On the third day of Christmas
Our charters gave to me:
Much higher CSAP's
Increased property values
and an education at a cheaper fee.

I am about to expose a huge secret:

No charter application is ever submitted with the goal of mediocre academics.

Why would anyone ever put the time and effort into creating a school alternative if just striving to be average?

What would the mission statement for such a school read?

" ABC Public Charter School is committed to ordinary academic performance, assuring that each student tests down the middle of the curve, and graduates with a mundane report card. Our focus is on ABC, the Average Bland and the Common, but not so much on the rest of the alphabet. Your child deserves to blend in like the rest of us as we deem high student self esteem overrated. But above all, do not hold us accountable to any of these, as corporate and personal responsibility, may be construed as overachievement."

A charter authorizer would not even give this kind of charter school application the time of day.

The school districts are not looking to create tolerable education. They want to offer the best education.Ordinary schools already exist a plenty.

Not even the so called low-performing school districts are looking for average. One could argue that mediocre is still an improvement over sub-par. A school that would be average performing elsewhere may be the leader in a crummy school district. But who wants to settle for being Crème-de-la-Crap, over indisputable excellence?

A charter school application goes through tremendous scrutiny by its authorizer to prove two things; the school will be academically successful and the charter deserves taxpayer moneys.

This can be tricky to prove before you open a school. Charter applicants sink hundreds of hours into facts and research before a school even gets a temporary charter approval.

Don't think it's a done deal after you get the blessing from the Board of Education. That's just when the work begins.

Charter schools regularly report to their authorizer in regards to academic performance and fiscal responsibility. It is part of the accountability process as charter schools are public schools.

Should a charter school fail in executing the terms of the charter agreement, the school district (or authorizer) may opt not to renew the application.

In other words, should a charter school not perform at the satisfaction of the authorizer in regards to meeting budgets and student achievement--the school will close.

School closings are ugly. Even if the school was voted unanimously as a heap of rubbish, you don't want your Face Book profile to read that you are an experienced school closer or the captain of a sunk charter ship. So everyone in a charter school, from parent volunteers to staff and board members, work diligently on continuous assessments and quality control. No wonder these are the schools that generally top the rating charts.

The beautiful thing is that charters are fairly autonomous, so should there be indications that there is decreased performance, charter administrators have freedom to amend this by applying changes--immediately.

My opinion is that if academic changes could be made this quickly everywhere, many troubled schools would not plummeth to irrevocable depths of the deficit-pits. School administrators are experts in their field. If they could freely apply innovative teaching concepts to adjust dwindling achievement, we would have a fast progressing education.

One clear benefit of having charter schools as part of the public school district is that successful education tools already existent in this environment can be replicated and implemented into the traditional schools.

I'd go so far as to suggest that the authorizers to partner with the charters by motivating them to use education products and tools of interest. The charters are viable testing facility for such purposes. Applying a proven concept for district wide purposes is for the advantage of all.

The Fourth Day of Charter Christmas is coming soon.
For additional context see previous blogs.

CSAP Lookup: http://denverpostbloghouse.com/csap/

School Growth and Achievement Chart: http://www.coloradoleague.org/uploaded-files/District_Level_Chart.html