NYC Charter School Students Outscore Public School Students on State Exams

By:  Hadassa Kalatizadeh

Here’s more validation for those who say charter schools afford students a better education than New York City public schools.

As reported by the NY Post, a new analysis has shown that NYC charter school students outscored public school students on the state’s standardized reading and math exams for 3rd to 8th grades in the last academic year.  Overall, charter school students scored 7 percentage points higher on the English Language Arts (ELA) exam, with 59% passing versus 52% at schools run by the city Department of Education.  In math, charter kids overall scored 13 percentage points higher on the exam — with 63% passing versus 50% passing at public schools.

The study, by the non-profit New York City Charter School Center, revealed that the gap in performance was even more notable among black and Hispanic students, with those at charters scoring far beyond their peers at public schools.  “These are startlingly large gaps that demand further investigation,” the non-profit said in its study.  Black charter school students outperformed peers in their district by 19 percentage points in ELA, with 59% passing compared to 40%, and in the math exam by 27 percentage points, with 61% of black students passing versus 34% in public schools.

Hispanic charter school students outdid public school students by 16 percentage points in English, with 55% passing compared to 39%, and in math by 25 percentage points, with 61% passing versus 36% in their district’s public schools.  As for students with disabilities, around 32% of disabled charter school students passed the ELA, as opposed to 22% in public schools, and in math 40% of them passed, compared to 24% of special needs at public schools.

The study was a boost to charter schools, which already enjoy popularity and acclaim from parents, but which the city has been reluctant to open, with the powerful teachers’ union especially opposed.  Charter Schools are famously privately managed and publicly funded, with public schools arguing that they take away funding from traditional schools.  Many of the charter schools have a longer school day and school year, set their own curriculum and employ teachers outside the teacher’s union. The city currently has 274 charter schools, serving 142,500 students, or about 15% of students enrolled at NYC public schools.  Per the Post, about 90 percent of students enrolled in city charter schools are black and Hispanic, while 80% come from low-income families and close to 20% have special needs.

“For 25 years, New York City families have trusted charter schools with preparing their children for success in and out of the classroom, and it’s no surprise as to why: charter school students — many of whom come from historically underserved communities — consistently close proficiency gaps, outperform their peers, and excel year after year,” said James Merriman, CEO of the NYC Charter School Center.

Per The Post, the analysis also gave score breakdowns based on different charter schools.  The data showed that students at the city’s largest charter school network- Success Academy, boasted an 80.4% pass rate overall in English and a 92.7% pass rate in math.

At the city’s four Classical Charter Schools in the South Bronx, 90% passed the English test and 97.7% excelled on the math exam.  “We are delighted that so many Classical scholars performed successfully on the recent ELA and math tests,” said Classical founder and executive director Lester Long.