Charter schools in Massachusetts are number one—at suspending students.

First, a little context for your edu-fication. You see, charter schools are public schools, (unless their teachers want to join a union in which case they suddenly become private.) And because they are public the state collects reams of data about their students, their incredible shrinking classrooms and their 100% graduation rates.Tragically, reporters and state edu-crats are banned from viewing this information which means that the data often feel very lonely. And that, dear reader, is why it is so important that we have edu-bloggers.

The blogger who writes An Education thought it would be interesting to see what Massachusetts schools suspend the highest number of students. Here’s what she found:


Roxbury Preparatory Charter: 56.1%
Grove Hall Preparatory Charter: 50%
City on a Hill Charter: 43.6%
Up Academy Charter Boston: 38%
New Leadership Charter: 36.6%
Boston Preparatory Charter: 35.1%
Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter: 32.1%
Holyoke: 27.3%
Edward Brooke Charter: 24.9%
Hampden Charter School of Science: 24.7%
Codman Academy Charter: 23.5%
Spirit of Knowledge Charter: 22.8%
Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence: 22.5%
Edward Brooke Charter 2: 22.4%
Boston Green Academy Horace Mann Charter: 19.4%
Community Charter School of Cambridge: 19.4%
Fall River: 18.4%
Berkshires Arts and Technology Academy: 18.1%
Excel Academy Charter Chelsea: 17.9%
Franklin County Regional Vocational Technical Institute: 17.6%

Another Chicago charter has claimed it's a "private" school in order to stop its teachers from unionizing. The school has received $23 million in public funds since it opened in 2004. But eight months ago, a solid majority of the school's teachers voted to organize. The school's board, with backing from the charter school association and the Civic Committee, decided to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in hopes of stalling off union certification.

"In papers filed with the National Labor Relations Board, attorneys for the Chicago Math and Science Academy on the city's North Side say the school should be exempt from an Illinois law that grants employees of all public schools the right to form unions for contract negotiations. -- Tribune"