State Board of Education defines expectations for new opportunity public charter schools

Student in a classroom (Photo by Tennessee Department of Education)

The 9 members of the Tennessee State Board of Education unanimously approved new rules that govern expectations for future opportunity public charter schools.

These charters are intended to serve students facing “significant challenges and disengagement from the traditional classroom environment.” Under legislation passed this year, opportunity charters would be comprised of at least 75 percent “at-risk” students in grades 6-12 who’ve either dropped out, faced criminal charges, have been retained at least twice, or are more than a year behind academically. 

“Opportunity public charter schools are intended to boost academic proficiency and provide pathways to post-high school success for students despite prior educational and personal challenges,” wrote the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) in documents defining the schools.

Tennessee could see as many as three opportunity charter schools proposed next year and if approved, they’ll face a different accountability measurement than traditional public schools.

Under rules approved by the State Board of Education, opportunity charters will still face an annual A-F School Letter Grade evaluation, but student achievement will make up a 5 percent smaller part of the calculation compared to traditional public schools. Opportunity charters will instead see a 5 percent larger impact on their School Letter Grade from academic growth for middle school students and college and career readiness for high school students.

Graphic by Tennessee Department of Education

Additionally, these schools would receive more credit for students that successfully participate in them for multiple years and the state would hold off awarding a School Letter Grade during the first year of operation.

Tennessee Board of Education Vice-Chair Darrell Cobbins (Photo by Tennessee State Board of Education)

The Department of Education proposed these changes to accommodate the specific challenges opportunity charters will face and State Board of Education Vice-Chair Darrell Cobbins suggested taking them even further.

At Wednesday morning’s meeting, Cobbins suggested holding off awarding a School Letter Grade for the first two years of an opportunity charter’s operation.

“Could that be a way for us to evaluate over a more extended period of time to make sure that we get as much data, as much information from the operators to understand and make sure that we have the metrics for accountability and that we’re starting out on the right foot and not hamstringing these folks who are trying to do this important work too soon in the process,” said Cobbins.

Board members opted to stay with the one year grade deferral after hearing from representatives from TDOE who argued the department is already planning to revisit these accountability guidelines once the first year of data is available.

“We’ve tried to be really open about our intent to come back and revisit this after we get, kind of the dry run if you will of what these scores look like in the first year. I think the two-year runway might kind of complicate that. I think it might not create the urgency to re-evaluate this once we actually know what they’re going to look like,” said TDOT Assistant Commissioner of Policy Implementation and Legislative Affairs Jack Powers.