Tennessee charters have learned the secret to high test scores: push out low-performing students right before testing time.
That way, the charter keeps the money, and the public school gets the low score.
This is not a closely guarded secret, but it usually fools the media and the politicians.
Here is one journalist–Dennis Ferrier at WSMV–who was not fooled:
“When it comes to the net loss of students this year, charter schools are the top eight losers of students.
“In fact, the only schools that have net losses of 10 to 33 percent are charter schools.”
The KIPP school in Nashville has an attrition rate of 18%.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My apologies Ms. Ravitch, as this is out of context with your post, but we would love to have you help spread the word about the proposed FY2014 Atlanta Public Schools Budget – http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/may/20/aps-parents-urges-board-delay-vote-budget-and-larg/
Thank you!
A local blogger has taken offense at Dennis Ferrier’s story about Nashville charters, personal offense; which is curious because he argues that MNPS spread false charter attrition data for personal reasons. He presents the same data, he tries to make charter attrition look less dramatic. The blogger doesn’t admit one important fact, he works for the charter school incubator, training people to better run charters and to encourage charter school growth in Nashville.
As always, thanks to Ms Ravitch and her support.
The pro-charter blog: http://pig-lipstick.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-other-side-of-storyattrition.html
Mr. Pig Lipstick makes one of my all time favorite arguments: that charters are actually doing failing public schools a favor by sending students back to them, now with enhanced excellence!
Yep, here’s his quote: “I’m even willing to bet money that the kids that left charter schools like KIPP right before TCAP actually helped boost the TCAP scores of those schools that they went to.” (I hope he wasn’t an English teacher.)
It looks to me also, that this blogger fails to understand that kids that leave traditional public schools do so on their own, even after being prodded and begged to stay.
Charters “counsel” kids out. You don’t have to go any further than Geoffrey Canada to see that.
If they have enhanced their education so well, what is the need to push them back to public schools?
Yep, schulzey, that’s me. I work for the Charter School Incubator, and yes, write a personal blog in my spare time on ed issues in Nashville.
It’s pretty clear, even in the data MNPS fed to Ferrier, that they messed the report up (and conveniently excluded some district schools from the top of the list to be more dramatic and show all charters). Their calculation method was flawed, because it was calculating net enrollment change, not attrition.
So yes, I took offense, mainly because MNPS had to manipulate data and skew things in their own report to try and sell a story. If I had nothing to do with charters, I would still feel the same way — MNPS leadership should spend their time on preparing ALL public school kids for the rigors of college & career — not engaged in political chicanery.
Hunter, wipe your lips off and pay attention. Charters do not serve every child who walks through the door- exclusion is the model. It’s a feature not a bug. Do you even know the difference between SED,MD, and ID disability categories? Doubt it, since no charter ever serves them. Charter school attrition is consistently high for special needs kiddos ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. KIPP included. So don’t try to spin charter straw into gold.
You failed to show data manipulation by MNPS in those spread sheets despite your efforts to spin it. And your smear of Ferrier is unscrupulous even by Huffman’s standards.
What’s the beef? Sounds like an excellent BUSINESS strategy to me.
Lord Huffman will be impressed by this example of BEST PRACTICE!
Same here in Michigan. The high school state tests are at the end of March but the count day happens in mid-March. In my classes alone I’ve had 14 adds in the “between weeks” of these dates over the last three years (and I’m just a single teacher in a metro area). Every student came from a charter. They ended up being among my bottom quartile in each class.
Get the funding but not the test score. Yep.
Look at the push-outs by month and you are likely to find that before the standardized tests, the higher-performing charter schools lose double or triple the number of students/month than after the standardized testing.
I’m so glad it was reported by the media! This is a travesty for those students (and the teachers whose evaluations are based on test results).
Our elected officials need to know the truth before they hand over our public schools to Charter schools.
But, oh my gosh, this cannot be. KIPP schools are so very, very good. Aren’t they?
I mean, KIPP surely says how good KIPP is.
And Jay Mathews, at The Washington Post, just cannot see straight from all that foaming and frothing and drooling over KIPP.
Why, KIPP is just peachy isn’t it? Better even than canned sardines.
KIPP wouldn’t cut corners would it? KIPP leaders, fine upstanding people that they are, wouldn’t misrepresent the truth would they?
Gee willikers. This just burst my little KIPP bubble.
This kind of crap happened in TX – where the data pushed by Gov. idiot excluded a lot of kids (mostly military) to make it look like a great high school GRAD Rate – which of course he cheered. Then when the data “fly in the ointment” details were discussed, he scurried away. I’ll bet a nickel KIPP will change the numbers, immediately – /snark
My growing worry is neither the dollars, nor the scores, but the time. I was recently at a meeting at the education admin building – and one person had to run “to look at a huge charter application”. We have a very limited budget, a very stretched staff in Metro Nashville schools.
Has anyone calculated how much time these charter applications, approvals, appeals, denials, oversight, debates … how much intellectual energy is being sucked away from the 96% of our kids who attend neighborhood schools… on behalf of the 4% who attend charters?