IDEA Public Schools, a charter school network, has announced their interest in opening schools in Jacksonville. Mayor Curry has tweeted his enthusiasm about this impending event. IDEA is very popular among politicians. /1
One reason for their popularity is their success in enrolling their graduates in college. The current rate is 100%. Seems extraordinary. Consulting a student handbooks from Texas IDEA schools the reader sees that to get a diploma the student *MUST* be accepted by a college. /2
Thus 100% success in college enrollment. But what does the data show about the college readiness of these students? The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board collects this info and reports it annually (Links in the final tweet of this thread). /3
This report has data on eight Texas IDEA network schools sending graduates to colleges/universities for the 2016-17 school year. It reports first year GPA of these IDEA graduates. And what sort of college they attend: 2- or 4-year public, private or those "not found." /4
No less than 28% of any IDEA network school graduating class has a GPA less than a 2.0. Several of the IDEA school graduate cohorts approach half with less than a 2.0 GPA. /5
Add up all the grads attending public colleges/universities with less than a 2.0 first-year GPA and you find that 37% of Texas IDEA network school grads in 2016-17 earned less than a 2.0 their first year in college. Not a uniform success. /6
The report shows something else. An additional 68 grads were "not found" or "not trackable." Their status is not known. They either did not matriculate or they attended a school outside of Texas. /7
One question that arises: Why are elected officials so enthusiastic about a charter school network where more than one-third of their grads performed dismally their freshman year? Link to the report: bit.ly/2J4mH42 @emdrums /8
