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  • Home
  • ABOUT US
  • Content
    • Analysis
    • Commentary and Opinion
    • News
    • Spotlights
    • Voices for Education Choice
    • factcheckED
  • Topics
    • Achievement Gap
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    • Customization
    • Education Equity
    • Education Politics
    • Education Research
    • Education Savings Accounts
    • Education Spending
    • Faith-based Education
    • Florida Schools Roundup
    • Homeschooling
    • Microschools
    • Parent Empowerment
    • Private Schools
    • Special Education
    • Testing and Accountability
    • Virtual Education
    • Vouchers
  • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Guest Bloggers
    • Ashley Berner
    • Jonathan Butcher
    • Jack Coons
    • Dan Lips
    • Chris Stewart
    • Patrick J. Wolf
  • Education Facts
    • Research and Reports
    • Gardiner Scholarship Basic Program Facts
    • Hope Scholarship Program Facts
    • Reading Scholarship Program Facts
    • FES Basic Facts
  • Search

Charter Schools

Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation EquityFeaturedParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Can we stop fighting about charter schools?

Special to redefinED February 24, 2021
Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This commentary by Eve L. Ewing, a sociologist of education whose research focuses on racism, social inequality and urban policy and the impact of these forces on American public schools, appeared Monday in the New York Times.

As an education researcher, a writer, and a former teacher, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with people all over the country about public schools. And wherever I go, there’s one question I can usually count on being asked:

“What do you think about charter schools?”

I know people want a cut-and-dried answer. Unfortunately, the discourse about charter schools has become more of an ideological debate, split neatly into opposing factions, than it is a policy discussion informed by facts. As long as Democrats play by those rules, they miss an important chance to reframe the debate altogether.

Instead of splitting across dogmatic “pro-charter” or “anti-charter” lines, the Biden administration should take a simpler, more transformative stance: demanding high-quality, well-financed schools for all children.

The research on charter schools gives fuel to both sides of the debate. Studies have found, at varying times and in varying contexts, all of the following: Charters have improved in effectiveness, but are less effective than their non-charter peers — yet are more effective for low-income students and students of color than for white and more affluent students. Charters are more likely to suspend their students than their non-charter peers.

To continue reading, click here.

 

February 24, 2021 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceEducation ResearchFeaturedParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Uneasy lies the head that wears the tiara

Matthew Ladner February 22, 2021
Matthew Ladner

Recently, I watched Liberty: the American Revolution.  The documentary includes a dramatization of letters Abigail Adams wrote to her sister while her husband served as United States ambassador to Great Britain.

Abigail was less than impressed with “his Britannic majesty” and the other members of the British royal family, a family she noted to be “inclined to corpulence.” She observed that the English boasted of the beauty of the English princess, but it took more than a tiara to impress Abigail Adams.

“Your simple American girl is much prettier,” she noted, concluding, “There is a servility of manners here, a distinction between nobility and common citizens, which happily is foreign to Americans.”

Abigail’s lack of deference and her inclination to judge beauty by her own standards came to mind when I saw a new ranking of state charter school laws. Back in 2018, I offered a light-hearted nudge to my friends within the national charter school organizations with a post titled It’s Time for Technocratic Beauty Pageant Charter Rankings to End.

The basic point I attempted to make is that the charter school movement has fallen into the habit of passing charter school laws that haven’t produced many actual charter schools. Ranking charter-lite charter laws highly in ranking exercises seems even more dubious. Alas, I failed to prove persuasive as the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a new ranking of charter school laws last week, again judging laws against a model bill.

Stanford University’s Opportunity Project, however, has created a new tool that might help illustrate the point, so I’ll try again.

The chart above is drawn directly from the Opportunity Project’s data explorer and shows the academic growth scores for the charter schools in the state of Indiana. Indiana’s charter school law has placed first multiple years in a row in both the National Alliance and National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) rankings.

In these charts, green dots denote charter schools with above average rates of academic growth, blue dots below average academic growth. The grey dots in the background are the shadows of every other school in the country.

Academic growth isn’t the only criterion for judging schools, let alone a perfect one. New schools full of students who just transferred in, for instance, might be at a disadvantage; this would apply especially to youngish charters. Some of these schools also are likely alternative schools doing dropout recovery. With those caveats in mind, let’s proceed.

So, what to make of the Indiana charter sector’s outcomes?

There certainly are some high performing schools – four schools with a rate of academic growth 20% or more higher than the national average. Note, however, that an equal number have rates 20% below the national average. Counting the dots in Indiana reveals 21 high growth green dots, 22 lower growth blue dots, and one school right on the national average.

Like Abigail Adams, suffering through hours of Britannic court pomp, color me less than overwhelmed.

Next, let’s look at Indiana’s neighbor, Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks 39th in the National Alliance rankings, which is near the bottom, as there only are 45 states with laws).

Wisconsin has a smaller population than Indiana but more charter schools. Wisconsin has five times as many charter schools showing academic growth 20% or more higher than the national average than Indiana. Wisconsin, moreover, has zero charter schools with a rate 20% below the national average.

Call me crazy – it’s been too long since anyone has – but by my way of thinking, Wisconsin has a better charter law than Indiana because it has created more high-quality opportunities for students.

Now imagine you are working on charter schools in Texas, which came in 29th in the National Alliance ranking. Texas is a much larger state than Indiana, but note the ratio of dark-green schools to dark-blue dots in the Texas chart and compare it to the Indiana chart above.

How much servility of manners would we expect Texans to show towards the Indiana law? Texas appears to have approximately three times more charters with rates of academic growth 20% higher than the national average than Indiana has in total charter schools, after all.

In my opinion, we ought to judge the beauty of charter laws not by their adherence to a model, but rather by their outcomes. If the model law continues to coronate a law with a notable lack of seats, schools or academic growth, the tiara raises more questions about the model than it bestows glory.

February 22, 2021 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsEducation and Public PolicyFeaturedNewsSchool BoardsSchool Choice

Charter school network prepares to return formerly struggling North Florida schools to local control

Lisa Buie February 9, 2021
Lisa Buie

Somerset Academy, Florida’s largest charter school network, operates schools throughout the state, including Somerset Academy K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 in Jefferson County.

Nearly five years after taking over operations of Jefferson County’s struggling school system, Somerset Academy, Inc. is preparing to return control to the local school board.

“I’m super proud of how far we’ve come,” said Cory Oliver, who has served as principal of the combined K-12 campus since two district schools were turned over to the South Florida based charter school network. “It’s a completely different school.”

Oliver, whose office sports a Superman theme, has a lot to feel good about.

The percentage of students receiving passing scores on state standardized tests, which once were in single digits, are now between 35 and 45% in most subjects. Disciplinary referrals are down by 80% since the start of the 2020-21 school year. The district, which earned D’s in the two years prior to Somerset’s arrival, has improved a letter grade.

The high school graduation rate rose by almost 20 percentage points this year, though state officials caution that may not be accurate as many students were not required to retake graduation tests due to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, enrollment, which was a little less than 700 in 2017 and represented only about half of all eligible students who lived in the district, has increased to about 779.

The improvements go beyond academics. Somerset installed a new kitchen and added a culinary arts program and built a recording studio. It renovated the gym and refurbished the weight room. Band members got new instruments and football players no longer had to share shoulder pads.

The JROTC program, impressive before Somerset took over, continues to be a shining star. Trophies hidden away in closets are now displayed in trophy cases. Classrooms got technology upgrades. Students got new uniforms.

“It’s like night and day. These kids have been in poverty and living without for so long,” Oliver said. “We want them to see what’s possible and feel like this is home and that they deserve to be here.”

Oliver’s philosophy was reflected in the school’s motto for 2019-20: “Whatever It Takes!” to Somerset officials, it took everything they had to improve what had been the lowest performing schools in the state.

“When we got here, the staff was exhausted and overwhelmed,” Oliver said. “The staff is still exhausted and overwhelmed, but they’re seeing results. They’re seeing what’s possible when they work as a team and know they are going to be supported.”

Residents of Jefferson County, a 637-square-mile area with a population of about 15,000, once were proud of their schools, which were a model for other districts, according to comments Jefferson County School Board member Shirley Washington made at a State Board of Education meeting in 2016.

“We used to be the flying Tigers,” Washington said, referring to the school’s Tiger mascot. “We had other schools come to our county and see what we were doing. We’re going to get it back there. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

But to state officials, the Jefferson County schools looked more like the crash-and-burn Tigers. Florida Department of Education officials came to visit and did not like what they saw.

More than half of the students at Jefferson Middle-High School had been held back two or more times. Just 7% of middle schoolers scored at grade level on 2016 state math assessment. To put that in perspective, 26% of students were performing at grade level in the state’s second-lowest performing district. Enrollment had dwindled for years as more families sent their students to private schools or district schools in neighboring counties. Finances also were a mess.  

After rejecting the three turnaround plans that district officials submitted, the Board of Education took an historic vote to make Jefferson County schools the state’s first district run by a charter school provider. The solution mirrored education reform in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina decimated the schools.

Somerset Academy, Inc. won the bid to assume control.

Somerset staff arrived to discover complete disarray: crumbling buildings, graffiti-covered walls, old equipment stacked against classroom walls and no enforcement of discipline.

“It was way worse than we ever imagined,” said Todd German, chairman and treasure of Somerset’s board of directors. “These did not look like places anyone would want to come to learn or come to work.”

School board members pledged to cooperate with Somerset but later said they were “coerced” into accepting the arrangement. The superintendent at the time told WLRN Public Radio that the Department of Education “played in places they shouldn’t have.”  Education Commissioner Pam Stewart countered, stating it was “very clear that the Department acted within their authority.”

The charter network fired about half the staff and recruited new teachers. Teacher salaries were raised to $43,800, compared to $36,160 teachers in neighboring Leon County earned. The network hired additional security officers at the schools, where fights had broken out almost daily. One brawl, which occurred just a few months after Somerset came on board, resulted in 15 arrests.

“It was like the wild West,” German recalled, while acknowledging the problems were caused by a small percentage of students. “Cory improved security and put in some zero tolerance policies.”

Oliver said staff from Somerset arrived to find a culture of apathy. Students were allowed to loiter in the halls or outside when they should have been in class.

After the takeover, he said, even the maintenance staff pitched in, alerting administrators when they saw anyone who didn’t belong on campus. Custodians engaged students who looked stressed to make sure they were okay.

“We were de-escalators, not enforcers,” said Oliver, who also hired mental health specialists and started a mentoring program for younger students.

Slowly, the culture began to change. Community members, including the Rev. Pedro McKelvin of Welaunee Missionary Baptist Church, began to support the new leadership. Before the takeover, he said, the district “was on the brink of collapse.”

Christian Steen, a senior, credited Oliver with boosting morale and observed that things had improved significantly.

“The students are more focused in class and now there’s not much skipping,” said Steen when he spoke before a House Education Committee three months after the takeover.

As they enter the last year of their contract, Somerset officials want to prepare to hand the district back to local officials. They already have begun working with a newly elected superintendent to meet that goal. Somerset has offered to let a new principal hired by the school district shadow Oliver before he leaves.

“I have a lot of feelings about leaving Jefferson,” said German, Somerset’s chairman. “I hope we can set (the schools) up to succeed.”

February 9, 2021 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsCoronavirus / COVID-19CustomizationEducation and Public PolicyEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Charter schools on the rise in Florida and across the nation

Lisa Buie January 29, 2021
Lisa Buie

Somerset Academy, Florida’s largest charter school network, has been serving Florida families for 20 years. Since 2017, the network has been working to turn around three struggling district schools in Jefferson County, Florida.

Editor’s note: Today’s post is the final installment in redefinED’s salute to National School Choice Week. In case you missed our other posts, you can read them here, here, here, here and here.

In the charter school universe, the possibilities are endless.

Want to learn a new language? There’s a charter for that. Want to hone your STEM skills? There’s a charter for that. How about a concentration on art, music or theater? There’s a charter for that, too.

These days there even are charter schools to prepare students for careers in fields such as firefighting and law enforcement.

“The parent in Florida is a savvy education consumer,” said Lynn Norman-Teck, executive director for the Florida Charter School Alliance, which represents charter schools statewide, from independent schools to those run by national networks. “The choice movement is strong in this state not because of a particular governor or the Legislature, though we appreciate their support and help, but it’s really driven by the parent.”

Department of Education figures show charter school popularity is continuing to soar. During the 2019-20 school year, 329,216 K-12 students attended 673 Florida charter schools. That represents more than a 6% jump from 2018-19, when 309,730 students attended 658 charter schools. The increase is particularly impressive since the earlier figures include pre-kindergarten students and the more recent ones do not.

What accounts for charter school popularity?

Some would say it’s because charter schools combine the best of private and district schools. Charters, like district schools, operate with tax dollars and therefore do not charge tuition. But like private schools, they are privately operated, allowing for more innovation and flexibility because they’re free from many regulations governing district schools.

That advantage became evident in March when the coronavirus pandemic shook the world. While some district schools struggled to pivot to distance learning, many charter schools were able to seamlessly transition.

“They are smaller than a district and can make quick decisions,” Norman-Teck said. “They got (electronic) devices in kids’ hands and made sure families had connectivity at home.”

Florida’s foray into charter schools began in 1996, when Urban League of Greater Miami president T. Willard Fair teamed up with then-gubernatorial hopeful Jeb Bush to open the state’s first charter school in Liberty City, an area of South Florida known for its high poverty rate and concentration of minority residents. Though the school closed in 2008 after losing a legal dispute with its landlord over a roof damaged during Hurricane Katrina, the movement it sparked took off, with charter schools opening all over Florida and in many other areas across the United States.

The rapid growth of charter schools is one facet of charter school controversy. Though the schools are non-profit, some turn to for-profit companies to provide certain services such as human resources. Some of the strongest opposition to charter schools has come from district school boards, which argue that charter schools strip district schools of operating funds.

That’s a myth, said Norman-Teck, who explains that Florida law funds schools through a formula based on the number of students enrolled. Students who attend charters don’t put financial burdens on their zoned schools. (You can view a list of character school myths here.)

And in at least one high-profile case, a charter school company was the saving grace for a trio of failing schools North Florida. In 2017, the Florida Board of Education took the unprecedented action of handing control of the district to a charter school network. Somerset Academy, Inc. is set to return Jefferson County’s three district schools to district control next year when its contract ends. 

Last year, new doors opened for charter schools when the Florida Legislature won a three-year court battle over a 2017 education law that makes it easier to open charter schools, which had in some cases encountered resistance from their local school districts.

The law also established a “schools of hope” program that allows high-performing charter schools to open within a 5-mile radius of a long-time, low-performing district school as an alternative for families as well as to spur the district school to improvement.

So, what does the future hold for charter schools?

Norman-Teck thinks it looks a lot like the future of public education overall, with more unbundling of services as parents seek even greater customization for their children.

“It’s about the child,” she said. “Schools have to understand the children they serve and be flexible.”

January 29, 2021 0 comment
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AnalysisCharter SchoolsCustomizationDemographic ResearchEducation ChoiceFeaturedFlorida Tax Credit ScholarshipGardiner ScholarshipHomeschoolingParental ChoicePrivate School ScholarshipsPublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

Once again, charter schools dominate Florida’s education choice landscape

Patrick R. Gibbons January 27, 2021
Patrick R. Gibbons

The 11th National School Choice Week celebration kicked off Monday as various organizations, schools, parents and students celebrate educational opportunities in their own unique way. RedefinED celebrates School Choice Week by releasing its 12th annual Florida Changing Landscapes document.

This most recent document, created from Florida Department of Education data, reveals that more than 1.5 million K-12 Florida students participated in school choice during the 2019-20 school year.

This year’s Changing Landscape is a little different than past years.  Last year, we saw nearly 1.7 million PK-12 students participating in some form of school choice in the Sunshine State. A detailed breakdown of Florida’s VPK program enrollment, the state’s largest voucher program with around 171,000 students, wasn’t available at the time of publication.

This year, we examined only K-12 school choice programs. Where applicable, such as with private school-private pay or the Gardiner Scholarship, pre-K students have been removed from the count.  Likewise, Gardiner Scholarship students who are enrolled in home education programs have been removed from the home education count.

As was the case last year, charter schools dominate the top spot with 329,216 students enrolled. Various public school options, such as magnet schools, career and professional academies and open enrollment continue to dominate the landscape. School choice programs offered by public school districts enrolled more than 717,000 students last year, which means there are more students enrolled in public school choice programs than there are public school students in 24 other states.

Overall, growth in school choice was modest in the 2019-20 school year, adding just 25,000 students for 0.9% growth over the prior year.

The Gardiner Scholarship program, administered by Step Up for Students, the nonprofit that hosts this blog, grew by 17%. Virtual education grew by 15% and Advanced International Certificate of Education programs grew by 14%.

Home education proved to be another popular option, exceeding 101,000 students, a growth of nearly 11% over the prior year. 

Career and Professional Academies and Choice and Magnet Programs saw enrollment decline by 6% and 5%, respectively. Private pay students attending private schools shrunk by 3.5%. But thanks in large measure to Florida’s scholarship programs, total K-12 enrollment in Florida’s private schools grew by 5%.

The 2019-20 school year ended amidst a global pandemic that shook public education well into the new year. Nationally, both charter school and private school enrollment grew by 3% while home education grew by 2%.

You can view last year’s Florida Changing Landscapes document here.

January 27, 2021 1 comment
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Charter SchoolsCommentary and OpinionEducator VoicesEducatorsFeaturedParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool ChoiceVoices for Education Choice

Word for word: Founding principal of IDEA Victory Academy Latoya McGhee

Lisa Buie January 12, 2021
Lisa Buie

Editor’s note: IDEA Public Schools, a Texas-based nonprofit that serves more than 63,000 students in 120 schools across Texas and Louisiana, is set to bring its award-winning college preparatory program to the Sunshine State this year with the opening of two campuses in Hillsborough County.

In their first year, the Tampa “schools of hope” – charter schools that serve lower-income students from one or more persistently low-performing schools – will be open to students in kindergarten through second grade as well as sixth grade, with additional grades added each year until the schools are fully scaled with K-12 campuses. Building on its reputation as the nation’s fastest-growing network of tuition-free, Pre-K-12 public charter schools, IDEA, which stands for Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement, plans to have four schools in the Tampa Bay area by 2023 and aims to grow that number to 20 by 2026.

IDEA Tampa Bay already has begun recruiting students and principals, including Latoya McGhee, who has been tapped as principal in residence at IDEA Victory Vinik Campus. At the school’s virtual groundbreaking in November, McGhee shared how she overcame her personal challenges to succeed in college and life and why IDEA affords her the perfect opportunity to prepare other students to do the same.

Hello everyone, my name is Latoya McGhee, founding principal of IDEA Victory Academy. I have been an educator for 11 years, and most of my career has been spent as a teacher and a leader in low-performing schools in underserved neighborhoods. 

I grew up in a small town called Hartsville, S.C. Though I had a pleasant educational journey through elementary, middle, and high school, I was not prepared for college. 

Throughout grade school, I was considered a “smart” student. I always did my work, always studied, worked hard, and maintained a B average. But in college, I could barely keep up. By the end of my first year, I had failed all my classes, and I was back home in Hartsville. I felt like a complete failure.

When I was pregnant with my son, I worked several jobs and struggled to make ends meet. I enrolled in three colleges and quit. I prayed for an answer, or even just to have options, and one day a co-worker mentioned becoming an educator. Immediately, the small hairs on my arm began to stand up.

I sat there visualizing the possibility. I could actual see myself in a classroom filled with students. It made me smile in that moment to think about the kind of impact that I would make. I knew then that education was my true path of service to both children and my community.

For the first time in years, I set a goal that aligned with my passion. I worked hard to complete the remaining classes I needed to obtain my bachelor’s degree.  I became a teacher, earned my master’s degree and became an assistant principal. Now, here I am, founding principal of IDEA Victory Academy. 

You might be wondering: Why is she sharing this? 

I’m sharing because, as I’ve said, even though I was considered a “smart” student, I was not prepared for college or life. I believe that all children deserve to have options, and to have options, they need to be prepared as early as possible. They deserve to have the education and resources needed to thrive in this world regardless of where they come from.

When I learned about IDEA and its commitment not only to seeing students to the college door but also through college, I knew it was home for me. I knew I wanted to be a part of an organization that is committed to providing a quality education for kids and that stands behind that commitment by ensuring schools have the necessary resources to meet the holistic needs of all students, their families, and the community. 

The children in this community deserve to have passionate educators who are willing to give 100% every day, and I have seen IDEA do this firsthand while completing my residency at an IDEA campus in Weslaco, Texas. I had the opportunity to work with teachers and staff who go above and beyond to ensure that every child has what they need to be happy, healthy, and successful. 

Our Direct Instruction curriculum closes gaps and builds students’ reading confidence. As a result, we can close reading achievement gaps and get 90% of our students reading to grade level at the end of each school year. Our critical student intervention and special education teachers work tirelessly to ensure that differentiated, small group instruction is designed to address the specific content gaps daily. Our Eureka math curriculum allows students to learn math concepts by integrating grade/age-appropriate real-world scenarios and activities into daily lessons. 

In addition to providing rigorous academics, IDEA Victory will serve as a pilar of the community by building partnerships to provide a bank of resources that students and their families can take advantage of.

I am grateful to be a part of IDEA because we are committed to breaking barriers, giving families options, and making a positive impact in our communities. Though we are new to Tampa Bay, IDEA has 20 years of success under its belt in Texas and Louisiana, and now, it’s our turn. I encourage families to apply today and continue to connect with us.

Interested families can apply at www.ideapublicschools.org/apply.

January 12, 2021 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsCoronavirus / COVID-19Education ChoiceFeaturedNewsSchool ChoiceVirtual Education

redefinED’s best of 2020: Switch, now, to online learning? This charter school org was ready

Ron Matus December 31, 2020
Ron Matus

Natalie Keime, ESOL coordinator and sixth-grade intensive reading teacher at Somerset Oaks Academy in Homestead, delivers a virtual lesson to her students from her home.

Editor’s note: During the holiday season, redefinED is reprising the “best of the best” from our 2020 archives. This post originally published March 26.

About a decade ago, Fernando Zulueta was making a presentation to school district officials in Florida about why his charter school support company, Academica, needed to expand into online learning. For one thing, he told them, charter schools serviced by Academica must better serve students who need flexibility because of their talents (say, an elite gymnast) or their challenges (say, homebound because of illness). For another, he said, you never know when a natural disaster – maybe even a pandemic – might necessitate a transition into virtual instruction.

Fast forward to coronavirus 2020.

Academica, now one of the biggest charter support organizations in America, was among the first education outfits in America to shift online as thousands of brick-and-mortar schools were shuttered. The company began planning for potential closures weeks in advance. And when the closure orders were given in Florida, it trained thousands of teachers, distributed thousands of laptops, and acclimated tens of thousands of students to a new normal – in a matter of days.

“I’m not a doomsday prepper,” Zulueta said. “But when you do the work we do, you have the responsibility to be prepared … and to evaluate risks and contingencies in the future.”

On March 13, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all public schools in Florida to extend spring break a week so students would not return to school. At the time, the vast majority of Florida districts were about to start their spring break, while a handful of others were ending theirs.

Most of the Academica-supported charter schools in Florida were still a week from break. But by March 16, about 40,000 of their 65,000 students logged into class from home. By week’s end, most of the rest had, too. Within days, Academica’s Florida schools were reporting, based on student logins, nearly normal attendance rates.

“I had a little bit of mixed reaction” when the call came to transition, said Miriam Barrios, a third-grade teacher at Mater Academy of International Studies, an Academica-supported school in Miami. Ninety-nine percent of Mater’s students are students of color; 97 percent are low-income. “A lot of these families don’t have computers. So, it was a little scary.”

“But overall things have gone so well, much better than I expected,” Barrios said.

“It ended up feeling a lot like being in school,” said Claudia Fernandez-Castillo, a parent in Miami whose daughters, ages 11 and 12, attend another Academica-supported school, Pinecrest Cove Academy. “They made the kids feel very comfortable with this massive change in their little lives.”

Academica services 165 charter schools in eight states, including 133 in Florida. Somerset, Mater, Doral and Pinecrest are its main networks. According to the most rigorous and respected research on charter school outcomes, students in all four networks are making modest to large gains over like students in district schools.

It remains to be seen how well schools in any sector respond to what is an unprecedented crisis, and what the impacts will be on academic performance.

School districts are mobilizing quickly. In Florida, most of them still have a few days to prep before the bulk of students return to “school” March 30. To date, there’s been little coverage of how Florida’s 600-plus charter schools are coping (though there’s been a glimpse here and there for charters elsewhere.) Ditto for Florida’s 2,700 private schools. Some are proving nimble and capable. But given the big resource disparities, it’s an open question whether others with large numbers of low-income students have the technology and support they need to turn on a dime.

For Academica, online learning is familiar territory. The organization supports three virtual charters in Florida. It offers online courses for students in its other Florida schools. For a decade, it’s also had an international arm, Academica Virtual Education, that serves thousands of students in Europe who need dual enrollment classes to earn specialized diplomas.

Given the events in China, Zulueta said his team began considering, in January, the possibility of school closures in America. The urgency ramped up in February, when the spread of coronavirus in Italy began affecting Academica students in that country.

In mid-February, Academica-serviced schools in the U.S. sent questionnaires to parents, asking if they needed devices and/or connections for distance learning. They ordered what they needed to fill the gaps. When Gov. DeSantis made what was effectively a closure announcement March 13, Zulueta said, “we were already ready to rock and roll.”

The day after the announcement, Academica used online sessions to do basic training in online instruction for 150 administrators. Over that weekend, it trained 3,000 teachers. Meanwhile, schools distributed several thousand laptops to families, in some cases through drive-through pick-ups. Zulueta said the need ranged from 4 percent at some Academica client schools to 20 percent at others.

Schools also immediately let parents know what was coming Monday.

Zulueta, who has three daughters in Academica-serviced schools, witnessed the new normal at his kitchen table.

“They got up. They logged in. And they went right to class,” he said. His daughters and their classmates wore their usual uniforms. The schools did their best to stick to established bell schedules. “We wanted to keep it as close to what they did at school as possible.”

Like students at Academica-serviced schools throughout Florida, television production students at Doral Academy Preparatory High School have quickly adapted to a virtual learning environment.

Academica uses an online learning platform it created itself. It’s integrated with a number of other tools, including Zoom, the video conferencing software with the “Hollywood Squares” look.

Fernandez-Castillo, the mom at Pinecrest Cove Academy, said she watched over the weekend as friends who are Academica teachers practiced the new online platform with each other. Barrios, the Mater teacher, said she contacted her students’ parents after her training on Friday to tell them she would be testing the platform at 8 that night if they and their children wanted to join. Eight to 10 families did. But she still had some anxiety about Monday morning.

“I thought it was going to be a freak show,” Barrios said. “The computers are going to crash, the kids are not going to log in … “

That’s not what happened. Monday morning was “a little jagged,” she said, because some students experienced technical difficulties and couldn’t log in right on schedule at 8:30. But by 8:50, 90 percent of her students were in. “It was amazing,” she said.

Barrios and other teachers used Monday to get their students familiar with the new set up. Any glitches, like problems with Internet access, were minor, she said. Over the next few days, she and her students quickly cleared little hurdles, like students learning to keep their mics on mute until it was their time to speak, and how to use chat functions to indicate they had a question.

Barrios doesn’t think there’s a long-term substitute for the dynamics of an in-person classroom, where students, in her view, can more easily “bounce ideas off one another.” But as a next best thing, she said what her school is doing is far better than nothing, and not bad at all.

Fernandez-Castillo agreed, and pointed to other upsides. “Everybody’s thrilled with the way this has been done,” she said, referring to other parents. “I think it glued the (school) community together even more.”

December 31, 2020 0 comment
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Charter SchoolsEducation ChoiceFeaturedNewsParental ChoicePublic School ChoiceSchool Choice

New KIPP campus coming to Jacksonville

Lisa Buie December 10, 2020
Lisa Buie

KIPP Impact Academy, which opened in 2010, is the highest-performing middle school in the North and Westside of Jacksonville. KIPP will expand its Jacksonville reach with a new elementary school.

The nation’s largest network of public charter schools is expanding its footprint in North Florida following approval of $23 million in bond financing through the city of Jacksonville.

The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, will lease 8 acres in the city’s northwest area from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to build a $15-million, 73,000-square-foot school that will serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Those students have been attending school on another KIPP site, which will be converted to a high school set to open in August.

Addition of the high school, which will be named KIPP Bold City High School, will allow KIPP to realize its goal of offering a comprehensive education to students from kindergarten through 12th grade in the Jacksonville area.

Bond financing for the new VOICE Elementary School, which will serve 900 students, also will allow KIPP to refinance existing debt.

“We want families and local community members to know that our schools are built on a foundation of equity and high academic expectations where students will thrive, and this expansion means that more north Jacksonville students will have access to a high-quality schooling option that prepares them with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose, including career, college, or beyond,” said Jennifer Brown, executive director of KIPP Public Schools Jacksonville.

KIPP opened in Jacksonville in 2010 in a former greyhound track building with one class of fifth graders. It since has expanded to more than 1,600 students, 97% of whom are Black. Seventy to 80% of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. KIPP also has three campuses in Miami-Dade County.

The national network of 255 public charter schools, which launched in Houston, is dedicated to preparing students in educationally underserved communities for success in college and life. KIPP schools have expanded since 1994 to serve more than 100,000 students. Nationwide, KIPP students earn bachelor’s degrees at a rate of 35%, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average for students from low-income families.

December 10, 2020 0 comment
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