ON MONDAY, the pioneering Boston Renaissance Charter School faces the likelihood of being placed on probation by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It’s a serious step for an institution that has been consistently ambitious since its founding in 1995 but erratic in its academic performance. Strict accountability must be part of the charter-school experiment in Massachusetts, and the state board must determine the cause of Renaissance’s recent troubles. Even so, there are enough mitigating factors that putting the school on the path to being shuttered seems premature.
The state clearly has grounds for concern. Achievement at the K-6 school has slipped considerably since 2009, when 54 percent of students scored advanced or proficient on the math MCAS exam. Last spring, that figure fell to 36 percent. Much is expected of schools that are allowed to operate free of union work rules and central administration interference. Still more is expected of a school that has the advantages of 18 years of operating experience, a charismatic CEO, a new facility, and fruitful partnerships with medical and social service providers.
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It's going to be a rocky-road for many schools, both traditional and charter, in the coming few years. Similarly to what happened with NCLB, when politicians, "academics" and a host of various non profit think-tanks and save-the-world Teach for America and City Year know-it-alls are running the show the schools will be in chaos. They start by setting expectations for everyone, then it's hit the road to follow their dreams of bigger and better.
Charter schools are a failed experiment, an extra burden on taxpayers and an investment boondoggle for hedge funds. They should all be scrapped.
If the Renaissance school were a public school Mitchell Chester, DESE Commr., would take it over, declare it a Turnaround school and threaten to turn it into a charter school. Wait a minute...it IS a charter school. Never mind.
GLOBE treatment of struggling real public schools? Brickbats, brickbats, brickbats!
GLOBE treatment of struggling Charter Schools? Excuses, excuses, excuses.
Mitchell Chester will do what his betters tell him to do (remember the Reville emails re Gloucester)
How does the myopic Mr. Grogan (Boston Foundation) explain this union-free disaster?
It is interesting that there is no mention of the teachers at Rennaissance in this editorial, other than that they are free of union work rules. This seems to be a common theme in discussions about charter schools: it's all about the administration, the lack of union work rules, the companies/corporations running them, with very little, if any input from the teachers that are charged with making these schools a success. I think we would get a very enlightening side to this story about why students are struggling if the teachers were ever allowed to tell it.
OooPsie... So much for the BS of the globe, Boston Foundation and Chester the investor. That guy is pathetic and we pay him big bucks. Tocco was a beauty too ( what state puts a pharmacist and political hack in charge of education?). And where is our "beloved" Pioneer institute? Wonder what the time line is for all these fraudulent charter schools.
Oh yeah 54% proficient in 2009 down to 36% now and the Globe editorial staff is not calling for a shutdown of the school? No wonder u r up for sale.
This is just one more piece of evidence that, as charter's intergrate themselves into the overall ecosystem of students, they prove more more effective than traditional schools. Yet the Globe seems to continue to stick it's head in the ground, only aknowledging individual examples of failed charter experiences. In just the last week, the body of evidence has grown, with Rueters publishing an investigative story about the subtle ways charters skim the best students from tradtional schools, a presidential advisory commission stating that 10 years of (corporate) ed reform has not addressed the needs of vunerable student populations and a Globe story exposing the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for immigration costs to import foriegn teachers, jus to have them leave the school in short order. I won't rail about "bias" about not running the Rueters story or a wire story on the finding of the presidental advisory commission. But the Globe's editorial board has certainly opened itself up to crictism about ignoring the ever growing body of evidence that charters are no better (and in many cases, worse) than traditional schools. To continue their silence, the Globe is increasingly becoming marginalized in the educational policy debate; no longer an arbitrator of diverse views, but a mouth piece the privileged.
Location, Location, Location! When Boston Renaissance Charter School was located downtown it worked as an alternative to the Boston Public Schools (BPS) for families with more resources living in Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the South End. When it moved to Hyde Park, an East Zone community saturated with charter schools, it was no longer a big fish in a small pond. This made it harder for Renaissance to skim off and cherry pick students.
You have to remember that Renaissance, by virtue of being a charter school is getting $3,146+ more per student than a regular Boston Public School student and a whole bunch of "non-tuition" money too. Let me explain, charters are not level funded by the students they serve, but by the average the sending district spends on all its students. To educate a Regular Ed student in BPS cost $11,558. However, when you add the cost of all the BPS Special Ed & ELL/LEP students, the cost averages out to $14,704! Charters are paid the average $14,704. even though their population of students is mostly Regular Ed, and in no way reflects the demographic of the Boston Public Schools!
Charter schools also receive "non-tuition revenue" which includes the state and federal nutrition funding, transportation reimbursements, a state grant related to Academic Support Services, and federal entitlement grants including Title I funding directed to the school's tutorial programs, IDEA funding directed at the school's Special Education program, and Title IIA Improving Educator Quality. Then the BPS picks up the citywide transportation costs for Renaissance Charter Students too!
Even though the MADOE had Renaissance reduce their school size, what is interesting here is that the cohort started in 2008 with 197 1st grade students, and there are only 106, 6th grade students remaining this year. So even with the attrition (counseling out?) of over 91 students, they are still underperforming! "Probation would be overkill?" I don't think so!
Boston’s Mayor Menio is trying to pass legislation to turn all Level 3 schools in Massachusetts into "turnaround schools." Renaissance is a Level 3 charter school, who is getting so much more money than our traditional public schools per student, and have so many cherry picking "autonomies" that have decimated our BPS traditional schools, will they be held accountable? Will Renaissance Charter be "turning-around" and spinning too?
Most of these comments are dead on, but I'm wondering where the Tea Baggers are who usually support anything related to Charter schools? The best posts above mention that their scores went down once they could no longer cherry pick their students. Once they get a representative sampling of ALL potential students they start to get real world tests that all public schools face. Most Mass teachers have gotten little to no raise over the last five years yet we still remain #! in most educational measures nationwide. That is a testament to that bad bad bad unionized teachers that Republicans like to complain about!
Ooops...fat fingers...I meant #1 and those instead of that in the last sentence. Typing has never been a strong suit of mine. Cheers!
Has anyone thought about the kids? This school is a test driven school where most subjects are taught on the basis of the MCAS. Some of these kids have to get on a bus at 6 am to get all the way to Hyde Park and then home at 5pm. This is an awful example of how schools are today...these kids are tired!