Thu May 8, 2008 at 1:58 PMBy: Rod Estvan CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online On December 12, 2007 I and another staff member from Access Living met with ONS and Mr. Edelman about data related to students with disabilities to be used in a report we are developing. During the course of the discussion we got the clear impression that Mr. Edelman wanted to promote greater transparency on achievement issues for students with disabilities in charters and Renaissance 2010 schools. I must admit that I was somewhat surprised to discover that the 2006-2007 ONS charter school performance report did not provide subgroup data of any type, be it by race, sex, or disability status.

Really the only disability related information in the report is the percentage of students with disabilities in each charter school. While in some cases these charters have limited numbers of students with disabilities and their data is suppressed by ISBE rules there are other charter schools who do have data for students with disabilities appearing in their school report cards. As I have said repeatedly on this blog overall these performance scores for students with disabilities are not much different than for traditional CPS schools. There are however, exceptions where some charters are doing better than others for their students with disabilities and parents considering this option for their children with disabilities should have this information.

The other issue that jumped out at me was the data for these charters on the transfer out rate. First off it should be known that CPS ONS through its data system actually knows if the transferred out students are leaving the school district or transferring to a traditional CPS school. This information is not provided, it is however provided in the ISBE annual report on all charters in the state. The information presented is for a one year transfer rate which is in addition to the high school drop out rate.

There are some very high numbers for some charter high schools.
For example the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Tech Charter had a yearly transfer out rate of 15.4% with an additional 9.2% drop outs. This indicates that just under a quarter of the schools students are leaving each year.

Aspira had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 18.8%.
CICS high schools had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 13.3%
Shabazz had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 17.7%.
Urban Prep had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 13.8% with most of these students transferring.
Young Women’s had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 16.9%

Just to be fair we should note how good Nobel St. looked on this data with a combined rate of only 2.9%. But it is important to note these numbers when we next hear talk of wait lists for charter schools, there may be wait lists for freshmen, but some charters are operating far from capacity due to transfers and drop outs.

In relation to this issue in the RAND report at page 17 we learn that between 1998 and 2002 there were 978 charter school 8th graders. Over the same period there were 2,090 charter school 9th graders. This indicates that only 48% of charter elementary school graduates opted to enter a charter high school. Clearly there were enough slots to adsorb more of these charter elementary graduates than went to charter high schools. It appears that significant numbers of families opted out of the charter system in favor of traditional public high schools, including selective ones.

The other interesting data from the RAND report relevant to this charter transfer issue appears on page 18. RAND for its analysis established what it called a treatment group of charter students and a comparison group of traditional school students. There were 474 charter school students in the charter treatment group of these students 128 transferred to traditional CPS schools during the study, which is about 27%. There were 523 students in the comparisons group of which only 7 transferred to charter schools, which is only 1%. What exactly that means I am not sure, but I thought folks would be interested.

Rod Estvan
Access Living

Thu May 8, 2008 at 7:42 PMBy: Kugler - Shocked CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online I am shocked by what I am reading


Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Tech Charter had a yearly transfer out rate of 15.4% with an additional 9.2% drop outs. This indicates that just under a quarter of the schools students are leaving each year.


I looked up Hyde Parks and it was 9.4 last year.

That is being a receiving school for closed Englewood and Calumet.

Imagine if we had the resources and support!


Go Thunderbirds!

Thu May 8, 2008 at 8:24 PMBy: rodentface CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Holy craperoo!

94.6% attendance rate
What are the brilliant minds at UNO doing to get these kids to walk in the door each morning? How does UNO make that happen? Do they do wake up calls? Distribute alarm clocks? Knock on doors? Or do UNO students, disadvantaged as they are, more likely have parents who care enough about education to seek out and pursue education options?

21.6:1 student to teacher ratio
That is truly impressive. My school's ratio is darn near double UNO's. Now if only CPS would cap enrollment for our building and provide funding for an equally low staff ratio.

If competition is as wonderful as Just Say "Si" claims, it is perfectly reasonable for comparable schools to demand equitable conditions. But that would result in a fair contest. And no one in CPS seems interested in that type of scenario.

Thu May 8, 2008 at 11:38 PMBy: anon CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Link to a rape at a CICS campus
http://www.nbc5.com/news/16207896/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

Fri May 9, 2008 at 9:22 AMBy: Charlie CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Rod: It's Noble Street, not Nobel Street. However, I do agree with you. If they take this long to publish this report they should have data split by the important demographic information. If we're going to compare apples to apples this kind of information is vital.

Everyone else: Student to teacher ratio is not the same as class size. Especially if you're talking about middle schools where students have different teachers for every subject or high schools. The student to teacher ratio at one of these schools will be much lower than a school where students are with the same teacher all day. If you have 56 students in a 6th grade that is split into two classes that has different teachers for Math, Science, English and Social students, your student to teacher ratio would be 14:1, but your class size would be 28. So it is very possible that UNO has a student to teacher ratio of 21, but still has class sizes of 28 or higher.

Fri May 9, 2008 at 9:46 PMBy: Personal attacks are awesome CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Yes, anyone who disagrees with you must be a bad teacher. Why do you have to slur others instead of engaging their points?

Shouldn't we model better for our students?

Fri May 9, 2008 at 11:40 PMBy: Askance Looker CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Charter schools I have visited don't even tell the Board when large numbers kids have left their schools; why would I thnk their 'attendance' rates are any more accurate than their 'membership'?

Mon May 12, 2008 at 10:52 AMBy: re: stats CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online The statistics contained in the ONS report are not particularly bad. In fact they are very similar to the data coming from Washington DC, Philly, and other cities with numerous charter schools. As a group they are doing about the same as the average public school in the district as various studies have shown, some are better and some are worse than the average.

The question is cost effectiveness, are the charters worth the investment. Right now apparently both the Mayor and Board believe the cost does over come the benefit. There is one very odd dvelopment that goes beyond just looking at charters and the public sector, that is how are they impacting Catholic Schools. The Alliance for Catholic Education at University of Notre Dame sees charters in Chicago and elsewhere as a threat to urban Catholic schools. (see article in Ed Week Feb 13, 2008)

There seems to be a link between increases in urban charters and the closing of urban Catholic schools. For example in Michigan we know that Catholic schools are losing one student for every three that charters gain. This development is directly linked to the increasing cost of Catholic education. I do not know of a study done of the relationship between charter growth and Catholic school decline in Chicago.

One thing is becoming clearer that is charters are becoming more widely known in Chicago as an option for low income families. Hence we will be seeing more incidents similar to the one that took place at the CICS school involving the sexual assult because the charters are drawing in more maladjusted and emotionally disturbed students from fractured family units.

Eventually, some charters will even on the level of order, structure, safety, begin to look more like the schools tradtional public schools. The lower the social economic status the particular charter draws its students from the less it will appear to be a safe haven for functional low income families. These more organized families who in turn have generally higher performing children will flee and seek other charters precevied as more orderly and having fewer of "those kids." Many of "those" kids will test at clinically significant levels for things like oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD.

Charters will not be able to push numerous students out who exhibit socially unacceptable behaviors, because the CPS will have no where else for them to go because of closings and expansion of optional schools. The things change the more they stay the same.

Tue May 13, 2008 at 8:38 AMBy: nO nAME CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online INCREDIBLE, SO WHY IT THIS NOT PUBLISHED IN
THE SUNTIMES / TRIBUNE AND OTHER PUBLIC
WRITTEN ARTICLES, INCLUDING SHARED AT A
BOARD MEETING WHERE THEY VOTE ON THESE
SCHOOLS AND SHARE HOW GREAT THEY ARE.

Tue May 13, 2008 at 10:26 AMBy: 1.04 CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Retired Principal


Good job however each school seems to have a different idea of numbers.
Are those with single digit drop out rates cumulative?

Tue May 13, 2008 at 12:23 PMBy: Retired Principal CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online Zach, correction, it should read four out of nine. All of this information is in the "Illinois Chapter School Annual Report-January 2008" located on the Illinois State Board Of Education Website!!!!!!!!!! Look at it yourself!

Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 4:02 PMBy: freespeechfortruth CPS Charter Schools Performance Report Now Online UNO schools raise student achievement by expecting teachers to work much longer hours and 'volunteer' for many extra curricular programs and events throughout the year. Even then, the most dedicated teachers may be fired for not significantly improving test scores. Essentially, the teachers are worked very, very hard and many burn out or leave UNO to work elsewhere because they find it's almost impossible to have a life outside of their job. (Most people who've worked at UNO know that married employees tend to leave as soon as they plan to have kids of their own. And even the most celebrated UNO teachers will privately grumble about Juan Rangel's insane demands.)
Of course teaching is always a demanding job, but teacher unions are in place to protect the rights of teachers as workers and as professionals. UNO (and other charters) are able to prevent resistance to their overwhelming demands because their teachers are not unionized. As 'at will' employees, UNO teachers always have the option to quit, but that is their only form of resistance.
Oh, and UNO schools maintain such high student attendance because they fail students who miss more than a certain number of days, and because enrollment at UNO schools is self-selecting: the system of applications and lottery by which students are chosen forms a student body whose parents value education.