www.village-charter.org

familymwr via flickr

New York Charter Schools remain under investigation. If you read my blog a couple of days ago you know the story about a possible scam concerning the startup of several new charter schools in the New York area. Yesterday, more troubling news arrived via the New York Times. According to the Times, a charter school in the Bronx, the Academic Leadership Charter School, which opened its doors only two years ago, “has been put on probation for what city education officials called ‘serious violations’ of state law mandating random admissions, including possibly testing or interviewing applicants before their enrollment.” This is an older problem, of course, because charter schools are not allowed to pick students who they expect will do better on standardized tests, etc. over the ones that would likely do worse. Also, charter schools are not allowed to discriminate by race or religion.

Usually, admitted students are picked in some sort of lottery. In this case, however, it seems that countless applicants were excluded from the selection process. According to the article, there seems to evidence of “a system of inappropriately testing students or reviewing their previous school files, with those who did not meet the standards of the principal, Norma Figueroa-Hurwitz, being shut out.” That would be scandalous and schools who have been caught in the past have had their charter revoked – rightfully so. Indeed, there seems to be some evidence for structural pre-examinations of incoming students in place. Parents reporting of pre-lottery “interviews” and former teachers telling of orders to exclude candidates that didn’t fit the profile. Let’s hope that these allegations turn out to be false or, if true, consequences are immediate and severe for those involved. The NY charter schools need a couple of months without negative publicity.