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| | State board wants better results from charter schools
Tuesday, Mar 9, 2004 By David Robinson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Less than stellar academic track records by Arkansas' first two open-enrollment charter schools led the state Board of Education to defer action Monday on their contract renewals. Nearly three years after becoming charter schools, the Benton County School of the Arts and the Maumelle-based Academics Plus charter schools must set clearer and higher academic goals for their students, state board members said. State board member Luke Gordy of Van Buren noted that the Northwest Arkansas school's sixth grade literacy scores dropped 12 points over the past year. "What Benton County School for the Arts said they were going to do is use the arts to enrich education and improve literacy, and it's not happening like they said it was going to happen," Gordy said. Sixth graders' benchmark exam scores at the Benton County school went from 50 percent at proficient or advanced in 2001-2002 to 38 percent in 2002-2003. That compares to the neighboring Bentonville School District's sixth-grade literacy score of 44 at or above proficient in 2001-2002. "We accepted goals lower than we should have," Gordy said, noting that the Benton County charter school had met goals set in the original charter. "I would just be real uncomfortable approving this charter without some changes." Randy Lawson, a state board member from Bentonville, said he was unsure why the Benton County school was being criticized when it appeared to be on par with the performance of Maumelle's Academics Plus. "If we're going to hold up any of them, we should hold up all of them," Lawson said. Lawson said he had toured the charter school, and while acknowledging that some areas need improvement, "I was amazed with what they do with such limited resources." Gordy, however, said the schools are significantly different demographically. The Benton County school has 95 percent white student population compared to 68 percent at Academics Plus. Gordy and other board members said they also believe charter schools' academic expectations must be higher than traditional public schools. For example, he said standards should be more ambitious than those under the federal No Child Left Behind law's "adequate yearly progress" requirement for public schools. "This is a charter school, allowing them to be exempted from certain regulations," Gordy said. "To have the same performance standards as every other school in the state I don't think is appropriate. Their performance standards need to be higher than what we expect from every other school in the state." Board member Shelby Hillman of Carlisle echoed the sentiment, saying it makes no sense to allow rules-exempt, publicly funded charter schools - which receive as much as $450,000 in federal start-up money - if they can't exceed the performance of traditional public schools. Gordy later said he believes that Academics Plus' academic performance goals are weak, too, and should be upgraded. The board asked the department and the charter schools to determine new goals in their renewed charter contracts. A special meeting of the board could be held within a week to help accommodate time constraints related to building leases that must be signed by Benton County charter school officials. Tommy Stokes, administrator of the arts school, said he had told others that he would be able to sign lease papers today, assuming the board's approval. "There's disappointment," Stokes said afterward. "We felt like we had met the initial contract, but we understand things are different than they were three years ago, and we're willing to meet the new standards that they're going to set in front of us." He said he believed, that overall, student performance has improved. In math, the school's sixth graders improved from 38 percent proficient or better to 44 percent, according to information provided by the Department of Education. Fourth grade literacy (proficient or better) dropped from 85 percent to 73 percent. Fourth grade math went from 78 percent to 79 percent. Also Monday, the state Board of Education denied the Emmett School District's request to convert its 297-student district to a charter school. Board members said they didn't believe the intent of the law was to allow entire districts to become charter schools. Education officials suggested that, once the district is consolidated under a new law, specific schools at Emmett could apply for charter school status. State law adopted in January requires the administrative consolidation of districts with fewer than 350 students. The state board approved new conversion charter schools sought by the Cabot and Vilonia school districts. It also renewed the Blytheville School District's Charter School and Alternate Learning Center. The board's criminal background policy led it to revoke two teaching licenses and deny the renewal request for a third Monday: -Former Arkadelphia teacher James Smith's license was permanently revoked after being convicted on 20 counts of violation of a minor. -Gregory Seawood's license renewal request was denied and his license was permanently revoked after a fourth driving while intoxicated conviction. -Former Altheimer Unified teacher Leon Harris Jr.'s license was revoked after the state of Montana revoked his license because he hadn't submitted proof that he graduated from an accredited teacher education program. |
