Some hesitation with SPR report
The school district expects charter school participation in the 2014-15 School Performance Report to increase to 90 percent.
NOT ALL charter schools are rated in the 2013-14 School Progress Report.
Charter schools aren't required to give students' information to the district for the SPR. Schools that did not submit the requested data to the district or submitted it too late to be included are not included in the report.
About 62 of the 84 charters in operation when the data were collected cooperated with the district and are ranked in the SPR. The charter office expects that more charter schools, about 90 percent of them, will participate in the 2014 - 2015 progress report.
The 22 nonparticipating charters had various reasons for not providing the data, said Julian Thompson, authorizing quality manager for the district's Charter Schools Office.
* Some charters in the midst of nonrenewal hearings or whose charters were revoked - such as Walter D. Palmer Leadership Partners Charter School and Arise Academy Charter School - were "antagonistic" to the data requests, Thompson said.
* Some were involved in massive projects. Global Leadership Academy Charter School officials, for example, were busy with a charter-expansion application that was due at the same time as the SPR data.
* Some wanted lawyers to review the district's request for information to ensure that the charters were in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Thompson said.
* And some, such as YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School and Inquiry Charter School, were ineligible for inclusion in the rankings because of their grade levels.
Inquiry, formerly Belmont Charter School, has grades K-2 only. SPR looks at test scores beginning in third grade. YouthBuild offers 12th-grade classes only, and enrolled students don't take the Keystone Exams.