A different headline, a different
narrative:
Denver charter schools
where graduation rates equal or exceed state average
If you think there are persistent
myths and fabrications in Colorado about charter schools, just attend a
national conference with educators and you will be stunned to hear the nonsense
spouted about those “for-profit, private schools that take money away from our
school districts.” After 28 years, people still say this? With a straight face,
one member at the conference blamed the
money spent on those charter schools for why her district cannot address
the mental health needs of its students. Wow.
After that, a front-page headline
in last month’s Education Week, the
nation’s newspaper of record on K-12 education, that states: “In Many Charters, Graduation Odds Are Slim,”[i]
is only mildly disturbing. Still, when the article continues on page 12, you
have to shake your head to find this harder-hitting headline: “Charters Lag Regular High Schools in
Graduation Rates.”
Which schools? In which states? The article does not mention Colorado,
but click on the Education Week study
and you can find a dramatically different story, state by state, of the
“percentage of charter schools with low graduation rates.”[ii]
Arizona, Minnesota, and Ohio, we
read, have “the largest share of charter schools that consistently fail to
graduate half of their students year after year.”
% of charter schools that fail to graduate half of
their students
|
||
Highest percentage
|
Lowest percentage
|
|
Ohio – 66%
|
Wisconsin – 6%
|
|
Arizona – 36%
|
New York – 7%
|
|
Minnesota – 35%
|
Massachusetts – 9%
|
|
Colorado’s percentage, 13%, is not
awful. Is the data accurate?[iii]
I hope somebody here follows up with a more careful look at what is truly the
case for Colorado’s K-12, 6-12, and 9-12 charter schools.
Education
Week is well-regarded for its objective reporting, but page one was anything
but.
“Charter schools … make up an outsized
share of the number of public schools persistently graduating less than half of
their students.
“These numbers aren't just a one
time-time blip. Many charter schools have suffered from chronically low graduation
rates of below 50% since 2010-11.
“‘The data undercuts the idea that
charters are a better option,’ said Robert Balfanz, a Johns Hopkins University
researcher who is a national authority on graduation-rate patterns.”
I am compelled to object, here,
with a short reply: What about Denver?
We all know the charter story differs state by state: different legislation,
different reasons behind the new law, different groups of educators and parents
enthusiastic to make the most of this new option … But let’s at least be aware
that, in Denver Public Schools, the one Colorado school district with the
largest number of charters (60), another narrative can—and should—be told. Perhaps
beginning with a different headline:
Six Denver charters where graduation
rates equal or exceed state average
From Colorado Department of Education
– Graduation Statistics – 2017-18[iv]
(For readers of AV #162, “High grad
rates in Colorado – fake news,” and AV #183, “Remediation rates … grad rates,” see[v].)
Of course this is not the whole
story. Many charter high schools in Denver and in Colorado do have low graduation rates. But context matters. As Education Week acknowledged, “the
federal data collection does not take into account that some charter schools
were set up to serve specific kinds of students who have greater needs and are
harder to educate.”A sidebar to the main article, by the same authors,
“Figuring Out Graduation Rates for Charter Schools: It’s Complicated,”[vi]
offers more nuance. Such as this detail:
“students from charter schools are roughly three times more likely to be
attending an alternative school than students from all other public
schools.”
Many of the Denver charters with
poor graduation rates are classified by the state as Alternative Education
Campuses (AEC’s) – and for good reason. Gov.
Jared Polis knows the issue well from his time creating the New America
Schools Network (note their low graduation rates for 2018: NAM-Thornton –
21.8%; NAM: Lakewood - 17.1%; NAM: Lowry – 13.3%[vii]).
Judging these schools fairly must take into account who walks in the door. Not
to make excuses, but what an enormous challenge to help a 16-year old, who
enters your school two years after dropping out, graduate on time. A reach beyond our grasp.
Denver charter schools that are Alternative Education Campuses:
graduation rates & SPF rating by DPS
Alternative
Education Campuses
|
% and # graduating out of number in 2018 class
|
Denver’s School Performance Rating[viii]
|
|
Academy Urban Learning
|
42.1%
|
16/38
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
Denver Justice High School
|
39.5%
|
14/36
|
Accredited
on Watch
|
Colorado High School - Osage
|
30.3%
|
11/38
|
Accredited
on Watch
|
Colorado High School- GES
|
28.9%
|
36/119
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
Rise Up Community School
|
26.2%
|
11/42
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
Ridge View Academy Charter School
|
2%
|
3/152
|
Accredited
on Watch
|
Ace Community Challenge
|
0%
|
0/23
|
CLOSED
2018-19
|
No generalizations here. Just a few
facts to push back and say: here in Colorado, and especially in Denver, there
is another story that deserves to be told. I trust others will dig more deeply
– and tell it.
PH#191
*The high graduation rate of Hispanic and Latinx students at these six charter high schools deserves more attention. In the cover story for Education Next, “A Decade of Reform in
Denver” (Spring 2019), authors Paul Teske, Parker Baxter, and Todd Ely of the
University of Colorado at Denver, stated: “DPS experienced substantial
improvement in the four-year graduation rate since the 2009-10 school year … Latino
students registered the greatest gains.” And where, I would ask? In which
schools? The DSST, KIPP, and STRIVE charter networks have clearly been
a key source of the improved graduation rates for Denver’s Latinx students this
past decade. https://www.educationnext.org/redesigning-denver-schools-rise-fall-superintendent-tom-boasberg/
Endnotes
[iii] In
its sidebar to this article (page 13 of the print edition), “Figuring Out
Graduation Rates For Charter Schools: It’s Complicated,” the authors
acknowledge “inconsistent definitions” of alternative schools “makes cross-state
comparisons difficult.” Their final paragraph might even be an admission that
the front-page article’s bold claims should be taken with a grain of salt: “Taken
together it’s difficult to compare states to one another and to gauge whether charter
schools are educating a disproportionately larger share of at-risk or
high-needs student.” https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/02/27/calculating-grad-rates-for-charter-schools-its.html
[v] Compare
and contrast. In AV #183 I listed Denver schools (“Remediation rates suggest
our graduation rates will soon fall”), where “respectable” graduation rates (over
74%) appeared dubious given high remediation rates for their 2016 graduates
entering college (Abraham Lincoln -
65.9%; DCIS at Montbello – 65.6%; John F. Kennedy - 60%). Note the 2016
remediation rates for these Denver charter high schools, below. That year, most
graduates from these schools received a degree that actually meant they were
ready for college.
Remediation
rate at 4 charter high schools
Class
of 2016
|
|
DSST - Green Valley
|
13.3%
|
DSST- Stapleton
|
9.4%
|
KIPP Denver Collegiate
|
20.8%
|
STRIVE - Smart
|
39.6%
|
From Colorado Department of Higher Education
“Legislative Report on Developmental Education, Class of 2016” (https://highered.colorado.gov/Publications/Reports/Remedial/FY2017/2017_Remedial_relJune2018.pdf).
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