SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Proposal to Transfer an Existing Charter School to

Oversight and Supervision by the State University of New York Board of Trustees

CONEY ISLAND PREPARATORY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

October 3, 2017

Charter Schools Institute State University of New York

41 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, New York 12207

(518) 445-4250 (518) 320-1572 (fax)

www.newyorkcharters.org

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Executive Summary Coney Island Preparatory Public Charter School (“Coney Island Prep”) submitted the application to transfer authorization to the State University of New York Board of Trustees (the “SUNY Trustees”) on June 19, 2017 in response to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute’s (the “Institute’s”) Application for SUNY to Authorize an Existing Charter School Education Corporation (the “Application”) (available at: http://www.newyorkcharters.org/operate/transfer/) released on behalf of the SUNY Trustees in the fall of 2016. The board of trustees of Coney Island Prep, a not-for-profit charter school education corporation authorized by the New York City Schools Chancellor (the “NYC Chancellor”) currently operates one school in New York City Community School District (“CSD”) 21. Coney Island Prep was approved by the New York State Board of Regents (the “Board of Regents”) on December 16, 2008. The school opened in fall 2009 with 5th and 9th grades. For the 2017-18 school year, the school will serve approximately 1,032 students in grades K-12. In December 2013, Coney Island Prep received a full-term, four and a half year renewal through June 30, 2018 with conditions as to teacher certification and procedures regarding students with disabilities. Upon review of the transfer application the Institute found the school to be in compliance in these areas. Coney Island Prep will go through a thorough review during renewal for which it will submit an application to SUNY for action during 2017-18. Based on the Application and the foregoing:

The Institute recommends that the SUNY Trustees approve the application to transfer oversight and supervision of Coney Island Preparatory Public Charter School from the New York City Schools Chancellor to the SUNY Trustees.

Background and Description Amendments to the New York Charter Schools Act of 1998 (as amended, the “Act”) in 2016 permitted a charter school overseen by one authorizer to apply to be overseen by any other authorizer during a period of one year from the effective date of the legislation. As the legislation took effect immediately upon signature of the Governor on June 23, 2016, charter schools had one year from that date to apply to the SUNY Trustees. New York Education Law § 2851(5) does not mandate that the SUNY Trustees act on such applications within one year. The Institute will review all applications for transfer submitted by noon on June 23, 2017, and based on the strength of the applicant’s existing school(s), will recommend those that qualify to the SUNY Trustees’ Charter Schools Committee for approval until all timely applications have been recommended, withdrawn, or determined by the Institute to not meet the requirements for recommendation.

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Mission, Philosophy and Key Design Elements Coney Island Prep’s mission is for students “to develop the academic skills and character necessary for success in selective colleges and universities, and the career of their choice. Students will realize success through a rigorous academic program, with a strong focus on writing, in a supportive and structured school community.” Coney Island Prep’s key design elements are as follows:

High Expectations for Academics and Behavior. Coney Island Prep believes that all students can learn and achieve at high levels and behave well. At Coney Island Prep, student expectations are at the core of its educational philosophy. All graduates earn the opportunity to attend selective colleges and universities, and go on to be successful in the career of their choice.

Gradual Release of Structures. Coney Island Prep believes in a learning environment where every moment of classroom time is maximized, therefore, the school is structured and systematized. As students get older and mature, they need to be afforded increasing independence, and be given more room to make their own decisions. Coney Island Prep believes in being intentional about what systems and structures are in place in different grades and scaffolding those appropriately. The school releases more structure and builds in more responsibility for decisions and independence so that as students graduate from one grade to the next, they will be better equipped to make good choices on their own.

Great Teachers and Meaningful, Strategic Professional Development. High quality teachers are the most important determinant of academic achievement. Without strong teachers delivering exceptional lessons, students cannot make significant academic gains, regardless of how well-behaved they are or how disciplined the learning environment is. Coney Island Prep invests in recruiting and hiring exceptional teachers, and internal professional development so all teachers increase their effectiveness over time. Professional development at Coney Island Prep begins with a three-week summer orientation. During the year, all teachers have a coach, who observes them teach weekly, provides intensive support including Real Time Coaching, and meets with them separately to discuss things that are going well, and identify and agree upon areas for improvement and concrete action steps. In addition, all teachers have three hours of weekly in-house professional development. The school also provides dedicated professional development days during the year.

K – 12, College Preparatory Curriculum. A seamless elementary, middle, and high school education affords the opportunity to craft a strategic curriculum, while creating a strong and lasting sense of community. This supports Coney Island Prep’s college preparatory mission as it “help[s] students build long-term relationships with faculty and give continuity to curriculum as students move from one level to another. Supporters [argue] the . . .

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structure makes for an easier transition from eighth grade to ninth, often called one of the toughest changes in a student's life … . Because many middle-grade students arrive at high school unprepared for secondary work, [this school model] can get children on the right path and guide them to graduation.”1 The five elementary school years serve as a foundation for the four middle school years at Coney Island Prep, which continue to build a strong sense of college purpose among students, while strengthening foundational skills and developing the work habits and personal characteristics that lead to school success. By continuing seamlessly into high school, students do not need to adjust to a new environment with different expectations. The high school differs in some ways to meet the varied academic and developmental needs of maturing students, but the mission and core beliefs of the school remain constant. This minimizes any adjustment period and will allow students to focus on preparation for and acceptance into a competitive college or university.

Assessments and Data to Drive Instruction and Inform Professional Development. Coney Island Prep scaffolds instruction to ensure students have the skills and knowledge necessary for school success and uses assessments throughout the year to gather frequent data points regarding students’ academic levels. Teachers discern which standards needs to be re-taught to the entire class, and which students need individual remediation and tutoring on particular skills and concepts. Assessment data guides professional development. Coney Island Prep administers a variety of assessments including the interim assessments, the STEP assessments, the Northeast Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment, and teacher-created assessments. All of these various assessments allow teachers, students, administrators, and parents to know precisely which standards students have mastered, so that no academic deficiency will ever come as a surprise and so that timely supports can be put in place.

More Time to Learn. Coney Island Prep provides an approximately 182-day school year and a longer school day, from approximately 7:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Extended time is used to ensure students are achieving at high levels, and that they are on the path to college success.

Character Development and Advisories. According to the school, it is every adult’s job to enforce the ideals of the community and teach young people how to behave and make good decisions. Coney Island Prep recognizes that “[c]hildren first develop values, attitudes, and skills as a result of their experience in the families that raised them. But those values, attitudes, and skills continue to be shaped by children’s interaction with their peers, teachers, neighbors, and other aspects of their environment.”2 In order to have teachers and other school staff positively affect students’ values, attitudes and skills, character development will continue to be an integral part of the academic program. The core values

1 Smydo, Joe. “Can grade 6-12 schools solve city’s problems?” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 5 November 2007. 2 Thernstrom, Abigail, and Stephan Thernstrom. No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003, p. 66.

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are represented by the acronym PRIDE - Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Excellence and are taught and reinforced in advisories and whole-school gatherings.

Family Involvement. According to the school, parents and schools need to be partners in a child’s education. The two need to be aligned philosophically and reinforce each other’s messages, so that the child is surrounded by a coherent, consistent, and collective voice which nurtures, encourages, and demands academic success. The school fosters a successful partnership with the parents of children through a variety of steps, which could include the following:

Information Sessions Parent-Teacher Conferences Home Visits Parent Orientations Commitments to Excellence Weekly Syllabi Workshops Volunteers Family Surveys Family Newsletters

Instructional Methods. Whereas some schools identify themselves as primarily a project-based school model, and other schools identify themselves as an experiential learning model, Coney Island Prep firmly commits to implementing varied instructional methods and techniques as appropriate and to best fit the needs of students. The school uses Open Educational Resource curricula that are fully aligned to the Common Core Standards. Specifically, the school uses the EngageNY mathematics curriculum and Wheatley English language arts (“ELA”) curriculum.

Study, Teach, Assess, Analyze, Remediate. Coney Island Prep’s instructional model is built on a five-step process: study; teach; assess; analyze; and, remediate. Once teachers have studied the material of a unit and lesson, they teach the lesson and assess student understanding with a daily exit ticket, which is based on the lesson’s learning objective. The exit tickets are graded quickly and teachers analyze the student work to determine any misconceptions the students may have. Teachers then create the most effective and least invasive remediation plan they can, based on the data. Teachers continually use daily formative assessments and student work to determine mastery, and work to correct any student misconceptions. Larger summative assessments are administered at the end of each unit to assess standard mastery.

Academic Performance The Institute collected academic outcome data generated by Coney Island Prep during the most recent three years and analyzed it against the performance standard set by the SUNY Trustees to determine the strength of the school’s educational program. The school exceeded the SUNY Trustees’ performance standard for both ELA and mathematics during the most recent three years. Although the school does not administer the state’s science assessment, Coney Island Prep’s 8th graders posted high performance on the Regents Living Environment exam. The school is in good

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standing with the state’s No Child Left Behind (“NCLB”) accountability system having not been identified as a school in need of a local assistance plan or as a focus charter school.

Coney Island Prep met or came close to meeting the SUNY Trustees’ standard for ELA performance during the past three years. Although the school performed below the SUNY Trustees’ absolute standard of 75% of students enrolled for at least two years scoring at or above proficiency on the state’s ELA assessment, Coney Island Prep posted strong comparative and growth performance. In 2014-15 and 2015-16, Coney Island Prep performed lower than CSD 21 (the “district”) with 30% and 34% of students at or above proficiency on the state’s ELA exam, respectively. Also during those years, the school exceeded the Institute’s effect size target, performing higher than expected to a meaningful degree in comparison to schools enrolling similar concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. Coney Island Prep also posted growth scores exceeding the SUNY Trustees’ target of the state median. During 2016-17, the school demonstrated strong performance when it nearly matched the district’s proficiency rate, posted a comparative effect size demonstrating high performance in comparison to schools statewide enrolling similar proportions of students in poverty, and posted a mean growth percentile of 61, 11 percentile points higher than the state’s median of 50.

Coney Island Prep’s performance in mathematics met the SUNY Trustees’ standard in mathematics during the past three years. The school performed higher than expected to a large degree on the Institute’s effect size, an important measure of statewide comparative performance. Although the school’s mathematics results fell slightly below the district’s during these three years, the school nearly matched the district in 2016-17 when its result was just 2 percentage points below the district’s. Regardless, the school posts high growth in the mathematics learning of its students. During 2016-17, the school’s average growth of 73 exceeded the SUNY Trustees’ target of the state median of 50 by 23 percentile points.

Although Coney Island Prep enrolled 8th graders during the past three years, the school did not administer the state’s 8th grade science exam. Instead, 8th graders enrolled at Coney Island Prep sat for the Regents Living Environment Exam. During the past three years, at least 85 percent of the school’s 8th graders scored at or above proficiency on the exam, completing an early requirement for high school graduation. The state is not able to provide comparative data for 8th graders who take Regents exams, so a comparison to district or state results is not available, but represents a laudable outcome.

Coney Island Prep was not identified as a school in need of a local assistance plan or as a focus charter school during the last three years and consistently has been in good standing under the state’s NCLB accountability system.

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Calendar and Schedule Coney Island Prep offers an extended school day and year with 182 days of instruction. The school day beings each morning at 7:30 A.M. and ends at 4:00 P.M. Academic Program

Pedagogy: Coney Island Prep has a classroom culture focused on urgency that maximizes instructional time.

o At the elementary school, Coney Island Prep classrooms benefit from having three teachers in every classroom, two lead teachers and an apprentice teacher. Therefore, despite relatively large class sizes (about 30 students per class), students receive individualized instruction, characterized by frequent checks for understanding and effective monitoring of on-task behavior.

o Elementary school observations were structured choice-based activities and collaborative learning structures that encourage peer-to-peer interaction.

Curriculum: After identifying gaps in the previous ELA program from Lucy Calkins and the Reading and Writing Project, the school worked with Lavinia Group to rethink the literacy program during the 2016-17 school year. The school adopted Close Reading and engaged in active coaching during 2016-17 around this work. In 2017-18, the school will continue to use Close Reading and will implement KIPP Wheatley. In the younger grades it will also use Reading Mastery. For mathematics instruction, the school uses EngageNY, supplementing it with other open source materials. At the elementary and lower middle school levels, the school implements CGI for mathematics instruction.

o The Directors of Instructions (“DOIs”) are responsible for developing daily lesson plans and assessments. Teachers meet with DOIs on a weekly basis to discuss ELA and mathematics planning and internalize the lesson plans they have written. Teachers then further adjust the materials to meet the needs of their students (i.e., scaffolding materials and co-teaching structures).

Assessment: Coney Island Prep administers the STEP assessment and the NWEA MAP three times per year to identify students for early intervention and to monitor school-wide progress toward grade level proficiency. Additionally, teachers administer in-house formative assessments and interim assessments aligned to grade level standards. These assessments are created by grade level Deans of Instruction. For the current school year, school leaders intend to implement module assessments from the new ELA and mathematics curricula.

Instructional Leadership: In addition to time during the school day to meet, schoolwide professional development takes place every Friday. Grade teams have two hours of designated time every Wednesday to meet as a team. The other hour of professional

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development is spent on preplanned whole school “reactive professional development” based on observations.

o Every grade level has a DOI. In addition to creating daily lesson plans, DOIs are responsible for the coaching and evaluation of their grade team teachers. DOIs provide coaching observations on a weekly basis, feedback is provided face to face within 24 hours of the observation to discuss progress and identify “bite-size” action steps. Additionally, DOIs write the daily lesson plans for their grades and meet with their teams weekly to share the plans and support teachers’ internalization of the content.

o The management/coaching structure has shifted for the special education teachers this year. The Director of Special Education is now a central office position. The school no longer has a Dean of Special Education, but instead employs a special education coordinator at the school level and one special educator per grade to provide special education and intervention services (currently there are only two special education teachers at the elementary school).

At-Risk Programming: Coney Island Prep relies on teachers to identify students that are struggling academically. However, the school lacks adequate systems and procedures for identifying these students. The school offers integrated co-teaching (ICT) classes and Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS) for students with disabilities whose IEPs mandate these intervention supports but the school lacks a response to intervention (RtI) program leaving teachers to implement various strategies suggested by a DOI. The school does not monitor the effectiveness of these strategies or analyze the performance of students receiving interventions separate from the remainder of the class. An ELL provider from the central office provides English language acquisition support to the school’s 21 ELLs. Despite implementing a lottery preference for ELLs for the upcoming year and expecting a higher ELL population, the school does not intend to increase the support staff.

Organizational Capacity: Coney Island Prep exceeds its enrollment targets for economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. The school is below the target for ELLs. Given the low ELL enrollment, Coney Island Prep added a preference for ELLs to their lottery this past year.

Governance

The Coney Island Prep board of trustees consists of seven members as set forth below. Board Members

1. Josh Wolfe (Chairman). Mr. Wolfe co-founded Lux Capital LLC to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time in order to lead us into a brighter future. He is a director at Shapeways, 3Scan, Lux Research, and Kallyope and helped lead the Lux Capital’s investments in Planet, Echodyne,

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Clarifai, and Authorea. He is a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates in Kymeta, making cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. Josh is a Westinghouse semi-finalist and published scientist. In 2008, Josh co-founded and funded Kurion, which uses advanced robotics, engineering, and chemistry to clean up nuclear waste. Josh is a columnist with Forbes, and editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report. He has been invited to The White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, and is a lecturer at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. He is a term member at The Council on Foreign Relations. He graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Economics and Finance.

2. Kathryn Olsen (Vice Chair). Ms. Olsen is Vice President of Lending at the Nonprofit Finance Fund (“NFF”), a national community development financial institution (CDFI), and is responsible for overseeing NFF's business development and underwriting activities. Prior to joining NFF, she spent eight years working for Local Initiative Support Corporation’s (LISC's) charter school lending program, where she ultimately oversaw the program’s day-to-day operations, originated $100MM in charter school facility financing, underwrote and structured loans, supervised underwriting and asset management staff, and managed a $45MM loan portfolio. She also served as a member of LISC’s credit committee. She received her BS from Villanova University and Master of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

3. Joan Davidson (Trustee). Ms. Davidson is a city planner who spent a decade in New York City government under Mayor Ed Koch, first working in the Manhattan Office of the Department of City Planning, and then in the Department of Human Resources, where she developed transitional housing for the homeless. She was also Vice President for Public/Community Affairs for Gannett Outdoor. Ms. Davidson received a Masters in the History of the Decorative Arts and Design from The Parsons School of Design and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. She is board member of the Studio Museum of Harlem, Friends of the Centre Pompidou, and the Citizens' Committee For Children. She is also a member of the Women Donor's Network, a community of progressive woman philanthropists committed to building a just and fair world through education and collaborative funding.

4. Godfrey Gill (Treasurer). Mr. Gill is the Managing Director at Lyrical Partners, a hedge fund. Mr. Gill served on the board of the Henry Street Settlement, a new York not-for-profit corporation with a budget of over $35 million. Mr. Gill brings previous board experience, knowledge of launching a start-up, and financial expertise to the Coney Island Prep board.

5. Anu Malipatil (Trustee). Ms. Malipatil is the Director of Education of the Overdeck Family Foundation. She was a Regents Research Fund Fellow, leading the implementation of New

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York State’s Race to the Top initiative in math, social studies, and science. Prior to that, she was responsible for building a K-12 science program for Achievement First, Inc. a Connecticut not-for-profit charter management organization for public charter schools in New York and Connecticut including SUNY authorized schools. At Teach For America in New York City, Ms. Malipatil led the math and science team as Managing Director. She has a Master’s in Teaching from Pace University and graduated magna cum laude from Emory University with a BA in Economics (pre-medical studies focus).

6. Jennifer McArdle (Trustee). Ms. McArdle is a partner at Satterlee Stephens LLP, where her law practice focuses on commercial litigation and intellectual property law. Prior to joining Satterlee Stephens, Ms. McArdle was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and spent a year as a law clerk for the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. Ms. McArdle earned her BA in Government from Harvard University and her JD from Columbia University School of Law.

7. Joseph Talia (Trustee). Mr. Talia works at Marble Arch Investments. He has an MBA from Harvard University and a BBA from the University of Michigan.

Compliance Per the application and the Institute’s communication with the education corporation’s current authorizer, Coney Island Prep has met the requirements of the Act, and is not in violation of any material legal requirement, on probationary status under Education Law § 2855(3) or “slated for closure” by its current authorizer within the meaning of Education Law § 2851(5). Facilities The middle school is located in a NYCDOE facility in CSD 21 in Brooklyn, and is co-located with I.S. 303, the Rachel Carson High School for Coastal Studies, and P.S. K771. The Coney island Prep high school is located in private space located at 294 Avenue T in Brooklyn.

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Fiscal The school has a history of fiscal strength as demonstrated in the Fiscal Dashboard displayed in Appendix B. The Institute created a dashboard of the last three years of audited financial statements showing the school is fiscally sound with total net assets of approximately $6.4 million and 3.2 months of cash on hand to pay bills coming due shortly. The education corporation has established the required dissolution fund reserve for the operations and maintains the balance of $70,000 as of June 30, 2016. This amount will need to be increased to meet the SUNY charter agreement limit of $75,000. The budget projection going forward presents a reasonable and appropriate fiscal plan that is feasible and achievable.

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APPENDIX A: School Overview

BoardofTrustees

SchoolLeadership

SchoolCharacteristicsSchoolYear

CharteredGrades

CharteredEnrollment

2009‐10 5 90

2010‐11 5‐6 180

2011‐12 5‐7 270

2012‐13 5‐8 351

2013‐14 5‐9 424

2014‐15 K‐1,5‐10 656

2015‐16 K‐2,5‐11 780

2016‐17 K‐3,5‐12 948

2017‐18 K‐12 1032

BoardMember

Name Position

BoardMember

Name Position

Josh Wolfe Chairman Joan Davidson Trustee Kathryn Olsen Vice-Chair Jennifer Philbrick McArdle Trustee Godfrey Gill Treasurer Joseph Talia Trustee Anu Malipatil Trustee

Title Name

ExecutiveDirector JacobMnookinChiefOperatingOfficer BrettBakerChiefAcademicOfficer LindsayFreemanElementarySchoolPrincipal JulianaBryansmithMiddleSchoolPrincipal RyanGassawayHighSchoolPrincipal EvanBurns

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