This is amazing to me that this might be allowed.
From Santa Barbara:
Cesar Chavez Charter School Proposing Name ChangeIn its latest effort to fend off forced closure because of low test scores, Cesar Chavez Charter School — Santa Barbara’s only bilingual school — wants to change its name to Adelante Charter School, which means “moving forward” in Spanish.
...The Cesar Chavez saga began in October, when the school’s parent organizers went before the Santa Barbara school board with the hope of getting their recently expired five-year charter renewed (Charter schools are funded with public tax dollars, but enjoy more local control than traditional public schools. However, their charters are subject to approval or denial by the locally elected school boards of the districts in which they reside.)
To the dismay of the Cesar Chavez community, the school board was informed by district administrators that the 10-year-old school’s test scores were by far the lowest in the district — and too low for the school to qualify for renewal.
But there is more.
In mid-March, the school suffered another major blow, this time from the California Department of Education. On March 10, the state released a list of the persistently lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in California, saying that major restructuring was needed at all of them, such as firing the principal and at least half of the staff. Cesar Chavez was on the list. What’s more, the state had proposed that all five charter schools on that 188-school list be closed.
Fleming said the state report removed all doubt that changing the name was the way to go.
That is just so disingenuous. Changing the name to fix low test scores?
Here is some more about the problems at Cesar Chavez charter schools. This time in Colorado, from September of last year.
More about problems at Cesar Chavez charter schools in ColoradoMay 28: Colorado Education News reporter Nancy Mitchell reports that founder Lawrence Hernandez received 53 percent pay increase in three years, from $171,466 in 2005 to $261,732.
July 2: Colorado Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones orders an investigation into testing practices after former superintendent John Covington allegedly pleads with him to investigate.
July 10: Mitchell reports that over half the students at Cesar Chavez schools receive testing accommodations.
August 3: Mitchell publishes a stunning investigation into the Chavez schools. In addition to finding concerns about the school’s finances and testing practices, she notes that Hernandez has initiated a dozen legal actions in eight years—against former teachers, former board members, and the state of Colorado, among others.
September 21: After the Colorado Charter School Institute directs the network to set up a separate board for Cesar Chavez Academy North and the Guided Online Academic Learning (GOAL) Academy, chaos erupts, according to the Pueblo Chieftan. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that Hernandez orders the locks changed at GOAL Academy’s computer labs, locks teachers out of the online network, and fires two administrators. When an administrator refuses to give him student information, he allegedly takes it by force.
Our nation under this administration is stepping into unproven and untested territories in education.
We have demanded so very much from our public schools and their teachers while all the while taking resources from them.
Yet there is a possibility that a charter school, a privately run, publicly funded school...will be allowed to change their name from Cesar Chavez to Adelante because of their poor test scores.
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