Comment Rescue: DFM News raises questions around NASCA Eval

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

Thanks to Jodi for sharing the link, I wouldn't have found it otherwise. Comfort to me, now I know I am not crazy for having expectations for DOE.

Charter 2.0: Revamping how charter schools in Delaware work

By Larry Nagengast
June 27, 2011

While moving ahead with its procedures for revoking the licenses of two charter schools, the Delaware Department of Education faces a major charter school issue of its own: the department is working with an application, monitoring and review system that a national evaluating agency rates as “undeveloped” or “minimally developed” in most aspects.

The evaluation was delivered to the state Department of Education (DOE) in March, a month before the department began its formal review of the Pencader Business and Finance Charter High School and resumed a suspended formal review of the Reach Academy for Girls.

The results of the evaluation by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) were not unexpected, said John Carwell, charter schools officer in the Department of Education since last August.

“I knew coming in that there was some work to be done,” Carwell said, adding that the state sought the review by NACSA “to help benchmark ourselves against high-performing charter school authorizers from across the country.”
The evaluation found that:
•DOE does not have an established process or the tools to evaluate new charter school applications in their entirety.

•DOE’s monitoring of academic, financial and operational performance is limited, and there is no consensus within DOE or its Charter School Office on how to monitor academic performance.

•DOE has not prepared and submitted an annual report on charter schools, required by state law, since 2006.

•DOE does not define, in a clear and transparent way, measurable and attainable goals and standards that schools must meet for renewal.

•DOE does not grant increased autonomy to schools that perform well, and its current authorizing practices discourage autonomy and innovation.