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| Career Connections to Close |
A number of events occurred in the early years of the school that caused some significant bumps in the road. First, their founding principal, a talented public school educator - Joe Yavorka, passed away suddenly in 2004. In 2006, under a new administration, they attempted to charter a middle school. The middle school's charter application was turned down by the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS). The state appeals board overruled PPS and approved the charter. The opening of the school was fought by the Pittsburgh Public Schools on the grounds of facility infractions and they ultimately refused to recognize the charter. Career Connections decided not to fight the city and closed the middle school 3 months after it opened.
At the same time the middle school issue was occurring (2006), the district was reviewing the Career Connections High School as their charter was up for a five year renewal. The district alleged that the school was out of compliance as follows:
Rather than revoke their charter, the PPS Board gave the Career Connections 6 months to address these concerns and reviewed it again in 2007. The district approved the renewal in 2007 after the school fulfilled the requirements that the district demanded. During the next five years the school struggled through leadership transitions, below average student achievement and a drop in student membership.
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| PowerPoint Presentation to the Pittsburgh Board of Trustees |
Rather than revoke their charter, the PPS Board gave the Career Connections 6 months to address these concerns and reviewed it again in 2007. The district approved the renewal in 2007 after the school fulfilled the requirements that the district demanded. During the next five years the school struggled through leadership transitions, below average student achievement and a drop in student membership.
In 2012, five years later, the school's charter came up for renewal again. This time the charter was revoked by the district, revoked by the state appeals board, and the school was finally closed when the Commonwealth Court approved revoking the charter. The district's claim was the school had poor achievement, a poorly documented curriculum and did not offer an alternative to existing programs in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
This is the point in the discussion where charter school critics often say, "charter schools are no good"; or "charter schools just take money out of the system"; or "what we need is to rely on our public schools". If it was only that easy. If you read the article in last weeks P-G, you will find students and staff that are deeply saddened by the school's closing. And if you look at the school's results, it is clear they were struggling to raise test scores. What the district found 7 years ago (lack of curriculum, lack of innovation) remained. SO THE SCHOOL WAS CLOSED.
Now that is a new concept... closing a low achieving school. The charter school law states specifically that this can be done... and has been done across the state. Thus the charter school law provides real accountability to improve education or lose the school. How does that work with "public schools"? What happens when your neighborhood school is mediocre, has low achievement and/or is out of compliance with federal, state or local statutes. NOTHING. The public school can go on in that manner for decades. The only recourse for the community is to try and change the school board and hope they can "reform" the school. The only recourse for families with school age children is to move to a new community (if they can afford it), pay to go to a private school or attend the underachieving neighborhood school.
Let's take a look at all of the high schools in Allegheny County and see how they did on the PSSAs compared to Career Connections Charter High School. This data is compiled from the Pennsylvania Department of Education website from the 2012 PSSA scores and Title I Free/Reduced Lunch measure of poverty. In this table, the schools are ranked from best to worst using the combined percentage (Reading and Math) of students in 11th grade who were proficient or advanced on the PSSA exam. This means that if all the students were proficient in 11th grade, the total score would be 100% Reading plus 100% Math for a total of 200. Mt. Lebanon was the highest at 183.8. Schools in yellow are charter schools. The last column represents the percentage of each school's student body that receives a free or reduced lunch due to low income.
What conclusions can we draw from this data? What questions do you have?
1. In general, test scores are highly correlated to income. The schools with the least amount of poverty have the best test scores, those with the most poverty have the worst test scores. No surprise.
2. Charter schools on average work with extremely poor populations (65% <=> 86%). That is also true of City of Pittsburgh schools and MON Valley schools. Basically this is a product of middle class flight to the suburbs.
3. Which schools are high achieving? Are you more impressed by North Allegheny HS (179.2), the 3rd highest achieving school (with the least amount of poverty at 3.7%) or by City Charter High School (164.5) as the 10th highest achieving school (with a majority of students in poverty at 65.7%?)
4. Which schools are under achieving? Are you more upset by Woodland Hills (116.9), the 34th highest school (64.3% poverty) or South Allegheny the 47th highest school (43.4% poverty)?
5. In fact, the bricks and mortar charter schools tend to outperform the public schools with the same level of poverty (Propel Homestead vs. Westinghouse; Career Connections vs. Wilkinsburg; Northside Urban Pathways vs. Clairton).
6. The Cyber Charter schools are performing quite low in any comparison.
One might conclude that charter schools are attempting to provide innovative programs to poor, at-risk students with some success. One might also conclude that there is a lot of variability in the suburban schools. And one might notice that the Pittsburgh Public Schools has magnets (schools of choice) that are successful and comprehensive schools (neighborhood schools) that are not.
And what about Career Connections Charter High School? They ranked 45th out of 61 schools. They had higher achievement than 16 schools. Let's look at those 16 schools.
And what about Career Connections Charter High School? They ranked 45th out of 61 schools. They had higher achievement than 16 schools. Let's look at those 16 schools.
- 6 are City of Pittsburgh Public Schools
- 4 are Suburban Public Schools
- 6 are Public Charter Schools
- 2 are Bricks and Mortar schools with open enrollment
- 1 is a Bricks and Mortar school (Academy) for adjudicated youth
- 2 are Cyber Charter Schools
- 1 is a Charter School (Spectrum) for severely disabled youth who are ranked last because they don't take the PSSA
So Career Connections lost its charter and is out of business... what about the 16 schools who ranked below them.
10 are district public schools and are here to stay. They never get reviewed and are never closed down. The only exception occurred in Duquesne School District. Duquesne High School was academically and financially bankrupt and two neighboring school districts were forced by the state to take the Duquesne High School students.
10 are district public schools and are here to stay. They never get reviewed and are never closed down. The only exception occurred in Duquesne School District. Duquesne High School was academically and financially bankrupt and two neighboring school districts were forced by the state to take the Duquesne High School students.
6 of the schools that achieved lower than Career Connections are charters. These charters get reviewed annually and are rechartered or lose their charter every 5 years.
I am not defending Career Connections Charter High School. Frankly, I don't know enough about their program to determine whether they should have had their charter renewed. However, their closing raises three key points in the education dialogue:
1. Only Charter Schools have true accountability. Every five years they are reviewed and brought up for rechartering. They can lose their charter just as Career Connections did and close.
2. Clearly one set of test scores is not adequate to measure a school's achievement. The data points out that poverty is a huge variable that has a severe effect on achievement. Ignoring poverty in comparing schools is simply mean spirited and and a self-fulfilling prophesy. Do you really believe that the Mt. Lebanon School District - its faculty, programming and organizational structure - would obtain the highest achievement if they worked with a population where 80% of the students lived in poverty?
3. This whole discussion comes back to the issue of "school choice". If every American family had access to a quality education we would not have a problem with education in America. The PSSA proficiency data above has a range from 29.6 to 183.8 out of 200 (excluding the two special needs schools). Some schools in Allegheny County are great and some are terrible and many are just OK.
When you read the Post-Gazette articles about Wilkinsburg or Career Connections, you find children and families desperate for a quality education. The parents at Career Connections left the city schools and chose a charter school for their children. That particular choice is now gone. The students will go back to their neighborhood school, or to a magnet or charter school, or will move.
The political left sees the school choice movement (charters, vouchers) as an attack on public education and an attempt to bust the unions. The political right sees school choice as a methodology for using market forces and entrepreneurism to force change in large bureaucratic school systems. What is telling from the chart above is who is taking advantage of the charter school movement. When charter schools began, critics said they would take the best students, the cream of the crop, and leave the rest for the public schools to contend with. In Allegheny County, the charter schools work with the poorest families, adjudicated youth and special needs youth. So do the schools in the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh.
Both the left and right are wrong. This is simply about equity. About parents trying to find a good school for their children. And lower income families wanting equal opportunities for their children. I would make an argument from the chart above, that there is a class war going on in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and America. You can say whatever you want about Career Connections, but I tell you this... these were good hearted people who were attempting to provide a quality education to students who have very few options. It's a shame they did not succeed. The same goes for the students in Wilkinsburg, Clairton, Duquesne, Braddock, McKees Rocks, etc. What options do they have? I guess as long as you don't live in Wilkinsburg, that's not your problem.
1. Only Charter Schools have true accountability. Every five years they are reviewed and brought up for rechartering. They can lose their charter just as Career Connections did and close.
2. Clearly one set of test scores is not adequate to measure a school's achievement. The data points out that poverty is a huge variable that has a severe effect on achievement. Ignoring poverty in comparing schools is simply mean spirited and and a self-fulfilling prophesy. Do you really believe that the Mt. Lebanon School District - its faculty, programming and organizational structure - would obtain the highest achievement if they worked with a population where 80% of the students lived in poverty?
3. This whole discussion comes back to the issue of "school choice". If every American family had access to a quality education we would not have a problem with education in America. The PSSA proficiency data above has a range from 29.6 to 183.8 out of 200 (excluding the two special needs schools). Some schools in Allegheny County are great and some are terrible and many are just OK.
When you read the Post-Gazette articles about Wilkinsburg or Career Connections, you find children and families desperate for a quality education. The parents at Career Connections left the city schools and chose a charter school for their children. That particular choice is now gone. The students will go back to their neighborhood school, or to a magnet or charter school, or will move.
The political left sees the school choice movement (charters, vouchers) as an attack on public education and an attempt to bust the unions. The political right sees school choice as a methodology for using market forces and entrepreneurism to force change in large bureaucratic school systems. What is telling from the chart above is who is taking advantage of the charter school movement. When charter schools began, critics said they would take the best students, the cream of the crop, and leave the rest for the public schools to contend with. In Allegheny County, the charter schools work with the poorest families, adjudicated youth and special needs youth. So do the schools in the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh.
Both the left and right are wrong. This is simply about equity. About parents trying to find a good school for their children. And lower income families wanting equal opportunities for their children. I would make an argument from the chart above, that there is a class war going on in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and America. You can say whatever you want about Career Connections, but I tell you this... these were good hearted people who were attempting to provide a quality education to students who have very few options. It's a shame they did not succeed. The same goes for the students in Wilkinsburg, Clairton, Duquesne, Braddock, McKees Rocks, etc. What options do they have? I guess as long as you don't live in Wilkinsburg, that's not your problem.
