Collegiate Academies

Collegiate Academies operates six open-enrollment public charter high schools in Louisiana.[1]

Schools

History

August 2008: Sci Academy opens in New Orleans East.

April 2011: Interest in Sci Academy exceeds the number of seats available

August 2011: The 2011-2012 school year opens with a new special education program: Essential Skills. This course for scholars with cognitive disabilities attracts the attention of national educators including Doug Lemov, creator of Teach Like a Champion.

June 2012: Sci Academy graduates its first class of seniors. 97% of these students were accepted to a four-year college, and they matriculated to schools across the country, including Amherst College, Colorado College, Louisiana State University, and Wesleyan University.

August 2012: George Washington Carver Collegiate Academy and George Washington Carver Preparatory Academy open.

January 2014: Troy Simon, Sci Academy Class of 2012, introduces First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House College Opportunity Summit.

April 2014: Sci Academy was named the #2 high school in Louisiana by U.S. News & World Report.

Controversy

In 2013, three Collegiate Academies schools — Sci Academy, George Washington Carver Collegiate, and G.W. Carver Prep — had the highest suspension rates in New Orleans.[2][3] At Carver Collegiate, 69 percent of its student body were suspended during the 2012-13 academic year; at Carver Prep and Sci Academy, the figures were 61 percent and 58 percent, respectively.[3][4] The suspension rates led to the Southern Poverty Law Center sending an open letter to Collegiate Academies.[3] Students were sent home for matters as trivial as "laughing too much ... hugging a friend, and most commonly for being 'disrespectful,'" according to The Times-Picayune.[2] Allegations of the treatment of special-education students were particularly startling, including violations of the federal law that 10 suspensions of a special-education student should trigger an immediate meeting.[2]

In 2014, a Better Education Support Team coalition joined more than 30 students and their relatives in filing a complaint against Collegiate Academies that its disciplinary policies were so severe that they bordered on child abuse and violated federal civil rights laws.[5] The plaintiffs asked the U.S. Department of Justice and Education to investigate.[2]

The incidents that led to the complaint led to three students withdrawing and protests.[2][6][7] Students created a list of grievances that said, in part:[8]

We get disciplined for anything and everything. We get detentions or suspensions for not walking on the taped lines in the hallway, slouching, for not raising our hands in a straight line. [sic] The teachers and administrators tell us this is because they are preparing us for college. It trains us for the military, orworse [sic], for jail.

In addition, students complained that they lacked textbooks or even a library, and that the material being taught was below grade level.[8]

In 2015, Collegiate Academies were among the New Orleans charter schools subject to a federal judge's landmark New Orleans special education settlement that tightened the state Education Department's oversight and required third-party monitoring.[2][9]

Louisiana Department of Education issued a notice on January 6, 2016, that George Washington Carver Collegiate had violated a special-education student's rights when the school suspended him for a full month.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Collegiate Academies School List". Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Dreilinger, Danielle (8 January 2015). "New Orleans special education settlement given preliminary OK by federal judge". NOLA.com. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Dreilinger, Danielle (20 December 2013). "New Orleans high school protests reopen suspensions debate". NOLA.com. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  4. ^ Leonhardt, David (22 July 2018). "A Plea for a Fact-Based Debate About Charter Schools". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  5. ^ Dreilinger, Danielle (20 November 2014). "Civil rights complaint targets New Orleans charter group Collegiate Academies". NOLA.com. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  6. ^ Dreilinger, Danielle (17 December 2013). "Three students withdraw from eastern New Orleans charters after protests". NOLA.com. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  7. ^ Simons, Meredith (5 February 2014). "The Student-Led Backlash Against New Orleans's Charter Schools". The Atlantic. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  8. ^ a b "Carter Collegiate Students' List of Grievances" (PDF). Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  9. ^ a b Dreilinger, Danielle (4 February 2016). "New Orleans school violated special ed student's rights, Lens says". NOLA.com. The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 23 July 2018.