Nine applications are currently under review by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to become new Texas charter schools in the Generation 23 authorization cycle.  Schools ultimately approved as part of Generation 23 will open at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.   In this most recent cycle, twenty-one applications were submitted to TEA by the December 4^th deadline.  Of those, seven were rejected by the agency as incomplete, and fourteen proceeded to external review where nine of the fourteen ultimately met the 85% cut-score threshold to continue in the approval process.

Of the nine schools under review, six of the schools contracted with TCSA and received extensive application development and review services prior to submission. In addition, TCSA staff continues to work with TEA on refining the authorization process, especially in the area of application external review. Our TCSA efforts helped to result in a change in the external review process that allows applicants who do not initially reach the 85% combined cut score for all five reviewers to request a sixth reader if the original score was between 80 and 84 percent.  In this most recent cycle, two applicants met this criteria and requested a sixth reader.   

The charters currently under review are as follows: 

Houston/Harris County Area

• Bloom Academy, opening as a K-1st school with a projected enrollment of 180 and a maximum K-5th enrollment of 1,080
• Reve Preparatory, opening as a K-1st school with a projected enrollment of 180 and a maximum K-8th enrollment of 1,620
• The Collegiate School of Houston, opening as a 6th grade school with a projected enrollment of 150 and a maximum 6th – 12th enrollment of 1,050
• Thrive School Network, opening as a 6th – 12th school with a projected enrollment of 80 and a maximum 6th – 12th enrollment of 100

San Antonio Area

• Promesa Academy, opening as a K-1st school with a projected enrollment of 176 and a maximum K-5th enrollment of 1,056
• Single Seed Enrichment School, opening as a K-6th school with a projected enrollment of 325 and a maximum PreK4- 12th grade enrollment of 1,332

Lubbock Area

• Elementary School for Education Innovation, opening as a K-2nd school with a projected enrollment of 270 and a maximum K-5th enrollment of 540

Fort Worth

• LEAD International Academy is applying to open as a K-6th school with a projected enrollment of 700 and a maximum K-12th enrollment of 1,300

Tarrant, Harris, Travis, and El Paso counties

• Impact Public Schools hopes to open four schools as a K-2nd, 6th, and 9th grade model with a projected enrollment of 500 and a maximum K-12th enrollment of 6,200

The next step in the authorization cycle is a thorough review of the application by the agency and interviews with TEA staff and SBOE members to be held in mid-May, with Commissioner’s recommendations for approval to come by late May.  The full State Board of Education will meet June 15^th where they may choose to take no action and approve the Commissioner’s recommendations for a charter contract or vote to veto one or more of his choices.