More and more lately it seems that accountability is only for public school teachers. The Jacksonville charter school was at the bottom of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores last year also.
Taxpayer money is involved.
From the Florida Times Union:
Duval may approve KIPP's second charter after first school received an 'F'
Nationally known charter school network KIPP is set to open a second school in Jacksonville this fall, even though the local campus it runs now received poor marks during a recent Duval County School Board checkup.
The February site visit — for which the school received unsatisfactory evaluations on its curriculum, materials and other areas — followed the board's decision to allow KIPP to open two new sites. The organization has since scaled back plans and intends to open only one campus by August. KIPP VOICE Elementary will start with just kindergartners this fall and add grades annually until it includes fourth-graders.
.."That means KIPP Impact's only real results that the board can consider are last year's, board member Tommy Hazouri said, and those were underwhelming. He said he'd be more comfortable waiting for the results of the latest test before allowing KIPP to open another school.
Another board member said something revealing about the way they view charter and public schools all too often.
"From my perspective the new KIPP school meets all the criteria for being granted the charter," Gentry said. "They took on a very daunting task, and I think we all recognize it's very hard work when you really commit to trying to help kids who come to you from poverty."
Oh, I so agree. And there should be recognition that public schools take on such poverty all the time. They take on that "daunting task" every day.
Last year the FCAT grades of that Jacksonville KIPP school were at the bottom.
From June of last year:
New Jacksonville KIPP charter scores at bottom in FCAT
A charter school that opened this year with high expectations and wealthy, powerful backers scored at the bottom of all schools in all of Northeast Florida in School Grade score.
KIPP Impact Middle, a college preparatory school, earned an F in its opening year.
“We’re disappointed,” Principal Robert Hawke said. “We fell pretty far short of where we wanted to be.”
Hawke said the school needs to improve how it measures individual students’ understanding of material in the beginning of the school year. And then, Hawke said, the school needs to perform deeper assessments of how each student is progressing during the year.
I strongly agree with that statement as well, that "deeper assessments" are needed.
The same standard needs to apply to students in traditional public schools. It is not fair to judge any students or teachers or schools on the basis of one test given on one day.
It's amazing how some fail to see that double standards are being applied.