KIPP charter in Nashville sends troubled students back to public schools before testing time.

[madfloridian]

It keeps KIPP's testing record looking a whole lot better, and it doesn't help the testing records of the public schools receiving the students.

I am curious to see what defense is given to this practice. It is a common one among charter schools. These charter schools can then brag that they outperform public schools.

There is a video at the link.

Charter schools losing struggling students to zoned schools

Charter schools are literally built on the idea that they will outperform public, zoned schools. They are popular because they promise and deliver results, but some new numbers are raising big questions about charter schools.

One of the first things a visitor sees when stepping into Kipp Academy is a graph that shows how Kipp is outperforming Metro schools in every subject.

..."Nineteen of the last 20 children to leave Kipp Academy had multiple out-of-school suspensions. Eleven of the 19 are classified as special needs, and all of them took their TCAPs at Metro zoned schools, so their scores won't count against Kipp.

"We won't know how they perform until we receive results and we see. We would be happy to take their results, frankly. The goal is getting kids ready for college. The goal is not having shiny results for me or for anyone on the team," Dowell said.

This is not fair to the public schools whose teachers will be held accountable for those test scores. After all "not only are they getting kids from charter schools, but they are also getting troubled kids and then getting them right before testing time."

Note that the KIPP principal said that they would take the students back, that the goal was getting kids ready for college not test scores. No, the goal of education should not be college for every student. That is not feasible and it makes no sense.

The goal of education should be what we had as our philosophy before I retired. Start with where the students are, take them as far as we can take them down the road to learning, helping them achieve as much as they can.

This high attrition rate has been a common practice among charters for years now. It's time for it to stop.

Charter schools that boast high test scores should reveal their attrition rates as well.

The article mentions that WCCS has among the highest test scores in NYC. Then it points out some research.

Sure enough, 11 out of the 13 charter schools showed significant shrinkage in the size of their testing cohorts. And the more the cohorts shrank over time, the higher the percentage of students achieving proficiency rose.

At Williamsburg, this trend was dramatic. Seventy-two 5th graders took the ELA test in 2006 with just under 60 percent achieving proficiency. Three years later, proficiency for that same cohort had skyrocketed to just below 95 percent, but only 44 students remained in the 8th grade cohort. That’s an attrition rate of 39 percent.

More from that 2010 post:

Diane Ravitch recently posted a letter she received from the principal of a traditional public middle school in Los Angeles.

"I received an email from Dr. DeWayne Davis, the principal of Audubon Middle School in Los Angeles, which was sent to several public officials. Dr. Davis said that local charter schools were sending their low-performing students to his school in the middle of the year. He wrote: "Since school began, we enrolled 159 new students (grades 7 and 8). Of the 159 new students, 147 of them are far below basic (FBB)!!! Of the 147 students who are FBB, 142 are from charter schools. It is ridiculous that they can pick and choose kids and pretend that they are raising scores when, in fact, they are purging nonperforming students at an alarming rate—that is how they are raising their scores, not by improving the performance of students. Such a large number of FBB students will handicap the growth that the Audubon staff initiated this year, and further, will negatively impact the school's overall scores as we continue to receive a recurring tide of low-performing students."

And about Florida charters:

"Class Warfare, McKeel Academy edition"

School Board member Frank O’Reilly wants district official to start tracking how many students are transferred from charter schools to public schools as a result of their grades, social economic status or behavioral issues. During a work session this morning, O’Reilly read a letter sent by Harold Maready, superintendent of McKeel charter schools, to a parent about their third grader who flunked the FCAT.

“Your child does not meet the criteria to be a McKeel student,” O’Reilly read.

If public schools were to reject students based on their academic performance, then they could be A schools, too, O’Reilly said.

“We must take every child that comes through that door whether we like it or not,” O’Reilly said. ‘‘That is a public school paid by taxpayers’ dollars, and I like to remind Mr. Maready of that.”

So, it is still going on. At least a news station is speaking out about it.

[The Magistrate]

1. One Of The Keys To The Whole 'Charter' Scam, Ma'am

I cannot keep count of the layers of fraud involved in the 'charter' scheme to mulct public money under guise of providing education....

[madfloridian]

2. You are so right. Sending public money to private coffers....that is the goal.

All the while hoping no one notices. And actually that is what is happening. Few are noticing, very few care much.

[okaawhatever]

9. Here is the result of Louisiana's attempt to privatize schools. They brought in teachers from the

Phillipines via a private company and then they were treated like endentured servants. There are several lawsuits currently pending in Louisiana but this one is settled.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/firm-must-pay-45-million-to-exploited-teachers-in-precedent-setting-splc-case

[madfloridian]

14. I was following that fiasco about those teachers.

They got the jobs of career teachers in many cases. They are trying to get the cheapest teachers possible, making teaching a temp job.

There's going to be a world of hurt because of that.

[hrmjustin]

11. Welcome to DU my friend!

[okaawhatever]

18. Thx nt

[hrmjustin]

19. For what?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. It is fraud, pure and simple

by the way

[madfloridian]

4. Yes, it is defrauding the public.

And the public is not well-informed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. On multiple issues...sadly

[gopiscrap]

6. That's been operational mode of Catholic schools for a long time

when I was a kid they would routinely kick out any kid with less than a c+ average.

[madfloridian]

7. I know in Florida some Catholic schools have turned charter to get public money...

to help them financially. So they are probably doing the same thing.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5085

[Dawson Leery]

15. That should end the myth of Catholic education.

[surrealAmerican]

8. Could one simple rule put an end to this sort of abuse?

If the money that the state or local district provides for a student were to go to whichever school the student was tested at, would that do?

[LWolf]

12. Our district-approved

school-board favorite charter school advertises widely, in and out of the district, promises expensive goodies, takes all comers, and then loses a whole bunch back to regular schools when they don't keep up...sends them back with a term or two wasted and no graduation credits earned. Of course, those that are left test well, and we get to hear about those test scores all the time.

[madfloridian]

13. They send out glossy brochures.

Public schools can't afford stuff like that.

[LWolf]

16. Ours runs on public money.

One way they afford all the goodies they promise is that, when they send the failures back to their regular public schools, they keep the per-student funding for those students.

[HiPointDem]

17. kr

[Initech]

20. For profit theives are destorying our educational system.

Just like they've destroyed the air traffic controllers, prisons and our justice system, banks, and so on. It's a virus.