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Sunday, November 12, 2006

Diverse Classes and Wide Appeal Drive the Growth of Charter Schools

By Amy Miller
Copyright © 2006 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
    If Albuquerque's 33 charter schools created their own district, it would be the fifth-largest in the state, just behind Santa Fe.
    And the number of schools keeps growing. Five charter schools opened their doors in August. Three are slated to open next year, with several more applications in line for approval.
    Advocates say the rapid growth of charter schools since 1999, and the long waiting lists at many, prove their success.
    They offer much-needed, innovative choices for students with many diverse needs, from a performing arts academy to schools for troubled teens.
    "One size does not fit all," said Lisa Grover, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools. "Now you can send your child to any school that best serves your child's interests."
    But the concept still has critics who say charter schools siphon money from APS' traditional schools.
    The road hasn't been smooth for all charter schools. Some have struggled to enroll students and remain financially viable, with a few shutting their doors for good.
    School board members say they still aren't certain how much authority they have to oversee charter schools in trouble, and that has created tensions for everyone involved.
    "Sometimes, they take the attitude that, I'm a charter school, I can do what I want," school board member Mary Lee Martin said. "But you just can't do that with state money."
    Others argue that there's no proof charter schools have improved student performance or the quality of public education.
    There are no data showing that charter schools better prepare students for college or a job than do regular public schools, said Moisés Venegas, executive director of the Albuquerque Partnership, a local nonprofit studying the city's charter schools.
    "They are marching. They are dancing," Venegas said. "But can they read? Can they compute? And do they graduate?"
    Legislators who enacted the charter school law said they do see success. But charter schools aren't creating truly unique programs that challenge traditional ideas about education, said state Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque.
    "I wish they would do something really exciting and different," Miera said. "We're still kind of limping along."
   
Something's working
    Many charter schools are trying innovative approaches that work, Grover said.
    Of the 30 Albuquerque charter schools in operation last year, nearly half made progress in reading and math under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That's compared with 36 percent of the city's 128 regular public schools.
    The test scores of students at Southwest Secondary Learning Center rank among the state's highest, she said.
    High schoolers sit at computers in a huge room completing assignments at their own pace. Teachers monitor students' work and answer questions from their own computer.
    Students can begin their day in the morning or the afternoon. They can work from home.
    "Public school just never worked out very well for me," said 15-year-old Jordan Norwood. "Here, I don't have to stay in school all day. I can get out of here and get on with my day."
    Next door, students use computers to manipulate robotic arms or edit their own films. That experience helped Jeremy Smith, 17, land jobs with Hollywood film crews in New Mexico, work that he'd like to parlay into a career.
    "This school has definitely been very beneficial to me," he said.
    Word of the school's success has spread rapidly, principal Dolly Juarez said. About 800 students are on the school's waiting list this year. Enrollment is about 245.
    "It's been a combination of good luck, good timing and very hard work," Juarez said.
   
Money pressures
    Albuquerque school board members know that not all charter schools are thriving like Southwest Secondary. Several struggle to stay open with fewer than 100 students.
    In 2004, the school board closed Paseo del Monte Charter Middle School, which enrolled 85 students, because $50,000 worth of equipment was missing, just one sign of financial mismanagement.
    A financially drained Horizon Academy Preparatory High School closed its doors in March and transferred 219 students to Horizon Academy South, a school run by the same organization.
    "It's a miracle we are still alive," said Jim Nessel, school board chairman for Horizon Academy South.
    The board wanted to start the process of shutting down Mountain Mahogany Community School and La Promesa Early Learning Center this summer by not approving their budgets for this school year.
    The board worried that the schools wouldn't have money to operate because they didn't have enough students. Charter schools, like all public schools, get money from the state for day-to-day operations based on enrollment.
    La Promesa expected 26 students this year, according to its proposed budget, and Mountain Mahogany about 60.
    But, under state law, school boards must approve charter school budgets unless they contain technical errors, which confused board members.
    "That doesn't make sense to me," Martin said. "By now, we know what a financially solid charter school budget looks like."
    Charter schools authorized or renewed after the 2007 school year begins will have the option of being overseen by the state, rather than their local school board.
    For now, Albuquerque board members say local school districts have little authority over the day-to-day operations of charter schools. But when a school flounders, school districts have to pay for and clean up the mess, APS board member Robert Lucero said.
    "Charters don't want Big Brother or APS looking over their shoulders," Lucero said. "But if they are truly going to be autonomous, they need to be autonomous from the school district."
   
A matter of measure
    Financial instability is not the only issue facing charter schools.
    There is no proof that charter school students are performing better than their regular public school counterparts, Venegas said. No one has tracked students' performance before and after they attend a charter school.
    A recent federal study did find that charter school students scored on average about four points lower in reading and math than regular public school students.
    Venegas also points out that at most of the city's high performing charter schools, such as Southwest Secondary, a majority of students are Anglo. They typically score higher on standardized tests than their Hispanic, Native American or African-American counterparts.
    All of the 15 Albuquerque charter schools that did not make progress under No Child Left Behind enrolled a majority of Hispanic, Native American and African-American students, although four charter schools with similar demographics did make progress.
    "They are not narrowing the achievement gap," Venegas said. "In fact, it might be worse."
    Most of the Albuquerque charters not making progress specifically target at-risk students who are dealing with family, economic or personal problems, Grover said. So comparing those schools to Southwest Secondary is unfair.
    "These are kids that have really been trampled on," she said.
   
Education in absentia
    At Los Puentes Charter School in the North Valley, nearly all of its 130 students qualify for free and reduced meals and more than a third are in special education.
    Getting some students to attend school for three consecutive days is an achievement, principal Ellen Moore said.
    "Attendance is a major, major problem," Moore said. "And if they don't show up, you can't educate them."
    On a recent afternoon, several students arrived hours late, offering various excuses for their tardiness. Some had not been to school for days, Moore said.
    Moore tries to offer flexible schedules to accommodate their needs. She sets up computer programs to individualize instruction.
    The school has also partnered with Hogares, a behavioral health agency for children and teenagers.
    Still, standardized test scores don't mean much at Los Puentes, Moore said. Her school will probably never make progress under No Child Left Behind. But there are success stories.
    Matt Fought, 17, said he would have dropped out long ago if it weren't for Los Puentes. He missed more than 100 classes in a single semester at Valley High, he said, before he got kicked out.
    "I had nowhere else to go," Fought said.
    Now he said he makes As and Bs and plans to attend the University of New Mexico to study criminal justice, with the help of a lottery scholarship.
    Stories like Fought's are evidence that charter schools such as Los Puentes are helping potential dropouts graduate, even if they aren't meeting federal testing standards, said Greta Roskom, principal of Robert F. Kennedy High School, another charter serving at-risk students.
    Improved attendance and retention rates, along with decreased discipline referrals, should also be considered when evaluating these schools, said Roskom, who's also director of the New Mexico Coalition of Charter Schools' Albuquerque branch.
    "What is meaningful to us is where they were, and where they are now," Roskom said.
    Still, the top priority for all charter schools should be improving academic performance, said Don Duran, assistant secretary of education for the state charter school division.
    If they know students will not do well on standardized tests, school boards should set additional measurable academic targets for charter schools. If those aren't met, their charters should be revoked.
    "If we are not engaging them in learning, why are we chartering them?" he said.
    No New Mexico school has had its charter revoked solely because of poor student performance, officials said, even though the law allows it.
    It's not something school boards or administrators want to do, said Deedee Stroud, director of school and community partnerships for Albuquerque Public Schools.
    They would rather work with schools to improve performance than disrupt students and families, she said.
    "We have a lot of traditional schools that are struggling," Stroud said. "We need to treat charters the same way we treat traditional schools."