Charter company making the grade

Aspire Public Schools has grown to be the largest company of its kind in California, and one of the top five in the nation.

The nonprofit company that opened a Modesto school its first year now runs 34 schools serving 12,300 students statewide, the Oakland-based company announced.

"We have really unique and powerful flexibility that comes with being a charter," Aspire Chief Executive Officer James Willcox said Wednesday, adding that charters give parents choices.

Aspire schools receive public funds very much like a traditional school. They must meet the same standards as all public schools for safety, teacher credentialing, accessibility and instruction. Financial records are public, and students take the same standardized tests.

Private schools, by contrast, have far greater latitude in what is taught, including religious beliefs, and standardized tests are not required. Most charge tuition and while they may choose to open their books, their records are not public.

Public charter schools started as essentially school reform in action.

Modesto's Aspire University Charter opened on the cutting edge in 1999. It and Aspire Summit Charter Academy on East Hatch Road serve kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Aspire Vanguard College Preparatory Academy in Empire has grades six through 12.

Each has high test scores, a point of pride for all Aspire schools. University Charter's state score stands at 937, the highest in the county, Summit's at 879 and Vanguard's at 847, all comfortably above the 800 state benchmark.

Willcox said every Aspire high school graduate this year got into college, even special education students. Most students were the first in their family to go.

"I think the test scores are a really important measure," he said. "But the measure for us that matters even more than that is that our students are going to college. The finish line for us is a college degree," Willcox said.

The three local schools' students who are better off, as a whole, than the school district they sit in: University in Sylvan, Summit in Ceres Unified and Vanguard in Empire. Wilcox said that is "distinctly different" from most of their schools, which cater to poorer neighborhoods.

"We've been able to serve the population with the fewest options. That's been our goal since the beginning," Willcox said, noting about three out of four Aspire students qualify for free or reduced lunches.

Aspire opened four schools this fall, buying or leasing campuses closed by districts or churches.

Because parents must choose to go to the school, teachers and staff fan out into the community as schools get ready to open, to grocery stores and churches, to explain that the new school is free and accepts all children.

"We literally go door to door. We walk the neighborhood welcoming them to come to the school," Willcox said.

Many existing schools have waiting lists and lotteries for spots. Academic success within low-income neighborhoods is Aspire's hallmark — and its appeal to donors.

Oprah Winfrey's $1 million donation in 2010 showered accolades on the firm. Other, larger grants have come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and others.

Willcox said the firm raises about $12 million a year in private donations and grants, and receives about $95 million in public funding. That divides out very roughly to a total of $8,700 per child, slightly less than the average for traditional schools, but significantly less for taxpayers.

Traditional school districts also offer charter schools here. Hickman Charter District is an example of a public school district that early on embraced the charter option. Turlock Unified's eCademy Charter is among the newest.

Bee education reporter Nan Austin can be reached at naustin@modbee.com or (209) 578-2339.