Thirteen public charter schools to make their case to stay open

LEAD student speaking in favor of a charter renewal for LEAD Neely’s Bend at a recent public hearing (Photo by LE

In the coming weeks, leaders of more than a dozen public charter schools will make the case for why their school’s charter should be renewed for another ten-year term.

Charter schools are free public schools operated by an independent contract or “charter” with an authorizing agency like a school district or the state. When the ten-year charter term ends, authorizing agencies decide whether a charter school has earned a renewal.

This year, five authorizing agencies including school board members with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Hamilton County Schools, Knox County Schools, along with members of the state-run Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will make those decisions for thirteen charter schools.

MNPS has the most charters up for renewal including KIPP Kirkpatrick Elementary School, Explore Community School, Rocketship United, Strive Collegiate Prep, Valor Voyager, and STEM Prep High School. In recent years the district’s board has not been supportive of charters and its members have denied every application for a new charter school three years in a row.

Last November, board members took that bias against charters a step further by denying a charter renewal request from Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary School, despite its students outperforming every other elementary school in the Maplewood School Cluster in Math and English language arts. Just one elementary school in that East Nashville cluster had higher proficiency rates in science.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously overturned that decision in January. Multiple commissioners had strong criticism of Rocketship’s denial, led by Commissioner Eddie Smith who questioned whether MNPS board members might need help understanding how the charter approval process is supposed to work.

“MNPS Board based a decision on lack of facts, lack of substance, to the point that honestly, I would recommend that the charter school office, while I know they work for them, go back and say, you know, Emperor you have no clothes on here,” said Smith in the January meeting. “It’s so thin in what they decided to use to deny that it really looks for all intents and purposes of just absolutely targeted punitive action.”

The charters up for renewal in Nashville this year have also shown a similar history of outperforming MNPS district run schools located in the same cluster.

• Valor Voyager outperformed every MNPS middle school in the Overton Cluster in every subject on the state’s report card.

• Rocketship United outperformed every MNPS run elementary school in the Glencliff Cluster in ELA and 5 of 6 in math and 4 of 6 in science.

• STEM Prep High School outperformed every MNPS run high school in the Glencliff Cluster in math and outperformed half of them in English language arts and social studies.

• Strive Collegiate Prep outperformed every MNPS run middle school in the McGavock Cluster in math, science, and social studies and outperformed 3 of 4 in English language arts.

• KIPP Kirkpatrick Elementary School schools outperformed 2 of 6 MNPS run elementary schools in the Stratford Cluster in math and science.

• Explore Community School outperformed half of the district-run middle and elementary schools in every subject in the Stratford Cluster.

Other renewals may face an easier path to renewal

School board members with Hamilton County Schools and Memphis-Shelby County Schools have been more open to supporting charter schools in recent years.

Hamilton County Board Members will decide whether to renew the Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence Middle School while the Memphis-Shelby County School Board will decide renewals from Leadership Prep and Power Center Academy Elementary.

Knox County School Board members have not made many votes related to charter schools as the district currently has just two.  The renewal for Emerald Academy will be a barometer for how the board handles charters moving forward.  The board approved Knox Prep last year on a 5 to 4 vote.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission acts as the authorizer for charters it approves on appeal. Commissioners will decide renewals for LEAD Neely's Bend, Libertas School of Memphis, and Cornerstone Prep Denver Campus.  Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall has recommended approval for all three.