Bill Phillips of NYCSA has written an excellent analysis of the Board of Regents’ decision yesterday to decline renewal of Pinnacle Charter School in Buffalo, a low-performing school in which only one in five students was at standards—after eight years of operation. I urge reading it in full. My only additions are to remind everyone here that decisions made in Buffalo affect decisions made in New York City as the same standards apply statewide. So the Board of Regents’ decision to close the school was an important one for ensuring that accountability is real. The other, and connected therewith, is to call out Assistant Commissioner Bachofer and Cliff Chuang for their good work in creating authorizing standards at SED and then holding to them.
Still as I know everyone agrees, there is nothing to rejoice in any closure decision, particularly one in which students are sent back to Buffalo Public Schools, which for the first time in two decades (and then only because the 500 or so Pinnacle school students will return to the district) will not see a drop in enrollment.
Photo credit: David Handschuh for New York Daily News
