We try hard to be intentional about saying “thank you” at TLA. We say it to our scholars all the time, whether it’s for their hard work and focus, showing great character or simply walking through the hallways quietly. We say it to our staff for their endless hours of preparation and commitment to ensuring scholars are prepared to leave TLA with all the skills and experiences necessary to pursue their dreams. Now, we’d like to say “thank you” to you, our TLA families and parents, both for your trust and partnership in the work of preparing your scholar for the future and for standing up for TLA.
We See You at Work
Public education is a pretty consistent topic of discussion in our community right now. While TLA is not at the heart of most conversations, there are some from within and outside our community who choose to add or pass along inaccurate information about charter schools in the local dialog. It’s not surprising, but it is frustrating. What has been so gratifying, however, is to see you, our TLA parents and families, actively working to correct these inaccuracies from a place of knowledge and experience. Your advocacy is noticed and appreciated. THANK YOU!
We so appreciate your commitment to standing up for charter schools in general and TLA more specifically and wanted to provide you with some additional information around some of the more common inaccuracies that come up.
TLA serves only a small slice of the community.
It’s true, we are not as big as a traditional public school district. This coming school year, we will be fully enrolled, K4-12, with 730 scholars. In the 2023-2024 school year, we served 624 scholars. While our overall enrollment is smaller than a traditional district, our TLA families and scholars fully reflect the diversity of the Beloit community.
Charter schools are not accountable to the public.
We believe we are more accountable to the public than a traditional public school district. We are required to administer the same tests and assessments as all other public schools. We also receive a rating through the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Accountability System, and if we do not perform at a high level, we can be closed by the Office of Educational Opportunity, our charter authorizer. We have a Governance Board, whose members collectively have the skills and diverse perspectives needed to effectively review financial, scholar achievement, and other data and information needed to make independent decisions about how to best serve scholars and families. Additionally, we publish our annual Year in Review, DPI Report Card, and financial audit on our publicly accessible school website, which provides detailed information about our school community, activities, scholar achievement, and TLA’s revenue sources, resource allocation, and financial health.
Charter schools like TLA can “counsel out” challenging and vulnerable students once they receive funding from the state for those students.
TLA staff, families, and scholars make an annual commitment to high expectations around school culture as it relates to academic rigor, character development, and career exploration as described in the Family Handbook, the TLA Commitment to Success and the Extra-Curricular Code of Conduct. These expectations can become a challenge for some scholars for a variety of reasons. Rather than “counsel scholars out,” however, we choose to counsel them in. We know how critical education is to a scholar’s future and we want to provide the supports necessary to keep scholars with us. That doesn’t mean, however, that there is no disciplinary process. There is a consistent, straightforward process applied when disciplinary issues arise. Sometimes, families may choose to make a change, deciding a different school environment is a better fit for their family, but we have never counseled a family to go to another school. Since TLA opened in 2021, the pre-expulsion process has been used twice and there have been zero expulsions.
Thank You
We just can’t say it enough. Thank you for your trust and partnership and thank you for using your knowledge and experience to push back and correct misinformation around TLA and charter schools. Let’s get the 2024-2025 school year started!
Dr. Kristi Cole is the Chief Education Officer at The Lincoln Academy, a K4-12 independent 2x charter school in Beloit, Wisconsin.
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