10:30am | by Brian Addison 

On November 1, the New City School of Long Beach received a letter from the California Department of Education (CDE) that, in the words of Executive Director Sabrina Bow, “came out of the blue.” The letter was rather explicit in its intentions: the New City School has 30 days to provide proficient reason as to why they should continue to exist and following a 60 day review period, will be informed as to whether or not the Department will revoke their charter.

The first question that comes to mind is how the CDE can suddenly revoke the charter of a school of which it is not directly involved? And even further, how can the DOE simultaneously override the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), the entity that originally granted New City its charter in 2000 and renewed it subsequently in 2005 and 2010?

The answer begins in an agenda item on the Board of Education’s November 2010 meeting, which involved changing the California Code of Regulations to allow the CDE to override school districts’ authority in charter schools. This change in code was enacted in February of this year. Due to New City’s low-end Academic Performance Index (API), a standardized scoring system used to assess school performance, the CDE felt that the school has fallen under “substantial and sustained departure from measurably successful practices such that continued departure would jeopardize the educational development of the school’s pupils.”

Recently talking with the Post, Bow, who joined New City in July of 2010, was clear that she does not take their low API scores lightly — and it is something she is “tirelessly working to stabilize.” Her explanation for the low score, which she wanted to emphasize is “not an excuse,” was due to immense growing pains. The school doubled in size in 2007, shortly before the economic collapse and onslaught of educational budget slashes, after acquiring a new property for its inaugural high school and entirely new teaching staff. “We are now in a place of stabilization,” she said, “and we just need the time to come up with perfecting the practices we’ve upheld for the past twelve years. We offer a comprehensive education that cannot be measured by standardized tests.”

Despite New City’s curriculum strictly following California state standards, despite its record of innovative education — enforcing and encouraging multiple languages, providing students with electives that range from yoga to photography, having curriculum that requires lessons in healthy environmental practices, human nutrition, and globalization… — and despite the fact that many of their 8th graders successfully matriculate to the top high schools in Long Beach, the CDE seems particularly focused on one thing alone: that API score.

Detrimental to New City’s fight for its charter, the API does not include measuring a school’s innovation or offerings, nor does it have a comprehensive review of the critical thinking skills of a school’s student population. In other words, things like the school’s urban farm (the only one in the city), their students’ bi-lingual proficiency, their students’ artistic or creative abilities, their students’ communal contributions and activities, et cetera, are entirely ignored. Even worse for the measurement of student success, API scores in English are the only one’s adopted in a school’s given score; considering many New City students are English-as-Second-Language (ESL) learners, the test does not take into account their ability to comprehend and apply the English language.

There is, in other terms, a disconnect between what the student knows factually and skills they are applying to their environment.

To emphasize the frustration felt amongst those supporting New City, Sarah Naccarato, a parent whose children attends the school, told the Post, “I was fortunate enough to attend UCLA, where I majored in French and minored in Spanish… My language skills [were essential to my career]. I was envious of my colleagues from other countries who grew up bi- or tri-lingual. They had what I felt were broader perspectives and greater communication skills than I had. When I eventually had children of my own, I wanted them to have a bi-lingual education, as I believe it will give them an advantage in an increasingly global environment. Just as importantly, I also wanted their education to include logical reasoning and critical thinking skills… New City provides them that.”

According to Bow, LBUSD has always been an ally for the school and engages within their oversight of New City with veracity and gravity. They continually visit the school, sitting in on classes and overviewing the campus, and provide positive as well as critical feedback. In the twelve years of the school’s existence, the LBUSD has never imposed sanctions on New City. Given their relationship, the District is attempting to support them while it prepares the rebuttal of their revocation for the DOE.

The New City School has until December 1st to prepare its defense of its decade-long existence. In continuing her defense, Bow said, “We only aim to enrich what California already enforces in its education model. We follow the standards followed by every other school — but we enrich it with a focus on human rights and peace, on environmentalism, on becoming efficient and articulate as a global citizen. At the core are the California standards — however, New City wants to aim for more.”

Following the publication of this article, Chris Eftychiou, Public Information Director for the LBUSD, provided the following statement to the Post on the same day: “The state gained some additional authority last year to monitor charters and has since communicated some concerns to New City. Our school district staff also has been monitoring New City’s performance carefully. We, too, have concerns about New City’s performance. This school ranks lower academically than any elementary or K-8 school in our school district. We have communicated our concerns to New City. Our staff has not yet made any formal recommendation on this matter to our school board, but we expect an agenda item at some point.”