African American Student Performance in Charters
Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform
One of the greatest public education challenges in California--and the nation--is the achievement and opportunity gaps between African American students and their White and Asian peers.
The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) has an interest in understanding how the state's charter public schools can accelerate closing achievement gaps for African American students, while at the same time advancing educational innovation that improves teaching and learning for all public school students.
The Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform report, released by CCSA in October 2011, details the performance and enrollment trends of African American students in both charter public and traditional public schools. The results show that California charter public schools are effectively accelerating the performance of African American students, and that African American students are enrolled at higher percentage in the state's charters, among other findings.
Since the inception of the Charter Schools Act in California in 1992, charter schools have become an important part of the public education system, opening their doors in both urban and rural areas, in order to provide quality educational options for families. Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform demonstrates that as laboratories of innovation, California's highly effective charter public schools can demonstrate proven paths to success that should be replicated nationally.
Significant Findings
Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform finds that charter schools are effectively accelerating the performance of African American public school students. African American students and families are experiencing these results:
- African Americans are enrolled at higher rates in charter public schools than traditional public schools at all grade levels, in some cases at close to twice the rate
- Charter schools serving African American students are realizing better outcomes, in spite of having similar parent education levels and student retention rates as their traditional public school counterparts.
As measured by CCSA's Similar Students Measure (SSM)--detailed in our Portrait of the Movement report--charter public schools serving African American students were more than three times as likely as traditional public schools to consistently outperform their predicted performance in a single year, and over time. In addition, charter public schools have consistently earned higher African American Academic Performance Index (API) scores and proficiency rates statewide, in many urban districts, and across subjects. Finally, while charters make up only 9% of schools statewide, they represent 39% of highly effective schools for African American students.
As laboratories of innovation, California's highly effective charter public schools demonstrate proven paths to success that should be replicated nationally. In fact, results of case studies contained within Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform show that the best practices implemented by charter schools effectively educating African American students can be implemented by any school, having been well documented in scholarly literature.
Learn More
- Download the Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform report
- Download the Executive Summary
- See best practices outlined in the report
- View the Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform Fact Sheet
- Read a blog post by Jed Wallace
- Find out what people are saying about Chartering and Choice as an Achievement Gap-Closing Reform
Media Coverage
- Read the News-Round Up of media coverage
- Access the Press Kit, which includes a video of the full press conference and a presentation of the report's key findings.
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