Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is expected to resign today after the Associated Press published emails this week showing he and staff worked to change the state鈥檚 grading system in 2012, which boosted a charter school鈥檚 grade.
While we鈥檙e waiting for a press conference later this morning, here鈥檚 a link to a story our colleagues at , a charter school which went to a 鈥楢鈥� from a 鈥楥鈥� after the grading change.
An excerpt:
In Indianapolis Public Schools, roughly 80 percent of students receive free or reduced price lunches, but only 45 percent of students pass state tests. At Indianapolis charter school Christel House Academy, 90 percent of students receive free or reduced price lunches and about 70 percent pass state tests. Principal Carey Dahncke also says it costs $4000 less per pupil to educate students at his school than in Indianapolis Public Schools.
First graders at Indianapolis charter school Christel House Academy play a game during a break on the last day of summer school.
鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty sincere in our desire to be transformational,鈥� says Dahncke, who acknowledges his test scores have 鈥渁 lot of room for growth.鈥� Christel House Academy鈥檚 scores, while enviable among charter schools, are roughly equivalent to the state average.
Schnellenberger says its not fair to cherry-pick top performing charters and compare them against the lowest-performing public schools.
鈥淲e think that there are charter schools that have their place alongside public schools, but we think there鈥檚 been an overemphasis on charter schools to the point that some legislators portray charter schools as the silver bullet to the problems that public schools face,鈥� Schellenberger says.
Stay tuned. We鈥檒l be updating through the day.
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