Thursday, April 06, 2000
Some students return to CPS
Since fall, public school exodus has slowed and turned around
BY JAMES PILCHER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
More than 1,800 Cincinnati students flocked to charter schools over the last two years, looking for something better.
John Steffens, 10, swings toward occupational therapist Joan May at Hays Elementary.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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But since school started last fall, nearly twice as many students have returned to Cincinnati Public Schools as have left for charters.
“It was a worse situation than the public schools,” said Linda Garland of Price Hill, who moved her third-grader John from Riverside Academy in Riverside to Hays Elementary in the West End last month.
Parents who have returned to public schools cite busing problems, lack of discipline, too few teachers, promised services that were never provided, or students being pushed out so the school can keep test scores high.
Charter school officials say there is another side to all the movement.
Now that parents have a choice, they are exercising it, sometimes too much, said Riverside Academy principal Raymond Lambert, adding that transferring can destroy the stability many struggling students need.
“You've got parents out there now who can vote with their feet, and they're looking for the magic wand to cure whatever was ailing their child when they brought them here,” Mr. Lambert said. “I'm not sure in all cases we can solve all the problems, but we're trying.”
The numbers could mean that the initial infatuation with charters is fading and the serv ices offered by public schools are more attractive, even in struggling districts like Cincinnati Public Schools.
Charter schools use state funds but operate separately from the public schools. Instead, they are governed by local parent groups or other non-profit organizations.
When they began two years ago, charters presented an option to parents dissatisfied with public schools, especially since charters are operated much like private schools but do not charge tuition.
Mrs. Garland said her son has attention deficit/hyperactive disorder and was promised special attention and one-on-one teaching when he enrolled at Riverside.
“He had three different teachers over the fall ... Then last month, they told me to put him back in public school or he would be expelled, that he was a discipline problem,” Mrs. Garland said. “No testing had been done, and when I asked where it was, the principal asked me "did you get that in writing?'”
Now that he's back at Hays, psychological testing has been completed, Mrs. Garland said, and John gets occupational therapy every school day.
Shifting back
Since classes began last August, 423 kids who started the year in charter schools have enrolled in Cincinnati Public Schools.
Another 286 students who started the year in CPS have transferred to charters, still leaving the local district with 137 more kids at this point in the year than it has lost to charters.
That number includes 79 who have returned to CPS since winter break ended in January. Charters have gained nine CPS students over the same period.
The recent influx has raised eyebrows within CPS, especially with both charter and public schools required to administer the Ohio Proficiency Tests in March.
“It's happening here and all over the district,” said Mary Jo Montenegro, a social worker at Hays Elementary School in the West End, where 16 kids have returned from charters since the beginning of the school year. “The timing of it, coming just before the proficiency tests, seems a little fishy to me.”
Another 15 students who started the year at one of the city's five charters are now at Oyler Elementary in Price Hill.
Principal Douglas Bearghman said he thinks charter school officials ship students they perceive as discipline problems back to public school rather than deal with the students.
“The main reason we've heard is that there is just a lack of discipline in the classroom,” Mr. Bearghman said. “To take this many kids back puts a strain on us, because we don't plan for them at the beginning of the year.”
Gina Griffith says she took her children out of a charter school two months into the school year because of they couldn't get bus service. She re-enrolled them at Rockdale Paideia in Avondale.
“They were supposed to bus our kids, but then they didn't,” said Ms. Griffith, who would not say which charter she had tried. “It has crossed my mind to try another school, but my kids are also happier here at Rockdale.”
And Katie Hoffman, a music teacher at Fairview Elementary in Clifton, said that she knows of at least four charter students who are staying put until the end of the school year but are coming back to CPS next fall.
“They're coming back mainly because the parents aren't satisfied,” Ms. Hoffman said.
Movement in infancy
Last year, the first year of charters in Ohio, about 450 students enrolled in the the city's two initial charter schools. Three more charters started up over the summer, and as of February, enrollment was more than 1,800, according to the state Department of Education.
The number of states allowing charters has reached 37, and about 350,000 students nationwide now attend charters.
State charter enrollment currently hovers around 7,500, with each of Ohio's 48 charter schools receiving $4,313 per student annually from the state, plus any federal funds for which the child is eligible.
But unlike their local public counterparts, charters that were sponsored by the state board of education do not receive any additional funding from local property taxes.
No state figures were available for the number of children who have returned to public schools from charters this year.
According to the Legislative Office of Education Oversight, about 13 percent of kids who attended charter schools last year returned to public schools this year.
“The three main reasons are just normal movement out of the district, problems with transportation, and a desire to return to public school for whatever reason,” said Nancy Zajano, director of the Legislative Office of Education Oversight. “But we don't know a further breakdown from there.”
Howard Fuller, former superintendent of the Milwaukee school system and now an education professor at Marquette University and a member of that city's charter review committee, said Milwaukee has had similar problems in setting up its five charter schools.
But he said that while students have switched, the system has remained stable with few reports of problems.
“We have to deal with problems individually and not discredit the entire movement,” Mr. Fuller said. “There are a lot of people out there who would like to see charters fail because they want to keep the status quo.”
Shaking out the bugs
At Riverside, 109 students who started the year at the school have returned to public school.
Mr. Lambert, a former military officer who signed on to head the 369-student school over the summer, puts most of the blame on initial transportation woes.
“The public school district is obligated to provide public transportation, and that's a big job that I give them credit for doing,” Mr. Lambert said. “But they said that this year's charters started too late for their planning cycle, so it wasn't until two or three months into it that we had things running smoothly.”
Riverside, housed in the building that used to be CPS' Riverside Harrison Elementary School, requires students to wear uniforms, focuses lesson plans on the basics, and each classroom features a teacher's aide.
The school is operated by White Hat Management, an Akron-based nonprofit firm that runs several other charters throughout the state.
As for John Garland, a student who left for reasons other than transportation, Mr. Lambert acknowledged he began expulsion proceedings against the child but would not give further details.
He said offering Mrs. Garland an option to return her son to CPS was “the right thing to do” because if John had been expelled, he would not have been able to enroll in any public school for a year.
And he said the first time he heard about promises of special testing or treatment was the day Mrs. Garland pulled her son out of school.
“We make sure that the kids that are legitimate special ed kids get their own individual education plans,” he said. “Just like a public school, we have to take anybody, so it's not like we're trying to be selective here.”
Mr. Lambert said the school has lost three teachers, including a physical education instructor and two third-grade teachers since the beginning of the year, but denied any massive personnel turnover.
“All things considered, and with all the bugs you have to shake out to begin something like this, I think we've been pretty stable,” Mr. Lambert said.
Hard to please
Mr. Lambert dismissed claims that he is “holding” kids to keep their state funds flowing in, and then “dumping” them before proficiency testing.
“The way the funding is set up, you might as well say we were trying to get rid of kids before St. Patrick's Day,” he said. “It's not tied to any time. It's tied to the performance and behavior of the child.”
Scores on the Ohio Proficiency Tests that were taken last month are not yet available, but last year, students at charters statewide scored significantly lower than public school students.
Charter advocates say that's because the movement was in its first year, and that many charter school students were struggling in public schools anyway, and switched to try to do better.
CPS charter liaison John Rothwell said many parents hold charters to a higher standard than public schools, even though many charters are trying to operate with less funding than public districts.
“It's been a hard transition for both sides, for parents and education providers,” Mr. Rothwell said. “Some are living and coping with it better than others, and there will always be complaints from both sides.”
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