California Charter Schools Recommended For Closure, Two Bay Area High Schools Included (VIDEO)

Last week, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) called for the closure of ten underperforming charter schools in the state -- and San Francisco's Leadership High School and Richmond's West County Community High School are two of them.

"We cannot have an honest discussion about education reform and increasing accountability without closing the charters that have demonstrated an inability to meet the challenge of excellence," said CCSA Senior Vice President Myrna Castrejon in an announcement. "The time to act on persistently low-performing schools is now, because our children's education cannot be put on the back-burner."

Both Leadership and West County Community were targeted for consistently low test scores. But according to Leadership Executive Director Elizabeth Rood, those scores are only part of a school's story.

"If you were to apply that cutoff, we would be talking about closing 15 high schools in the city," said Rood to the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's an issue of recognizing the local context. We are actually trying to be an answer to the achievement gap." According to the Chronicle, Leadership's minority students outscore their peers at most district high schools, but the CCSA does not take this into consideration during evaluation.

Rood's concerns echo those of educators at other charter schools, as well.

"We know that we're doing great things for students who are underserved here in our community who will be the first in their family to go to college," said Yolanda Falkenberg of West Sacramento Early College Prep Charter School -- another school slated for closure -- in a video by ABC News 10 in Sacramento.

Watch ABC's video about the closure at West Sacramento Early College Prep below:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that the schools will be closed in June 2012. The CCSA has recommended that the schools close by this date, but this decision has not yet been confirmed.

Comments

[leapinn]

06:57 PM on 01/13/2012

Listen to exec director of west sac early college prep: doing some great things for students who will be the first in their families to go to college. Then look at the school scores. When the vast majority of your students are not at grade level and have 4 years to "catch up" to go to college, what are the chances of this happening? How can you sit there straight faced and spout that political, tripe? Does she actually believe it?

[Ken Roberts]

07:31 AM on 12/23/2011

Yes, there are innovative Charter schools that are excellent, but they are few & far between as results from across the country demonstrate. Public money goes to support them, but in many, if not most states they are not held to the same standards as public schools. They're a get-rich scheme pushed by the GOPTP who are trying their hardest to discredit & dismantle public education - more dumbing down of America. I strongly object to public funding these inferior schools unless they are strictly regulated. For every Charter school that is exposed, there are thousands more getting away with substandard education on the public dime.

[karim banned]

05:29 AM on 12/21/2011

The charter schools should have the same or higher standards when they are hiring teachers.

Putting somebody who cannot pass a Calculus test in a classroom to teach Pre-calculus is like putting a Japanese in charge of teaching English. The students will learn little bit Japanese, and not so much English.

Only the Charter schools that are performing better than public schools should be allowed. All the teachers that are hired by charter schools should meet all the state requirements.

[sidnee]

10:44 PM on 12/20/2011

Aw poor charter schools--it isn't so easy, is it?

[cadawa]

03:29 PM on 12/20/2011

""If you were to apply that cutoff, we would be talking about closing 15 high schools in the city," said Rood to the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's an issue of recognizing the local context". No kidding!
The Procrustian corporate model based on 'one size fits' testing regime is the problem, not the schools.
The unaddressed social issues that underly poor performance are the problem, not the schools.

[BruntLIVE]

08:23 AM on 12/20/2011

"Since prison n jail populations are at an all time low kids are bypassing the criminal justice system so who is gonna pay pensions and salaries? Charters schools need to close so these children can be jailed we need the money"

[eceresa]

06:56 PM on 12/20/2011

Since charters typically do a worse job teaching kids than public schools, if you want to channel kids into prison, you're probably better off keeping the charters open. Opening more would be even better, if you want to ensure a large prison population.

Closing charters would force kids back into the public schools, which have worse press but are generally more effective at educating the kids. That might cut down on prison populations, but given the current trends in educational policy, there's not much chance we'll do that. It makes too much sense.

[straightuptalker]

06:37 AM on 12/20/2011

This is what happens when the gov gets ideas like school reform and interferes with where, how and when, and by what method we choose to educate our kids. Why do they think charter schools sprung up all over the country in the first place? Don't they have a clue it goes back to trying to balance racial equality in the classroom? They did our kids a huge disservice by enacting forced busing in the 1970's, and the public school system has been spiraling downward since then. I think this calls for a repeal of the failed attempt at racial equality, and the school system should revert to change their focus on basic education in our neighborhood schools, the way it was.

[pkafin]

05:17 PM on 12/20/2011

That's ridiculous. Only certain segments of the country required proactive measures to integrate. The education issues that we have in this country are widespread and effect school districts without regard for whether or not they were compelled to take part in busing programs in the 1970's.

[eceresa]

06:58 PM on 12/20/2011

Charters proliferated, where they did, because of misleadingly positive press on charters and government policies that encouraged them. It certainly didn't hurt that for-profit management companies realized they could cash in on public education dollars.

I don't think it had much to do with balancing racial equality. Where I've read about the effects of charters on racial issues, they've tended to segregate student populations.

[bbbbmer]

05:43 AM on 12/20/2011

A charter school advocacy group claiming policing credentials over its members is about as effective as a fox guarding the henhouse... There are MANY charters that should be closed, including Kevin Johnson's ST. HOPE schools in Sacramento, which are a DISGRACE, and scandal ridden as Watergate, with Americorps funding fraud, numerous allegations of child sexual abuse, and deficit operation since inception, amassing an AMAZING 33% annualized debt to annual revenue and GROWING, mostly in the form of back rent due to the local school district which looks the other way in an effort to dismantle the local teachers' union....

Absolutely DISGRACEFUL!

[eceresa]

07:00 PM on 12/20/2011

Most charters should be closed. If they're performing at or below the level of the public schools with which they're competing, and more than four out of five charters are, they're a drain on the system for no real benefit. We should be looking to close most charter schools. Instead we compound the problem and drive the overall quality of the education system downward by opening new charters.

The good charters exist, but they're rare.

[bbbbmer]

07:47 PM on 12/21/2011

A-MEN! And there is a MOUNTAIN of evidence to support what you assert, most prominently the Stanford CREDO reports on charters, indicating not only that on average they do not outperform regular old public schools, but even to achieve THAT mediocrity they must cherry pick students and operate in financial deficits, largely by hiring unqualified teachers while simultaneously employing superintendents schooled by the billionaire boys clubs bent on breaking the back of public education in America....

A-MEN indeed!

[zombywulf]

01:35 AM on 12/20/2011

Charters fail because they do not perform in the money way.

[Olderandwiser55]

05:59 PM on 12/20/2011

And the for profits were so sure they could.....harder than it looked. :)

[i the ys]

10:23 PM on 12/19/2011

Who needs education when we have the republican'ts to tell us what to do, what to think, and how to live.

[sas7777]

07:24 AM on 12/21/2011

What to do,what to think and how to live are all Liberal traits that have created the entitlement society we have today...

[eceresa]

09:18 PM on 12/19/2011

Charter schools might be closed because they're failing? That IS news. Usually, charters fail, and they just keep on failing. Despite promises to the contrary, they rarely close.

[acumenguy]

09:05 PM on 12/19/2011

I don't believe it!
California actually grew a pair.
How about that?
Hope they do the same in my home town.

[Olderandwiser55]

05:58 PM on 12/20/2011

Many are closing. It's somewhat amusing because the charter school owners were real happy the admin "embraced" charter schools in race to the Top-but there are rules attached.

[bkochandco]

07:54 PM on 12/19/2011

Ahh-what a shame! EDUCATION IS NOT FOR PROFIT EVER!