Agora Cyber Charter School approved for five more years

Agora Cyber Charter School, which almost lost its charter last year, has won state approval to operate for the next five years.

But the Department of Education has imposed academic and financial-management conditions that must be met by March 31.

Sharon Williams, the school's chief executive, said Friday that Agora was "super excited about the renewal" and had begun working on many of the issues before receiving the state's ruling.

"We are trying to address the challenges," she said.

Agora, in Wayne, provides online learning to 5,000 students in their homes across the state.

The Education Department has responsibility to oversee Pennsylvania's 12 cyber charters, as a result of a 2002 amendment to the state charter law. Charter revocations are rare, although two other cyber schools have closed.

Thomas E. Gluck, acting state education secretary, has ordered Agora to make its financial dealings with its educational management company more transparent. Specifically, Gluck said in documents signed at the end of June, Agora must provide itemized costs and details for all bills that K12 Pennsylvania L.L.C. submits under its management contract. Agora also must amend the contract to say the state has the right to perform audits.

Under the renewal terms, Agora must overhaul its academic curriculum to align it with state standards. "Due to the scope of this work and the detail it requires, the department will allow Agora until March 31, 2011, to complete the curriculum," Gluck wrote.

Math and language arts are due Aug. 31.

The school, Gluck said, must begin using benchmark tests that can determine whether students are progressing in areas that will be measured on the state's standardized tests.

He said state evaluators found that although Agora's internal tests showed student gains between fall and spring, the improvements were not reflected in state test scores.

And to improve the school's overall performance, Agora was told to provide more tutoring and remedial help for students across the state. Agora does not meet the academic standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

"We are going to meet all the deadlines and make sure we are in compliance," Williams said.

She said the school would expand its online tutoring and planned to open learning centers in Philadelphia and at least 16 other sites statewide for face-to-face help.

Last summer the Education Department began and then halted hearings to revoke Agora's charter. It was the first step in a costly legal tug-of-war between the department and its founder, Dorothy June Brown, and the Agora board over the use of a management company Brown owned.

Under a settlement reached in U.S. District Court in October, Brown and her company, Cynwyd Group L.L.C., agreed to sever all ties with the charter she founded in 2005. Agora's board was replaced.

As part of the agreement, the state paid Brown $1.7 million; K12 paid $1.3 million.

K12 Pennsylvania is a subsidiary of K12 Inc., a for-profit company in Herndon, Va.

The state also renewed the charter of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland, Beaver County, with similar conditions that must be met by March 31.

PA Cyber, which opened in 2000, enrolls 9,000 students.