The State Board of Education is set to establish the following policy:
The State Board of Education shall revoke the charter of any charter school when, for two of three consecutive school years, the charter school does not meet or exceed expected growth and has fewer than 60% of its students scoring at or above grade level.
The new policy appears to eliminate the first year accountability “cushion” for new charter schools and the review/appeals process for existing charter schools.
This policy will be approved without public comment or input from charter school parents, administrators, and teachers.
The SBE will also ask applicants for new charter schools to submit a marketing plan.
Describes a sound five (5) year marketing plan that promotes the enrollment of a student population that reasonably reflects the racial and ethnic composition of the general population residing within the local school administrative unit in which the school is located or the special population that the school seeks to serve residing within the local school administrative unit in which the school is located
What is the justification for new charter school regulations? The State Board of Education states,
SBE adoption of this policy in December 2009 will enable the SBE to continue expanding its expectations that students are globally competitive and respond to the Governor?s request for higher expectations for all students in North Carolina.
I suppose we should expect that these policies will also apply to all public schools, both charter and district schools. After all, we are supposedly talking about raising expectations for “all students in North Carolina.”
