NY State Charter Schools, Regents Scores and Other Test Data Dispiriting
posted by: Cynthia Liu 23 minutes ago
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New York has been struggling to improve its schools. Now a new study released by education researchers in New York state shows that getting a passing grade on the Regents statewide exams in reading and math correlates to college readiness. The researchers defined college readiness as the ability to sustain at minimum a C average.
College readiness and charter schools
There are two main -- if not surprising insights into the study's results:
1) Affluence affects college readiness; 95% of students from these wealthy backgrounds graduate, and 72% sustain a C average or better. Those from less wealthy districts help contribute to a statewide average of 77% of students who graduate; only 41% of these students sustain a C average or better once in college.
2) Existing public high schools and public charters have divergent results, showing much worse performance for charters:
College readiness and charter schools
There are two main -- if not surprising insights into the study's results:
1) Affluence affects college readiness; 95% of students from these wealthy backgrounds graduate, and 72% sustain a C average or better. Those from less wealthy districts help contribute to a statewide average of 77% of students who graduate; only 41% of these students sustain a C average or better once in college.
2) Existing public high schools and public charters have divergent results, showing much worse performance for charters:
Statewide, only 10 percent of students at charters graduated in 2009 at college-ready standards, though 49 percent received diplomas.
However, not all news is bad--despite the poor readiness rates, the Board of Regents may feel it can raise cutoff scores to pass math (80) and reading (75) with the general sense that student achievement will follow. They may also reason that now is a good time to beef up trade and vocational training in recognition that not all students will attend college.
