Low-income students are narrowing achievement gaps in cities that have expanded charter schools and other public school choice schools over the past 10 years, concludes a new Progressive Policy Institute report.
"This is particularly true when at least one-third of a city’s students are enrolled in a public charter school or charter-like school," says the report, titled Searching for the Tipping Point. Furthermore, performance is rising both charter and district-led schools.
In the 10 urban districts with the highest percentage of students enrolled in charter schools, low-income students closed the gap with statewide test score averages by 25 percent to 42 percent.
Schools in Camden, New Jersey, once dubbed a "human catastrophe," have seen significant improvement, writes Lauren Camera on The 74.
Ten years ago, Uncommon Schools turned Camden Prep, a chronically low-performing elementary school, into a charter school. Soon after, Camden welcomed more charters "and turned over its most chronically failing schools to education nonprofits, which rebranded them as renaissance schools," she writes.
"Today, more than two-thirds of Camden students attend public charter or renaissance schools, enrollment is climbing" and achievement and graduation rates are rising for traditional, charter and renaissance students, Camera writes.
Low-income Camden students "boosted their proficiency on state standardized exams by 21 points between the 2010-11 and 2022-23 school years," and closed the achievement gap with students statewide by 42 percent, according to the PPI report.
Marcus Maurquay started fourth grade at Camden Prep 10 years ago in a room dubbed "College of New Jersey," writes Camera. The idea was to motivate students to aim for college. In August, he "stepped onto The College of New Jersey’s real-life campus as a freshman – a first-generation college student with a full scholarship."
In Newark, where 35 percent of students are enrolled in public charter schools, the performance gap closed by 45 percent over 12 years, she writes.
Kansas City (46 percent charter enrollment) closed 31 percent of the gap, and St. Louis (39 percent in charters) closed 30 percent.
Proficiency is still low for most students in these districts, says co-author Tressa Pankovits. But the results show progress is possible.
Critics often charge charters hurt district schools by taking motivated students and money, she notes. But having a third or more of students in charters seems to create “a positive competitive dynamic” for all schools, she tells Camera. District schools learn from what works in charters or simply become more effective to compete for students.
As a personal anecdote, I saw a presentation, in person, by PPI on charter schools in New Orleans. The author wanted to expand the idea across the U.S. without doing any research on how different locations have very different governance models on schools. The PPI authors talks as if mayors always control schools.
Also, school choice only works if there is a last chance, must admit public schools so that all of those charter schools can dump their trouble makers. Instead of adopting high standards, high failure rates by proxy, why not just allow all public schools to dump their problem students?