How do the number of students suspended from charter schools compare to the number of students suspended from their district school counterparts?
That was the question GothamSchools contributor Kim Gittleson set out to answer this week by comparing the numbers of suspensions district and charter schools report to the state each year.
Overall, the two categories of schools suspend students at about the same rate, Gittleson found.
But suspension rates vary by neighborhood. In central Brooklyn, charter schools suspend a higher percentage of students than their neighboring district schools. In Harlem and the South Bronx, district schools suspend more students.
And the number of suspensions varies widely by charter school. Some schools didn’t suspend any students last year. Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Charter School and Kings Collegiate Charter School, by contrast, both suspended nearly 40 percent of their student bodies last year.
You can read Gittleson’s full analysis here. Gittleson is employed by Ken Hirsh, who also helps fund GothamSchools.