Charting a new way

Charter schools, like downtown Albuquerque's Amy Biehl High School, have offered an alternative to traditional New Mexico public schools for ten years running.

ALBUQUERQUE -- What started in 1988 as an idea outlined on a napkin at an educational conference in Minnesota has grown into a full-fledged educational revolution touching thousands of students, parents, and teachers across America.

The idea was charter schools—nonsectarian public schools operated by groups of teachers independently of traditional boards of education. Nationwide, there are now almost 2,700 charter schools serving more than 680,000 students. New Mexico has 68 charters, with another two or three opening this fall, serving more than 10,000 students. Despite gains, that's still only 3 percent of state public school enrollment.

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the passage of a state law opening the door for independently run public schools across the state.

As in other states, the charter movement in New Mexico has been politically charged. Liberals and teachers unions have been suspicious of an education innovation that they feel may drain public schools of best parents and brightest students. But plenty of liberals and teachers are also fed up with failing urban public school systems and want to provide an alternative -- one that is a successful educational model.

With the anniversary approaching, Lisa Grover, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools reflected on the movement and answered some of its critics.

"I don't know why in a country where we are free to choose everything from the car we drive to the food we eat, that choice in education causes such panic by some people," Grover said in an interview with New Mexico Independent. "I think the aspect of `choice' in education is here to stay, whether it's in the form of charter schools in the future," she explained. "I think the public will always demand choice in their children's education."

Grover said New Mexico should not be compared to neighboring Colorado or Arizona when it comes to its charter school growth because those states have a longer history of charter schools and stronger support from school districts.

"I think those states have strong, innovative school districts for the most part," she said. "They are less afraid of charter schools' innovative approaches because they also are not afraid to innovate with different education models."

According to the Colorado League of Charter Schools, the charter school law was passed in 1994 and there are now 56,458 students attending 141 charter schools statewide -- about 7 percent of the K-12 public school enrollment.

Arizona has 459 charter schools, an incredible 25 percent of the total number of public schools in the state. About 8.5 percent of public school students in the state attend charter schools, according to the Arizona Charter Schools League.

"We are still relatively young as the charter movement goes," Grover said. "It's been a steady growth. Is it where we want it to be? No."

Of the 68 charter schools, 64 of them are not at capacity, leaving critics to wonder if parents simply aren't choosing charter schools because they're not convinced they make a difference in successfully educating kids.

When New Mexico got on the charter school movement bandwagon in 1998, its supporters set out specific goals that mirrored the national movement. State advocates set out to provide an alternative to conventional education, close the achievement gap and put innovation back into the classroom.

It was a rocky start, less because of its educational intentions, than school mismanagement. In June, Albuquerque Vocational Charter School founder, Danny Moon, was indicted for fraud, allegedly mismanaging $1 million of the school's public funding for personal gain.

Horizon Academy, which operates several charter schools in Albuquerque, also has come under scrutiny for past financial instability. However, those schools have remained open and have changed their business practices. In 2004, only 16 of 23 charter schools operating were given budget approval by Albuquerque Public Schools, the state's largest school district. However, since then there have been relatively few schools with the same problems, Grover said.

"All charters have licensed business managers in place," Grover said. "When it comes to the use of public money, there is no room for mismanagement. Our position to the schools is to take care of it, period. "

Once the bad operators were rooted out, Grover said the grassroots charter movement in the state went smoother.

Charter school proponents say New Mexico is doing a good job of meeting its goals. Critics of the movement say charter schools lack accountability and really are not doing any better job at educating students than traditional public schools.

One of the biggest critics of New Mexico charter schools has been Dr. Moises Venegas, formerly with the Albuquerque Partnership. He has slowly warmed to the movement, but continues to scrutinize charter schools on issues of educational accountability.

“We support the possible expansion of charter schools (in New Mexico),” Venegas said, whose nonprofit research group, Quinto Sol, published the New Mexico Charter Schools Status Report 2007.

“The only thing we ask is that (charters) be accountable for improving achievement for all students, especially those who transfer from public schools in need of improvement,” Venegas said.

Based on New Mexico Standards Based Assessment results, Venegas said in the report that charter schools in areas where the public school is “in need of improvement” are not faring any better than the failing school. He asserts that “students doing poorly in those schools continue to do poorly at the charter school and students who would be doing well in conventional public schools do well in charters – no difference.”

Grover said Venegas' research methods are flawed. An independent study done last year by University of New Mexico Professor of Economics, Melissa Binder, showed that "compared to all New Mexico school districts, charters have higher rates of proficiency in both math and reading in grades 4-7, and lower rates of proficiency in grades 3, 8-9 and 11."

Binder used New Mexico Public Education Department data in her research, as did Venegas. But Binder found that it is not possible to make an ideal comparison between traditional public school students and charter school students.

"The ideal comparison ... would identify the target group of the charter schools and compare it with the same group in conventional schools," according to Binder. "For example, to evaluate the success of Youth Build Community Charter, which serves students with serious social, psychological and legal challenges, we would want to compare them with similar students in the regular schools. This ideal comparison is difficult to make, simply because detailed student profiles are not readily available."

While the Coalition for Charter Schools commissioned the study, Grover said Binder made it clear that she would not compromise her findings to favor charters. When the study was completed there was good news and bad news.

"Figures suggest that in some grades and competencies, charter school students outperform their counterparts in regular schools, and in other grades and competencies, the situation is reversed," according to the study's executive summary. "Older charters, however, outperform regular schools in every grade and competency, save one, where the difference is negligible."

Older charters were deemed to be those that opened in 2001 or earlier.

Where charters might be doing better than traditional public schools is in assessing student success. They are showing there's more to measuring success than the federal No Child Left Behind Act standardized tests.

At Amy Biehl Charter School in Albuquerque, for the fifth year in a row, graduating seniors not only exit Amy Biehl passing state-mandated standards, but they also have a step up into higher education, said school Principal Tony Monfiletto.

“All of our seniors pass at least two Central New Mexico Community College or University of New Mexico classes with a C or better before they graduate from our school,” he said. “To me this says that our charter school is proving that we can have both equitable and rigorous standards for all students and that, yes, we are succeeding.”

Monfiletto does not go so far as to say that all charters are successful, however.

“As with any educational system, it’s not 100 percent,” he said. “But I’d venture to say that the charter school movement is alive and well because most of the schools are daring to go beyond what was already in place. Public schools work for some kids and charter schools work for some kids. Aren’t we better off with that type of system?”

One of the best aspects of Amy Biehl and other charter schools across the country is the ability to develop and provide alternatives to the oft-criticized federal No Child Left Behind Act – a measurement of educational success based on standardized tests. Monfiletto says he hopes policy makers at the federal level are taking a look at what schools such as Amy Biehl are doing to measure student success.

His school uses a 360-degree approach to assessment called Exhibition learning. The Coalition of Essential Schools endorses this form of assessment. Exhibitions are presentations by students covering social, scientific and other topics to teachers, parents and other community members.

“Whereas standardized tests may show a slice of what students have learned, Exhibitions reveal the whole pie,” according to the coalition’s fact sheet on Exhibition learning. “Exhibitions demonstrate mastery of academic material, presentation skills and critical thinking.”

Monfiletto said further proof that how students are learning at Amy Biehl is working can be seen on the conventional level, too. “We continue to meet Adequate Yearly Progress,” he said. “We don’t have trouble meeting state standards.”

Grover is pleased with the progress of New Mexico's charter movement overall. It has done what the founders of the movement set out to do 20 years ago.

"It's a grassroots effort to provide public school choice for our kids," she said. "We're working against the tide of conventional public school education models, but I think we're getting there."

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