About a year ago, New York law was changed to say that charter schools in the state could be closed for repeated failure to meet or exceed enrollment and retention targets for ELLs set by the state. But those targets have not yet been set, I learned today.
I was spurred by a comment from Rich on this blog to ask the New York State Education Department what those targets are, and I received this email response from Jane Briggs, a spokeswoman for the department:
We are currently in the process of working with the Charter Schools Institute at [the State University of New York] to determine the appropriate methodology to set these targets. The data analysis involved with this is quite complex, but we are hoping to have something to discuss within the next month or so.
Briggs tells me she’ll let me know when the targets are established. It sounds to me that this is good time for people in the charter school and ELL community in that state to weigh in.