Charters Deserve a Role, But Not Center Stage

It was no surprise that Education Secretary Arne Duncan picked a Newark charter school for his first “official” visit to New Jersey in early June.  Having previously announced that charter school expansion and support would be one of the four legs to the Obama Administration’s education reform, why not drive the point home by celebrating the well-earned reputation of the North Star Academy?  Its students have been doing noticeably better than their neighborhood peers who attend Newark Public Schools.  Yes, there are charters that deliver dramatic results, but so far we don’t have strong evidence that they are a big part of the answer to the yawning achievement gap.

A recently-completed analysis of how charter school students perform in five of New Jersey’s largest cities suggests that charters should be encouraged, but they do not deserve the emphasis Secretary Duncan gives them.

The following table aggregates demographic and student performance for Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Trenton, and Camden and for the 30 charter schools that served students resident to those cities during 2007-08.  Elizabeth, the fourth largest of New Jersey’s “Big Six” cities, is not included because it does not have any operating charters.

Aggregated students in charter and district schools in Newark,
Jersey City, Paterson, Trenton, and Camden

* ”FRL” for Free and Reduced Lunch students; “A-Al” for African-American; “SE” for Special Education; “LEP” for Less English Proficient,” “P/AP ASK3” for Proficient and Advanced Proficient on 2008 3rd grade language arts test; and “P/AP ASK8” for Proficient and Advanced Proficient on 2008 8th grade language arts test.

On average, students enrolled in charter schools perform better on state achievement tests than district school students.  Their edge is about 10% in 3rd grade, but rises to about 25% by 8th grade.  Significant, even powerful. When charter schools sometimes display an edge in achievement, as in New Jersey, many ideologues jump to the conclusion that the largely non-unionized environment of charter schools explain the difference, but the evidence suggest other factors are at play:  the less challenging student populations served by charter schools; the advantage of enrolling children of particularly motivated families; and the extra time spent teaching students in some charter schools.

The table offers a big part of the explanation.  Three statistics are highlighted to point out that charter schools as a rule do not enroll those students in urban districts that present the most daunting pedagogical challenges.  Specifically, the two most challenging subgroups in urban schools—English learners and the disabled—are grossly under-represented in urban charters. The second point is that charter schools—after more than a decade in New Jersey—educate a relatively small proportion of city students, and that there is no reason to expect that their “market share” will increase dramatically prospectively.

While almost one in four of all students in large NJ city schools are either classified disabled or are still learning English, only one in twelve charter students are similarly categorized.   Moreover, the relatively few students in these categories are concentrated in a few schools.  For example, about 24% of all special education students are enrolled in just two of the 30 charter schools (Emily Fisher in Trenton and CREATE in Jersey City).  Three charters have not one classified student; twenty three have no English-Language Learners (ELL).

The most powerful advantage charter schools have over district schools is that all of their students have parents that are seeking a “better” school for their children.  This is the factor that cannot be quantified.  “Better” may mean to some parents more academically focused, but it might also mean smaller, or a school with uniforms, or a school that is not a public district school.

Finally, it must be acknowledged that charter schools are over-represented among the highest-performing city schools.  In fact, Newark’s Robert Treat Academy’s 3rd graders had the fourth highest mean scale score on the state assessment among 1,300 schools!  North Star Academy also consistently scores in the highest decile and noticeably above Newark district schools.  Both schools offer a plain lesson: they spend more time teaching their students.  School days are longer and there are more school days.  High-performing charters spend 15 to 25% more time than district schools on formal instruction.  Pedagogy may not qualify as a science, but we’ve known a long time that more teaching leads to more learning.

By definition, charter schools are not quickly or mass produced.  Thirteen years after charter schools were authorized their share of students in the toughest city districts ranges from two percent in Paterson to sixteen percent in Camden.  New Jersey places no ceiling on the number of charter schools; its law is considered “medium strong” by the Center for Education Reform, a charter advocacy organization.  The charter law could be made more hospitable, but it cannot materially alter the boutique nature of charter schools and suddenly produce Wal-Mart schools.  Nor can it serve to narrow the performance gap among city kids without tackling the needs of classified and English-learning students.

Secretary Duncan still has time to shift the focus from the margins that charter schools occupy in public education to a foundational policy consistently endorsed by President Obama: increased access to high quality preschool for all students from poor families.  States that do not commit to closing the “kindergarten gap” are ensuring that the achievement gap will be permanent and deep.

Comments

[Estelle Leisy]

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[invertir forex]

Great to see a collection of blog posts that includes thoughtful and perceptive commentary. Keep up the great work!!!