K12NN Wire: Marshall Tuck run schools SAT scores remained flat, some even declined

First published on K12NN Wire on August 22, 2014

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“The lowest-performing, based on test scores, is the large Green Dot chain.” — Los Angeles Times

Marshall Tuck's campaign literature claims "Marshall has run two of California's most innovative school systems, improving… student achievement levels in tough neighborhoods" However, achievement data from the schools he ran at both Green Dot Charter Corporation and Partnership for Los Angeles Schools gives lie to Tuck's latest outrageous claim.

The following excerpt from Marshall Tuck’s Legacy of Bigotry and Failure further illuminates the major issues with SAT and remediation rates at Tuck run schools:

Animo Inglewood Charter High School’s SAT scores under Tuck bear out the dismal showing on the CSU proficiency exams. Cohorts that would have started as Freshmen under Tuck (i.e. years 2002 though 2007) and taking their SAT in the Junior years would span from 2004 to 2010. Here are the Average SAT Composite (Verbal/Math/Writing) scores from 2005 to 2011: 1,153, 1,215, 1,267, 1,172, 1,199, and 1,290. Not once during that span did the percentage of students scoring at least 1,500 ever exceed 19.6 percent. 1,500 is considered the minimum threshold for college readiness. As a frame of reference, the SAT Composite Average for Freshmen accepted to UCLA was 2,052. Again, none of this is to blame or disparage the hard work of those students, but instead to expose Tuck and his ilk’s lies about college readiness.

Having to take remedial high school courses after arriving at the university is also very demoralizing for students. Many end up dropping out. The California State University tracks the number of matriculates that make it to their second year. Tuck’s Animo Inglewood Charter students had a CSU drop out rate of 55 percent in 2008. That same year saw the Tuck managed Animo Leadership Charter students drop out from the CSU at a staggering 68 percent! A former Green Dot Los Angeles Parents Union (later Parent Revolution) staffer told me a number of very sad stories about how he got to know several Green Dot students that served as interns under him before graduating high school.

It's time to "get the Tuck out" of education.