The Columbus City School District had approximately 9,220 students living within its boundaries attend a charter school during the 2007-2008 school year. Students living within the district’s boundaries attended a total of 67 competing charter schools, including statewide “virtual” charter schools. Over two-thirds of the students and state funding that should have gone to Columbus City Schools actually went to charter schools that were designated by the Ohio Department of Education as having a “D” or “F” rating.
Click on the jump below to learn more about how Columbus students– and the state money that followed them—were taught and spent in local charter schools in the 2007-2008 school year.
Note: All charts and graphs will open in a separate window when clicked upon.
When student enrollment in charter schools was categorized by the institution’s academic rating, 3,496 Columbus students attend charter schools that earned the “F” (Academic Emergency) F designation—more than any other state report card rating. A further 3,298 were enrolled in charter schools designated with the D rating—Academic Watch. Slightly more than 700 students attended a charter school that had not been rated academically by the state.
Of the 8,518 Columbus students attending a charter school that had received a state rating for the 2007-2008 academic year, over 79% attended a school ranked D or F. In contrast, only 34% of CCS students attended a district school with a similar rating.
There were no Columbus students that attended any charter school rated Excellent or Excellent with Distinction in 2007-2008 academic year. Only 486 of the 9,220 Columbus students who had left CCS were enrolled in a charter school that was rated Effective.
While charter schools are championed by their advocates as an opportunity for students to escape low-performing traditional public schools, data provided by the Ohio Education Association proves otherwise. Of the 8,518 Columbus students that attended an academically rated charter school, only 5.7% actually transferred to a charter school that performed at a higher level than their previous district-run school.
Each student that attended a charter school diverted $6,872 in state foundation funding 
from the Columbus City Schools to the charter school they were enrolled in. In total, $63,363,615 in state foundation funding “passed through” Columbus City Schools to competing charters throughout the county and state.
When the pass-through funding is viewed by the academic rating of enrolling charter schools, over two thirds of the total funding ($43.6 million) went to charter schools rated in the Academic Emergency or Academic Watch category. In total, only $3.3 million of the $63 million in state funding allowed Columbus students to enroll in charter schools that performed higher than their previous CCS-run school.
The state of Ohio requires all public schools to administer a total of 28 achievement tests to students between grades 3 through 11. The district’s passage rates on 27 of the 28 achievement tests were higher than the charter school average pass rate.
When reviewing state achievement test results at the elementary level, Columbus 
students enrolled in district schools passed at higher levels than did students enrolled in competing charter schools (according to the average charter school pass rate) throughout the elementary grades (3-5) for each of the 9 subject/ grade level tests by a total average of 14.6%.
Columbus middle school students attending district schools passed at higher rates for 
virtually all the state achievement tests administered in grades 6-8 than did students enrolled in competing charter schools, according to the average charter school pass rate. Charter school students passed the Grade 7 Reading test at a slightly higher rate (0.7%) than did students enrolled in CCS middle schools—the only one of the 28 state-administered achievement tests.
At the high school level, students attending district high schools passed at a higher rate on each of the 5 tests in grade 10 and 11.
Sources: Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Education Association.
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on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Charter Schools, Columbus City Schools, Elementary Schools, Faculty Representatives, High Schools, High Stakes Testing, Middle Schools, NCLB, Ohio Education Association, Vouchers.
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With all due respect, this is a disingenuous and spurious complaint.
First, the Columbus schools have no entitlement to these students. Parents and their children make decisions about where they want to be based upon factors that range from performance to safety to personalization to convenience. Parents sometimes decide the other way, that is, to leave charters and go back to district schools.
Second, based upon the numbers in your report you say that about two thirds of these migrating students (that would be about 6,100 students)leave to go to schools that grade out at “watch” or “emergency.” Based upon ODE numbers, Columbus City Schools themselves have 17,800 students in buildings that are in emergency or watch.
Third, Columbus City Schools actually benefit financially from these departures, if they manage their fixed assets, because the departing students leave their share of the local tax dollars behind.
Fourth, does your analysis account for dropout recovery charter schools that are waivered from the AW and AE rubric for closure?
Finally, these zero-sum political wars don’t help to serve kids. Let’s focus getting our own houses in order when it comes to quality performance, quality environment, and what parents and students want. Bottom line is that schools should be schools that parents choose because they are the best fit for their students.
In the interest of full disclosure, The CEA Blog is compelled to notify its readers that the above comment above comes from William J. “Bill” Sims, President and CEO of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (OAPCS).
Sims has spent a number of years in the education field, most recently as vice president for school management for K12, a Virginia based for-profit operator of virtual charter schools in 10 different states. K12 became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in the spring of 2008, raising over $100 million in their IPO.
The organization’s 5 member board of directors is a varied group. The board chair is currently a regional vice president for K12; other board members include one current and one former administrator of Columbus-based charter schools, a venture capitalist and the President of a Cincinnati-based foundation whose past grant recipients include a long list of self-described pro-charter organizations; among them are the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
On its website, OAPCS describes itself as “a non-profit, non-partisan and independent membership organization”.