Q: “DID YOU SEE THE NUMBERS?” A: YES, I HAVE.
Is there a revolt inside the NAACP? Are charters segregated? Do African American have appreciably higher achievement in charters?
Tomorrow is statewide strike and a day of action for public education in California. There will likely be more than 2,000 people at the capitol advocating pending legislation that will provide more funding for public education and greater transparency and accountability for charter schools (AB 1505 and AB 1506).
Proponents and opponents of privately-managed charters schools also typically agree on the problematic disparities that are readily apparent when comparing African American children to those from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Where the proponents and opponents diverge is what should be done about the disparities.
For example, there has been some noise about a “revolt” inside the NAACP in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) opinion piece[1]because of a leaked pro-charter resolution submitted to the national NAACP which was written by a California charter school lobbying association affiliate embedded in the San Diego NAACP branch. You should know that the resolution is dead and the national NAACP relayed in the WSJ that branches and individuals engaged in activities contrary to national policy can be disciplined.[2]
Additionally, charter school proponents have enlisted the Urban League and National Action Network (NAN) to publicly support charter schools in California— which of course is not news if you have been following the public debate. In a recent Black Voice article, a question was asked “Did you see the numbers?” which intimated that charter are desirable due to the data.[3]How about we take a look at the segregation, achievement, and financial impact of charters schools in California. Let’s see the numbers and research.
Achievement
What is notable about African American student achievement in California in the CREDO’s Urban Charter School Study[4], is that both charter school students and sending neighborhood school students show negative growth for African American students across California in both math and reading. Please note that CREDO compares students instead of schools and also only compares charter students to sending school students— not all neighborhood public schools.
Table 2. Comparing Public and Charter School Students Achievement by California City
| NPS Aver. Academic Growth for Students | CS Aver. Academic Growth for Students | Comparing CS Academic Performance to NPS | ||||
| City | Math | Read | Math | Read | Math | Read |
| Bay Area CA | -0.29 | -0.30 | -0.14 | -0.18 | -0.15 | -0.12 |
| Central CA | -0.19 | -0.13 | -0.12 | -0.05 | -0.07 | -0.08 |
| South Bay CA | -0.11 | -0.11 | -0.21 | -0.07 | 0.10 | -0.04 |
| Southern CA | -0.30 | -0.21 | -0.26 | -0.19 | -0.04 | -0.02 |
Even with the limited (and selection biased?) sample of comparison neighborhood public schools, charter school students nearly perform statistically the same as neighborhood school students. The differences are in the hundredths of a standard deviation in Central California and Southern California and tenths of a standard deviation in Bay Area and South Bay. By comparison, other education policies such as class size reduction and high quality Pre-K show 400% more overall impact on student success than charter schools.[5]Considering the data, charter schools are not having the instant impact that proponents purport.
Segregation
A new study entitled Choice without Inclusion?: Comparing the Intensity of Racial Segregation in Charters and Public Schools at the Local, State and National levels utilizes descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of publicly available Common Core of Data (CCD).[6] The new study finds higher segregation levels in charters schools at the local level in California.
Most California cities have a negative charter-public difference when comparing student attending intensely segregated (more than 90%) non-White schools. San Francisco has the most highly segregated charters schools in the state— 73.3% of students attend intensely segregated charters. By comparison, about 50% of neighborhood public CONTINUE READING: Q: “Did you see the numbers?” A: Yes, I have. | Cloaking Inequity