Charter Schools Grow In Northwest Arkansas

Officials Say It's Difficult To Compare Performance

Last updated Saturday, August 11, 2007 10:06 PM CDT in News

By Lana F. Flowers
THE MORNING NEWS

Charter schools began in Arkansas in 2001. Parental expectations and population density helped the groups who started the three local ones, said Caroline Proctor, executive director of the Charter School Resource Center at the University of Arkansas.

"Parents get what they demand. If you have a population of people wanting and expecting to make choices, it is going to be conducive to charter schools," she said.

Opening a charter school that depends on money per student is not feasible in a south Arkansas county with a sparse population, Proctor said.

Charter schools began in the early 1990s. Now, 41 states have authorized them. One million students are enrolled in 4,000 charter schools nationwide, said Alan Bersin, former California secretary of education and former San Diego school superintendent, at a recent talk at the University of Arkansas.

There are 50 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade nationwide, so charter school enrollment accounts for about 2 percent.

Arkansas has 20 charter schools. Haas Hall had its charter approved in 2004. The Benton County School of the Arts began operation in 2001 and in January, the state Board of Education extended the charter for another five years.

Academic Assessment

Measuring the success of charter schools is challenging because they are so different from traditional public schools.

However, Haas Hall and its 100 students have reasons to gloat in a few key areas. The school has a 100 percent graduation rate, for example.

And it fares better than any of the other 265 state high schools on standardized math and science tests, said Martin Schoppmeyer, Haas Hall superintendent.

"No other charter school in the area and no other charter school in the state can say that," he said.

Haas Hall Academy had the highest end-of-course literacy exams in 2007, according to the state Department of Education. The department does not rank schools. However, 95 percent of Haas Hall juniors scored proficient on the end of course literacy exam, while 5 percent scored basic.

In the April 1 algebra end-of-course exams, 21 percent of Haas Hall students scored basic, 43 percent scored proficient and 36 percent scored advanced. Some traditional public school students fared just as well or better. Students at Washington Junior High School in Bentonville scored 4 percent proficient and 96 percent advanced. All 24 Gravette High School students who took the same exam scored advanced.

In the April 1 geometry end-of-course exams, Haas Hall had 18 percent of its students score basic, 50 percent score proficient and 32 percent score advanced. Students at Oakdale Junior High School in Rogers fared better. Of Oakdale's students, 19 percent of its students scored proficient and 78 percent scored advanced.

Local charter schools don't have some of the data available to traditional public schools on which academic success is measured.

One such area is the test scores of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch prices. Experts consider how well a district educates its less well-off students as one measure of an academic program. However, none of the three Northwest Arkansas charter schools participate in the National School Lunch Program so students can't get free or reduced price lunches.

Similarly, test scores of minority populations, such as Hispanic or black students, are examined because these groups traditionally have higher rates of poverty. There is little diversity in the charter schools, so minority students' scores can't be examined on the scale they are scrutinized in traditional public schools.

State education officials admonished administrators at the Benton County School of the Arts to step up minority recruitment when they renewed the school's charter.

Hispanics make up 3 percent of students at the charter school, compared with about 37 percent of students in the nearby Rogers district.

Those who want to know more about how charter schools compare with traditional public schools can visit Web sites like schooldigger.com. It ranks public and private elementary, middle and high schools based on test scores and teacher/student ratios.

Schooldigger.com's Web site said it aggregates data from various schools and does not represent any individual or education entity.

Schools have different grade configurations and students can take geometry or algebra in different grades, so a direct school-to-school comparison is difficult using state Department of Education figures. It is unclear how schooldigger.com used grade configurations and test scores to compile its data.

The Benton County School of the Arts ranks at 175 statewide on schooldigger.com. Several traditional public schools in the area rank ahead of it, including Bellview Elementary School in Rogers. Bellview is the fifth-best elementary school in the state, with 18.8 students for each teacher, average math scores of 92 and literacy scores of 92.

Progress at charter schools also may be gauged by a pilot study conducted by the Charter School Resource Center. Its study will see how efficiently charter schools budget money while also increasing student achievement.

The schools in the pilot study include Haas Hall and the fine arts academy, which Proctor said were chosen because they have clean slates and relatively little historical data.

The schools in the pilot study will use an online evaluation system and test students four times each year. Those results should predict at what level a student should work at the end of the year, based on comparisons with 3 million other students' performance, Proctor said.

"Instead of being by grade level, it is specific to the child," Proctor said. "The trick to this is not just academic achievement."

The study will help determine how much it costs the schools to teach students and what are the related student test score gains. That may help future charter schools determine where and how to spend money to get the highest grades for the dollar, Proctor said.

"The scores have to keep going up as the costs go down," she said.

Charter School Changes

The charter school experience seems to be catching on in Northwest Arkansas. In addition to the opening this year of the fine arts academy for high school students, enrollment is up by 30 percent at the school of the arts, serving kindergarten through eighth grade. That puts the school at its 450-student cap, said principal Gary Moore.

Haas Hall's founders are planning to open a math and science middle school in Fayetteville in fall 2008 to serve sixth- through eighth-graders. The proposed charter likely will be on the state Board of Education agenda in December or January.

Schoppmeyer said Haas Hall's curriculum is difficult and he has lost students to other schools, where they claimed they could "earn easier A's."

That's what led him to want to open the math and science middle school.

"I want to get students prepared for what we do," Schoppmeyer said.

FAST FACTS

Charter School Rankings

Schooldigger.com ranks schools by test scores. Here's how local charter schools fared in its rankings for Arkansas, along with the average school score on state standardized tests:

School Statewide Ranking Student/Teacher Ratio Math Literacy

Benton County School of the Arts 175 12.2/1 66.76 72.50

Haas Hall Academy 1 5.9/1 79 95

Figures were not available for the Northwest Arkansas Academy of Fine Arts, which is in its first year of classes.

Source: www.schooldigger.com

Northwest Arkansas Charter Schools

Arkansas has 20 charter schools, including 10 conversion charter schools and 10 open enrollment charter schools.

A conversion charter school is an existing public school converted to a charter school and may only accept students from within its district.

Open enrollment charter schools are operated by a group other than a public school district and accept students from anywhere.

Northwest Arkansas has three open enrollment charter schools, with plans for a fourth. Existing schools and some of the state standards they don't have to comply with:

* Benton County School of the Arts

www.bcsa.k12.ar.us

2005 S. 12th St. in Rogers

Kindergarten through eighth

Enrollment: 450

Waivers: Does not have to start and end on uniform dates; does not have to have a personnel policy committee to represent teachers in decision making; is exempt from some teaching licensing requirements; and does not have to comply with some standard discipline policies.

* Haas Hall Academy

www.haashall.org

13370 Rheas Mill Road in Farmington

Ninth through 12th

Enrollment: 100 students

Waivers: Does not have to start and end school on state-designated days; is exempt from some teaching licensing requirements; board does not have to meet monthly; does not have to comply with the Arkansas Fair Teacher Dismissal Act; and does not have to teach black history.

* Northwest Arkansas Fine Arts Academy

www.nwaacademyoffinearts.org (under construction)

506 W. Poplar St. in Rogers

Ninth through 12th

Enrollment: 75 Waivers: Does not have to comply with the Arkansas Fair Teacher Dismissal Act; does not have a school nurse; does not have a counselor; board does not have to meet monthly; and does not have to start and end on state-designated days; and does not have to teach black history.

Source: Staff Report

SCHOOLS OPEN SOON

More than 60,000 children in Northwest Arkansas return to school Aug. 20. For parents and students, here are links to the public school districts in Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties where you will find answers to many of your questions about the new school year.

Benton County

Bentonville http://www.bentonville.k12.ar.us/web/default.asp

Decatur http://decatur.k12.ar.us/

Gentry http://www.gentrypioneers.com

Gravette http://lions.k12.ar.us/

Pea Ridge http://www.prs.k12.ar.us/

Rogers http://www.rogers.12.ar.us/

Siloam Springs http://sssd.k12.ar.us/

Carroll County

Berryville http://bobcat.oursc.12.ar.us/

Eureka Springs http://www.eurekaspringsschools.k12.ar.us/

Green Forest http://www.gf.k12.ar.us/

Madison County

Huntsville http://eagle.nwsc.k12.ar.us/

Washington County

Elkins http://elks.k12.ar.us/

Farmington http://farmington.k12.ar.us/

Fayetteville http://www.fayar.net

Greenland http://greenlandschools.k12.ar.us/

Haas Hall http://www.haashall.org/#

Lincoln http://wolfpride.nwsc.k12.ar.us/

Prairie Grove http://tiger.nwsc.k12.ar.us/

Springdale http://www.springdaleschools.org

West Fork http://www.westforkschools.org/

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