LOCAL SCHOOLS DO A BETTER JOB SERVING STUDENTS WITH SOCIOECONOMIC AND OTHER CHALLENGES

Amid efforts to reform Ohio’s nationally ridiculed charter school system, some charter school proponents argue that one reason charters may perform so poorly is they have a more challenging demographic.

In fact, what the data show is that:

1.Local Public School Districts that have greater rates of poverty, more special education students and minority students than the typical charter school all outperform the charter on state report card measures.

2.The Big 8 Urban districts (Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown) have slightly lower poverty rates than the typical charter, but have far higher percentages of special needs and minority children. Yet they have also a higher Performance Index score than charters.

3.There are 23 districts with higher poverty rates than the typical charter, 348 districts with larger percentages of special needs children, and 29 with greater percentages of minority students.

Far from excusing their overall poor performance, charter school demographics indicate that they are less successful educating their less challenging students than districts that face far greater demographic challenges.

Read the full report here: Local Schools Serve Students with Greater Challenges