Robert Treat Academy

“Department of Education Cheating Investigation Implicates Two More Schools - Report claims that improvements in test scores at Robert Treat Academy, a high-profile charter, defy all odds.” NJSpotlight, 11/14/2012 

The state Department of Education’s year-long investigation into testing irregularities in a handful of public schools in 2010 and 2011 has leveled serious accusations against two more institutions, including a Newark charter founded by one of the state’s preeminent power brokers.

Late yesterday the department released critical investigative reports of the Robert Treat Academy Charter School in Newark...

Investigators cited testing and security breaches by administrators and teachers at both schools during the 2010 and 2011 cycles of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). The department claims that staff members coached students to correct wrong answers and allowed for security lapses with answer sheets.

State officials last night added nothing to the late afternoon release, saying they would let the reports speak for themselves...

Robert Treat has been among the high fliers in the state’s charter school movement, one of the original 13 approved under former Gov. Christie Whitman and making headlines ever since.

It has consistently posted well-above-average scores both in Newark’s mostly Hispanic North Ward and in the state itself -- some of the highest...

In each case, scanning analysis revealed that an inordinate number of student had erased wrong answers, changing them to correct ones. The state first asked the schools to look into the issue and then sent in their own investigators. Erasure analyses are now common in testing security...

Among the evidence gathered by the DOE were numbers of correct answers that did not make statistical sense, investigators said. Erasure rates were six or seven times the averages of other schools. Nine of 24 students got perfect scores on the math test. And the rate of improvement for students in the sixth grade over previous scores defied all odds.

“The odds of 64.0 percent of sixth-grade students having a higher MATH score in 2011 compared to their scores in 2009 [fourth grade] and 2010 [fifth grade is less than one out of one million,” the report said...

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Read the NJDOE report @. http://www.njspotlight.com/assets/12/1113/2158 (235KBpdf)

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Connections New Century Public Charter School

“Connections Charter School Employee Subjectof Hearing.” Big Island Now (HI), 11/26/2012

A charter school employee accused of violating state ethics laws will be the subject of a hearing to be held Tuesday in Hilo by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

The commission has accused William Eric Boyd, an administrative assistant for Connections New Century Public Charter School in Hilo, with having a conflict of interest for having transactions with the school using his own private company...

The complaint issued in October 2010 charges Boyd with 26 counts of the state ethics code dating back to 2007. Most involve accusations that Boyd represented his company in a transaction with the school.

Many of the charges involve school lunches the school purchased from Boyd Enterprises, a business operated by Boyd and his wife, Erika. The school also did business with Boyd Enterprises operating under other names including Tropical Dreams, Tropical Dreams Ice Cream and Just Fabuloso.

Six of the charges allege that Boyd took “official action” on behalf of the school with a business in which he had a financial interest by either signing as a “requestor” or “approver” of purchase orders to his wife for business in the couple’s Amway distributorship...

According to Les Kondo, the commission’s executive director, this is the first contested hearing the commission has held since 1985...

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The counts are detailed in this document: http://hawaii.gov/ethics/hearings/boyd/02-ChargeExhibits.pdf

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Georgia Cyber Academy

“Georgia Threatens To Close K12-run Online Charter School.” StateImpact, NPR, (GA) 11/26/2012 

The Georgia Department of Education is threatening to close an online charter school run by K12, the nation’s largest online education company, over issues with special education students.

The agency issued a report last week that the K12-run Georgia Cyber Academy has repeatedly failed to comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and has violated student civil rights by failing to provide services required by the law.

The school has 1,100 special education students, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 12,000-student school is the largest public school in the state.

The agency will begin the process of closing the school in April unless the concerns are addressed.

The Florida Department of Education is investigating whether K12 online programs used teachers who were not properly certified and then asked other teachers to help cover it up. In addition, company documents show student-to-teacher ratios of 275-to-1 in some K12 classes, while some Florida school districts have raised concerns about a network of K12-run online charter schools which have applied across the state...

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“Georgia DOE blasts Georgia Cyber Academy, threatens to pull charter in report.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 11/20/2012

The Georgia Department of Education has told the Georgia Cyber Academy that it will begin proceedings in April to shut down the online charter school if it fails to address numerous issues in its handling of special education students.

Those concerns, spelled out in a report delivered to GCA on Tuesday, include failure to obtain individualized education plans special education students are taught from, problems in resolving parental complaints and failure to offer the individualized instruction special education students are eligible to receive under federal law.

With 12,000 students, GCA is the largest public school in the state. The report says GCA’s special education problems stretch back to 2009, when the scores of its special needs students were among the lowest in the state...

During an October review of GCA, department officials found “continuing and significant failures to comply with federal and state laws and regulations,” according to the report...

GCA’s charter was granted by the state, and the state board has the authority to revoke it. Some board members have expressed frustration with what they described as GCA’s ongoing problems and said they will pull the school’s charter if those problems are not resolved.

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Primavera Technical Learning Center

“4 charter-school organizations where insiders benefited.” The Arizona Republic, 11/17/2012

... Damien Creamer and Vanessa Baviera Rudilla run one of the largest online schools in Arizona, and the non-profit school contracts with a for-profit company, American Virtual Academy, for its curriculum and software. Creamer and Rudilla are officers of the non-profit and earn salaries. American Virtual Academy also is owned by Creamer and Rudilla. From fiscal 2007 to 2011, the non-profit paid $42.3 million to American Virtual Academy. The non-profit is exempt from state purchasing laws...

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Basis Schools (eight schools)

“Insiders benefiting in charter deals, Board members, school officials did more than $70mil in business.” The Arizona Republic, 11/17/2012

... Basis Inc. charter schools are nationally recognized for their rigorous curriculum.

The schools are the brainchild of Michael and Olga Block, who envisioned a college-prep curriculum that would rival the best countries. The first school opened in 1998 in Tucson. A second followed in 2003 in Scottsdale.

For years, the Blocks worked for and were paid by the non-profit schools. Michael was the chief operating officer and treasurer, Olga the chief executive officer.

The Blocks later formed a separate, for-profit company and in 2009 signed a service agreement with the non-profit that provides Basis’ six schools with most everything they need to operate: school directors, teachers, accounting, technology, human resources, public relations and Michael and Olga Block...

Basis Inc. denied a request from The Arizona Republic to review a copy of its agreement with the Blocks’ company.

The state also is limited in what it can find out about management companies. The state charter board can audit only the charter school, not the private company hired to run the school’s operations...

A few of the Blocks’ relatives also received money for work performed for the schools, including a relative who performed accounting services for the schools in the Czech Republic, as recently as fiscal 2009.

The tax returns no longer include these details because the Blocks work for the privately held company, not the non-profit. Michael Block said the company is a private business and declined to discuss salaries or whether family members are performing work for the schools...

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U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation's failure to monitor federal spending

“Audit: US oversight of charter school funds lax; Audit assails US education department's monitoring of federal spending on charter schools.” Corrected version, Associated Press, 11/1/2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An audit of the U.S. Department of Education's division overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in charter school funding has criticized the office for failing to properly monitor how states spend the money.

The report released in late September by the department's inspector general also singled out state education departments in California, Florida and Arizona for lax monitoring of what charter schools do with the funds and whether their expenditures comply with federal regulations.

The education department's Office of Innovation and Improvement spent $940 million from 2008 to 2011 on charter schools, which are autonomously operated public schools. Most of the money is funneled through state education departments, although some is given directly to charter schools...

The inspector general said the innovation office has not given proper guidance to states on monitoring the use of the money and does not have policies to ensure that states corrected deficiencies when they were found...

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Ignite Public Schools, formerly IRRA Charter Schools (six schools)

“Valley Charter School System on Probation.” KRGV 5 News (TX), 10/15/2012

MISSION - IRRA Charter Schools remain on probation with the Texas Education Agency, the schools superintendent said in a letter to parents.

The schools current status with TEA means they have not addressed major financial and education concerns. The school recently changed its name to Ignite.

The letter was not the first of its kind sent to parents. TEA first put the charter system on probation in 2009. That's when the state started investigating the schools.

The investigations concluded that the schools changed attendance records and got funding based on bad information.

TEA ordered IRRA to repay nearly $900,000. The schools fired the superintendent and brought in new leadership to fix the problems.

A CHANNEL 5 NEWS investigation revealed the problems were not fixed...

"Accredited probation is the next to worst level you can get on an accreditation status. After that, if you can't improve we have the authority to revoke the accreditation and at that point you'll cease to be a Texas public school," said Deetta Culbertson, with TEA...

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“Valley school administrator accused of sexually harassing student, employees.” KGBT-TV Channel 4 (TX), 8/22/2012

Claims of sexual harassment followed a South Texas school administrator, several female co-workers came forward at his current workplace, Ignite Public Schools (IPS) -- accusing him of unwanted attention and continued harassment.

Rigoberto Abrego is the current chief financial officer for IPS, formerly known as IRRA, Inc...

Before working for IPS Abrego worked as assistant superintendent at Edinburg CISD.

However, he resigned in 2010 amid an investigation into sexual harassment at that district...

... [several women] filed grievances back in May against Rigoberto Abrego for sexual harassment...

But it was not just employees; a student also filed one of the grievances...

Raymundo Valdez, the legal counsel for IPS, said one of the three grievances had been resolved, but that the school board was looking into the other two.

In the meantime, Abrego has continued working at the central offices and has not been placed on leave or under any sanctions, according to Valdez.

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More at “IRRA Charter School Under Investigation.” KRGV 5 News (TX), 9/20/2012

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