Mat-Su charter schools show mixed results

MAT-SU — Even as legislators push for more Alaska charter schools, six already operating in the Valley demonstrate uneven success in state testing and graduation rates.

House Bill 93 would allow state-approved private nonprofits, universities or government agencies to operate new charter schools. Rep. Lynn Gattis, R-Wasilla, introduced the proposed bill, which garnered several co-sponsors. Time will likely run out for HB93 this legislative session, but it’s expected to resurface next session.

Charter schools are publicly funded, but independently operated when it comes to budget, mission and curriculum.

Detractors say charters produce inconsistent results and drain public funds from the larger school district. Supporters say they drive educational innovation but still provide public oversight and outcomes.

The Mat-Su is home to six of the 27 public charter schools across eight school districts in Alaska: Academy Charter School, with a core knowledge mission; American Charter Academy, with an academic mission; Birchtree Charter School, a Waldorf-inspired program; Midnight Sun Family Learning Center, with a multi-age learning model; Twindly Bridge Charter School, which caters to homeschool families; and Fronteras Spanish Immersion, where students learn in English and Spanish.

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The longest-running charters in the Valley — Midnight Sun and Academy — opened 16 years ago.

Midnight Sun crafts its own budget and asks family members to volunteer five hours in the school every month. A board of parents and staff sets policy. There’s no transportation, though some charters have started providing limited bussing.

The district doesn’t usually pay for charter school buildings so the school foots the bill for a $325,000 annual lease on a cheerful yellow building off the Parks Highway.

A group of parents and teachers at overcrowded Big Lake Elementary formed Midnight Sun to focus on safety, academic challenge and technology, teacher in charge Jeanne Troshynski said. Groups of students of different ages learn in one classroom under one teacher. Each student has a laptop. They’ll have iPads by year’s end.

“It is bar none the healthiest learning environment I’ve ever been in,” Troshynski said. “Kids support one another. Parents are committed to their kids being here for a long time with the same teacher.”

Several principals said running a charter school is the best of both worlds — and the stress of both worlds, given the pressure of writing a budget, paying for their own buildings and handling daily operations like maintenance in-house.

“There are factors charter schools take on that require a great deal of time and attention that traditional schools don’t have to take on,” said former Birchtree principal Susan McCauley, now a division director at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

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Not all charter schools are alike. The Valley’s charters demonstrated different results when it came to standardized testing in the 2011-2012 school year.

Four of the Valley’s six charter schools met Adequate Yearly Progress goals mandated by the state.

Two demonstrated proficiency in Language Arts and Math significantly above district averages: Academy and Midnight Sun.

Proficiencies at two more charters matched or just slightly bettered district averages: Fronteras and Birchtree.

Two did not meet AYP: American Charter Academy and Twindly Bridge. Both include high school students, unlike the other charters that run K-8, and struggled with academic and graduation goals.

Those results track with at least one broad national study.

Nearly half of the nation’s charter schools demonstrated the same results as those local public schools did, according to a 2009 study from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University.

More than a third delivered learning results significantly worse than students in traditional schools, according to the CREDO study.

Seventeen percent provided superior education opportunities, the study found.

Backers of more charter authorizers, however, say it’s Alaska’s 1995 Charter School Act that’s holding back charter schools in the 49th state.

A recent report on charter schools versus local schools in multiple-authorizer-friendly Milwaukee found more autonomy resulted in higher student performance, according to legislative testimony in mid-March from Kara Kerwin with The Center for Education Reform.

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The principal of American Charter Academy is Becky Huggins, wife of State Senate President Charlie Huggins of Wasilla.

American Charter’s mission is academic excellence for all students, Huggins said. But it got its start as MidValley, an alternative school for at-risk students in sixth through 12th grade. MidValley transitioned to a charter school after several years of low graduation rates. The restart was one of several options available under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

American Charter reported a 54 percent graduation rate last year, according to Mat-Su Borough School District data. It also fell nearly 50 students short of enrollment predictions for this year.

Huggins said American Charter Academy is still transitioning from a high school for at-risk students to a charter school that serves a broader population.

The graduation rate equation used to calculate AYP includes a four-year student group that factors in MidValley students before the school switched to a charter model, Huggins said.

She’s working to brand the school more effectively. The school’s curriculum includes frequent hands-on field trips and focus on discussion and project-based learning.

Math numbers for AYP were actually 22 percent up from the prior year, Huggins said.

The school, located in the Meadow Lakes City Center, now serves students from second through 12th grades.

“We were trying to provide ways to break down the barriers keeping kids from attending — especially the ones having to stay home to babysit their brothers and sisters,” she wrote in an email.

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At Twindly Bridge, some of the testing challenges can be explained by the nature of correspondence students, Principal Jerry Finkler said. Such students statewide tend to have a one-third turnover rate every year. The school contends with a steady stream of new students.

But in general, the principal said, Twindly Bridge is thriving with more than 60 people on a wait list.

That’s a change from several years ago, when the now 8-year-old school “used to struggle to get enough students,” Finkler said. “Now we’re turning people away.”

Mat-Su Borough School District officials point out that Twindly Bridge is probably the district’s lowest-cost education provider because it serves a home-school student body.

The school sits on a small Seldon Road site with a low-cost lease, said Gene Stone, the district’s assistant superintendent of instruction.

Money saved on rent can go toward teachers or other school programs, Stone said. “Charters like managing their dollars.”

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Academy Charter opened in response to calls of families at Principal Barbara Gerard’s Palmer preschool, Profiles of Excellence,

“We saw really bright preschoolers that could either read or had great readiness skills going to kindergarten and just sit there while students that did not have those skills caught up,” Gerard said.

Today, Academy has long kindergarten wait lists, a newly expanded building and plans to build a middle school next year. Unlike most charters, Academy got the land where it sits for free from the borough.

The school has also done very well accessing state appropriations in Juneau.

Academy has received $7.3 million in funding, according to borough data. About $6 million came in the form of legislative appropriations. A little more than $1 million came from the borough’s areawide school site acquisition reserve.

The total includes $2.5 million in 2005 for a new gym and $2 million in 2012 for the current expansion that replaces aging modulars at the back of the school.

Charter schools can access state appropriations while brick-and-mortar schools rely largely on district funding and voter-approved bonds.

Does Gerard hear community grumbling about state money flowing to her school?

She points out that bonds are 70 percent to 80 percent state funded.

“Local taxpayers are paying a small portion, which is still a chunk,” Gerard said. “I personally pay that and every one of our parents pay for the brick and mortar schools. But there is no other avenue to obtain facilities for charter schools.”

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Critics say charter schools can siphon money from traditional brick-and-mortar schools at a time when oil tax reform and flat per-student funding threaten Alaska’s public education system.

“Charter schools, just like other schools, can either be effective or ineffective, depending on the staff, parents,” former Mat-Su schools superintendent Pat Chesbro said in an email. “But charter schools can be a drain on the school district, as districts still have to plan for the students to go to the other schools.”

In Alaska, student funding “follows” each student. The average cost per student — including charter students — in the Mat-Su Borough School District is $12,000, according to Stone.

The per-student money for traditional schools goes to the district, which sets budgets for each school. Charter schools write their own budgets, so the per-student money for charter schools ends up outside the district pot.

District officials say they’ve tried but failed to come up with a way to calculate the financial impact of charters on traditional schools.

Charter schools pay an “indirect rate” to compensate the district for services such as nursing, IT or student support. Given that there are 1,400 students in charter schools, that’s also several $20 million to $60 million schools the district doesn’t have to bond to build, Stone pointed out. Charters represent one of a list of learning options in the Mat-Su that also includes boundary exemptions, special-mission programs and online programs.

“A lot of this is about give and take and trying to be the best district possible so people feel like they have some choice,” he said.

Numerous Outside and other groups are among those involved in Alaska’s public education debate:

• The American Legislative Exchange Council: A national nonprofit with legislative, business and foundation members from around the country, ALEC develops model legislation on topics, including education. Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, serves as ALEC’s Alaska state chairman. Keller sponsored a resolution to amend the Alaska Constitution to allow public money to pay for private or religious education.

• The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice: A national nonprofit dedicated to school choice and educational reform. Former House Speaker John Harris is the foundation’s lobbyist in Juneau this session, according to a 2013 state lobbyist directory. Harris earns $5,000 a month to advocate “on behalf of passage of a constitutional amendment to allow freedom of choice for parents and students to be covered on cost of education.”

• Alaska Policy Forum: An Anchorage-based conservative think tank and member of the State Policy Network, which is a member of ALEC.

• The National Education Association: The largest professional organization — and largest labor union — in the United States. NEA represents public school teachers and other staff. NEA-Alaska lists more than 12,000 members. The state affiliate opposes the constitutional amendment as well as a charter school bill’s proposal to allow hiring outside collective bargaining units.