Underperforming charter schools avoid ‘notices of concern’ as state board opts for leniency

The Nevada State Public Charter School Authority Board last week opted not to issue notices of concern to nearly a dozen underperforming charter schools.

It marked a reversal from last month, when SPCSA staff recommended issuing notices of concern to two dozen charter schools that received below average rankings in both the authority’s Academic Performance Framework and the Nevada Department of Education’s Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF). About half of those schools were issued notices at the SPCSA’s November meeting, and the remainder were expected to be issued notices in December.

But charter school professionals raised concerns about the reliability of this year’s ratings — the first since the covid pandemic first disrupted classrooms — because they use student performance data collected at a time when testing requirements were waived by the federal and state departments of education.

Being issued a notice of concern is one step in a process that can end with a charter school being forced to shut down.

SPCSA Executive Director Melissa Mackedon on Friday told the Charter School Board that while staff believes the ratings are “accurate” about where students are academically, they also believe some of the data is “juiced” and artificially inflated.

“My opinion is the data out is only as good as the data coming in,” she added.

Mackedon, a former charter school leader who spent more than a decade as a member of the Charter School Board, was recently appointed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo to be executive director of the SPCSA. She succeeds Rebecca Feiden, who resigned after five years for a private sector job. Mackedon began as executive director after the November meeting when the original recommendations regarding notices of concern were made.

Mackedon recommended the board only issue notices of concern to schools that received 1-star ratings within the NSPF. The previous recommendation for notices included schools that received 2-star ratings within the NSPF.

To align with the new recommendations, the Charter School Board rescinded the notices of concern it issued last month for the following schools: CIVICA Academy’s elementary and middle schools, Nevada Virtual Charter School’s middle school, and Pinecrest Academy of Nevada’s virtual middle school. That means these schools are considered in good standing with the state.

The Charter School Board issued notices of concern to Nevada Rise Academy’s elementary school and TEACH Las Vegas’s elementary and middle schools. All three schools received 1-star ratings on the NSPF.

The charter schools that avoided the notices of concern were: Discovery Charter School’s Hillpointe elementary and middle schools, Doral Academy of Nevada’s Fire Mesa elementary school, Equipo Academy’s middle school, Learning Bridge Charter School’s elementary school, Signature Preparatory Charter School’s middle school, and Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Las Vegas’s middle school.

The board also opted to take no action on a handful of schools who were already under a notice of concern and underperformed this year. Those schools were: Coral Academy’s Nellis elementary, Democracy Prep at Agassi Campus (elementary), Discovery Charter School’s Sandhill elementary, Freedom Classical Academy’s elementary, Legacy Traditional School’s North Valley elementary and Cadence’s elementary and middle schools.

Board member Victor Salcido welcomed the reversal of recommendations from staff, saying he felt the board had been put “between a rock and a hard place.”

He added, “I want the public and schools to understand that, as authority board members, one of the things, if not the highest thing, is accountability. That is a role we take very serious. I think this is a unique situation that required a little more in-depth analysis. We’re confident the accountability piece is still being held for now.”

Mackedon similarly emphasized that some of the rankings are “very concerning.” She said staff will be monitoring schools’ goals and looking for continuous improvement going forward, even without formal notices of concern being issued.