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The John Locke Foundation
is a501(c)(3) nonprot, nonpartisan researchinstitute dedicated to improving public policy debate in North Carolina. Viewpoints expressed by authors do not necessarilyrefect those o the sta or board o the Locke Foundation.
200 W. Morgan, #200Raleigh, NC 27601
phone:
919-828-3876
ax:
919-821-5117www.johnlocke.org
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n August 2009, the State Board o Education created the Ad Hoc Char-ter School Task Force “to improve the academic accountability o charterschools and to clariy existing procedures or charter applicants to ol-low.”1 By December, State Board o Education unanimously adopted three newpolicies or charter schools, including a policy that allows the State Board o Education to close charter schools that do not meet perormance standards onstate tests or two out o three years.The new “Revocation o Charter or Lack o Academic Perormance” policyis one o the most punitive policies ever approved by the State Board o Educa-tion. It states the ollowing:The State Board o Education shall revoke the chartero any charter school when, or two o three consecutiveschool years, the charter school does not meet or exceedexpected growth and has a Perormance Composite be-low 60%.For purposes o this policy, the frst year test scores will
No. 382 – February 3, 2010
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The State Board of Education should regard all public schools as equals
key facts:• Undr h nw “Rvoion o chrr or L o admi Prormn” poli, onl low-prorming hrr hool r ub- j o lour b h Nc s Bord o eduion. thr i no quivlnpoli or diri hool.• thi ud h quion: How mn publi hool would lo i h iniud h poli hr r go nd pplid o hrr nd dirihool li?• aording o ing rul or h l hr r, h s Bordo eduion would b ord o lo 164 publi hool.• O h 164 ol hool, 155 o h lod hool would b diri hool,hr o hm would b lrniv diri hool, nd ix o hm would bhrr hool. Ovrll, h would lo 6.5 prn o h ol dirind diri lrniv hool in Norh crolin nd 6.2 prn o h’ hrr hool.
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be rom the 2009-2010 school year.This policy does not prohibit the State Board rom taking any action against a charter that isotherwise legal and appropriate pursuant to G.S. 115C-238.29G.
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Both district and charter schools are public schools. Charters receive state, local, and ederal unds and are subjectto many o the regulations established or district schools. For example, all charter school students are required to takestate standardized tests, regardless o the academic ocus o the school. Scores rom these tests determine i the schoolmeets or exceeds growth expectations set by the state and the Perormance Composite.Under the “Revocation o Charter or Lack o Academic Perormance” policy, only low-perorming charter schoolsare subject to closure. There is no equivalent policy or district schools. District schools that do not meet or exceedexpected growth and that have a Perormance Composite below 60 percent or two o three consecutive school yearsare not subject to closure. Instead, the Department o Public Instruction deploys additional resources and support tothese schools.But what i we leveled the playing feld and subjected district schools to the same kinds o policies imposed oncharter schools? Specifcally, how many public schools would close i the “Revocation o Charter or Lack o AcademicPerormance” policy were instituted three years ago and applied to charter and district schools alike? O course, thisis purely a theoretical exercise, albeit a useul one because it exposes the way that the State Board o Education sys-tematically created privileged (district) and disadvantaged (charter) classes o public schools.
Glorchrr hool
– Charter schools provide parents a choice in the education o their children. They are publicschools but are subject to less regulation and oversight than conventional or district schools.Public tax dollars are the primary unding sources or charter schoolsLocal, state, and ederal dollars ollow the child to a charter schoolCharter schools are tuition reeSchools have open enrollment with no discrimination and no religious associationsI they have more applicants than available slots, the school must use an open lotteryThe state requires 75% o charter school teachers in elementary school to be certifedThe state requires 50% o charter teachers in middle and high school to be certifed All charter school students are required to take the state mandated testsThe state caps the number o charter schools at 100 schools statewide
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Prormn compoi
– The percentage o the test scores in the school at or above a set standard o prof-ciency.
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Growh
– An indication o the rate at which students in the school learned over the past year. The standard isequivalent to a year’s worth o growth or a year o instruction.
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1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.
According to testing results or the last three years, the State Board o Education would close 164 public schoolsunder the “Revocation o Charter or Lack o Academic Perormance” policy (See Tables 1, 2, and 3, ollowing pages).O the 164 total schools, 155 o the closed schools would be district schools, three o them would be alternative districtschools, and six o them would be charter schools. Overall, the state would close 6.5 percent o the total district anddistrict alternative schools in North Carolina and 6.2 percent o the state’s charter schools.The tables o the ollowing pages are not lists o schools that the State Board o Education
should
close or sanc-tion. Ideally, the state would base these decisions on an independent review o perormance data and extensive inputrom school personnel, parents, and members o the community. It is reasonable or state education ofcials to estab-lish policy exceptions or alternative district and charter schools. This report’s only recommendation is that the StateBoard o Education regard all regular public schools – district, charter, and charter-like without charters – as equals.
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Substantive policies should apply to all o them or none o them.
Terry Stoops is Director o Education Studies at the
John Locke Foundation.
end No
1. Minutes o the North Carolina State Board o Education (SBE), December 3, 2009, p. 10. The ormation o the committee does not appear inthe August 2009 SBE minutes.2. State Board o Education Policy Manual, Revocation o Charter or Lack o Academic Perormance (Policy ID Number TCS-U-010), December3, 2009. There are two points o clarifcation that need to be made. First, the State Board o Education may revoke a charter i the school doesnot meet or exceed expected growth and has a Perormance Composite below percent or
any two
o three consecutive years. For example, thetwo years o low perormance may be the frst and third o three consecutive years. Second, the school must ail to meet or exceed expectedgrowth and have a Perormance Composite below 60 percent in the
same year
in order or that year to be subject to the policy. Schools that,at minimum, meet or exceed growth
or
earn a Perormance Composite above 60 percent in a given year are not subject to the policy.3. Ofce o Charter Schools, North Carolina Department o Public Instruction (NC DPI), “Frequently Asked Questions,” at
www.dpi.state.nc.us/charterschools/aqs
.4. Division o Accountability Services, NC DPI, “ABCs/AYP 2009 Accountability Report Background Packet,” 2008, p. 3.5.
Ibid.
6. In North Carolina’s Race to the Top application, the state calls North Carolina’s virtual, magnet, early college, and STEM schools “charter-like schools without charters.” The report gives Lt. Governor Walter Dalton credit or the phrase (p. 154). See Ofce o the Governor o NorthCarolina, “Race to the Top Application: State o North Carolina,”
racetothetop.nc.gov
, January 2010.7. Consistent with the policy, the two years that the school does not meet growth expectations are also years that the school does not have aPerormance Composite above 60 percent.8. NC DPI, “The ABCs Accountability Model,” available at
abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/index.jsp?pYear=2006-2007
.9. NC DPI, “The ABCs Accountability Model,” available at
abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/index.jsp?pYear=2007-2008
.10. NC DPI, “The ABCs Accountability Model,” available at
abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs
.
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