Beehive's charter revoked

For the first time, the State Charter School Board has revoked a school's charter, and Beehive Academy will close at the end of this school year.

The reason for the abrupt, but not surprising, decision is that the school has overspent its budget each year. They overestimated enrollment, did not make adequate budget cuts when students didn't pan out, had a year of bad press, failed to make financial reports, and ultimately failed to adequately safeguard public funds.

While this will create a short term PR issue for the charter movement, we should be very clear about one thing: There is real strength that comes from pruning dying branches.

This action shows that charters are serious about accountability, and that if schools show that they cannot succeed either financially or academically, they will not continue.

Check the stories from the DNews and the Trib to see Beehive's response. I have no opinion on the timing, nor on Beehive's claim that they should have had more time, given the progress they've made since February. I do know that many involved thought the decision to shut the school down should have been made months ago, so this action isn't surprising.

Yet I reiterate that such an action is healthy for our movement. Beehive is hardly the only public school to struggle financially (see Grand School District) and other districts have had massive fraud (see Davis).

Yet those districts continue. The State Charter Board has now wisely demonstrated that financial impropriety or inviability--the waste of taxpayer dollars--will not be tolerated in charter schools.

DNews highlights new charters

The Utah State School Board this month approved three new public charter schools — an all time annual low for the reform movement.

Two of the charters, Utah Connections Academy and Aspire Online Charter School, are online schools. They will both open in the fall of 2011. Good Foundations Academy, which will be located in Riverdale, will start offering classes in 2010. A fourth charter school, Baer Canyon High School for Sports and Medical Sciences, is still under scrutiny.

Full article.

There will be some great young teachers looking for work this summer

Here's another way that the bureaucratic and unionist model for education leaves us with horribly unfortunate results.

The Jordan School District, facing budget shortfalls, will be laying off up to 250 employees, including teachers for next school year. If you were in that situation, whom would you lay off? If you're like me, it would be the lower performing teachers, in favor of those that get better results.

But can the district consider such things when deciding whom to keep in their crowded classrooms next year? Nope. They have to go by strict seniority--years of service in the district, a judge has ruled.

From the Trib: "the court ruling, which Jordan has pledged to follow, means less-experienced teachers could be bumped if more senior district employees lose their positions and want to go back to the classroom. For instance, administrators and curriculum specialists who have teaching certificates likely will out-rank first-year teachers."

That could be great news for charter schools, if quality teachers are let go for more experienced bureaucrats returning to the classroom, charters can scoop them up at tremendous value. Thanks, UEA!

Fascinating Study

A study in two countries studied the effects of class size and teacher continuity with clever techniques and intriguing results. (Story in the Wall Street Journal.) The authors won the John Bates Clark medal, awarded to the nation’s most promising economist under the age of 40.

One experiment she ran with economists Pascaline Dupas and Michael Kremer randomly selected 70 schools in Western Kenya to receive an extra teacher, roughly halving the pupil-teacher ratio. The result: Reduced teacher effort and insignificant increases in test scores. In an experiment she conducted in India, randomly selected teachers were given cameras with date and time stamps and told to take a picture of themselves and their students each morning and afternoon. The result: Teacher absences fell sharply and student test scores improved.

Turning failing district schools into charter schools

Utah has been awarded $17.4 million to help the fortunes of students at the state's persistently low-performing schools.

Sixty schools in Utah qualify, including three charter schools. In order to accept the money, the schools must take fairly dramatic steps, including firing the principal and half the teachers, or converting to a charter.

Charters are on the list, too, so obviously being a charter is no panacea to solve all of a school's problems. However, might I suggest that this is a fantastic opportunity for a school district to show that it is serious about using direct accountability, local control, and innovative practices to improve performance by converting at least one school into a charter.

Let the shackles off, put in a strong leader, let the parents be involved, and see what kind of innovations and improvements can be made and implemented elsewhere.

When the school is already in failing status, this is just the kind of thing that could shake stagnant and bureaucratic operations loose. The kids will be the winners.

I offer my assistance to any district superintendent or principal who'd like to give this a go.

Notes from the finance meeting today

A bunch of minor changes equal this: a .7% reduction to the minimum school program, with the cuts coming "below the line."

That means:

• The WPU value stayed the same, and new students are funded the same as existing students (growth was funded).
• There was a 2% cut to Related to Basic Programs, and the social security and retirement program was eliminated
• To allow more flexibility, a new program called Flexible Allocation, using the same distribution as Social Security and Retirement was created. It's designed to provide funding with fewer restrictions to schools and districts

In addition, some changes were made to charter funding:

• Local replacement funding was increased by $13 million, and Administrative Costs stayed the same...
• But, new language appropriated one total dollar amount, rather than a per student amount. If enrollment is higher than what was appropriated, allocations per student will be reduced.

What should be good news (an increase based on projected enrollment) is going to make budgeting for charter schools very difficult. We will be initially funded based on enrollment projections from schools, which are higher than what the legislature appropriated. The local Replacement funding amount won't be finalized until after the October 15 student upload. Schools will be funded for half the year at a lower-than-anticipated amount.

Looking on the bright side, we might have some "extra" money in December or January if we budget right.

In case you didn't know it's all about power and control

From the DNews:

Jordan School District has rejected a deal that charter school officials say would have saved the financially struggling district millions of dollars. American Preparatory Academy, a charter school with campuses in Draper and West Valley City, offered to build a school wherever Jordan was having trouble handling growth. The charter would act as a regional school, charter officials said, but would operate at no cost to the district.

"They're turning down a free school," said Brian Allen, chairman of the State Charter School Board. "They should have to justify that to their taxpayers."

No more U-PASS reporting

In an effort to save redundant and unnecessary reporting from schools, the annual U-PASS reports will be suspended until at least 2013. This is a result of HB166 in the last legislative session.

Representative Dougal (the bill's sponsor) said suspending that part of the U-PASS system will be no loss to the state because it wasn't improving education for kids.

"I've yet to be shown that state testing has provided any meaningful accountability," Dougall said. "It simply provides the appearance of accountability."

Several others said they're not sure whether suspending that accountability measure will affect education in Utah.

Terri Roylance, principal at Arcadia Elementary School in Taylorsville, said schools should be held accountable, but that Arcadia relies on many measures to determine its progress.

"I honestly can't see that it would change our goals for the school," Roylance said.

JoDee Sundberg, an Alpine District board member who worked with education groups who originally recommended the changes to lawmakers, said schools will still be held accountable by having to show their results to the public. Plus, she said, the state is moving toward a different type of testing system anyway.

In fact, HB166 also suspends the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test (UBSCT) for two years. Part of the money saved by that will go toward a pilot testing system that some are hoping will eventually go statewide.

Can a teacher have a blog?

According to Granite District, yes, with district permission. School-related blogs have to adhere to professional standards. Personal blogs or webpages can contain whatever employees want, but access can't be given to students. Teachers would be forbidden to be friends with students on Facebook or other social media.

Too far? I don't know. I'm no longer a teacher, but I'm friends with most of my former students. (They are in college and going on missions now.) When I did teach, I established a website where students could download homework assignments, check spelling words, etc. (that's common now, but back in the day I was cutting edge).

Interaction with students outside of class can serve to build a relationship, but can also easily cross into inappropriate areas or expose schools and teachers to liability.

The fact is that teachers should be their students' teachers, not their friends. There is a difference. Teachers have a role. Social media that increases and helps that role is positive. If it undermines the teacher-student relationship by creating a friend or peer relationship, that's negative.

I'm teaching a class on social media at the upcoming charter conference in June. Everyone should come.

Providence Hall students write and perform an opera

In a cooperative endeavor with a local district school, students from Providence Hall, a charter school in Herriman, have written the plot, lyrics, and melody to a 50-minute opera about the cycle of rocks.

From the DNews:

"Students devised the plot, wrote the lyrics and figured out the melody for the 50-minute production. Michelle Willis, a composer for the Utah Opera, acted as a mentor. The opera, centered on the fourth-grade science curriculum, explains the different parts of the rock cycle."

Full disclosure: Providence Hall is a client of mine.

Schools again allowed to shave five days

Just like last year, the State Board of Education has granted a blanket waiver on the 180-day school rule to allow schools to shorten the year and furlough employees five days to deal with budget cuts.

This year, however, schools won't also have to cut professional development days at the same time.

Slow April

After the legislative session ends in March, it always seems like education news takes a breather. April is usually a slow month for such updates. Schools begin winding down, the legislators take needed vacations, and I watch baseball. (After one week, my fantasy team is in first place!)

But today there was a lot of news, and with this week's directors' and business managers' meetings, we should get some important news about how the legislative session impacted schools.

One secret: The legislature increased "Local Replacement Funding" from $1443 to $1607 per student, but only appropriated enough for about 42,000 students. Charter schools themselves project enrollment of 47,000, which would reduce LRF below last year's level to $1436. Ouch.