BRIEFING MEMO
U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Report
What:
Doug and Dacia to meet with the report’s lead researcher, Tia Martinez, and lead
author, Dan Losen, to discuss Achievement First’s inclusion in the upcoming U.S.
Department of Education Civil Rights Report, which will be published within the next
three months. During the period considered in the report, Achievement First suspended
students—particularly African-American males and students with disabilities—at a
disproportionately high rate compared to the overall school population. Achievement
First also suspended students at a higher rate than most high-performing CMO peers.
Achievement First and Uncommon Schools were the CMOs with the highest suspension
rates.
When:
Thursday, June 12, 9:00 a.m. A 30-minute alignment call between Chastity, Doug and
Dacia will be scheduled for Wednesday.
Where:
TBA
Inclusions:
Addendum I – 2014 Connecticut Suspensions Response Briefing
Addendum II – Key takeaways from “The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies
from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice
System”
Addendum III– Achievement First Suspension Data Through 6/11/14
Researcher/Author Background
About Tia Martinez
Tia is the lead researcher on the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, a program created by President Obama
to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color. She is pro-charter school
and supportive of Achievement First overall, but she has questions about the impact of suspensions
based on her research. In 2012, she researched the 2012 California Suspension Report, which
considered nearly 500 districts and revealed unusually high levels of risk for suspension and stark
differences in discipline when these risks are presented by race, gender and disability status.
About Dan Losen
Dan was a public school teacher for more than a decade before he became a civil rights lawyer, and is
now the director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, a new initiative at the Civil Rights
Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. Dan has worked at the Civil Rights Project since 1999 when it
was affiliated with Harvard Law School, where he has also been a lecturer on law. His work concerns the
impact of law and policy on children of color and English Language Learners, including: the
reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act with a focus on promoting diversity,
access to effective teachers and improving graduation rate accountability; the IDEA and racial inequity in
special education; school discipline and revealing and redressing the “School-to-Prison Pipeline”; and
protecting the rights of English learners to equal educational opportunity. The report, Discipline Policies,
Successful Schools, and Racial Justice, is published by the National Education Policy Center(NPEC), and is
released in collaboration with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Dignity in Schools
Campaign. Dan’s presentation can be viewed here.
A Brief Summary of the OCR Report
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Unnecessarily harsh discipline policies are applied unfairly and disproportionately to students of
color, dragging down academic achievement. Across the United States, students of color
routinely receive major penalties, including school suspensions, for minor school offenses.
This report marks the first time the U.S. Department of Education has compiled census data on
charter schools, examining disparities based on race, gender and disability. It revealed
disproportionate suspension rates among students of color and students with disabilities.
Achievement First and Uncommon Schools were the high-performing CMOs with the highest
suspension rates, nationally.
The cities with the highest rates of suspension were Washington, D.C. and New Orleans. This
concerned the authors because both cities have a significant number of charter schools.
The report contains OCR data from 2010-2011 and U.S. Department of Education Data is from
2011-12 (http://ocrdata.ed.gov/DistrictSchoolSearch#schoolSearch), giving us an opportunity to
highlight coordinated work within Achievement First to improve these statistics over the past
two years.
Key Achievement First Data in the OCR Report*
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The percentage of Achievement First students with one or more out-of-school suspension
events was 23%, compared with a 13% national average across our high-performing CMO peers.
Achievement First had the third-highest suspension rate for African-American students (24%),
behind Noble (37%) and Uncommon (27%).
% Students with 1+ OSS Events by Race
Black
24%
17%16%
19%
8% 6%
Achievement
First
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High
Performing
CMO Peers
Hispanic
15%
14%
7% 4%
Aspire
5% 6%
KIPP
White + Asian
37%
19%
10%
Noble
27%
24%
14%
Uncommon
14%
8% 11%
Yes Prep
For high-performing CMO peers, the average suspension rate was 17% for males and 9% for
females. At Achievement First, 29% of male students received at least one out-of-school
suspension, compared with 17% of females.
At Achievement First, the suspension rate for students with disabilities (42%) was twice that of
students without disabilities (21%). Achievement First had the second-highest suspension rate
for students with disabilities (trailing Uncommon Schools).
Suspension Rate by Disability
% Students with 1+ OSS Events by Disability
Student w/o Disabilities
Student with Disabilities (IEP)
46%
42%
26%
21%
20%
12%
Achievement
First
High
Performing
CMO Peers
20%
16%
7%
Aspire
20%
25%
15%
10%
KIPP
8%
Noble
Uncommon
Yes Prep
* Based on 2011-12 data compiled by the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights
Additional Information/Best Practices
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Tia highlighted Summit, Citizens of the World Charter Schools and Manual Arts High School
(traditional district school) in Los Angeles as schools employing best practices. She indicated that
Success Academy was in the “middle of the pack” and had “nowhere near” the rates at
Uncommon Schools or Achievement First.
Tia knows Aylon and is aware of our Greenfield work. Tia and Dan have met Aspire’s leadership
team—they are focusing on RTI and including social justice principals in their ideology.
Tia sent the School Discipline Consensus Report, which is focused on keeping students out of the
juvenile justice system, and a presentation of recommendations for suspension reduction in
California. Both documents are attached. Key takeaways include a breakdown of common
characteristics employed by schools that have reduced suspensions and disparities in
suspensions:
o The focus is on changing underlying behaviors, not simply reducing suspensions
o School-wide focus to transform culture of entire school
o Provide training for teachers on classroom management and conflict resolution
o Provide direct instruction to students to help them build the skills needed to meet
behavioral expectations
o Reward/recognize positive behavior, clearly delineate consequences for misbehavior
o Hold students accountable and include them in problem solving and resolution
o Providing individualized interventions
There is an opportunity to discuss with Tia and Dan our work in these areas above in order to
possibly pivot our inclusion in the report to a case study of a turnaround situation. This was
executed in The School Discipline Consensus Report as “pullout boxes” featuring example
schools.
Potential Questions

Why does Achievement First have a high rate of suspensions compared to its CMO peers?
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Why are Achievement First students with disabilities and African-American students suspended
at a higher rate than their peers?
What has Achievement First done to address this problem in terms of policy, classroom
management strategy and diversity training?
Has the challenge with suspensions improved in 2012-13? What about in 2013-14?
Will Achievement First change its overall high-expectations approach because of the challenge
with suspensions?
Is Achievement First considering revisions to its approach based on the challenge with
suspensions?
Addendum I
2014 Connecticut Suspensions Response Briefing
PRIMARY TALKING POINTS
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
When we set an overall suspension reduction goal of 50 percent across our three Hartford
schools, we recognized it was an aggressive, but necessary, target. At this point in the year, we
are proud to report that we have significantly exceeded this target on a year-to-date basis with a
reduction of 62% in total suspensions across our Hartford charter (AF Hartford Academy
Elementary, AF Hartford Academy Middle and AF Hartford High).
Given the attention and concern regarding suspensions of our youngest students, we’re pleased
to report that the overall decrease in suspension events is being driven by the elementary
school, where suspensions are down by 89%.
OSS or ISS
2013-14 vs. 2012-13 YTD
School/Charter
# of Events
(% Change)
# of Events/Students
Enrolled (% Change)
Suspension Days/Student
Enrolled (% Change)
Hartford Charter
-62%
-64%
-56%
-89%
-87%
-12%
6%*
-72%
-81%
AF Hartford
Academy
-89%
Elementary
AF Hartford
-10%
Academy Middle
AF Hartford High
-47%
*Please see brutal facts section below.
SUPPORTING TALKING POINTS

The Connecticut Department of Education suspension data report that was recently released
covers the 2012-13 school year, not the current 2013-14 school year. Achievement First has
implemented several changes since spring 2013, after release of the 2011-12 data. We have:
o Worked to better understand what is driving suspensions
o Revised our suspension policies and procedures
o Developed a comprehensive RTI (Response-to-Intervention) approach to
support students who are at risk of earning excessive numbers of suspensions
o Held forums to discuss this challenge with families
o Held additional professional development sessions on positive classroom
management skills, student investment techniques and appropriate
consequences for less egregious student behaviors
o Learned best practices from the suspension policies for schools inside and
outside of our network
o Formed school-based culture teams dedicated to ensuring all students are in
class, happy and learning
o Increased support for students who receive special education services
o
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We remain focused on reducing suspensions across all of our schools as we
tackle this issue on multiple fronts.
Many of the policies and practices we have implemented in the 2013-14 school year are based
on the successful practices used at AF Bridgeport Academy Elementary, where overall
suspensions declined by 64% from 2011-12 to 2012-13. In the 2012-13 school year, 4.2% of
students were suspended one or more times. Through March of the 2013-14 school year, 3.4%
of students were suspended one or more times.
While the middle school saw a decrease in suspension rates, this decrease is not proportionate
to the decrease at the elementary level. We are working to improve school culture at all levels,
but we have encountered some challenges at the middle school related to how quickly behavior
system changes can be implemented with older students. In addition to broader, systematic
changes, the middle school has implemented a number of incremental changes:
o Staff has created incremental student activities and an expanded calendar of events to
better support a culture of “joyful rigor”
o In the area of family engagement, the middle school has instituted a much more vibrant
and consistent Parent Leadership Council (PLC) with more than 30 members who meet
monthly, providing a forum for structured dialogue between parents and school
leadership; the PLC receives support from school staff but has transitioned to a parentled organization
o The Special Services staff has been restructured and expanded with two new, certified
special education instructors and an internal transfer from the Math team
o The Collaborative Team Teaching Model has been expanded even further than initially
planned with a shift of staff to meet increased need in the upper grades, and a
broadened continuum of services to include increased focus on robust reading
interventions
AF Hartford Academy Middle will experience a leadership change in the coming year. Jeff House,
who has served as the founding principal with success and passion over the last six years, has
elected to leave his position at the end of the school year. His successor, the current academic
dean, Meg Smith, has already been named by the Board of Directors to lead the school and is
actively engaged in implementing the changes above, among others. In particular, she is looking
to the following methods as ways to further improve school culture and academic instruction:
o Modified staffing plan which will expand the dean corps to five (two academic deans,
two deans of students and one dean of special services), including the addition of a dean
of special services, greatly increasing teacher-coaching capacity
o Focus on improved adult culture and revised systems to better support initiatives to
remove fewer students from classrooms and return them much more quickly
BRUTAL FACTS TO CONSIDER

While overall suspension events are down, the amount of suspension days issued at AF Hartford
Academy Middle is up by 6%. This suggests AF Hartford Middle students are suspended for
longer time periods than they have been in previous years.
OSS or ISS
School/Charter
2013-14 vs. 2012-13 YTD
# of Events
(% Change)
# of Events/Students
Enrolled (% Change)
Suspension Days/Student
Enrolled (% Change)
Hartford Charter
AF Hartford
Academy
Elementary
AF Hartford
Academy Middle
AF Hartford High
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-62%
-64%
-56%
-89%
-89%
-87%
-10%
-12%
6%
-47%
-72%
-81%
In the past, we have said that Connecticut suspension numbers appeared higher than reality
because anything longer than 90 minutes is counted as an “in-school suspension.” Year-to-date
across our Hartford charter, 76% of suspension incidents were OSS. In 2012-13, 52% of our
suspensions were OSS.
There was an increase in suspensions from 2011-12 to 2012-13 across our Hartford schools,
particularly at AF Hartford Academy Elementary. The table below compares full-school-year
data for 2011-12 and 2012-13. At AF Hartford Academy Elementary, suspension events
increased by 154% from 2011-12 to 2012-13 and the number of events per enrolled student
increased by 48% from 2011-12 to 2012-13. AF Hartford Academy Elementary recorded 1,208
suspension events in 2012-13, which equates to 2.71 suspensions per student.
OSS or ISS
Change from 2011-12 EOY to
2012-13 EOY
# of
Events
(%
# of
Change)
Events/Students
from
Enrolled
2011-12
(% Change)
to 2012from 2011-12 to
13
2012-13
School/Charter
Hartford
Charter
64%
48%
AF Hartford
Academy
Elementary
154%
145%
AF Hartford
Academy
Middle
-9%
-11%
*AF Hartford High is not included in this table because it did not exist in 2011-12.

Our suspension policy changes are not reflected in the newly released data. When the 2011-12
suspension report was released by the state in the spring of 2013, Achievement First acted
urgently to reduce suspensions while maintaining high expectations for learning. We have made
many changes since the spring of 2013, and the changes were fully in place at the beginning of
the 2013-14 school year.
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We have publicly pledged to find alternatives to suspension for “non-dangerous infractions.”
Across our charter, 91% of suspension events were classified as reason for which we “almost
always” or “sometimes” suspend.
o However, between the middle school and high school, 53 suspensions were issued for
reasons marked “rarely suspend;” the middle school issued ISS nearly as many times for
“rarely suspend” reasons (46) as “sometimes suspend” reasons (47); the middle school
issued one suspension for “never suspend” reasons and the high school issued 8
suspensions for “never suspend” reasons
o We also issued more OSS for “sometimes” reasons in 2013-14; in 2012-13, 32% of OSS
events and 43% of ISS events were related to issues for which we “sometimes” suspend;
in 2013-14, 54% of OSS events and 14% of ISS events were related to issues for which
we “sometimes” suspend
While we are meeting our goal to reduce suspensions across our AF Hartford Academy charter
by 50%, this goal was based on the number of suspensions recorded in 2012-13. We have
significantly reduced suspensions this year as compared to the same period in the 2011-12
school year—the year for which we drew media attention—but at a reduction of less than 50%.
Across the Hartford charter, 2013-14 suspension events are down 31% and suspension events
per student are down 43% compared to the same time period in 2011-12.
OSS or ISS
School/Charter
Hartford
Charter
AF Hartford
Academy
Elementary
AF Hartford
Academy
Middle
Change from 2011-12 YTD to
2013-14 YTD
# of
Events
(%
# of
Change)
Events/Students
from
Enrolled
2011-12
(% Change)
YTD to
from 2011-12
2013-14
YTD to 2013-14
YTD
YTD
-31%
-43%
-59%
-61%
-24%
-28%
Addendum II
The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students
Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System
Key Takeaways from 400-page Report
Addendum III
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School
OCR Additional Data
Across Achievement First in 2013-14, overall (ISS and OSS) suspension events per student
decreased by 26.1% compared to 2012-13. However, suspension events increased by 30.8% in
2012-13. Therefore, current (as of 6/11/14) per-student suspension events in 2013-14 represent
a 3.3% absolute decrease compared to 2011-12.
In 2013-14, just OSS suspension events per student decreased by 31.2% compared to 2012-13.
Since OSS increased by 15.9% in 2012-13, this represents a 20.2% absolute drop compared to
2011-12.
Bright spots: AF Crown Heights Middle is a school with a significant decrease compared to 201112; AF Bushwick Elementary is a school with consistently low suspension numbers.
2011-12
All Suspension Events
2012-13
2013-14
AF Crown Heights 50.0%
45.2%
13.4%
Middle
AF Bushwick
5.9%
3.7%
3.2%
Elementary
*Percentage of students with 1+ events YTD (as of 6/11/14)
OSS ONLY
School
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
AF Crown Heights 41.0%
43.2%
13.1%
Middle
AF Bushwick
5.4%
3.4%
3.0%
Elementary
*Percentage of students with 1+ events YTD (as of 6/11/14)
Decrease from Decrease
2011-12 to
from 20122013-14
13 to 201314
-36.6%
-31.8%
-2.7%
-0.5%
Decrease from Decrease
2011-12 to
from 20122013-14
13 to 201314
-27.9%
-30.1%
-2.4%
0.2%
Additional Information as Background
 Across Achievement First in 2013-14, students with 1+ suspension events (ISS and OSS)
decreased by 5.5% compared with 2012-13. This represents a 4.7% absolute drop when 2013-14
is compared to 2011-12.
 Across Achievement First in 2013-14, students with 1+ suspension events (OSS only) decreased
by 3.2% compared to 2012-13. This represents a 4% absolute drop when 2013-14 is compared
to 2011-12.
Achievement First
Decrease from
2011-12 to
2013-14
Decrease from
2012-13 to
2013-14
Students with 1+
Suspension
Events (ISS &
OSS)
Students with 1+
Suspension
Events (OSS Only)

-4.7%
-5.5%
-4.0%
-3.2%
At AF Crown Heights Middle in 2013-14, the percentage of OSS events per student dropped by
65.6% compared to 2011-2012. The percentage of OSS events per student decreased by 48.8%
in 2012-13, making the percentage of OSS events per student in 2013-14 76.9% lower compared
with 2012-13.
AF Crown Heights
Middle
Events/Student
(OSS Only)
Change from
2011-12 to
2013-14
-65.6%
Change from
2011-12 to
2012-13
+48.8%
Change from
2012-13 to
2013-14
-76.9%
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Schools with 2013-14 YTD (6/11/14) Overall Suspension Percentages that Exceed Their 201112 Levels*
AF Amistad High
AF Endeavor Middle
Amistad Academy Elementary
Amistad Academy Middle
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Schools with 2013-14 YTD (6/11/14) Overall Suspension Percentages that Represent a
Decrease From Their 2011-12 Levels*
AF Apollo Elementary
AF Bridgeport Academy Elementary
AF Bridgeport Academy Middle
AF Bushwick Elementary
AF Bushwick Middle
AF Crown Heights Elementary
AF Crown Heights Middle
AF East New York Elementary
AF East New York Middle
AF Endeavor Elementary
AF Hartford Academy Elementary
AF Hartford Academy Middle
Elm City College Prep Elementary
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Schools with 2013-14 YTD (6/11/14) Overall Suspension Percentages that Are Equal (less than
1% point) to Their 2011-12 Levels*
AF Brownsville Elementary
Elm City College Prep Middle
*Based on students with 1+ Suspension Events