Two Atlanta charter schools are among 17 under close scrutiny by the state agency that authorizes their existence.
During two meetings on May 31 and June 28, the State Charter Schools Commission grilled schools that had underperformed the goals in their charters.
Charter schools are public schools that operate independently and face closure if they fail to live up to the terms of their charters, or contracts. Charter renewal decisions typically come as the five-year contracts near expiration.
The commission judges them by their performance with academics, finances and governance. Academics is the most important.
The commission used the most recent data from the 2015-16 school year in these reviews. The numbers for 2016-17 are due this fall, and the next round of charter renewal decisions later this year or in early 2018 will use those newer numbers.
The commission has its own "framework" to judge schools, but the raw data come from state standardized test scores overseen by the Georgia Department of Education and compiled into a state report card known as the College and Career Ready Performance Index.
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, a watchdog agency, simplifies the results for the public, using a familiar letter grade system: A-F.
Here are the grades the two Atlanta schools that came under scrutiny for low performance earned in 2016:
• Atlanta Heights Charter School, in Atlanta: F
• Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood for Girls, in Atlanta’s Kirkwood neighborhood, DeKalb County: F
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