Charter school movement gaining legitimacy in Oregon
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 8:04 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articlePORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Another 15 charter schools may open in Oregon in the upcoming school year, the latest sign of the movement's growing presence in the state.
Oregon is also expecting about $5 million in federal start-up money for charter schools next year, on top of $19 million since 1999, according to Joni Gilles, who specializes in charter schools for the Oregon Department of Education.
Gilles, who will update legislators on the House Interim Education Committee on the status of Oregon's charter schools Wednesday, said the once-upstart movement is now firmly established in Oregon, with over 40 charters already up and running.
Charter schools receive public funds through sponsoring school districts, but have their own governing boards and greater freedoms than regular public schools.
Such schools have been criticized by teachers' unions, who say they siphon badly needed funds from the public school system. But advocates have countered that such schools can help children who might struggle in a traditional public school setting.
Oregon still has far fewer charter schools than states that came early to the movement, like Ohio, where 42,000 students attend charter schools.
But in perhaps the strongest sign yet that charter schools are in Oregon to stay, the Department of Education is one of the main sponsors of a daylong workshop in April for school boards and charter school applicants. The idea, Gilles said, is to head off some of the questions about oversight and accountability that have surfaced as more and more school boards have been faced with charter school petitions.
A few of those disputes have reached the state board of education, which currently sponsors two charter schools and has turned down appeals to sponsor two more, including last week's denial of plans by a Eugene group to open a school that centered on the philosophy of peace.
"I think we have reached a point where charter schools are no longer controversial, but part of the fabric of public education," said Rob Kremer, director of the Oregon Charter School Service Center in Portland, which helps charter schools get off the ground.
Kris Kain, the president of the Oregon Education Association, the umbrella organization for the state's teachers' unions, said her concerns linger about charter schools diverting scarce funds from public education.
But, she said, there's a new focus on the progress such schools are making: "What sort of program are they providing, are there licensed educators working in the school, what kind of testing are they doing to show their progress?"
In her report to legislators, Gilles said she'll note that since Oregon's first charter school opened in the 2000-01 school year, three separate types of charter schools have emerged:
-- Those based on specific instruction methods, like Montessori schools, or phonics-based curriculums. These tend to be elementary schools, she said.
-- Schools that target at-risk students, which tend to be middle or high schools.
-- Schools in rural areas that are otherwise in danger of losing their schools completely, because of declining enrollment and financial woes.
So far, five Oregon charter schools have failed, some spectacularly, like the former Crossroads Project Charter School in Salem, which was run by a man who was wanted in California for felony drug possession, and owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to Washington state.
Others have closed because of financial instability, because the academic performance of their students was not up to par, and because they hadn't met enrollment targets, Gilles said.
Only 13 of the state's charter schools have been around long enough to have the requisite four years of data needed to receive a "report card" from the state, which measures how students are doing on tests, attendance and graduation rates.
Of those, just seven made the levels of progress required by the federal government, or 54 percent, while about 61 percent of Oregon's traditional public schools made the grade.
Kremer said that's because many charter school serve students who have already failed to achieve in traditional public schools.
"When you do measure everything with one common system of assessment, you're going to get things that look like they are not working," he said. "But when you put them in context, maybe they are working all right."
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