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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Incoming family: Does SSMA have any communication on the Charter Board hearing this week where their goals were amended. It feels like they are prepping for a hard hearing (as a believer in the opportunities of charter schools, this feels too gaming the system and kind of gross.)

"Shining Stars PCS requests the following amendment to its charter agreement,
to reflect the revised standard for charter review and renewal under the policy.
Standard for charter review and renewal:
§ The school must earn an average PMF score since the five-year
review equal to or exceeding 45%, to be considered as having met
its goals and student achievement expectations at its ten-year
charter review.
§ The school must earn an average PMF score since the ten-year
review equal to or exceeding 50%, to be considered as having met
its goals and student achievement expectations at charter renewal.
§ In cases where a school has not achieved the above threshold, the
DC PCSB Board may, at its discretion, determine that a school has
met its goals and student achievement expectations if the School
Corporation has met either of the following:
o Improvement Provision: The School Corporation has
demonstrated consistent improvement in overall PMF scores
during the most recent three years of the review period.
2 In
exercising its discretion, the DC PCSB Board shall also
consider the strength of un-tiered measures.
o Demonstrated Promise Provision: At charter renewal, the
school has earned a PMF score equal to or exceeding 50 in
the most recent year of the PMF (the last year of the review period); OR the school’s rating on OSSE’s School
Transparency and Report (STAR) framework for the most
recent year is a 3 or above. 3,4"

Just so many ORS[/quote]

These are standard goals.  I do think that the PCSB waters down its own supposedly rigorous oversight and introduces favoritism by allowing all these exceptions and "flexibilities". But these goals are cut and paste matching lots of other schools.[/quote]

You have to be doing REALLY bad to actually be shut down by PCSB. And sadly quite a few schools have been at that rock bottom recently. SSMA hasn't. The measures don't really correct enough for population served (which has hurt some other schools serving very high risk kids, too). [/quote]

This.  The scores have to be an absolute cluster for them to actually shut it down, and even then there's often a conditional continuance and more chances to improve.  And I get that shutdowns are bad and hard and disruptive, but isn't the whole point of charters the ability to shut down failing schools?

Schools that serve higher-income kids have to be really, really bad to have bad test scores, because the parents are capable of supplementing academics so much.  The more common outcome is that parents will leave (hence SSMA's bad re-enrollment scores) and the school fails financially.

If I were a SSMA parent I would be very, very concerned.  Not so much about a quick shutdown, but if SSMA doesn't fill its seats this year, having a bad Count Day in October and not having very much money and having to make program cuts.  That will make the school even less appealing to parents the following year.  It's a downward spiral.  Due to COVID I think a lot of people will keep their kids home with a nanny or parent for preschool, and that means that schools like SSMA may have a hard time attracting enough kids.

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