Although Ohio's charter schools are enjoying record enrollment for the fourth straight year, critics say the schools have not lived up to academic expectations.

        Many parents and education reformers expected the wider range of program choices that charter schools can offer to allow more children to thrive. But many charter schools are reporting worse state proficiency test scores than the traditional public schools that so many charter school students left.

        In March 2000, 5 percent of Ohio's 855 fourth-grade charter school students passed all five parts of the state proficiency test. That was half the 10 percent passing rate for Cincinnati Public students and about one-sixth the statewide passing rate of 31 percent.

        Charter school supporters say the new schools haven't been in business long enough to give much weight to test scores and other accountability measures. But charter school critics say the test results say a lot.

        “(Charter schools) don't have any proven success,” said Sue Taylor, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. Her union represents about 3,500 Cincinnati Public Schools teachers.

Success takes time

        State education officials say the first two years of test results have been disappointing, but they also agree with charter school supporters that most programs are still too new to judge.

        Dottie Howe, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education, said the schools need at least five years to make significant strides.

        Though charter school enrollment has grown 31 percent since last year to about 23,000 students, Ohio's charter school law and the schools are new, she said. The first 15 schools opened statewide in 1998.

        “We want the students to show much better proficiency test scores,” said Joni Cunningham, interim director in the Office of School Options at the Ohio Department of Education, which oversees charter schools. “These scores didn't make anybody happy.”

        But, she pointed out that the scores on both fourth- and sixth-grade tests show a slight upward trend. For fourth graders, the passing rate of students taking all five tests grew from 2 percent to 5 percent from 1999 to 2000. For sixth graders, the rate increased from 1 percent to 3 percent.

        Ms. Howe also said that Ohio charter school scores would be expected to be lower than state averages because they are restricted to urban areas or school districts already considered in “academic emergency” by the state.

        Some charter school officials say their schools are improving.

        “We've been seeing increases (in test scores),” said Dan Mooney, principal of Harmony Community School, a 500-student charter school in Price Hill.

        Harmony has an influx of new students every year, he said, and those students often come with a history of low achievement.

        Mr. Mooney said districts, including CPS, have been around for decades or longer, yet have a poor record of success.

Freedom with a price

        Though they are state-funded, charter schools don't answer to an elected school board, as do traditional public schools. They are governed instead by parents, teachers, community groups and private organizations.

        State officials say the charter system was created to weed out schools that don't meet expectations. When approved by the Ohio Legislature in 1997, the schools were required to spell out their student achievement goals in a contract.

        If they don't meet their goals, their “charter” can be revoked, Ms. Cunningham said.

        Tom Mooney, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said the problem with charter schools is their lack of public accountability.

        In May, his group filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, charging that Ohio's charter schools violate the state constitution because they are publicly funded but aren't administered by an elected local school board.

        “The basic bargain about public education in America is all kids are offered an education of some quality, so everybody pays and everybody gets a vote,” Mr. Moo ney said.

        Mr. Mooney called Ohio's charter school law, which allows founders to pick their school board members, a violation of that bargain.

Unexpected challenges

        Supporters say charter schools faced unexpected obstacles in their initial years of operation, which contributed to students' academic problems.

        According to the Ohio Legislative Office of Education Oversight, challenges reported by 46 charter schools operating in 1999-2000 include:

        • Twelve schools arranged and paid for their own transportation for students despite a state law that requires traditional public school districts to transport community school students. Many said school districts were late, unresponsive or remiss in their obliga tion. Each school said it had to reduce programming to pay for the service.

        • Nine of the 31 second-year community schools opened late or were in temporary facilities because of renovations and difficulties meeting building-code standards.

        Even taking these obstacles into account, the report concluded:

        “Although community schools seek an alternative vision of schooling, (we) found that their educational approaches are not unique, but have, in fact, been tried in traditional public schools in Ohio and across the nation.”

        CPS superintendent Steven Adamowski concurred.

        “I'm disappointed charter schools operating throughout the state are not more innovative. They're not pushing the envelope in what they can do.”

Charter schools hinder CPS cash flow

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