Indiana

Charter Up

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

A new report from the Mayor’s Office on Charter schools shows them making more progress overall than their traditional public school counterparts.

According to the 2008-2009 Accountability Report, students at the Mayor-sponsored elementary charter schools improved on their ISTEP+ test scores by nearly 7%, compared to 1.5 % in Marion County and 1.3 % statewide.

Progress was even better at secondary level where charters showed improvement of 6.5% on ISTEP+ and other Marion County Schools showed a decrease of .87 %.  The number was 0.75 % statewide.

Some other good news for charters shows that the longer a student is in a charter school, the better they perform academically.

They have their challenges, such as clear lines of governance.  However they still manage to do the job cheaper than traditional public schools.

And for anyone who thinks charters take kids away from Indianapolis Public Schools,  charters only make up 4% of Marion County’s student population; 76% are minority and 73% qualify for free and reduced lunch.

I think that is important to point out because black lawmakers in the Indiana General Assembly want to eliminate charter schools in order help the teacher’s unions and protect failing school districts.

Where I come from, that’s called black on black crime.

Full disclosure:  I teach a college speech class at Fall Creek Academy, a charter school,  for Ivy Tech Community College.  My students consist of sophomores, juniors and seniors.  Many come from impoverished backgrounds, but they are the most fun group I’ve ever had interacting with in my 7 years of teaching college.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).