State revises number of magic charter schools to get federal grant money | The Columbus Dispatch

State revises number of failing charter schools to get federal grant money | The Columbus Dispatch:
State revises number of failing charter schools to get federal grant money
 As state education officials seek the release of a $71 million federal charter school grant, they now say Ohio has nearly 10 times as many failing charter schools as previously claimed. 

The Department of Education says there are 57 poor-performing charter schools in Ohio, not the six reported in its grant application submitted in July. 

As for high-performing charter schools, it turns out there are 59, not the 93 originally claimed.

The revised numbers were detailed in a Jan. 29 letter to federal regulators who put a hold on Ohio's charter-school grant in November amid concerns about the state Department of Education's rigging of charter school evaluations. The performance statistics for the 2013-14 school year are for 290 "site-based" schools and do not include online charters, which generally have been among the poorest performers. 

In the 20-page letter to Stefan Huh, head of the U.S. Department of Education's charter school program, interim state superintendent Lonny J. Rivera responded to a request for updated figures and lists of all high performing and low performing charter schools under both state and federal definitions. 

The 93 "high quality" and six "poor performing" charter schools identified in the state's grant application were based on "the federal definition," Rivera wrote. The revised numbers showing fewer high performing schools and more failing ones, he said, are based on new and tougher state definitions. 

The "newly implemented state definition utilizes more rigorous criteria than the federal definition," he said. 

The letter was the state's third response to questions from federal regulators since the review was opened in November. Ohio hopes to State revises number of failing charter schools to get federal grant money | The Columbus Dispatch: