PDE irks charter school exec

Bear Creek Community Charter School Chief Operating Officer Jim Smith has a bit of a bone to pick with the Pennsylvania Department of Education: His school doesn’t get listed with other public schools when the state announces “Keystone Achievement” award winners.

“Once again, PDE omitted all the charter schools from their list of public schools receiving this year’s award,” Smith wrote in an e-mail, adding that Bear Creek “has received this distinguished honor” annually since it opened.

The award is given to schools that meet state minimum goals in test results, test participation and attendance two years in a row. The state released a list of winners earlier this month, breaking them down by “Intermediate Units.” IUs are agencies that serve multiple districts. Locally, Luzerne Intermediate Unit 18 covers 12 districts.

Department spokesman Michael Race noted that charter school Keystone winners are listed in a separate file. Race said the state previously released one list with all schools, but people found that too cumbersome. The unusual nature of charter schools prompted the state to list them separately.

A charter school is a type of public school free of many state regulations. It must be chartered by a public school district – Bear Creek is chartered by Wilkes-Barre Area – but can accept students from other districts. That charter schools serve multiple districts is the reason the state separates them, Race said.

“Because some charters serve multiple districts (cyber charters have enrollments that span the state) they didn’t readily fit into the district/IU compartments,” Race wrote.

Smith said that logic reflects the state’s tendency to treat charters differently than other public schools, even though charters are “held to the same standards.”

Charter schools are designed to provide competition to traditional public schools. The theory is that public schools will improve in order to keep students from transferring to nearby charters. Smith said his review of state test results shows Bear Creek students do better in almost all cases than students from Wilkes-Barre Area schools. Smith compared 2008-09 test results in all grades those tests are given: six grades in math and reading, and two grades each in science and writing.

According to Smith’s review, Bear Creek outperformed all but one school in nearly all subjects and grades. The exception was Plains/Solomon, which outdid Bear Creek in two grades in math, three in reading, and one each in science and writing.

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Bear Creek’s results listed separately, not with public school award winners.

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