BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Melissa Suarez is a parent of three special-education children who attend charter schools in Philadelphia. She told a studio audience Friday at PBS39 in Bethlehem that the promise of a better education for her children never materialized.
“Our school failed to meet their charter, failed to give us what they promised us before, which was that change in public schooling,” she said. “And now it’s very, very hard to tell the difference between what a public school in our neighborhood looks like and what our charter school looks like. And as a parent who really put forth a lot of effort into their education early and now, it’s devastating.”
- The Children First report showed more than half of Black, Hispanic and low-income charter schools students overall are failing Math and English
- However, students at charter schools in Allentown did better on English than those in public schools, and about the same in Math
- The report looked at state test scores for the years 2015 through 2019
The state’s 1997 charter school law was intended to kickstart a revolution in education by introducing innovation and flexibility into the traditional public school system. Charters are publicly funded and privately managed.
A new report by Pennsylvania Charter Performance Center, which is part of Children First, argues that, overall, public charter schools are failing to better educate students, especially Black, Hispanic and low-income students. Children First is a nonprofit southeastern Pennsylvania child advocacy organization.
Some charter advocates say the report misses the nuances of academic growth happening on the ground in schools. Some education advocates also question the usefulness of state testing.
“Our school failed to meet their charter, failed to give us what they promised us before, which was that change in public schooling."Melissa Suarez, Philadelphia parent
The report looked at 2015-2019 Math and English test scores on Pennsylvania System of State Assessments, known as the PSSAs and found over half of Black, Hispanic and economically-disadvantaged students in charters are failing English and three-quarters are failing Math.
“If charter schools were improving the performance, you would expect to see a lower failure rate over time,” said ML Wernecke, director of PA Charter Performance Center at Children First. “More students succeeding, fewer students failing.”
The reports also compared the performance of students on the PSSAs at charter schools and public schools in the Pittsburgh, Chester-Upland, Allentown and Philadelphia school districts between 2015 and 2019.
The nonprofit group’s data shows 55% of charter school students across the state failed English, with the percentage rising to 57% for Black students and 61% for low-income students. In Allentown, about 65-67% of all public school students in the district—including Black and low-income students—were failing English on the PSSAs. The percentages of students failing Math for the charter schools and the public schools was similar in the district, ranging from 80% to 88%, with the charter schools having slightly higher percentages for Black and economically disadvantaged students.
A request for comment from the Allentown School District received no response.
The report does point out there are high-quality charter schools where students were performing better academically. It singles out some area charter schools, including Easton Arts Academy Charter School and Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School.
Anne Clark, CEO of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, said the report doesn’t capture growth in achievement. She said she recently visited a charter school that is educating about 200 students who were previously chronically truant from attending school.
“There’s no measure to say that’s a huge improvement,” she said “And if you went from having half the students not attending to 83% attending all the time, that’s going to make a difference in achievement but it may not show up.”
The report offers several recommendations, including addressing structural issues like a lack of funding for school districts. A Commonwealth court earlier this year ruled the state was unconstitutionally-underfunding poorer school districts.
Retiring Bethlehem Schools Superintendent Joe Roy said between Allentown and Bethlehem, the districts were sending nearly $100 million to the charter schools within their jurisdictions that don’t perform better than their schools do.
“If we had a program that we were spending millions of dollars on, a new innovative program like charters, that didn’t have any positive impacts, we could not justify continuing to fund it,” Roy said. “So the finances I think are the biggest challenge right now. I think there could be some changes to that.”
Roy said one issue he would like state lawmakers to address is charter schools receiving more money to educate students with less severe special needs than public school students with more severe disabilities. Roy said that means charters get funding that should go to the students who require more funding to educate.
Other recommendations include taking steps to expand high-quality charter schools and close low-performing ones and giving public school boards more authority over the operations of local charter schools.
