Six charter schools face automatic closure under Florida’s “double F” law. But four of them may ask the state Board of Education for an extra year to raise their grades.
The board meets next week in Tallahassee. State law limits its authority to grant charter school appeals. Charters that earn consecutive F’s have to show they outperformed nearby public schools. Otherwise, they automatically lose their right to operate.
Orange County’s Oasis Preparatory Academy opted to shut down. The Orlando Sentinel reports administrators concluded their appeal would not succeed.
Meanwhile, the board of Learning Path Academy in Palm Beach met the day before the state released A-F grades to consider “voluntary termination.”
The remaining four schools are:
- Orange Park Performing Arts Academy (Clay County)
- Galloway Academy (Gadsden)
- King’s Kids Academy of Health Sciences (Hillsborough)
- Belle Glade Excel Charter School (Palm Beach)
State board documents show they have mixed chances of success.
For example, King’s Kids, in Tampa, outperformed two out of three district-run schools in several categories for which the state has enough data to make meaningful comparisons.
On the other hand, Belle Glade Excel, a high-poverty rural charter on the western fringe of a massive school district, did not outperform comparable district schools in any such comparisons.
