new leadership charter school's letter to the board of education

7/29/2019 New Leadership Charter School's letter to the Board of Education

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Dear Members of the Board of Education,

I am the Chief Executive Officer and I am writing this to highlight what I think are important points of fact

as performance is an effective driver in determining New Leadership Charter Schools (NLCS) future.The NLCS boards decision to withdraw the application for charter renewal is understandable as allindications from the DESE made it clear that the Commissioner was not going to make a favorablerecommendation for charter renewal to the BESE.

Here are some facts based on DESE data:

Performance based on DESE data:

82.4% Adjusted cohort graduation rate 5.9% dropout rate- 4 year cohort

0.9% annual dropout rate 10 grade ELA 91.8 CPI; Math 78.4 CPI Historically 100% of senior graduating seniors are accepted to college 63% Tier I and Tier II college acceptances Consistently graduates over 95% of its senior class Consistently outperform both middle schools and high schools over last 5 years

Grade and Subject Springfield New Springfield New Springfield New Springfield New Springfield New

District Leadership District Leadership District Leadership District Leadership District Leadership

Year 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011 2012 2012

GRADE 06 - ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 66.5 77.2 65.7 76.8 67 68.3 63 72.5 60.8 63.4

GRADE 06 - MATHEMATICS 50.5 59.8 52.7 57 51.8 56.2 52 52.5 54 49.2

GRADE 07 - ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 66.2 77 71.1 74 71.1 73.3 72.2 79.4 68.6 74.1

GRADE 07 - MATHEMATICS 40.4 46.4 47.5 50.6 49.6 57.4 43.9 48.7 44.2 46.6

GRADE 08 - ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 69.5 81.3 74.9 86.5 75.1 80.1 76.2 87.5 74.8 88.3

GRADE 08 - MATHEMATICS 42.4 54.2 41.1 53.9 47.9 52.3 46.6 56 44.4 53.9

GRADE 08 - SCIENCE AND TECH/ENG 42.5 56.3 43.2 47.7 45 48.1 44.7 54.8 41.9 55.1

GRADE 10 - ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 77.5 89.2 77.9 92.6 77.6 90.9 83.5 93.6 88 91.8

GRADE 10 - MATHEMATICS 66.6 79.3 66.3 83.3 65.9 82 68.5 80.9 69.9 78.4

GRADE 10 - SCIENCE AND TECH/ENG 55.4 62.2 57.6 65.2 59.7 70 61.2 62.8 63 66.5

MCASComparison of New Leadership Charter to Springfield District, 2008-2012, Grades 6, 7, 8 and 10

Despite a tumultuous charter term which included a rushed move to a woefully unprepared facility, highturnover in leadership and teaching staff, underfunding due to the lack of an MOU with a recalcitrantdistrict trying to impose a funding formula that was unfair to the school (appeal to DESE resolved in ourfavor), the traumatic weather related events (tornado, hurricane, ice storm) and resulting time lost on

A Springfield Public Charter School37 Alderman Street

Springfield, MA 01108T: (413) 782-9111F: (413) 782-9991


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learning, high profile suicide of student, sudden death of a favorite student, NLCS has outperformedSPS district by between 8.28 to 20 point in Math and 6 to 11 points in ELA over the last 5 years. UnlikeNLCS, the district had the benefit of stable leadership, teaching staff and none of its schools had aschallenging a move or as many moves as NLCS.

Customer satisfaction and community support

Full enrollment of 500 students 250 students on waiting list 55 new applications before start of recruiting season 99% of student body signed online petition to save school 91% parent satisfaction rate

Is this the profile of a failing school one that should be closed?

Profile of SPS district to which our students will be forced to return if NLCS is shuttered

56% graduation rate 11% annual dropout rate 5 schools in the Level 5 category

8 schools in the Level 4 category

Is it really in the best interest of the students to take away an option that has outperformed its districtunder very trying circumstances? Is it not disingenuous to say that we are acting in the interest ofstudents when we are returning them to an all but failing district.

I understand that charter schools are expected to perform academically at a significantly higher levelthan conventional public schools nevertheless, I do not think that one can ignore the environmentalimpact of operating in a model that the DESE has admitted is flawed. The Horace Mann model hasproven to be all but intractable for us, however, we now have an MOU which provides for more stablefunding, we have satisfied 6 of our 8 probationary measures and, with a duly licensed Head of school,an experienced, licensed, turnaround principal on board, $300,000 spent on instruction materials,targeted professional development and timely interventions we a posed to more effectively deliver onacademic performance. NLCS is a viable option in the Springfield district and should not be taken awayfrom parents who want a better option from the district but cannot afford to buy it (i.e. private school).

Please stay your action on NLCS to take a closer look at NLCS performance as a urban school that is91 % minority, 80% low income, and chronically underfunded until recently.

Respectfully

Charmaine White

Chief Executive Officer

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new leadership charter school's letter to the board of education

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