Well-run charter schools do outperform: Success Academy Charter Schools

Despite a lot of hype from anti-charter groups, especially some groups funded by the teachers unions, there are plenty of success stories for charter schools.

One example is the Harlem Success Academy Charter Schools network.

Here is one example set of academic data from this charter network’s web site of how students (their scholars) from different racial groups in this charter school system performed on New York State tests in 2011.

Harlem Success Academy Charters Scores by Race 2011

Both Hispanics and blacks in the Harlem Success Academies notably outperformed New York’s statewide averages for both mathematics and reading for white students.

I pulled the free plus reduced cost lunch statistics from the New York State Department of Education’s school report cards for the Success Academy schools (note: Harlem Success Academy #5 is too new to be listed).

The 2010-2011 school term’s free and reduced cost lunch rates in Success Academy schools range from a low of 74 percent to a high of 92 percent (average across Harlem Success Academy 1, 2, 3, 4 and Bronx Success Academy 1 and 2 equals 80 percent). The New York State overall average free plus reduced cost lunch eligibility rate from the statewide report card is much lower at only 49 percent. That means the white lunch eligibility rate across New York State is undoubtedly even lower than 49 percent. In any event, the Success Academies don’t have to whine about poverty as an excuse. They simply don’t need it.

When you consider the poverty rates and the minority testing results shown in the figure above, all you can say is, Wow!

We sure could use some schools like these in Louisville, Lexington and Covington, etc.