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High poverty students in public schools better served, outperform students at charter schools
04/02/2014

 

We already know that despite the flawed school grading system skewed to favor charter schools, traditional public schools still outperform charter schools. Data released by the Department of Education in December showed that nearly 800 traditional public schools received a grade of A. More than two-thirds received an A or a B. Just 14% of traditional public schools received a D or F. This pales in comparison to the more than half (51%) of charter schools which received a grade of D or F.

 

We also already know that traditional public schools outperform charters and private schools when it comes to growth data.

 

However, now thanks to Steve Hinnefeld, we also know that traditional public schools serving high poverty students pass the ISTEP exam more frequently than their peers at charter schools.

 Graphic by Steve Hinnefeld

From Steve’s blog School Matters:

 

This claim rests on a simple comparison of 2013 ISTEP-Plus passing rates for charter schools and district public schools where more than 80 percent of students qualified for free and reduced-price school lunches. On average, students in the district public schools were more likely to pass the tests.

 

I merged Department of Education spreadsheets with data on free and reduced-price lunch counts and ISTEP-Plus passing rates. Then I sorted by free-and-reduced-lunch rates and focused on schools where 80 percent or more students qualified for lunch assistance. Results include:

 

  • For charter schools: Average passing rate for both E/LA and math, 48 percent; passing rate for E/LA, 62.3 percent; passing rate for math, 62.5 percent.
  • For conventional public schools: Average passing rate for both E/LA and math, 57.2 percent; passing rate for E/LA, 64.1 percent; passing rate for math, 68.1 percent.

To read Steve’s entire post click here.