State's charter schools struggle to meet targets for serving high-needs students
Charter schools in Massachusetts are having mixed success meeting the state’s expectations for admitting English language learners and students with disabilities, an area where most charters have long lagged behind regular public schools.
According to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s data, only one of the region’s four charters – Fitchburg’s Sizer School, A North Central Charter Essential School – has exceeded the state’s target in both student categories the past five years. Marlboro’s Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School, one of the region’s top performing schools, meanwhile, is trailing well behind its targets over that span.
The data fall somewhere in between conflicting recent reports of how well charter schools are doing enrolling high-needs children. A state report earlier this fall found charters are approaching regular public schools in their rates of accepting new students who have disabilities, and even surpassing them in their rates of accepting new students who are English language learners. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study released last week found that Boston charters in particular are attracting students in those subgroups in similar numbers to the city’s public schools.
But an October report by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees makes the case those positive reports don’t tell the full story. The organization suggests that a couple of charters in Boston and Lawrence are skewing the overall data by enrolling large numbers of English language learners, for example. Glenn Koocher, the association’s executive director, said charters also tend to not enroll students with severe disabilities at the same rate as public school districts, which is not reflected in the state’s data.
“We’re not talking about kids with mild learning disabilities,” he said. “We’re talking about kids with significant levels of disability who the public schools then have to deal with in their own budgets.”
Mr. Koocher argues the education achievement gap bill passed in 2010 has largely been State's charter schools struggle to meet targets for serving high-needs students - News - telegram.com - Worcester, MA:
