"Charter school demand in Mass. disputed; Waiting list totals can count students more than once" by James Vaznis | Globe Staff, April 08, 2013
A state tally showing more than 53,000 students on charter school waiting lists is overstating demand, according to a Globe review of state data.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in tallying the waiting lists statewide and for many individual communities, including Boston, frequently counts the same students more than once.
They can't get the attendance right?
Related: Globe on the Rebound
Wow. I didn't know self-delusion was part of the curriculum.
That’s because the state simply adds up the waiting lists from each charter school without collecting individual names to learn whether a student appears on more than one list or, in fact, may be enrolled at another charter school.
Charter school leaders have been seizing on the large number of students on the waiting lists as evidence of soaring popularity for the schools and the need for more of them.
But critics note that as lawmakers debate legislation this spring to raise a state-imposed cap on the number of charter school seats in Boston and other cities, they will do so without a full picture of demand.
“Raising the cap based on an artificial or exaggerated understanding of the waiting lists doesn’t make sense,” said Roy Belson, superintendent of the Medford public schools, who has questioned waiting list numbers for several years. “Is the demand truly 50,000, or is it 10,000 students applying to five schools each?”
The Globe review found that waiting list policies can vary tremendously among the state’s 81 charter schools, which at minimum under state law must place all unsuccessful applicants in a lottery for admission on a list.
While some schools purge their lists annually and ask those students to reapply, others keep students on lists for many years without knowing whether they are still interested, or add names when parents merely request information about the school....
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I couldn't get into that course.
Also see:
Boston charter school faces probation
Pioneering Renaissance School must explain recent woes
Renaissance Charter School on probation
