Report 2016-141 Recommendation 23 Responses

Report 2016-141: Charter Schools: Some School Districts Improperly Authorized and Inadequately Monitored Out‑of‑District Charter Schools (Release Date: October 2017)

Recommendation #23 To: Antelope Valley Union High School District

To ensure that it has a method to hold charter schools accountable for their educational programs, Antelope Valley Union should, as a best practice, strengthen its authorization process by using the State Education Board's criteria for evaluating petitions.

6-Month Agency Response

The AVUHSD has a method in place to hold charter schools accountable for their educational programs, and has revised its petition evaluation form to align with the State Education Board's criteria for evaluating petitions. (See Attachment-23) For any follow-up questions, contact Julianne Vela- Director of Categorical and Special Programs-jvela@avhsd.org -(661) 952-2249

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

The district provided us with a copy of its Charter School Petition Review Form, which the district aligned with the State Education Board's criteria for evaluating petitions.

60-Day Agency Response

The AVUHSD has implemented two primary internal documents, created by California Authorizer's Regional Support Network (CARSNet) and aligned to the State Education Board's (SBE's) criteria for evaluating petitions. Document 1- The Preliminary Review Checklist, updated January of 2016, is used by the Director who oversees charters to determine whether the petition submitted is complete according to state and federal requirements before organizing the District Team Review.

Document 2-The Charter School Petition Review Checklist also updated in 2016, is used by the District Charter Review Team (DCRT) and helps organize the review by departmental areas of expertise. This document includes timelines for review and a rubric to measure how each component of the petition, either exceeds, meets or fails to meet standard, and where the component is addressed in the petition. Within the document are areas for the DCRT to document questions that can be utilized in the Capacity Interview to further determine if the Petitioners have the capacity to implement the intent of the charter. Both documents are tools the AVUHSD began using in 2016 to strengthen the authorization process and to evaluate the strength of the educational programs of the charter petitions it receives and reviews, as it pertains to Educational Programs, Measurable student outcomes, : targeted school populations, attendance, instructional minutes, what it means to be an educated person in the 21st Century, how learning best occurs, annual goals, for all pupils and for each subgroup of pupils identified, as it pertains to the state priorities, transferability of courses, measurable student outcomes, and student progress measurements. For any follow-up questions, contact Julianne Vela- Director of Categorical and Special Programs- jvela@avhsd.org -(661) 952-2249.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: No Action Taken

Although the district provided us with copies of the two checklists it uses, it did not provide any evidence that it had aligned those documents with the State Board of Education's criteria. In addition, the provided checklists do not fully align with the State Board of Education's criteria. Whereas the State Board of Education requires that certain criteria be included at a minimum to ensure that charter elements are reasonably comprehensive, the district's checklist indicates that those criteria are optional.

All Recommendations in 2016-141

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.