Friday, February 19, 2010

Delaware schools: Moyer Academy loses charter | delawareonline.com | The News Journal

Delaware schools: Moyer Academy loses charter | delawareonline.com | The News Journal:

"DOVER -- The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to close Maurice J. Moyer Academy charter school in Wilmington.

State education officials said the school, which opened in September 2006, failed to meet three of the 14 criteria necessary for charter renewal: student performance goals, hiring of enough highly qualified teachers and development of a curriculum that met state standards. Nor was Moyer's leadership able to provide a clear plan to improve performance going forward, Dan Cruce, Delaware's deputy education secretary, told the board.

Moyer currently has 484 students enrolled in grades six through 12. It will lose its charter at the end of this school year.

'I'm devastated,' Theo Gregory, Moyer's director, said just after the meeting. 'I can't believe this.'

Moyer is only the second charter school to be denied renewal since the General Assembly approved Delaware's charter law in 1995. Marion T. Academy Charter School was denied in 2008 after state officials cited poor student performance at the Wilmington K-8 school. Two others have relinquished their charters, Richard Milburn Academy in July of 2000 and Georgetown Charter School in March of 2002."