This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Open Letter to Charter Schools Commissioners

The limited success of the charter school industry as a whole should make clear to us the need to establish and enforce powerful transparency and accountability oversight.  However, within the charter school industry, the segment with the most notorious weaknesses is the cyber charter schools. 

 

I reference a report from the Central Pennsylvania Patriot-News of Nov. 24, 2013, as one example of the level of concern.

Find out what's happening in Kirklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

(1)

Find out what's happening in Kirklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“A 2011 report by Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes that examined Pennsylvania charter schools found that “performance at cyber charter schools was substantially lower than the performance at brick-and-mortar charters.” “

(2)

“Last week, Research for Action and our colleagues at the Education Law Center weighed new data: School Performance Profile scores, which are at the heart of the state’s new accountability plan under its No Child Left Behind waiver. We examined scores for the 11 cyber charter schools for which complete data were available—together, these schools educate nearly 17,000 students, or roughly half of the statewide cyber charter enrollment.

 

All 11 cybers scored among the lowest schools in the state. Not one of these cyber schools met or exceeded the average performance of Pennsylvania’s public and charter schools.”

 

It would appear that one or more of the current applications for authorization in Washington state intends to focus on a cyber school model.  In so far as that is true, I urge the commission to be most judicious in reviewing these applications. 

 

I do not call for outright refusal, as that would be too draconian.  But, the problems incumbent in that segment of the charter school industry justify a more than ordinarily rigorous evaluation. 

 

I remain exceptionally impressed with the efforts and production of the commission and the commitment of its commissioners.  I look forward to further communications with you. 
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Kirkland