Charter School Progress Report Redux, 2009-2010

Yesterday, the city released its annual Progress Reports. Mirroring the trend with test scores, charter school progress reports suffered more than their public school counterparts, receiving a higher proportion of C and D grades and an overall lower average Progress Report score. A full breakdown of charter school performance compared to last year’s Progress Reports can be found in the spreadsheet available here.

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Some Observations:
1.  Like their public school counterparts, several charter schools benefitted from the DOE’s decision to implement a floor to the grading process. This floor meant that a school’s overall Progress Report grade could not go down by further than two letter grades-making the lowest grade for an A school last year, when 84% of all public schools and 73% of charter schools receive the highest mark, a C. The charter schools in particular who benefitted from this floor were: (with scores, given Progress Report grade, and overall school rank noted)

a.  Future Leaders Institute Charter School: Score, 12.3; Grade: D (received B last year), Rank: 2%

b.  The UFT Charter School: Score, 13; Grade: D (received B last year), Rank: 2%

c.  Harlem Day Charter School: Score, 10.2; Grade: D (received B last year), Rank: 2%

d.  Ross Global Academy Charter School: Score, 0.1; Grade: C (received A last year), Rank: 0%

e.  Sisulu-Walker Charter School: Score, 11.2; Grade: C (received A last year), Rank: 1%

f.   Bronx Charter School for Children: Score, 15.3; Grade: C (received A last year), Rank: 3%

g.   Merrick Academy Charter School: Score, 13.9; Grade: C (received A last year), Rank: 3%

2.  Many of the charter schools that performed poorly in 2008-2009 again performed poorly in 2009-2010. The exception is the South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and the Arts, which went from being in the 20th percentile to the 76th percentile – the biggest gain of any school. The school that dropped the most was New Heights Academy Charter School, which went from being in the 98th percentile of all schools to the 17th percentile.

3.  Merrick Academy and Girls Prep – two schools that were plagued with problems with staff and space, respectively-experienced large drops in their overall Progress Report Scores and percentile rankings. Merrick Academy’s overall score dropped by over 80 points and its percentile ranking fell from 76% of all schools to the bottom 3%. Girls Prep Charter School’s score dropped by 70 points and its rank dropped from the 82nd percentile to the 13th.

4.  The UFT Charter School remained in the bottom 5% of all schools citywide, and became only the second charter school to remain in the bottom 15% of all schools for citywide for three years in a row. Only one other school, Peninsula Preparatory Academy, has remained in the bottom 15%, although this year it improved and is now in the 35th percentile of all schools citywide.

5.  The best performing charter school was Democracy Prep Charter School, which received a score of 88.9 (compared to 99.8 last year) and was ranked in the top 1% of all schools citywide. Other charter schools that were in the top 5% of schools citywide were: Williamsburg Collegiate Charter school, KIPP Infinity Charter School, and Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School.

A full list of all charter schools that received Progress Report grades, as well as their scores, overall percentile rank, and performance last year, is available below. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for how to improve this report!

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