AURORA | Aurora Public Schools Superintendent Rico Munn is expelling a struggling out-of-district online charter school network, two years after the state Board of Education forced APS to allow the schools to operate.
Munn said Wednesday he will not approve a new memorandum of understanding agreement that would have allowed Hope Online Academy Co-Op to operate three brick-and-mortar “learning centers” in APS boundaries and another that lies directly across the district border.
Munn cited low academic performance in a memo submitted to school board members.
Hope Online’s elementary school level is the first in the state to reach eight years in a row of low performance on the state’s performance watch ratings, according to board member Kyla Armstrong-Romero.
The decision to revoke the agreement affects about 550 students at four Hope Online learning centers, the vast majority of which are APS residents that would otherwise be enrolled in an APS school. The students are no longer considered APS students when they enroll in Hope Online, a charter school network authorized by Douglas County but one that reaches across the state.
The situation could land APS between a rock and a hard place. APS has no decision making authority over the schools, but in 2016, the state Board of Education overruled a district decision to keep Hope Online out of the district.
“If the state board overrules the local board, they’re kind of stuck,” said Matt Cook, director of public policy and advocacy at the Colorado Association of School Board.
Munn’s decision could open the district to another appeal to the state Board of Education. Hope Online spokeswoman Amanda Kalina did not say Tuesday night, before the Superintendent’s decision, whether Hope Online would appeal a revocation decision to the state school board.
Hope Online is an online-based school that requires its students to attend classes in person at so-called learning centers, where they spend varying amounts of time logged onto computers and in other activities depending on their grade level and learning style.
Licensed teachers instruct students in online programs, and “mentors” facilitate instruction in person. Over 2,000 students are enrolled at Hope Online centers in 11 school districts, from Aurora and the Denver metro to Pueblo and Grand Junction.
Hope Online students are largely minorities, and the vast majority are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, a marker of poverty. At the elementary and middle school levels, about half of the students are learning English as a second language.
Executive Director Heather O’Mara told the school board Tuesday night the school was focused on educating at-risk students since it began operating in APS in 2005.
Parents, staff and students crowded into the school board meeting to testify in favor of Hope Online. Many parents said the school community felt like a family and that their children are flourishing there.
But district officials have highlighted academic shortcomings at Hope Online, echoing criticisms of online school networks.
At the elementary level, Hope Online has been rated at the lowest two rungs of the state’s academic performance grading scale since 2010 – a first in the state. According to a state analysis of test scores last year, Hope Online elementary students did not meet academic standards in any category, from math to English language arts and science.
However, students were approaching meeting the standards in most categories.
The state did not conduct performance analyses of Hope Online’s middle school and high school levels, but data from the Department of Education show students at both levels falling far below average state test scores in math and English language arts for the last three years.
APS conducted its own analysis comparing Hope Online elementary students to APS elementary schools with similar demographics and found that similar test score and academic growth levels. APS schools in close proximity to Hope Online learning centers performed markedly better.
The district school board voted in 2016 to revoke Hope Online’s memorandum of understanding, but was overruled by the state school board.
Unlike most charter schools operating within APS boundaries, the district has little sway over academic and financial decisions in the learning centers. That authority lies with the Douglas County School District.
APS offers its own hybrid online and brick-and-mortar school, APS Avenues. The school focuses on students who were referred there by counselors or otherwise had issues learning in traditional schools. Munn said there is capacity at Avenues for Hope Online students if they decide to opt in.
Online schools serve over 20,000 students in Colorado, or about 2 percent of the statewide student population.