The Charter School Advantage In New York City, some students are making huge achievement gains.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-charter-school-advantage-1470607721
Mayor Bill de Blasio is touting a huge improvement in New York City student test scores this year as evidence that his progressive policies are succeeding. “I can’t stop smiling,” gushed schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. Their dirty little secret is that charter schools are driving the city’s academic progress.
According to new state testing data, citywide student proficiency increased this year on average by 7.6 percentage points in English and 1.2 percentage points in math to 38% and 36.4%, respectively. Some have attributed the city’s gains, which mirror those statewide, to shorter and easier tests.
Yet strikingly, proficiency at charter schools this year jumped 13.7 percentage points in English and 4.5 percentage points in math to 43% and 47%, respectively. In other words, charter students have improved by two to four times as much as the citywide average.
A recent analysis by Families for Excellent Schools found that New York City charters, whose student populations are more than 90% black and Hispanic, raised their local community school district proficiency rates by 13%. More than 70% of charters outperformed local district schools in math and English. Black and Hispanic students who attended charters scored 73% higher than their counterparts at district-run schools. CONTINUE AT SITE
Nearly 40% of the top 50 scoring schools in New York City this year were charters compared with 12% in 2013, the year Mr. De Blasio won election. The reason: Student progress at charters has exceeded even high-performing traditional schools. For instance, 82% of students at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy passed this year’s reading tests, up from 68% a year ago. Success Academy ranked in the top 0.3% of all schools statewide in math and top 1.5% in English.
Meanwhile, the failing schools that the mayor has targeted for renewal with additional funding have stalled. The city Education Department recently issued a press release flogging progress at its “Out of Time Schools.” Yet at the Automotive High School, the graduation rate this year dropped to 47% from 58.1%. At the Mosholu Parkway junior high school, proficiency in math inched up to 6% from 5%. This is another example of the bigotry of low progressive expectations.
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