California Charter Schools Association
January 2009
A new report from the California Charter School Association indicates Oakland-area charter schools are out-performing their public district-school peers (see here).
The report, A Longitudinal Analysis of Charter School Performance in Oakland Unified School District, looks at the performance of the Oakland charter schools vs. traditional California public schools from 2006 to 2008. Each charter school's performance was compared to that of the three most similarly matched district schools within a five-mile radius. Nearly 69 percent of the charters outperformed their district counterparts. Minority students and high-poverty students in charters also surpassed their district-school peers. These results are even more impressive when you factor in that the charters are serving a higher percentage of Latino and high-poverty students and an equal number of African-American students as similarly matched district schools.
These charter schools are eliminating the commonly accepted and continually reinforced stigma that poor and minority students cannot be successful in public schools. The charters have used innovation, dedication, high standards, and quality authorizing to produce student success and achievement, which have been difficult for minority and poor students to attain in traditional public schools. They show that charter schooling done well can be an effective and powerful force for improving education. Read the report here.