New charter seats voted by Board

Pioneer Charter
Willyard steps out as he goes there and it would be a conflict; recuses himself
Chester: expansion would add elementary (as a reorg): 750 schools over two campuses
"demonstrating to me that they are up to the challenge of expansion"
Chuang: evidence of perseverance
"has been through our process a number of times"
6-2 (McKenna out; Willyard recused)

Brooke Charter and Neighborhood House
Chester: received quite a few requests including 14 from Boston; bringing forward 2
if all requests in Boston were able to be filled, it would have been 2700 seats total
Brooke:
Chester "both have just an impeccable performance record"
Brooke running three schools under three charters
expanding to include high school grades as well as consolidation
Chuang: track record on Brooke is stellar
"performance on subgroups in particular"
"very strong request"
Noyce: heard testimony that six year college graduation rate
Chuang: a number of reports around post-secondary measure
based on first 27 students that had reached that age
Fryer notes that it's conditional on going to college
Noyce "that's still higher than what I recalled"
Sagan: calls forward Brooke person saying "you can take a bow for your results"
comparison on any post high school attainment
Brooke stat is based on eighth graders (and Brooke doesn't do high school)
Stewart: Board received a number of emails
questions around attrition?
Chuang unclear where that data is coming from
students who are leaving for other opportunities within high school
Stewart: asked for discipline policies
"what stood out to me...very black and white"
did call into question issues "of cultural competency"
"this is having an impact"
"Once upon a time, these schools were starting as labs of innovation...money going in was basically R&D"
"the cuts are happening in Boston Public Schools, and reimbursement is not happening"
"it makes no sense"
Doherty: had chair of school committee and chair of education say "please don't do this"
expanding these seats will add $20M to their problem
"I don't think we can say 'well, that's your problem; it's not our problem'"
Chester on PARCC results: capitalize on results
"make sure it's not a tightly held secret"
Chuang: "very little evidence of attrition" at Brooke
"we've explored every angle"
Fryer: probably about the best school I've been to
"I've haven't been on this Board long, but there's never been an earlier vote."
McKenna: didn't think Jackson and O'Neil were testifying against
thought they were sharing
I believe Jackson was testifying against; O'Neil is perhaps best characterized as giving background, from my read
Craven: fully support, thrilled to be able to vote on these options
"right now these are the options that are available to these children"
Sagan: "This is a remarkable school; we need more of these schools."
carries 8-2, Doherty and Stewart opposed

Neighborhood House
Chester "has earned this...through running an outstanding educational institution"
Chuang: add several hundred middle school options to Boston
Peyser: obviously want to reiterate about the quality of the school
Neighborhood House has been at the front of the line in terms of trying to collaborate
"model and the beacon for working together...educator to educator"
"I think the impact that they've had has been quite significant over the years"
carries 8-2, Doherty and Stewart opposed

DESE's report to the Legislature on charter schools

The memo is here
You heard about the count; there's more
Chuang: required to have lottery
not required to be a mirror image of sending districts, but required to have plans to work towards
"emphasize the complexity of comparability"
"statewide comparisons are tricky...because charters are predominately concentrated in urban areas"
and because of that, you'd expect that statewide charters would have to be higher need than statewide in districts
and the chart gets even messier now that we've converted to economically disadvantaged
Sagan clarifies "this is related to the federal lunch...we didn't suddenly solve poverty"
Wulfson: acceleration dating back to 2010 Achievement gap
Chuang: filtered information for new students
when you suppress to new students, gap closing faster particularly in ELL, Boston and aggregate of Gateway Cities
applicant pool reflective of students in Boston
attrition rate with another crazy graph
"a lot of noise and variability"
attrition is from end of one year to beginning of next; working on mobility, churn, stability
Sagan asks when...they're working on it
Doherty asks about cohort stability: same kids who stay all the way through
haven't done it for some time
question around backfilling (and if it masks urban public district attrition)
also question of who is leaving
Wulfson: comparison of a single school to a school district, doesn't work, as district may mask as student moves from school to school
Stewart: heard you use about five different words: would like to know nuance and differences
McKenna: get information to us and the public
anecdotal concern is that kids leave during the school year: "That information is key to this discussion."
backfilling for half the grades that they serve; must round up if you have an odd number of grades
high school only through grade 9
"have actively encouraged increasing points of access"
all of the expansions "have committed to above and beyond expansions"
have heard a lot in the news about the waitlist data
33,903 updated from fall "consistent with what happens every year as offers are made in the fall"
rollover issue in on the way of clearing out
"allowed schools to waitlists made prior" to updates
75% of schools have decided to completely eliminate rollover
next collection will establish at student level which are rolled at not; several large schools do still roll
Peyser: those parents are still actually on the waitlist, it doesn't mean those families don't want to go anymore
Wulfson: "Well,we don't know"
could take ten or more years for it to clear out
Sagan: "We don't know that the list will be any different"
Chuang: large numbers of fresh names in new report; will make distinction in next report

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