In Case You Missed It – April 25, 2022

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

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THIS WEEK

This week's local education news was dominated by an application for a new charter school in the Fort Wayne area. The application was eventually withdrawn due to strong opposition.


ACCEL SCHOOLS FACES OPPOSITION IN FORT WAYNE

Fort Wayne charter school application withdrawn

For-profit charter school chain, Accel Schools, has withdrawn their application for a new charter school in Fort Wayne due to strong local opposition and poor planning. Articles dealing with the backlash against the charter school application follow...

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

An application to establish a new charter school in Fort Wayne has been withdrawn after the school faced overwhelming opposition this week.

Bridgett Abston, the Indiana Charter School Board's director of authorizing, evaluation and assessment, said today the board received an email saying Fort Wayne Preparatory Academy's application had been withdrawn.

The charter school board was to discuss the application during a meeting Thursday in Indianapolis.

The proposed charter school had planned to open in the 2023-24 academic year with 150 elementary students. Leaders had planned to expand to the middle-school grade levels, eventually serving 400 students, according to a 268-page application.

The academy expected to draw students from FWCS and open in southwest Fort Wayne within the FWCS district.

Below are two articles dealing with the charter school opposition in Fort Wayne.

New Fort Wayne charter school proposal receives major backlash at public hearing

From WFFT-TV

There wasn’t much support for the new school at Monday's meeting.

Teachers, parents and school board members were among the public speakers to share their thoughts.

In total, 26 of the 27 speakers said the application should be denied.

"I wonder how much research they’ve actually done on the clientele they want to serve," said one speaker.

"I don’t think this community needs another charter school," said another.

"I urge this application [to] be rejected."

These are just a few of the comments from people who spoke out against the new charter school.

Critics blast charter school proposal

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

A proposed Fort Wayne charter school faced overwhelming opposition during a public hearing Monday that filled an Allen County Public Library room to capacity, prompting about 50 people to gather in the grand hall.

About 25 people -- including Fort Wayne Community Schools board members and FWCS Superintendent Mark Daniel -- urged the Indiana Charter School Board to deny Fort Wayne Preparatory Academy's application next week.

The proposed charter school wants to open in the 2023-24 academic year with 150 elementary students. Leaders plan to expand to the middle school grade levels -- eventually serving 400 students, according to a 268-page application.

AN INSIDE LOOK AT ACCEL

Jeff Bryant: Inside a Chaotic For-Profit Charter School

Read this article for an inside look at how Accel Schools runs their locations...this one in Toledo.

From Diane Ravitch

It didn’t take long for Tasha Stiles to realize there was something very wrong with the school where she had just started teaching.

First, there was her rushed orientation to the school, Toledo Preparatory Academy, an early kindergarten through eighth grade charter school in Toledo, Ohio, operated by for-profit charter chain Accel Schools. She told Our Schools that her training during orientation in August 2020 consisted mostly of one workshop on “basics,” which included how to record attendance and enter grades. There was no school handbook or written guidelines about student discipline practices or instructional protocols.

FLORIDA'S ATTACK ON PUBLIC EDUCATION CONTINUES

Florida releases 4 prohibited math textbook examples. Here they are.

Florida has moved the culture wars to math textbooks. This is what happens when your governor has too much power and is running for President.

From the Answer Sheet

Days after announcing that it had rejected 41 percent of math textbooks submitted by publishers — some of them because of references to critical race theory and other “prohibited” topics — the Florida Department of Education on Thursday released four examples of lessons it considers unacceptable.

Last week, the department said some of the rejected textbooks — 54 of 132 — were not aligned with Florida’s content standards, called the “Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking,” or BEST, while others were rejected for the subject matter. “Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” it said.

The department came under criticism for not releasing any examples, so on Thursday, it did.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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