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Primer on Ohio’s school report cards
The Dayton Daily News this week featured two items on the topic of area charter schools’ performance on state report cards last year. Both were fair and interesting. The first piece gave detailed examples of both a high-rated (DECA) and a low-rated (Engage High School) school. Leaders of both schools clearly explained what they were doing to get good outcomes in the first place or to improve suboptimal outcomes for their students. That has always been the purpose of report card ratings and its great to see this spelled out so clearly. Similarly, the second piece looks at two Dayton charter schools whose poor report card performance earned them one “strike” from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce toward permanent closure. One of these is Dayton Leadership Academies, whose school leader and sponsor (The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation) are quoted at length on the detailed efforts underway this year to improve student outcomes and, subsequently, next year’s report card ratings. A low rating is obviously not good news, but improving practice and outcomes in response to those ratings is exactly how state report cards are supposed to function here in Ohio.
The wheels on the bus need better alignment
Yellow bus transportation for private and charter school students in Ohio has been supported by the state for more than 50 years. But Fordham’s Aaron Churchill argues in a blog post this week that this support is being undermined today by districts looking primarily to serve their own students. This is wrong, he argues, and urges state lawmakers to step in and to ensure fair busing for all families, regardless of the school(s) their children attend. Unfortunately, he is not talking about the recently-introduced House Bill 545. It is touted as a solution to ongoing transportation problems. But while it would give districts an additional $88 million to pay for student transportation, it would also allow them to dictate the daily timeframes in which they will and will not provide busing for charter, private, and STEM school students, effectively giving them say over the start/end times for their competitors. Definitely not the fairness Churchill is looking for.
The view from Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board this weekend rejected a proposal to establish the Jewish-affiliated Ben Gamla virtual charter school, citing a legal requirement for public schools to be non-sectarian. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed suit on Wednesday against the board, claiming that they deliberately failed to perform their clear legal duty of informing the organization in writing of the full list of reasons why they were rejected. This is likely to set up another legal battle destined to end up in the United States Supreme Court.
The view from Illinois
Illinois Senate Bill 3391, which passed out of the Senate Executive Committee earlier this week, would make numerous changes to the state’s charter school law, including tightening renewal timelines, speeding up closure processes for non-renewed schools, withholding state funding for non-renewed schools, and allowing the state to sue charter operators if they fail to maintain sufficient funds to execute an orderly closure process. The bill, supported by the Chicago Teachers Union, now moves on to the full Senate.
Survey opportunity
Momentum Strategy & Research and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools are collecting survey data from charter schools in low-density and rural areas that have had experience with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and facility financing, or have outstanding facilities needs and want to learn more about what USDA can offer. If you are an Ohio charter school leader or staff member in such a school—in a community with a population under 50,000 people—this simple survey is a great way to make your voice heard and to share your facilities challenges with a federal agency looking to help. You can access the survey and more information about USDA’s programs by clicking here. For more information or to check your school’s eligibility, contact Jim Griffin at [email protected].
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