Math teacher Gary Rubenstein
has taken a look at state test results and found some of the worst performance amongst those charter schools most heavily promoted as being vastly superior to public schools. Democracy Prep Charter School and Harlem Village Academy Charter School had some of the poorest results on 7th grade math. Here's more detail from Rubenstein:
The most stunning example is the famed Harlem Village Academy which had 100% passing in 2012, but only 21% passing in 2013 for a 79% drop (you can see that sad dot all the way at the right of the scatter plot). Democracy Prep Harlem Charter, run and staffed by many TFAers, dropped 84% in 2012 to 13% in 2013. KIPP Amp dropped from 79% in 2012 to just 9% in 2013. The Equity Project (TEP) which pays $125,000 for the best teachers had finally gotten some test scores they can brag about with 76% in 2012, but that has now sunk to just 20% in 2013. The Bronx Charter School Of Excellence, which recently received money from a $4.5 million grant
to help public schools emulate what they do, dropped from 96% in 2012 to 33% in 2013.
The Democracy Prep results shouldn't be surprising to those who
recall the earlier audit of Democracy Prep where DOE reviewers found “few lessons required higher-order thinking skills or deep analysis of concepts.”
