What the new NAEP tells us about DC's Charter Schools

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results from late winter 2017 testing have finally been released, and one of the more interesting findings is how black charter school students in several large cities compare to their non-charter counterparts. I’ve already discussed Atlanta, Georgia and Cleveland, Ohio and now this blog looks at the District of Columbia charter school performance for black students compared to blacks attending traditional public schools in that city.

This table, which shows data extracted from the NAEP Data Explorer, tells the tale, and it’s notable.

DC Black NAEP Scores Charters and Non-Charters 2017

Very simply, charter school blacks in the nation’s capital surpassed in every area tested, and by a statistically significant amount. That is particularly hard to do with the NAEP because the statistical sampling errors in district-level scores get pretty big once you look at subgroup performance.

By the way, while the table shows the results using NAEP Scale Scores, I took a look at the Grade 8 NAEP Math proficiency rates, as well. Charter school blacks scored 16 percent proficient while blacks in the city’s traditional public schools only logged 9 percent proficient. Statewide in Kentucky black students only scored 9 percent proficient in this subject/grade level on NAEP.

In other words, while we want to see a lot more than 16 percent proficiency rates, DC’s black charter school students are producing nearly twice the level of proficiency found in the traditional schools. Kentucky could benefit from such improvements.

Tech Note: The DC scores are listed in two different areas of the NAEP Data Explorer. I used the listing under the “state” area instead of the “district” area.