Results come after Gov. Christie calls for rigorous expansion for charter schools, Newark embarks on $100M reform effort
Students leave school at the Oliver Street School on Tuesday. A new report shows that some Newark public schools aren't so bad, like Oliver Street Elementary School, which does really well on fourth-grade tests.Some public schools in Newark are among the best in the city, performing as well as charters in certain areas, according to the annual Kids Count survey to be released today.
Comparing test scores and demographic data, the report found public schools had the same passing rates on average as charters at the fourth grade level, thanks to a decade of significant academic gains.
The data appears to contradict the prevailing assumption about the consistent high quality of charter schools and their reputation as a panacea. It also belies the rhetoric from politicians and educators that Newark schools are uniformly bad.
The survey results show a startling range in quality among both types of schools in the district, with some passing rates ranging from 19 percent to 100 percent.
"We must identify what is working in the successful schools — charters and districts alike — and replicate those elements in all Newark schools," said Cecilia Zalkind, the executive director of the Advocates for Children in New Jersey, which published the report.
Results of the study come at a crucial time for New Jersey’s schools. Gov. Chris Christie, who recently described Newark schools as "absolutely disgraceful," has called for a rigorous expansion of charter schools. At the same time, Newark has embarked on a $100 million reform effort bankrolled by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Roughly 5,300 students in Newark attend charter schools, accounting for a quarter of the state’s charter school enrollment, the report said. There are also nearly 6,600 parents on charter school waiting lists.
But at least at the elementary school (fourth grade) level, charters do not perform much better than their district counterparts, the report said.
In the 2008-09 school year, students in charter and district schools passed their math tests at the same rate — 54 percent. In the language arts category, the difference was miniscule: 41 percent of charter school students passed, compared to 40 percent in district schools.
But charter school advocates quickly noted students in the eighth grade performed much better than district schools.
"(The 8th grade scores) are critical because they demonstrate that charters are playing a key role in preparing Newark students for high school and college," said Mashea Ashton, the CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund.
Only 56 percent of district eighth graders passed their language arts tests, compared to 78 percent in charter schools, according to the report.
The pattern was the same in math: 69 percent of charter school students passed, compared to 42 percent of district students.
But in both the fourth and eighth grade levels, students in district and charter schools performed lower than the statewide average, the report said.
In addition to the wide disparity between public and charter schools at the eighth grade level, the survey also found a wide range in quality within the individual types of schools.
At the fourth grade level, students in the best public and charter schools had a passing rate of roughly 80 percent in language arts tests. In the worst schools, which included one charter, the passing rate was barely above 10 percent.
Education experts said the data show charter schools do not automatically deliver success.
"Charter school advocates over-exaggerate the successes of good charter schools, but underplay the significant number of failing charter schools," said Alan Sadovnik, co-director of the Newark Schools Research Collaborative.
But Derrell Bradford, a school choice advocate and head of Excellent Education for Everyone, questioned some of the study’s methods.
"Charter schools aren’t a magic bullet, and we know that," he said. "But the important difference is ... we can close down a poorly performing charter school. We can’t do that easily with district schools. And none of these studies talks about that."
The report also notes the socioeconomic challenges education officials face in Newark.
One in three Newark children lives in poverty, a figure that has not budged in the last 10 years and is nearly three times the statewide average, the report said. Newark families with children also earn $50,000 less per year than the average New Jersey family.
"This poverty infects nearly ever aspect of child well-being, especially academic success," Zalkind said.
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