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High-Profile Charter Becomes Non-Starter
The New York Times devoted a lot of ink to the opening of the Ross Global Academy Charter School. They seemed fascinated by the fact that a super rich, lithe, unwrinkled, blond woman (their description) was doing this. I've devoted quite a bit of space to the beginnings of this school, including an item that Courtney Sale Ross booted several principals during the first year of operation. In its first few months, Ross Global lost art, music, and Chinese teachers, a kindergarten teacher, and two sixth-grade teachers. Then I stopped following it. New York Magazine called the Ross venture "Chancellor Joel Klein’s most pampered pet cause."
By Barbara Martinez
A prominent charter school made the list of underperforming schools that the Department of Education plans to close, and the school said it intends to fight for its survival.
The Ross Global Academy Charter School on the Lower East Side was founded in 2006 by Courtney Sale Ross, the widow of Steven J. Ross, former chief executive of Time Warner.
The school's test scores for 2009 show it's one of the city's three worst-performing charter schools. Only about 30% of its students were proficient in math or English. It has had four principals in five years, and 77% of its teachers and 25% of its students left last year.
In an interview before the DOE's decision, Ms. Ross, 62 years old, said last year's test scores were an aberration and that some of the contributing factors were beyond the school's control. "This was a start-up riddled with turbulence," she said, pointing to the DOE's decisions to relocate the school three times. She added that the school had already begun a process of turnaround with a new principal.
On Monday, the DOE dismissed Ms. Ross's version of the school's tenure. "This was not a one-year problem," the agency said in a statement. "The school has received four notices of concern or deficiency over the past five years. In our review this year, we did not see evidence that these concerns were addressed or that there was a plan in place to address them."
It will now be up to the Board of Regents at the New York State Education Department, which can agree with or oppose New York City's recommendation.
Such a move against a charter school is unusual, in part because many of them outperform the public schools in their districts. Another reason is that they are small in number: There are nearly 100 charter schools in New York City, compared with more than 1,500 traditional public schools. While the DOE has shut down dozens of schools in the past several years, it has only closed one charter school. It has given six charter schools less than the maximum five-year renewal terms in the past two years because of poor performance.
"Normally, they don't close a school in this fashion," said Kevin Quinn, a partner at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna and Ross's attorney. He said the DOE has failed to follow its own process in the case of Ross by not giving the school an opportunity to comment on the DOE's recommendation before announcing publicly its intention to recommend that the school be closed. He said he's unaware of the four notices of deficiencies that the DOE claims, but that there was only one notice, and the school successfully challenged it.
"I'm concerned this decision may have been made before they even started the process," said Stephanie Wilson, a Ross board member and parent of a student. She said the school has a strong plan in place for its turnaround. At a meeting two weeks ago, more than 100 parents, teachers and students touted the school to DOE officials.
— Barbara Martinez
Wall Street Journal
2010-12-07
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003754103843190.html?mod=djemITP_h
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