealth of information about what founding boards say they'll do.  The application for StudentFirst was especially rich because it was a private-school conversion.  Testimonials from the likes of then-Mayor Pat McCrory and then-Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon were among the documents submitted with the application.  You can also find the applications for Miracle Academy East and West,  an attempt to reproduce the StudentFirst plan even as the original charter was trying to get started.

A public records request produced a November letter from the state charter-school office detailing complaints about the school and a redacted copy of the StudentFirst board response.  The blacked-out paragraph presumably involves personnel matters that are confidential under state law.

Personnel privacy often becomes a brick wall in the quest to find out what went wrong at a school.  But in this case,  former head of school Phyllis Handford and deputy head Sandra Moss have sued the board.  That suit detailed allegations of illegal board meetings and made it clear the two women were being paid significantly more than the charter application had called for.

Documents filed with the board's response provided further accounts of the problems,  including a summary written by Prestige Preparatory School Network,  an affidavit from StudentFirst vice chair Jennifer Winstel and an affidavit by Prestige executive Mark Cramer.

Finally,  Observer researcher Maria David found archived video of an hour-long presentation by Handford, Moss and several supporters outlining the charter plan for the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum.  That offered a more personal glimpse of the plan and the people pitching it.

Moss (second from left) and Handford (right) at breakfast forum

All of this landed as questions about charter-school quality are paramount in North Carolina. The state's system for reviewing and monitoring charter schools is evolving as the number of schools expands.  As the taxpayer investment in charters rises and thousands more families stake their children's future on the independent schools, it becomes ever more important to examine the system's successes and shortcomings.

If you're still up for more reading,  the National Association of Charter School Authorizers offers a lot of information, including a state-by-state comparison of systems and a list of 10 questions to ask. Public Impact,  a Chapel Hill consulting firm,  also offers a number of publications examining charter quality.

Where's church/charter line?

Heidi Magi,  a parent in the UNC Charlotte area,  started digging into information about new charter schools as soon as the state gave preliminary approval in September.  She was delighted to find one scheduled to open at United Wesleyan Church,  near her neighborhood.

But as she read the application for United Community School and checked the web,  she found something puzzling.  Erika Hedgepeth,  named in the application as director of the charter school opening in 2014,  was also director of an existing school at the church,  which seems to be listed as both United Community School and Minds Engaged Christian Academy.  N.C. law allows private schools to apply for conversion to a charter,  which means they get public money instead of relying on tuition or private donations.  But the United Community charter application said it wasn't a conversion.

Magi emailed me wondering what was up.

"Reading the application and the very brief description of the private Christian school,  it looks like these two schools are very much the same school," she wrote.  "I guess I have a broader concern  --  if this ostensibly publicly funded, and therefore secular, school is this closely tied to a religious school, will UCS have a truly secular character?"

It was a great question. 

"Charter schools, as public schools, must meet the state statute which clearly says they are to be nonsectarian,"  says Joel Medley,  director of the N.C. Office of Charter Schools.  "Several charter schools have started in churches to attain a facility for the first year or so.  The religious iconography is to be removed (i.e. purple cloths put over crucifixes in Catholic parishes) in order to meet the tenets of the law.  Proselytizing is not allowed within the classroom."

Medley noted that both the current school run by Hedgepeth and her proposed charter school center on the Basic School method developed by the late educator Ernest Boyer.  It's a non-religious approach that focuses on parent-teacher partnership and seven core virtues,  and it's already in use at Community School of Davidson and Corvian Community School,  charters in northern Mecklenburg County.  The state's charter school advisory board noted the link to the church school and made sure United Community's board understood the need to be  "a separate and totally secular institution,"  Medley added.

I spoke with Hedgepeth last week,  while reporting a story on new charters.  She said she and her husband came across the Basic School model while looking for the best way to educate their own children.  She opened the small church-based school  --  it currently has 16 students, she said  --  while working toward a charter.  She hopes to have about 200 K-2 students in August,  eventually expanding to about 650 in K-8.  The school will incorporate her family's love of the arts,  she said,  with piano theory taught to all students.

I also looped back to Magi.  She had talked with Hedgepeth and liked what she heard.  Magi plans to enter her rising first-grade son in the lottery for United Community School and Pioneer Springs Community School,  a nearby private school that also uses the Basic School model and just got permission to convert to a charter.  

It's a textbook example of what parents need to do these days,  as choices and changes abound.  Magi read up on options,  delved into details,  made connections,  asked smart questions  --  and followed up with personal contact.  Her experiences,  and those of hundreds of other families out there making similar searches,  can help us all figure out how the rapidly changing world of public education is working.  Please share your questions,  comments and observations as the choice season progresses.

Should charters reflect race, poverty?

Mark Edwards,  superintendent of Mooresville Graded Schools,  posed a question to the state Board of Education on Wednesday:  What is the state doing to ensure that charter schools reflect the demographics of the surrounding school district?

Edwards

It's a polite way of voicing the concern that the independent public schools  --  especially those that choose not to offer buses or participate in the federal lunch subsidy program  --  might screen out disadvantaged students and become publicly-subsidized private schools for privileged white kids.

Edwards,  who serves as the state board's superintendent adviser,  raised the demographics question during a discussion of the pending approval of 26 new charter schools.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison has been asking the same question in talks with state and local leaders.

State board member Wayne McDevitt noted that while the state's charter law used to say that charters should reflect the district's demographics,  it has been revised to say they  "shall make an effort"  to reflect the racial composition and poverty levels of the surrounding area.  The real question,  McDevitt said,  is whether charters are truly reaching out to all types of students.

MeckEd has compiled racial breakdowns for Charlotte-area charter schools.  A scan of that report shows that some suburban charters,  such as Community School of Davidson,  Corvian Community School and Socrates Academy,  are more than 80 percent white.  Meanwhile,  urban charters such as Sugar Creek,  KIPP,  Kennedy and Crossroads are more than 90 percent black.

Neither group reflects the overall demographics of CMS,  which was 42 percent black,  32 percent white and 18 percent Hispanic last year.  (What's this year's breakdown?  Good question.  Halfway through the school year,  CMS continues to insist that lingering problems with the PowerSchool data system prevents the district from reporting those tallies.)

The thing is,  CMS schools follow the same pattern.  Only two elementary schools,  Davidson and Beverly Woods,  topped 80 percent white last year.  But plenty of suburban schools have strong white majorities  (and low poverty levels)  while even more urban schools show the opposite pattern.  And test scores tend to track demographics,  whether in traditional public schools or charters.

Joel Medley,  director of the state Office of Charter Schools,  told the state board that while charter schools don't have to provide buses or free lunches,  they are required to ensure that any child who applies and gets in through the admission lottery isn't denied access for lack of transportation or parents' ability to provide lunches.  Strategies can include helping parents create carpools,  paying for van service for kids who need a ride and having some type of meal on hand for kids who don't bring a lunch or can't afford to buy from vendors.

As a practical matter,  I've heard from parents over the years that some charters discourage disadvantaged families from applying when they emphasize the need to provide your own meals and rides.

Could new exams close N.C. charters?

North Carolina charter schools will get a one-year reprieve from academic standards that could lead the state to revoke charters. But the tougher new tests that debuted last year,  leading to a dramatic plunge in pass rates across the state,  could spell trouble for many schools moving forward.

Seventy-five of 108 charter schools that reported scores for 2013 fell below the 60 percent composite pass rate that can trigger a label of  "academically inadequate." That's not a surprise,  given that fewer than half of all public-school students (including traditional public schools and charters,  which are operated by independent boards) passed last year's math and reading exams.  And it's actually better than schools run by local districts:  By my tally, 86 percent of North Carolina's district schools and 69 percent of charters had pass rates below 60 percent.  (See results for Mecklenburg schools in the school data listing at right.)

Charlotte's Sugar Creek Charter had low proficiency but high growth

State law defines charter schools as academically inadequate if they have composite pass rates below 60 percent on state exams and  "no growth in student performance"  for two out of three consecutive years.  One charter has been closed since those standards were set in 2011 and several others have been  "put on notice"  that they're at risk,  Joel Medley,  director of the N.C. Office of Charter Schools,  said in a recent letter to charter operators.

But a 60 percent pass rate on the old tests isn't the same as 60 percent on the new exams,  which are designed to test the more complex skills demanded by national Common Core academic standards.  In fact,  I'm still puzzling over how anyone can accurately calculate year-to-year student growth,  given that the testing has changed so much. School growth ratings are now tallied by the Cary-based SAS, a private company that uses a secret formula to determine whether N.C. schools met, exceeded or fell short of acceptable progress.

The state Board of Education decided not to penalize anyone for 2012-13 scores,  Medley said,  but this year's results will count and could combine with earlier years to label a school inadequate.  By Dec. 19,  Medley said,  he'll notify operators if their school is at risk.

Eighteen of the charters that fell below 60 percent also failed to meet the state growth targets.  Those included four in the Charlotte area:  American Renaissance School in Statesville (38.7 percent overall proficiency),  Carolina International School in Harrisburg  (50.2 percent),  Community Charter in Charlotte  (17.8 percent)  and Crossroads Charter High in Charlotte (less than 5 percent).

Closing of  inadequate charters is not automatic. Update/correction: Medley called Monday and said under the current system, revocation is automatic for schools that fail to meet the standards for two of the most recent three years (which will not include 2012-13).

My guess is there's going to be a lot of discussion among charter advocates, state education officials and lawmakers about the definition of the label.   After all,  if falling below 60 percent proficiency and failing to make growth targets are indicators of academic failure ,  many traditional public schools also fell short last year,  including Charlotte-Mecklenburg's Hopewell  (33.7 percent),  Independence  (45.3 percent)  and Myers Park  (58.5 percent) high schools.