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LOGAN MABEMany of Hillsborough's charter schools scored poorly on performance reviews, earning warnings of potential closures if they don't improve.
TAMPA - A performance review of Hillsborough's 16 charter schools shows many of them are on shaky academic ground and at least two run the risk of losing their contracts with the school district.
While three of the charter schools - Learning Gate Community, Trinity School for Children and Terrace Community - earned A grades on the state's annual report card, two schools had F scores and another rated a D. The F schools, Eastside Multicultural and Tampa United Methodist Academy, could be out of business if their grades don't improve. "We've said to both schools that if they fail to make a grade higher than F this year and they become a double-F school, it's very likely that we'll be recommending to the School Board that their contracts be terminated," said Donnie Evans, the district's chief academic officer.
The schools were evaluated by the district's Department of Assessment and Accountability, which looked at student achievement, school safety and finances. In its report, the evaluation team wrote: "It is likely that some additional charter schools will earn school grades of F if significant improvement is not seen in the 2004 FCAT results."
State Department of Education officials are expected to release FCAT results as early as next week.
Eastside Multicultural is an elementary school that has been operating since 1997. With 239 students, it features a multicultural curriculum and serves some of the poorest students in the county. Tampa United Methodist Academy serves 277 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. And although the school has fared poorly on FCAT exams in recent years, Tampa United's principal Jim Shearer said he expects a turnaround this year.
"The way I look at it, (the F grade) was kind of a blessing in disguise," said Shearer, who is in his first year as principal. "It woke up the community and our board and we made some necessary changes with instructors and staff to get our school back on solid ground."
They extended the school day by an hour and fifteen minutes, added voluntary Saturday reading and math lessons, brought in tutors from professional and college groups and sent teachers to numerous training sessions.
For Tampa Methodist and Eastside Multicultural, the stakes are high. Tampa Methodist's contract with the district is up for renewal at the end of the year. Eastside has an annually renewable contract that extends to 2010.
Charlene Staley, the district's charter school liaison, said it may take that long to determine whether the charter school experiment works.
"At this point, we can't find any significant trend in the data yet," Staley said. "Nationally, though, we've seen that the longer low-performing students are in charter schools, the better off they perform."
- Logan D. Mabe can be reached at 269-5304 or at mabe@sptimes.com