Santa Clara County Board of Education
Dr. Mary Ann Dewan, Ph.D., County Superintendent of Schools
1290 Ridder Park Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
mdewan@sccoe.org

RE: BCS enrollment seems to be increasing segregation in both BCS and LASD

Dear Board Members and Dr. Dewan:

As a long-term resident of the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, as a parent of two former LASD students, a grandparent of two current LASD students and a concerned citizen, I have a strong vested interest about the role of BCS in our community.

During the past five years, I have shared (via emails and/or surface mail) with the SCCOE staff and members of the SCCOE Board, data and analysis which indicated the enrollment of Bullis Charter School (BCS) did not, and does not, reflect the enrollment of the Los Altos School District (LASD). These documents, and other analysis, are accessible at https://www.needanotherlook.com/

Since it has been a couple years since I reviewed the current data, several community members asked me for an update. Attached are two update documents. When I started this review, online access to 2022-23 was not yet available.

The data and analysis in the first attached 19-page document, “Update on LASD and BCS Test Scores”, indicates that differences in the LASD and BCS test scores are just a reflection of the differences in the mix of students enrolled. The bottom-line, adjusting for student family income, ethnicity/race, English learners, and special needs, the LASD and BCS test scores are comparable. An interesting observation is most individual LASD schools, and the district average test scores, show greater 3rd to 6th grade improvement in test scores, than the BCS 3rd to 6th grade improvement in test scores.

The data and the analysis in the second attached 4-page document, “Understanding Special Education (SpEd) Requires Understanding Both the Mild and the Severe Ratios, not the Combined Ratio” indicates that almost all the BCS SpEd students have mild disabilities. The financial consequences BCS of avoiding the costs of serving students with severe disabilities is a significant penalty for the rest of the LASD+BCS students.

The data and analysis in the third attached 35-page document, “Update on LASD and BCS Enrollment Data”, indicates that the situation which has existed for over a decade has not changed much. The disproportionate composition of current BCS enrollment reveals the cumulative effect of shaping enrollment practices over an extended period.

Relative to LASD, BCS continues to:

Under enroll Special Education students, particularly students with severe disabilities
Under enroll Economically Disadvantaged students, both FRPM and CAASPP Test Data
Under enroll English Language Learner students, both the all-language benchmark and particularly EL Spanish students’ benchmark
Under enroll Hispanic students
Relative to other SCCOE K-8 chartered schools, BCS continues to report:
The lowest percent of special education students
Relative to their district, the highest number of under enrolled Special Education students
Relative to their district, the lowest percent of Hispanic students
Relative to their district, the he highest percent of Asian students

Unfortunately, it seems the public schools (LASD and BCS) in my community have become increasingly segregated.

I am not a linguist, a lawyer, a judge or and education expert. A search of the Internet highlighted several (in italics) observations and definitions related to segregation.

Segregation by income, language, ethnicity, or disability does not teach young people to live with others who are unlike them. The preponderance of empirical research demonstrates that equity and excellence are incompatible with every form of segregation.

“Social Segregation” - LASD and BCS enrollment data suggest, this segregation has gone on for many years and is on a trendline to continue in the coming years.

“Social segregation in sociology is the separation of groups based on social characteristics. These characteristics may be either ascribed, such as race, or achieved, such as economic status. In a segregated society, the separated groups may have little or no contact with each other……Social segregation happens when people of varying socioeconomic groups in a city have little opportunity to be exposed to people different than them.”

“De Facto Segregation” - The data indicates this has occurred.

“De facto comes from a Latin phrase meaning “in reality or as a matter of fact.” ….. De facto segregation can be caused by personal bigotries and the personal choices we make about whether to live in an integrated fashion or not ….. de facto segregation is the result of custom, circumstance, or personal choice.”

“De Jure Segregation” - Although the California Charter Act clearly prohibits de jure segregation, can the selective embrace and selective enforcement of the Charter Act be interpreted to be a form of “De Jure Segregation”?

“In legal contexts, de facto describes what really happens, in contrast with de jure, which explains what the law says should happen. If we have de jure segregation, it is a constitutional violation.”

The data and analysis in the attached documents, and in previous communications with the SCCOE Board, suggest de facto segregation seems to have been occurring at both the local district and the neighborhood level.

On a district level, the graph below illustrates a decade of data which suggests “the separation of groups based on social characteristics. These characteristics may be either ascribed, such as race, or achieved, such as economic status,” special education needs and language skills.

On a neighborhood level, the graph below illustrates a decade of data suggesting even more pronounced “separation of groups based on economic status.” The red line is BCS data and the black line is the district data. The other four lines (blue, green, and yellow) are the data for the four school in the immediate proximity of the original BCS campus, now the North campus serving elementary students.

On one hand, the BCS leadership insists BCS is a public school and the Charter Act requires BCS receive both approximately $10,000 of public funding per student and free facilities. In addition, the Charter act grants BCS less accountability to the community, less transparency, and increased autonomy related to labor/education regulations.

On the other hand, BCS does not seem to comply with the provisions of Charter Act which indicate BCS will place special emphasis on pupils identified as academically low achieving and BCS will achieve a racial and ethnic balance reflective of LASD.

CALIFORNIA’S CHARTER SCHOOLS ACT

Legislative Intent: 47601 (b) - Increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for pupils who are identified as academically low achieving.

Charter Development Process: 47605 - Required Charter Elements (7) - The means by which the school will achieve a racial and ethnic balance among its pupils that is reflective of the general population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school district to which the charter is submitted.

This duality raises several questions:

Are all aspects of the Charter Act equally important?
Can implementation of the Charter Act be manipulated?
Does a chartering entity have the authority to ensure compliance?
If the chartering entity has limited authority, are the check-and balances at the state, the legislature, or the judicial level?
At what point does a system which segregates a community’s students become too much for chartering organizations, and the legal system, to accept?

I would appreciate your help in better understanding the situation and answering these questions.
Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
Steve Brown
26120 Rancho Manuella Lane
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
stevebrown94022@gmail.com
cell: 650-996-4895

cc:

Maimona Afzal Berta, Area 6 mberta@sccoe.org

Victoria Chon, President, Area 5 vchon@sccoe.org

Joseph Di Salvo, Area 4 jdisalvo@sccoe.org

Raeena Lari, Area 7 rlari@sccoe.org

Grace H. Mah, Area 1 gmah@sccoe.org

Don Rocha, Area 3 drocha@sccoe.org

Tara Sreekrishnan, Vice President, Area 2 tsreekrishnan@sccoe.org

Mefula Fairley, Executive Director Charter Schools Department mfairley@sccoe.org

Attachments:

Update on LASD and BCS Test Scores (published here)

Understanding Special Education (SpEd) Requires Understanding Both the Mild and the Severe Ratios, not the just Combined Ratio (published here)

Update on LASD and BCS Enrollment Data (published here)

Inequality of BCS Enrollment—Letter to SCCOE Board