2011 was not a good year for the Chicago charter school provider, American Quality Schools.
In March of 2011, AQS elected not to renew its charter to run Austin Business Academy in the former Chicago Austin High School. AQS’s president, Michael Bakalis, concluded that his organization could not properly operate the academy without a financial loss, and that Chicago Public Schools did not fulfill promises such as providing the school with a new library. Bakalis also stated that the multiple-schools-in-one building at Austin was unworkable. AQS controlled only one floor of the building rather than overseeing the entire operation.
But critics of AQS pointed to a continual turnover of teachers and four principals in three years that plagued the operation at Business Academy. The school also promised to provide each student with an internship to work in area businesses, but the internships never materialized.
At the time, Bakalis said that AQS had no plans to open another high school in Chicago and instead would concentrate on running its existing Chicago elementary schools.
But on May 23, 2011, the Chicago International Charter School announced that it was transferring five elementary charter schools from AQS to two other providers. AQS lost out in the bidding process to Distinctive Schools and Victory Partners.
Some of AQS’s schools, such as Bucktown, were highly rated, so AQS was not generally seen as a failed charter provider. But some schools, like Washington Park, were clearly a problem. “I will be candid with you, it [Washington Park] was one of our underperforming [schools],” said Beth Purvis, executive director of CICS. “After 11 years, we thought it was good to bring in some new ideas.”
Today AQS operates only Passages Charter and Plato Learning Academy in Chicago. It operates one school in St. Louis and eight schools in Indiana.
Discovering the problems for AQS in both Chicago and Indiana took some time, but all the information I found was available at Internet sites of daily newspapers and governmental agencies. A few phone calls helped. Other MPS board and staff members were able to uncover this information as well. It is questionable whether anyone from Milwaukee city government did the same in awarding their own charter to AQS.
Chartering of schools is beginning to change. Just a few years ago, chartering bodies like MPS or the city spent the majority of its time examining the charter applications. We looked at the providers’ finances, educational plans, and personal resumes. But more providers are coming before chartering bodies with a track record. That requires that we look at their performance in other communities.
Chartering providers are quick to highlight their successes if they have positive track records. Providers with poor track records will say little about what they have done elsewhere, and these failing providers are easy to spot. What is more difficult is identifying providers with spotty records: some excellent schools as well as major disasters. Such providers are likely to cherry pick their own data – AQS is clearly one of those providers.
We must retool our chartering measurements to investigate chartering providers to see what they have done in other communities.
