Web Posted: 01/28/2007 02:13 AM CST
Jeanne Russell and Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News
Last year, the School of Science and Technology, a college-prep charter school, was alone among San Antonio middle schools when it earned the top rating of exemplary in the Texas public school accountability system.
Under a less rigorous, alternative assessment system, the San Antonio campus of the Eagle Academy charter chain repeatedly earned the rating of unacceptable and, in recent years, averted closure through a settlement with the Texas Education Agency.
Ten years into the charter school movement, the Texas experiment, like those under way around the country, is a confusing mix of extremes, and hardly the transformative educational experience reformers predicted.
About 60 percent of the state's 313 charter campuses are performing well enough, say observers such as Jonas Chartock, CEO of the Charter School Policy Institute, an Austin-based think tank that supports the charter movement. At either end are the successes, like the School of Science and Technology, which represent about 20 percent of the total, and struggling campuses like San Antonio's Eagle Academy, which represent another roughly 20 percent.
Troubled schools continue to provide fodder for critics who say charters — independent schools free of many regulations and paid for with taxpayer money — are doing students and parents a disservice.
On the Web
For more information on Texas charter schools, including assessments of individual campuses, go to: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/
Among the critics are some of the charter movement's most vehement boosters, who fear that low-performing charters are jeopardizing the push for a taxpayer-funded alternative to traditional public schools. In Texas, these critics are moving for airtight regulation for the first time.
Express-News Multimedia
(Jerry Lara/Express-News)
Barbara Macumba, 13, works on her essay at the School of Science and Technology. Macumba took 4th place in the Computer & Math category of the Texas Science Fair with her "Efficient Keyboards" entry.
(Jerry Lara/Express-News)
Katherine Schlagal, 14, checks out her classmates during physical education class at the School of Science and Technology.
Slide Show: A look at charter schools
State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, chairwoman of the Senate education committee, and Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, plan to introduce legislation in the next few weeks that would automatically shut down charter schools rated academically unacceptable two years in a row and reward those that consistently do well. The Legislature has talked tough before, but Shapiro said she wants loopholes closed, and Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said he supports her efforts.
"What we've done over the years is granted a lot of charters in the hopes that they would all be good, but that hasn't been the case," Shapiro said. "We can't just turn away and hope that they'll be better. We need some standards. The good charters want this. They want high standards."
Charter schools were sold to taxpayers as an exit plan for students trapped in failing public schools. However, the bulk of research shows that students fare similarly in both settings, with the slight advantage going to traditional public schools, said Henry Levin, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University's Teachers College.
Nor does the balance of research generally support the notion that bad public schools have improved in response to competition, though at least one Texas study reported improved performance in some urban districts.
"Certainly, if you go back 10 years, charter advocates were talking about revolutionary changes. That just hasn't happened. Anyone who makes that argument is smoking something," Levin said.
"Do they provide competition? The answers are still out," he continued. "Do they provide parents with meaningful choices? In some cases, yes."
Enforcing tougher rules
The nation's approximately 4,000 charter schools serve about 1 million children in 40 states and Washington, D.C. — less than 2 percent of the nation's 60 million schoolchildren. In Texas, 70,904 students, less than 2 percent of the state's 4.5 million children in public schools, attended charter schools last year. Of the $12.6 billion Texas spent to operate public schools, $536 million, or about 4 percent, went to charters. There is no reliable total available for how much U.S. taxpayers have spent so far on charters nationally, according to the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington.
Advocates say continued support for the still burgeoning charter experiment depends on results. Only by weeding out the weakest links can the movement succeed, they say.
"Probably in the range of 20 percent should be shut down altogether, either for chronic underperforming, not serving kids, or not having the ability to manage the books," said Chartock, who believes Texas has "some charter schools that are the best in the country."
In Texas, efforts to police charter schools have been spotty, at best. In 2001, House Bill 1 gave the Texas Education Agency the power to close a charter school after two low-performing years. However, closure was not automatic, and it remained difficult to revoke a school's charter, meaning the operator could open other campuses. Moreover, a change in the state's accountability system raised questions about how to count consecutive years.
Last year's school finance bill further tightened the rules.
Under the current rules, state education officials singled out low-performing charters, including four Eagle campuses, for possible closure. Following state pressure, Career Plus Learning Academy in San Antonio closed last year. The Lewisville-based Eagle chain, however, negotiated a settlement to keep its campuses open based on success elsewhere, though it did close two campuses and reopen them under new management.
Shapiro's proposed bill would make the closure of a charter school after two years on the academically unacceptable list automatic, removing intermediate steps that have slowed enforcement and helped spur courtroom battles. It would also set an absolute standard that a minimum of 25 percent of a school's students must pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests in reading and math. If a school misses that mark two years in a row, it would have to shut its doors.
"We'll set a standard and they need to meet that standard in order to maintain a charter," Shapiro said.
The bill would also reward the best charter schools — those ranked recognized or exemplary by the state two out of three years — with money for bricks and mortar.
Currently, Texas charters, some of which operate out of storefront rentals or warehouses, get the same amount of money per student as Texas public schools, but no money for facilities.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, supports Shapiro's bill, but has reservations about rewarding charter schools with money for buildings.
"We have schools in Bexar County and in South Texas that need money for facilities," Van de Putte said. "I'm a little uncomfortable with providing money for facilities for charters when our districts are in need."
Ultimately, Van de Putte called the bill a "positive piece of legislation" and said the money for facilities won't hold up her vote, as long as lawmakers put enough aside for poor districts that need it. Charter advocates outside the Legislature hope this carrot and stick approach might allow the state's most successful charter brands, most of which are not in San Antonio, to expand rapidly.
Many of the 43 local charter schools cater to students at risk of dropping out. Last year, two local charter schools earned the state's top ratings; one closed, and most continued to lag traditional public schools on test scores.
Schools established for the toughest-to-educate students may never post stellar TAKS scores even though many are doing tremendous work, Eissler said.
"You have to look at the makeup of charter schools," he said. "Some of them have as their market kids that have just dropped out."
Such charter schools argue that many of their students come to them far behind grade level. The students may make incredible progress from one year to the next while still not passing the state's test.
Shapiro's spokeswoman, Jennifer Ransom Rice, said there has been discussion of adding a caveat to the proposed bill that would allow such schools to prove that students are making considerable progress, even if their TAKS scores are sub par, thus saving themselves from closure. Rice said even if that measure is added to the bill, however, it would likely be a one-time-only second chance.
Eissler, a former school board member who supports charter schools, said closer scrutiny of charters is long overdue. "They do some good things. They push the envelope in certain areas," he said. "But it's a matter of spotlighting. They've been operating under the radar until now."
A school on the edge
Eagle Academy leaders attribute last year's low rating to a portion of the accountability system that counts how many students graduate in four years. Because students often arrive at Eagle's San Antonio campus as juniors or seniors, yet lag several years in school, this can be a hard standard to meet, school leaders said.
About 15 percent of Texas charter schools, like Eagle, specifically appeal to students who have fallen behind in credits, according to an analysis by the Charter School Policy Institute. After appealing to TEA last year, arguing that one student had been erroneously counted, the school was upgraded to acceptable. Under the state's alternative assessment system, a school can win either a rating of academically acceptable or unacceptable. Under the standard accountability system, most Texas public schools can earn one of four ratings: exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable.
Principal Linda Eichman readily acknowledges that Eagle Academy, in a strip mall on Fredericksburg Road, was in disarray when she took over. After she physically cleaned up the school and gave more authority to teachers, things improved. Enrollment has almost doubled this year to about 250 students. In the days leading up to the holiday break, some classes bulged at close to 40, a number Eichman sought to reduce by adding teachers.
She is concerned that more stringent oversight, like the kind Shapiro is proposing, could disproportionately hurt schools like the Eagle Academy, which reaches out to kids who are far behind.
"What bothers me is when you get a school like this one, which is a really good school, we're getting a bad rap all based on TAKS," she said. "If you shut down the ones that are not making progress, where are those kids going to go?"
Students sometimes sleep in class, and many listen to music as they complete worksheets or work on the computer, but the halls are orderly and teachers remain focused on whether they can complete the assignments necessary for credit in a particular class.
"We've gotten a reputation that we do work with kids here and that we care," Eichman said.
In 1998, the state of Texas granted the Eagle Academies of Texas chain charters to open 15 schools across the state, making it the state's largest chain of charter schools. The chain has weathered poor test scores, a critical state audit, and news reports challenging its payments to the for-profit Planagement Group, a management group with close ties to Eagle founders. Though it closed three campuses, the chain has grown overall, with 16 campuses across the state.
In recent years, the chain has severed its ties with Planagement, boosted its test scores, hired more credentialed teachers and principals, and adopted a new math curriculum. Eichman, who formerly worked for the TEA's office of school improvement, said she took the job because she believed the parent company was committed to cleaning up the school. She also felt as though the teachers, most of whom come through alternative certification programs, were dedicated to troubled youth.
"The question I asked was: 'How many teachers are staying?'" she said. "The answer was: 'All but one.'"
Eagle students, many of whom are behind in coursework or have lost credits due to absences, pursue credits by working individually or in small groups. Teachers monitor rather than lecture, and students are not grouped by subject but loosely organized by grade level, or their nearness to graduation. Students aren't penalized if they arrive late; they typically stay for about four hours, and the school works to accommodate their schedules. It offers limited electives and no physical education or sports.
That works for Kristal Treviño, 18, Amanda Castañeda, 17, and Genita Zertuche, 18. The girls have made it to Mario Rodriguez's room, a sought-after spot, as it signals they have completed nearly all graduation requirements. All three girls are studying to pass the science exit exam, and all three describe frustrations with large schools that made it hard to clear the bureaucratic hurdles needed to catch up after missing school.
Castañeda missed school for the first time her sophomore year, when she had an appendectomy. Then she lost ground when she traveled to South Carolina because her father died.
Treviño fell behind after giving birth to a daughter her junior year, and though wanting to stay in school, accumulated absences when her daughter was sick.
"I don't think I would be in school at all," she said. "I think it's better for me to be with my daughter when she's sick. I probably would have stayed home, just for a year."
Zertuche, an epileptic, fell behind after a bad seizure, and felt like her school wouldn't accommodate her short need to use a wheelchair.
"Public schools do everything they can within their means," Eichman said. "The larger high schools could not possibly reach this group of kids."
A modern charter
The Eagle Academy couldn't feel more different from the School of Science and Technology, a small, college-focused middle school, which attracted students from some of the area's top schools when it opened in 2005.
In a sixth-grade science class at the school, located off Loop 410, groups of two and three students huddle around beakers and timers as they test how the temperature of water affects the speed at which Alka Seltzer dissolves.
"My parents didn't want me to go to a (traditional) public school," said Orlando Benesh, 11. "They liked this school because it was small."
Aseem Panwar, 11, said he was attracted to the school's science focus because he hopes, one day, to be an astronaut.
"All of my friends wanted to come here," he added.
Parents offered similar reasons for choosing the school, citing its narrow academic focus and small size — about 330 students compared with 886 at Garner Middle School in the North East Independent School District, the nearest traditional public middle school.
"There were two things I liked," said Jaime Jurado, parent of a seventh-grader. "The desire for academic excellence, and the uniforms and character education."
The school is loosely affiliated with the Houston-based chain of Harmony Schools, which also focuses on science education and opened an elementary campus in San Antonio this year. Principal Mark Namver came from Harmony's Austin campus, and has relied on Harmony for teacher training and some materials.
It opened with sixth through eighth grades and added ninth grade this year, and about 160 of last year's 210 students returned.
"We don't have only smart kids here," Namver said, attributing the school's exceptional test scores in its first year to "hard work, individual attention and the school atmosphere."
Aside from its size and the fact that it is in a former furniture store, the School of Science and Technology feels like a traditional school, with a smattering of unique offerings such as the required character education classes, a Turkish language elective and an emphasis on its annual science fair. The school offers physical education but does not field competitive sports teams. In return, though, students gain a sense of intimacy. Teachers here, for example, open the school on weekends for students to prepare for the science fair, and do at least one home visit a year, said Assistant Principal Bulent Dogan.
"They (parents) say: 'For the first time in my life, a teacher is coming to visit my child in my home,'" Dogan said.
Like the School of Science and Technology, the state's most effective charter schools, a group that includes Harmony, the KIPP schools, the Houston-based YES Prep and the Rio Grande Valley-based IDEA Academy, are all small, college-preparatory schools.
What makes these schools successful, observers say, is an intense focus on college, and in many cases extended days, extended years and contracts and close relationships with parents. Many, though not the School of Science and Technology, which serves only 40 percent low-income students, have gained national attention because they have dramatically narrowed the gap between haves and have-nots.
The college-prep schools differ from schools like Eagle in that they demand much from parents and students, and are unlikely to draw a student like Treviño, who has fallen behind and is raising a child. It's the high-performing college-prep schools targeting low-income kids that Chartock hopes might grow to serve 10 percent of the state's children.
Paul Kelleher, chairman of the Trinity University department of education, is skeptical. The high-profile charter successes may attract a special type of parent and student, making them hard to replicate, Kelleher said, adding that charters may offer the greatest value as laboratories for new ideas.
"It seems to be that charters are a niche," he said, "maybe an important one."
jeanner@express-news.net
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA012807.01A.charters_mature.1bee008.html
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