Philly charters see yearly progress benchmarks downgraded
by thenotebook on Jan 23 2013 Posted in Latest news
by Paul Socolar and Dale Mezzacappa
Twenty Philadelphia charter schools that had been previously listed as meeting the state's Adequate Yearly Progress standard in 2012 have now been graded by the state as not making AYP.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education was ordered by the federal government to recalculate and publish [Excel spreadsheet] AYP status for charters using the same standard used for traditional district schools.
Before getting federal approval, Secretary of Education Ronald Tomalis had treated charters as districts rather than as individual schools. Charter advocates argued that this was fair because some charters are larger than small districts in the state.
The district standard is not as strict as the individual school standard. A district can make Adequate Yearly Progress if only one grade span (3-5, 6-8, 9-12) hits the targets as opposed to every single grade.
On its main website for finding school achievement ratings, the state is still displaying AYP status for the charters using the district-level standards. PDE spokesman Tim Eller said that this site would be updated in early February.
Using the school standard, 23 out of 80 Philadelphia charters met the state's AYP standard in 2012, compared to 43 under the standard Tomalis originally applied. That is a success rate of 29 percent. That is still better than the rate for District-run schools.
Only 33 District schools, or 13 percent of the total, made the state standards, which became significantly tougher last year.
In all, more than a quarter of the city's charter schools had their status downgraded. Three of six charters that were originally listed as "making progress" using the district-level standard were also downgraded.
Only one of 13 Renaissance charter schools, Mastery at Mann, met the AYP standard.
Among those downgraded were Belmont, Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures, Franklin Towne, the two KIPP schools, Mariana Bracetti, Mastery Shoemaker, Math, Civics and Sciences, and MAST Community Charter.
According to the Allentown Morning Call, statewide, using Tomalis' method of treating them as districts, 77 charters, or 49 percent, met the AYP standard. Under the standard that treats them as individual schools, 43 made the yearly progress standard.
(For the schools whose status was changed to reflect the now-recalculated standard, the school's original status is shown in the rightmost column.)
| School Name | Updated Status (school-level) | Original Status (district-level) |
|---|---|---|
| Ad Prima CS | Made AYP | |
| Alliance for Progress CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Antonia Pantoja Community CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Arch and Design CHS | Corrective Action 2 (second year) | |
| Arise Academy Charter HS | School Improvement 2 | |
| Aspira Bilingual Cyber Charter School | School Improvement 1 | |
| Belmont CS | School Improvement 1 | Made AYP |
| Birney Prep Acad | Warning | |
| Boys Latin of Philadelphia CS | Warning | |
| Christopher Columbus CS | Made AYP | |
| Comm Acad of Phila CS | Corrective Action 2 (sixth year) | |
| Delaware Valley CHS | Warning | |
| Discovery Charter School | Made AYP | |
| Eastern University Acad CS | Warning | |
| Eugenio Maria De Hostos CS | Made AYP | |
| First Phila CS for Literacy | Warning | |
| Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Franklin Towne Charter Elem School | Warning | Made AYP |
| Franklin Towne CHS | Made AYP | |
| Freire CS | Warning | |
| Frontier Virtual CHS | Warning | |
| Global Leadership Academy CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Green Woods CS | Made AYP | |
| Hardy Williams CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Hope CS | Corrective Action 2 (sixth year) | |
| Imani Education Circle CS | School Improvement 1 | |
| Imhotep Institute CS | Warning | |
| Independence CS | Warning | |
| John B Stetson Charter School | School Improvement 1 | |
| Khepera CS | Made AYP | |
| KIPP Philadelphia Charter School | Warning | Made AYP |
| KIPP West Philadelphia Prep CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Laboratory CS | Made AYP | |
| Mariana Bracetti Acad CS | Corrective Action 2 (second year) | Made AYP |
| Maritime Academy CS | Made AYP | |
| Mast Community CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Mastery Charter School Harrity Campus | School Improvement 1 | Made AYP |
| Mastery Charter School Mann Campus | Made AYP | |
| Mastery Charter School Smedley Campus | School Improvement 1 | |
| Mastery CS - Clymer Elementary | Warning | |
| Mastery CS - Gratz Campus | Warning | |
| Mastery CS - Lenfest Campus | Made AYP | |
| Mastery CS - Pickett Campus | School Improvement 1 | |
| Mastery CS - Shoemaker Campus | Warning | Made AYP |
| Mastery CS - Thomas Campus | Warning | |
| Math Civics & Sciences CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Multi-Cultural Academy CS | Warning | |
| New Foundations CS | Made AYP | |
| New Media Technology CS | School Improvement 2 | Making Progress: School Improvement 1 |
| Northwood Academy CS | Made AYP | |
| Nueva Esperanza Acad CS | Corrective Action 1 | Making Progress: School Improvement 2 |
| Olney Charter HS | Warning | |
| Pan American Academy CS | Made AYP | |
| People for People CS | School Improvement 2 | Made AYP |
| Phila Elec & Tech CHS | Warning | |
| Philadelphia Acad CS | Corrective Action 2 (second year) | Made AYP |
| Philadelphia Harambee Inst CS | Making Progress - in School Improvement 1 | |
| Philadelphia Montessori CS | Corrective Action 2 (first year) | Corrective Action 1 |
| Philadelphia Perf Arts CS | Made AYP | |
| Planet Abacus CS | Made AYP | |
| Preparatory CS of Math Science Tech & Careers | Made AYP | |
| Richard Allen Prep CS | Made AYP | |
| Russell Byers CS | Made AYP | |
| Sankofa Freedom Academy CS | Making Progress - in School Improvement 1 | |
| Southwest Leadership Academy CS | Made AYP | |
| Tacony Academy Charter School | School Improvement 1 | |
| Truebright Science Academy CS | Made AYP | |
| Universal Audenried CS | Warning | |
| Universal Bluford CS | School Improvement 1 | Made AYP |
| Universal Daroff CS | Corrective Action 2 (second year) | Making Progress: in Corrective Action 2 |
| Universal Institute CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| Universal Vare CS | Warning | |
| Wakisha CS | Making Progress - in Corrective Action 2 (third year) | |
| Walter Palmer Ldrshp Learning Prtnrs CS | Corrective Action 2 (fifth year) | |
| West Oak Lane CS | Made AYP | |
| West Phila Achievement CS | Corrective Action 1 | |
| Wissahickon CS | Warning | Made AYP |
| World Communications CS | Warning | |
| Young Scholars CS | Made AYP | |
| Young Scholars Frederick Douglass CS | School Improvement 1 | Made AYP |
Comments (12)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/23/2013 - 19:17.
It's funny they're giving universal and mastery and kipp all of these schools and their struggling younge scholars isn't performing ant better then when I taught at Frederick Douglass elementary go figure same kids same parents why would the be able to work mirivkes and seasoned teachers had a difficult time doing it?
Submitted by Gtown_teach (not verified) on Wed, 01/23/2013 - 19:50.
Yeah, it's funny how KIPP and Universal in the toilet after this. Maybe we can see that charters are no better, if not worse than public schools. Let's fold this law and go back to public schools being public.
Submitted by RogueTeacher (not verified) on Wed, 01/23/2013 - 21:23.
This just makes me think about how it doesn't really matter what kind of school it is, charter or public. These results are similar to the SDP's results as a whole. Some schools make AYP, some have warnings, etc. Is it that the PSSA criteria for results plus all the other AYP criteria are unrealistic? Are they set too high? Quite frankly, the PSSA is a waste of time and money. The other criteria for AYP are insulting for the most part. This just further proves that education as an entire system is failing. I hope parents see this and realize that if they stand up and fight for their neighborhood public schools, that things could turn around, that they can have a voice and invoke positive change.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/23/2013 - 23:01.
We already knew this....lmfao.charters are a money pit scam.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 01:55.
of the 30 schools with the biggest gains in the pssa exam, 25 were charters. charters made ayp at a rate that's twice the districts. You live in a glass house.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 07:56.
Can't you read?
"Under Tomalis' system, 77 charter schools — or 49 percent — made AYP when they were measured as school districts. But when tabulated as individual schools, only 43 — or 28 percent — made AYP, according to a Morning Call analysis of state data.
By comparison, 49 percent of the state's public schools made AYP and about 61 percent of the state's 499 school districts that administered the PSSAs did, too."
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pa-charter-school-ayp-20130122,0,2120...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 17:47.
lmao,get a life,i think your the type of person that thinks charters are a great thing,i may live in a grass house but you live in a fantasy world.......lmao
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 06:41.
When are we going to stop giving credence to the absurd system of AYP? No school (district, charter, or otherwise) should have their worth and especially their growth measured through this lens. As educators we need to keep reminding our city of this truth and stop using this skewed system to inform our opinions.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 14:20.
Yes, shame on those Renaissance charter schools for not making AYP after taking over the worst-performing district schools.
Give me a break. That these charters are not able to reform students who have been subject to a decade of learning in SDP is not measuring anything whatsoever.
And why is the controlling philosophy that learning/test scores are 100% a function of the school? We can't go anywhere if we're starting with that premise.
Submitted by Ken Derstine on Thu, 01/24/2013 - 15:06.
But isn't that the premise being used to transfer students to charters and Renaissance schools. "And why is the controlling philosophy that learning/test scores are 100% a function of the school?" is what No Child Left Behind was about. This is precisely what defenders of public schools have been saying.
High-stakes tests were originally the pretext for opening charters and closing public schools. Saying that social factors were a factor in AYP was dismissed as having "low expectations".
Even the SRC has abandoned this scam. Many of the 37 schools they want to close have consistently made AYP. Even they cannot say the problem is "bad teachers", the myth you still buy into. Just watch the community meetings on live stream to see parents and students defending their schools and teachers!
The problem is the decades long underfunding of urban public schools.
http://thenotebook.org/blog/125237/ken-derstine-guest-blog-wont-back-down
Submitted by Clash Of Clans Hack (not verified) on Thu, 02/14/2013 - 09:34.
I knew about this a lot of time before, they are all a big scam!! Clash Of Clans Hack
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