Background
and Introduction
The New York Charter Schools Act, now Article 56 of the Education Law,
was enacted on December 17, 1998.
This Act amended existing Education Law to allow for the creation of
charter schools. The stated purpose
of the Article “is to authorize a system of charter schools to provide
opportunities for teachers, parents, and community members to establish and
maintain schools that operate independently of existing schools and school
districts in order to accomplish the following objectives:
(a) Improve
student learning and achievement;
(b) Increase
learning opportunities for all students, with special emphasis on expanded
learning experiences for students who are at risk of academic failure;
(c)
Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching
methods;
(d) Create new
professional opportunities for teachers, school administrators and other school
personnel;
(e) Provide
parents and students with expanded choices in the types of educational
opportunities that are available within the public school system; and
(f) Provide schools with a method to change from rule-based to
performance-based accountability systems by holding the schools established
under this article accountable for meeting measurable student achievement
results” (§2850(2) of Education Law).
Article 56
also requires the Board of Regents to report annually to the Governor, the
Temporary President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the Assembly on the status
of charter schools in New York State (§2857(3) of Education Law). This report covers the 2002-03 school
year.
This report includes data submitted by the charter
schools and local school districts.
Executive Summary
This report
provides data required by §2857(3) of the Education Law and covers the 2002-03
school year, during which a total of 38 charter schools were open for
instruction. Of these 38 schools,
eight were chartered by the Board of Regents, 25 were chartered by the Board of
Trustees of the State University of New York, and five were chartered by the
Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools. Fifteen had management companies as
partners, while 23 did not. There
were six schools with Edison Schools,
Inc. as a partner, three schools with Victory Schools, Inc. as a partner, two schools with Beacon Education
Management, LLC as a partner, one school each with SABIS and Mosaica Education
Inc. as a management partner, and two schools with National Heritage Academies
as the management partner. There were 18 charter schools located in New York
City, four in Buffalo, four in Rochester, three in Albany, two in Syracuse, and
one each in East Hampton (Wainscott Common School District), Kenmore,
Lackawanna, Riverhead, Roosevelt, Schenectady, and Troy.
The largest student enrollment reported was 952 at the Charter School
of Science and Technology in Rochester, and the smallest was 43 at the Brighter
Choice Charter School for Boys in Albany.
There were 27 schools that served K-6 students in a variety of grade
configurations (e.g., K-1, K-2), two served students in grades 5-8, four served
students in grades K-8, and one each served students in grades K-7; 1-8; 2,3,7,
and 8; 8-12; and K-12.
According to the Basic Educational Data System (BEDS)
forms that were submitted in October 2002, 10,585 students were reported
enrolled in these 38 charter schools during 2002-03. Most (7,112) were reported as Black (not
Hispanic origin) and the fewest (47) were reported as being American Indian or
Alaskan Native. There were 153
Asian or Pacific Islander students reported. Hispanics made up the second
largest population, with 1,675 students enrolled. The number of White (not
Hispanic origin) students was reported to be 1,598. Most students (8,913) were enrolled in
grades K-6, while 1,672 were enrolled in grades 7-12. No students were reported as either
“Ungraded Elementary” or “Ungraded Secondary.”
Among the elementary students, most (4,793) continue to be enrolled
in grades K-3, but enrollment in grades 4-6 is becoming similar, with 4,120
enrolled in those grades during 2002-03.
Grade 6 had the lowest enrollment (720) at the elementary level. At the secondary level, most students
(1,125) continue to be enrolled in grades 7 and 8, while 547 were enrolled in
grades 9-12.
The adjusted
expense per pupil (AEP) is the
amount of money that a student’s district of residence pays to the charter
school for each student while s/he is enrolled in the charter school. The funds are to be paid in six
installments throughout the year.
The AEP varies by district.
The lowest AEP paid was $6,177 per student in the Gananda Central School
District, and the highest was $18,681 per pupil paid by the Shelter Island Union
Free School District. The mean AEP
was $7,103.
Fiscal impact is calculated using the number of
students reported on each charter school’s BEDS form multiplied by the average
expense per pupil (AEP) for that district.
That figure is then compared with the annual operating budget of the
resident district and a percent is derived. This figure may be different from what
the districts actually end up paying to a charter school since such payments are
based upon a full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment figure that must be derived
per Commissioner’s Regulation 119.1.
Those FTEs are not reported herein since final reconciliation of payments
occurs in July of each year and the data are not readily available. The figures reported herein are a
reasonable estimate, however, of the potential fiscal impact upon any
district.
Overall
fiscal impact in New York City appeared to be negligible (0.27 percent impact on
the district budget). In 2002-03,
fiscal impact ranged from .01 percent of the school budget for several school
districts with a small number of students attending charter schools to 5.30 percent of the Lackawanna City
School District budget. Cumulative
impact was 5.01 percent on the Albany City School District budget, 3.34 percent
on the Buffalo City School District budget, 3.15 percent on the Roosevelt Union
Free School District budget, 2.94 percent on the Rochester City School District
budget, and 2.02 percent on the Syracuse City School District budget.
According to
the information provided by the financial statements, the largest per pupil
expenditure was reported to be $21,416 for the Child Development Center of the
Hamptons Charter School, with the
Harlem Day Charter School second at a reported $14,730 per pupil. The third highest was for the Southside
Academy Charter School at a reported $14,160 per student. The lowest per pupil expenditures
reported were for the South Buffalo Charter School at a reported $7,768 per
student, the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School at $8,199 per
student, and the Carl C. Icahn Charter School at $8,484 per student.
Academic
achievement, as measured by State exams, was mixed. For those schools for which the 2002-03
school year was the first year of instruction, the test results should be
interpreted as a baseline by which all future test results will be judged.
The grade 4 English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics scores for
the Ark Community Charter School, the King Center Charter School, and the
Southside Academy Charter School placed them among those farthest from State
standards. The Ark Community Charter School had nearly 86 percent of its
students scoring at or below Level 2 on the grade 4 ELA exam. The King Center Charter School had
nearly 78 percent of its students scoring at or below Level 2 on the grade 4 ELA
exam. The Southside Academy Charter
School (for which 2002-03 was its first year of operation and thus the baseline
year) had 100 percent of its students scoring at or below Level 2 on the grade 4
ELA exam.
In contrast,
the Tapestry Charter School had 90 percent of its students at or above Level 3
on the grade 4 ELA exam, the Beginning with Children Charter School had nearly
86 percent of its students so score, and the Renaissance Charter School had
nearly 83 percent of its students also score at or above Level 3 on the grade 4
ELA exam.
On the grade
4 math exam, the Renaissance Charter
School had nearly 96 percent of its students at or above Level 3, the Tapestry Charter School had
nearly 95 percent of its students so score, and the Beginning with Children
Charter School had nearly 94 percent of its students score at or above Level
3. In contrast, the King Center
Charter School had slightly more than 26 percent of its students at or above
Level 3, the Stepping Stone Academy Charter School had nearly 28 percent of its
students so score, and the Ark Charter School had slightly more than 33 percent
of its student score at or above Level 3.
On the grade
8 ELA exams, the results for the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School
place it among the farthest from State standards. All of its students (100
percent) scored at or below Level 2 on the grade 8 ELA exam. The results for the Charter School of
Science and Technology and the Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School (both
located in Rochester) as well as the Harbor Science and Arts Charter School and
the New Covenant Charter School also place them among those schools farthest
from the State standards. The
Charter School of Science and Technology had nearly 78 percent of its students
at or below Level 2 on the grade 8 ELA exam, while the Rochester Leadership
Academy Charter School had slightly more than 78 percent of its students so
score on the grade 8 ELA exam. The
Harbor Science and Arts Charter School had slightly more than 83 percent of its
students and the New Covenant Charter School had slightly more than 79 percent
of its students scoring at or below Level 2 on the grade 8 ELA
exam.
In contrast,
the KIPP Academy Charter School results show nearly 72 percent of its students
at or above Level 3 for the grade 8 ELA exam. The Beginning with Children
Charter School had slightly more than 68 percent of its students so score.
For the
grade 8 math results, the KIPP Academy Charter School had nearly 79 percent of
its students score at or above Level 3, and the Beginning with Children Charter
School had nearly 57 percent of its students so score. In contrast, the John V. Lindsay Wildcat
Academy Charter School had no students scoring at or above Level 3, and the New
Covenant Charter School had 1.4 percent of its students score at or above Level
3, placing both schools farthest from State standards. The John A. Reisenbach Charter School
had slightly more than seven percent of its students score at or above Level 3,
just meeting the threshold performance index.
Results for
the 1999 grade 9 cohort show that
most students in both the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School
(67.0 percent) and the Renaissance Charter School (87.0 percent) scored between
55 and 100 on the Regents exam in English.
The results further show that most students (92.0 percent) attending the
Renaissance Charter School scored between 55 and 100 on the Regents exam in
mathematics. In the John V. Lindsay
Wildcat Academy Charter School, most students (67.0 percent) did not take the
Regents exam in mathematics. The remaining students (33.0 percent) scored
between 55 and 100 on the Regents exam in mathematics.
In the
2002-03 school year, the charter schools reported a total of 207 English
language learners, with 173 being enrolled in grades K-6 and the remaining 34
students enrolled in grades 7-12.
A total of
897 students with disabilities was reported in grades K-12.
One charter
school, the Sullivan Charter School in Wyandanch, surrendered its charter at the
June 2003 meeting of the Board of Regents.
Additional information is provided that describes
many of the issues and concerns that have been raised regarding the
implementation of Article 56, the New York Charter Schools Act. Suggestions are made for possible
amendments to the legislation.
The Number, Distribution, and Brief
Description of New Charter Schools Operating in New York State in
2002-03
Appendix A contains a list of all charter schools in New York.
Table 1 provides information for each charter school
open for instruction during the 2002-03 school year and includes the grades and
number of students to be served, the management company (if applicable), the
specific educational approach to be used, the date that instruction commenced,
and the charter entity.
Table 2 shows the distribution of students reported
enrolled by grade, ethnicity, and gender.
