A Ball State University-managed charter school will be closing its doors to sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.
Despite overall improvement in the majority of the university's charter schools' academic progress, the university will be closing the middle school program at the Timothy L. Johnson Academy in Fort Wayne.
A lack of adequate or stable leadership, poor test scores and uneconomical operation are reasons why grades six through eight are being pulled from the school's curriculum, said Larry Gabbert, director for the office of charter schools.
"We've had mixed results for our charter schools," Gabbert said. "We're not seeing a consistent performance at the Johnson Academy."
According to the school's charter contract, it had to undergo a routine evaluation, Gabbert said.
"We looked at test scores and visited the school site," he said. "We saw that the school wasn't working and we needed to take action."
According to the Johnson Academy's 2005-06 ISTEP+ results, the school's overall performance showed 25 percent of the students passed. The state average was 75 percent.
The Johnson Academy's administrators are confident that the school will improve despite its test scores, school leader Steven Bollier said.
"I think the scores show that we've made progress," Bollier said. "We had a couple of years where we had issues with leadership. Now we're making growth, and we'll continue to see that."
Removing grades six through eight will help the school focus on improving the elementary school program, Gabbert said. The middle school is in a separate building, which makes it more difficult to manage and many of the classes had very few students, he said.
"The school has a high turnover rate," Gabbert said. "It's a charter school so families choose to go there. Our surveys show that only about 50 percent of the families are satisfied with the school."
The school can regain grades six through eight if it can meet certain qualifications, Gabbert said.
"They need a track record of success, adequate leadership, highly qualified teachers and they need to work on strengthening the institution's program," he said. "We will work with them to set realistic goals."
In early January, school leaders filed for an appeal but were denied, Gabbert said.
"There were efforts toward improvement, but there weren't sustained or consistent results," he said. "We're hopeful they will take the actions they need to."
The school applied for a two-year extension for kindergarten through fifth grade, Bollier said. The school could regain grades six through eight at the end of the two years if it has shown enough improvement, he said.
"We think we're on the right track," Bollier said. "The scores are not reflective of that just yet."
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