California charter school scores dive - ContraCostaTimes.com:
California charter school scores dive
Like paragliders caught in a downdraft, test scores of many once high-flying charter schools plummeted on state results released last week.
Even more so than their public-school counterparts' tests, a number of charter schools' scores took a nosedive. Now schools are scrambling to examine why.
Among them is Rocketship Education, which has attracted generous high-tech funding and national attention for its success with the hardest-to-educate students, but now is grappling with some test scores no better than those of surrounding schools. Just-released scores from tests taken last spring show Rocketship's nine elementary schools in San Jose generally performed from poor to middling in both English and math. At its flagship Mateo Sheedy school, once the third-highest performing in the state among elementary schools serving low-income children, just 36 percent of students met or exceeded English standards, and 44 percent met or exceeded math standards.
"We are all still trying to understand the numbers," spokesman David Kuizenga said. The charter organization's own analysis, he said, showed that last school year, students averaged 1½ years of academic growth, consistent with its pattern over several years. But, Kuizenga added, "we certainly have a lot of work to do."
Likewise, English proficiency scores at Aspire Public Schools, which also targets poor children, were 48 percent at its California College Preparatory Academy, which moved this year from Berkeley to Richmond, and 38 percent at Lionel Wilson Academy in Oakland -- and those were the highest in Aspire's Bay Area network. At the bottom, Aspire's Triumph
California charter school scores dive - ContraCostaTimes.com:
