API scores: Only about half of LA Unified charters meeting state performance goals
Annie Gilbertson
Lou Dantzler Preparatory Middle School was the second worst performing charter middle school in L.A. Unified in 2013. Administrators are trying to turn it around.
For decades, charter schools have been held out as one of the great hopes of public education — private institutions funded with taxpayer dollars, but free from some of the strictures that saddle traditional public schools.
And few school systems have embraced charters as much as the Los Angeles Unified School District has in recent years, with dozens of new charters routinely approved at board meetings.
But school performance measures released Thursday show that charters are not a silver bullet. Only about half of Los Angeles Unified’s 228 charters have met the state-set goal of an Academic Performance Index of 800 or better. Those scores are based mostly on standardized tests students receive from grades 3 to 12, as well as high school exit exams.
L.A. Unified Superintendent John Deasy said he agrees that charters have to perform well. If they don't?
“We close them,” he said.
Districts have the power to revoke a charter’s license to operate. But according to interviews with state and district officials, L.A. Unified has seldom done so on purely academic grounds.
What does omit mean?
Lou Dantzler Prepatory Middle School sits behind cheerfully-painted, high metal gates in South Central Los Angeles. Its buildings are new and tidy. Students wear uniforms.