Public Charter Schools Show Proven Success in Closing the Achievement Gap
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) today is releasing its most recent Issue Brief, A Mission to Serve: How Public Charter Schools are Designed to Meet the Diverse Demands of our Communities. The report recognizes six high-performing charter schools in three underserved communities that have proved successful at closing the achievement gap for their largely African American and Latino student populations. Meant to be used as a case study for how communities can leverage charter school autonomy to close the achievement gap, the report examines the use of location-based strategies, recruitment efforts and enrollment processes that successful schools have used to achieve their respective missions.
The report highlights the following six high-performing public charter schools: West Denver Prep (Denver, CO), DSST Public Schools (Denver, CO), Achievement Prep (Washington D.C.), E.L. Haynes Public Charter School (Washington D.C.), Preuss School UCSD (San Diego, CA) and High Tech High (San Diego, CA). Through strong results in student achievement, low attrition rates, high college acceptance and recognized academic success, these schools are providing their communities with high-quality public school options. What’s notable is that in each city, the two highlighted schools have sought out different, but equally valid methods of serving the community: one school deliberately serves those in the most underserved portions of their cities; the other seeks to create student bodies more representative of the makeup of the whole cities. “Public charter school autonomy allows for mission-driven schools to meet the needs of our nations most underserved communities,” said Ursula Wright, interim president and CEO of the Alliance. By providing more public schools with this kind of autonomy, we increase the potential for raising student achievement.
The report notes that charter schools tend to operate in underserved communities, largely serving communities of color. The report cites recent data which finds that nationwide charter schools enroll a greater percentage than traditional public schools of low-income students (46 percent versus 41 percent), Black and Latino students (27 percent versus 15 percent and 26 percent versus 22 percent, respectively) and students who perform lower on standardized tests before transferring to public charter schools. According to the report, One of the most exceptional developments within the first two decades of the movement has been the rise of high-performing public charter schools with missions intently focused on educating students from traditionally underserved communities. Given that the demographics of these communities are often homogeneous, it is no surprise the demographics of these schools are that way as well.
In fact, the student populations at these public charter schools usually mirror the populations in nearby district schools. The report goes on to state, The past decade or so also has seen a noteworthy rise in high performing public charter schools with missions intentionally designed to serve racially and economically integrated student populations. These schools are utilizing their autonomy to achieve a diverse student population through location-based strategies, recruitment efforts and enrollment processes. “Looking at high performing public charter schools that are consciously designed to serve their students whether in homogeneous or diverse environments under scores that public charter schools can accommodate both models and, in the process, provide more high quality options to our nations students,” said Wright. Currently, the charter movement includes over 5,600 charter schools across 41 states and the District of Columbia. These schools are serving more than two million students across the country, an increase of approximately 76 percent over the past five school years, with hundreds of thousands of students on waiting lists to attend the high-quality public charter school of their choosing. The Issue Brief can be found online at http://publiccharters.org/publication/?id=755 and national and statewide public charter school data can be found on the Public Charter School Dashboard: http://www.publiccharters.org/dashboard.
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About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit our website at www.publiccharters.org
