State officials may close the Hope Charter Leadership Academy in Raleigh due to persistently poor academic performance.
“A high-poverty Raleigh charter school is in danger of being ordered to shut down by the state at the end of the school year due to its low test scores and lack of academic growth among its students.
“The N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board voted Thursday to require the leadership of Hope Charter Leadership Academy to show up at the group’s November meeting with a comprehensive plan to improve academic performance. The vote came after advisory board members decided to hold off on recommending that the State Board of Education take away Hope’s charter at the end of the school year.
“Last school year, Hope’s passing rate on state exams was 26.5 percent, the school didn’t meet growth and it received a “F” school performance grade. Fifth-grade state exam passing rates of 10.5 percent in reading and 5.3 percent in math were called unacceptable.
“These scores are horrible,” said advisory board member Steven Walker as he repeatedly banged his hand on the table. “You’re talking about one kid in 5th-grade passing math, one kid.”
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/wake-ed-blog/article108108117.html#storylink=cpy
Reading this sad story reminds me of a hopeful book I read years ago: “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh,” by Syracuse University scholar Gerald Grant.
Grant wrote not so many years ago that Raleigh had a successful school system because it adopted a carefully crafted plan to desegregate its schools. Not long after his book was published, a Tea Party faction gained control of the school board and hired one of Michelle Rhee’s deputies to restore segregated neighborhood schools. He was Broad-trained superintendent Anthony Tata. When the Tea Party group lost in the next election, Tata was out but Raleigh did not recover. The state Tea a Party swept the state legislature in 2010, and North Carolina began its race to the bottom, adopting charter schools, virtual schools, and vouchers, while cutting away teacher professionalism and job protections. The state that once boasted the largest number of NBCT teachers in the nation began to fund TFA instead of investing in its career teachers.
A sad story.
Hoping Governor Pat McGrory and his merry band of legislative allies take a whupping at the polls next month so North Carolinians can start to rebuild their public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope that a lot of people will vote out the privatizers who think market-based solutions to almost everything works, especially if there are flows of tax dollars to subsidize entrepreneurs.
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I have worked in programs with homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings. I have come to the conclusion that integrated heterogeneous groupings of students work wonders for poor students in elementary schools. It becomes more complicated as students enter secondary school. It requires a skillful teacher to manage the diverse groups, but it provides poor students with access and opportunity. The needs of advanced students can also be met through planning. Teaching students to learn and cooperate together is a valuable life lesson. It also contributes to making our democracy stronger and better. People will be more accepting and respectful of individual differences by learning how to relate to people that are different from themselves. Our country needs some serious soul searching and healing now. Separate is never equal.
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Retired Teacher,
Well said.
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“Hoping Governor Pat McGrory and his merry band of legislative allies take a whupping at the polls next month so North Carolinians can start to rebuild their public schools.”
I hope so too Diane but sadly another possible casualty of Hurricane Matthew has been
Governor McCrory’s declining favorable status. He is the governor and our state’s commander in chief so his leadership during the storm and its aftermath have been very much needed. His robust response to the challenges have made for a public relations bonanza. The tide, as it were, may be changing and he may well pull off a victory in November.
On another note: The people in Eastern North Carolina are still facing devastation as homes and businesses down river are continuing to be destroyed by flooding. These are homes that were not damaged during the hurricane but are now being lost to flood waters higher than ever recorded. Many of these people lost everything during Hurricane Floyd seventeen years ago. If you have it in your heart and wallet, contribute to the disaster relief organization of your choice.
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The new charter sponsor rating in Ohio are a mess:
“And on the other hand, there are 8 sponsors with As for academic rating — 7 of these sponsors are school districts; one is an Educational Service Center. Yet all are rated as ineffective or poor, overall, because they aren’t meeting the industry developed quality standards.”
Given how much political clout charter promoters have in this state, I have to wonder if this law was deliberately drafted to protect for-profit charter management companies.
The charter industry wrote the standards. Why was the allowed to happen? For goodness sakes, what are we paying these lawmakers and their staff for if the charter industry is drafting our laws?
http://www.10thperiod.com/2016/10/ohio-sponsorship-ratings-it-pays-to-be.html
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The White House held a forum on “safe and supportive schools”. Check out who attended. It’s all school districts.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/19/fact-sheet-ensuring-safe-and-supportive-schools-all-students
Are charter schools not responsible for “safe and supportive schools”?
Why does the Obama Administration hold public schools accountable while exempting charter schools?
The Obama Administration approach to public schools is all punishing “accountability” while they relentlessly promote charters and hold charter cheerleading sessions almost weekly.
I’m sick of how biased this is towards charter schools. These people have a duty to treat the two sectors fairly, no matter their personal preference for charter schools.
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Here’s the Obama “Office of Innovation and Improvement”
http://innovation.ed.gov/
The major focus is opening charter schools.
Maybe someone in DC could find a spare moment in between promoting charter schools to do something for the schools that 93% of kids attend.
Ridiculous, how captured these people are. They’re public employees. They should promote school privatization on their own dime.
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