The Philadelphia School Reform Commission (now the Board of Educatuon) ordered the closure of Eastern Academy Charter School because of its poor academic performance, but the charter has vowed to fight the closure, a process that could drag on for years due to Pennsylvania’s charter-friendly law. The charter school even challenges the school district’s power to hold it accountable. It feels it is entitled to public money without any accountability for academic quality.
“Eastern is appealing on several grounds. For one thing, it contends that the Charter Schools Office unfairly assessed its academic record by including two special admission schools in one comparison group. For another, it says that two Charter Schools Office staffers who participated in the review were inexperienced.
“Susan DeJarnatt, a professor of legal research at Temple University and a critic of the charter school industry, said that Eastern’s arguments essentially object “to any kind of oversight.”
“The heart of the argument seems to be an idea that many charter proponents have advanced recently — that no charter school should be closed so long as any District schools that underperform the charter school in any way are operating, regardless of the charter’s academic performance or compliance with the law…
“In its appeal, Eastern included a speech by its CEO, Omar Barlow, in which he referred to neighborhood schools where many of his students might otherwise attend as “cesspools” to justify his own school remaining open. In the speech, he made no attempt to refute the charter office’s findings of poor academic performance and violations of state and federal laws.
“DeJarnatt said Eastern’s strongest argument is the one that questions the decision of the charter office to include two special admission schools in a group to which Eastern was compared. But she said that the school presented no evidence of how it would have fared if those magnet schools were removed. Still, she doesn’t see that argument as likely to void the SRC’s decision.
“The school was founded in 2009 with support from Eastern University, though the university has not continued to support the school. David Bromley, executive director of Big Picture Philadelphia, was also a member of the founding coalition. Although Eastern’s website contends that it is a Big Picture School, the only Big Picture Schools in Pennsylvania are El Centro and Vaux.
“By any standard, the school’s academic performance has been low. On the latest round of PSSAs, 20 percent of students in the school’s middle grades scored proficient in English and 1 percent were deemed proficient in math. The high school had poor scores in math and science on the Keystone exams. The school serves 349 students in grades 7-12.”
Twenty percent proficient in English! One percent prominent in math!
This is a failing school.
Why is this school still open?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who knew chutzpah was a technical term in charter lingo!
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🙂
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Eastern like many other charter schools have been emboldened by charter friendly laws and representatives that have shown charters partiality. Charter operators eschew any oversight or accountability. As schools of “choice,” taxpayers whose money funds the schools should be able to shut them down when they know a school is failing, and they deem them unworthy of public investment. There is also the consideration that perhaps the public schools would be in much better shape if they were not depleted of resources due to charter drain. They would be wise to invest in authentic, well resourced public schools operated by professionals that provide wrap around services to at-risk students.
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“The heart of the argument seems to be an idea that many charter proponents have advanced recently — that no charter school should be closed so long as any District schools that underperform the charter school in any way are operating, regardless of the charter’s academic performance or compliance with the law…”
Sure! Because as everybody knows, two wrongs always make a right.
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A sign of Trumpian-DeVos, Koch dominated times = insanity
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Reminds me of Trump calling other countries something like cesspools. Make Eastern Charter Great Again.
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OK, “cesspools” is pretty out there, hopefully a few Pennsylvanians took umbrage. But I find it dispiriting that so many Americans go along with slurs against public schooling, as if they, as citizens, had nothing to do with them. These are people who see public institutions, and govt itself, as “other.” When in fact they are our reflection.
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What kind of country has laws that allow super-PAC-funded private entities to drain public resources defending continual litigation for a piece of public funds?!
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Answer: A country where “Pay to Play” politics run everything as well as ruthless and greedy politicians.
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