SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) is calling for the non-renewal of ten charter schools from across California that are below CCSA's Minimum Criteria for Renewal.
This public call for non-renewal represents a significant step towards advancing accountability and fulfilling our collective promise of quality education for children across the state.
"We cannot have an honest discussion about education reform and increasing accountability without closing the charters that have demonstrated an inability to meet the challenge of excellence-granted to us by law-and chronically underperform. Our accountability framework has been pressure tested, analyzed and deliberated thoroughly. The time to act on persistently low-performing schools is now, because our children's education cannot be put on the back-burner," said Myrna Castrejón, Senior Vice President, Achievement and Performance Management, CCSA.
Upon the publication of the 2011 Academic Performance Index (API) results, CCSA identified thirty-one (31) charter schools from across California that are "Below CCSA's Minimum Criteria for Renewal." Of those 31, 11 schools' charters expire before June 2012, and thus are in the process of petition renewal.
CCSA analyzed the data provided and determined that of the 11 schools in renewal, 10 schools still do not meet CCSA's Minimum Criteria for Renewal.
CCSA has informed these schools of this circumstance, and will take steps toward informing the authorizer and encouraging it to exercise their authority not to renew the charter petition, and close the school.
In order to meet CCSA's Minimum Criteria for Renewal, charter schools must have operated for a minimum of four years and meet at least one of the following:
-- Academic Performance Index (API) score of at least 700 in most recent year
-- 3-year cumulative API growth of at least 50 points (2010-11 growth + 2009-10 growth + 2008-09 growth)
-- Within range of or exceeding predicted performance based on similar student populations statewide, for at least two out of the last three years, based on CCSA's metric, the Similar Students Measure.
In all, the ten charter schools that do not meet CCSA's standard for renewal represent slightly more than 1percent of the 982 charter schools currently in operation in California, and represent all school types and regions of the state.
The list of schools includes:
-- Antelope View Charter, Antelope, CA (Authorizer: Center Joint Unified)
-- California Aerospace Academy, McClellan, CA (Authorizer: Twin Rivers Unified)
-- California Virtual Academy @ Kern, Simi Valley, CA (Authorizer: Maricopa Unified)
-- Leadership High, San Francisco, CA (Authorizer: San Francisco Unified)
-- Los Angeles County Online High, Palmdale, CA (Authorizer: Antelope Valley Union High)
-- Nubia Leadership Academy, San Diego, CA (Authorizer: San Diego Unified)
-- Uncharted Shores Academy, Crescent City, CA (Authorizer: Del Norte County Office of Education)
-- West County Community High, Richmond, CA (Authorizer: West Contra Costa Unified)
-- West Sacramento Early College Prep Charter, West Sacramento, CA (Authorizer: Washington Unified)
-- Yuba County Career Preparatory Charter, Marysville, CA (Authorizer: Yuba County Office of Education)
News10/KXTV