Harvard report dinged Arizona charter schools. Take it with a grain of salt
Arizona is approaching three decades as a national leader in public district and public charter school parental choice, and in that time has compiled reams of data regarding the academic performance of public charter schools.
The overwhelming consensus: Arizona public charter schools are performing well.
So, I imagine readers were surprised to read The Arizona Republic’s account of a new report from Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance.
That's not what we've seen on state tests
Researchers attempted to analyze 2009-2019 data from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), and compared charter student performance across states.
Every assessment is a snapshot in time, but there is particular risk in using NAEP to gauge the performance of all public charter students or schools.
Why? Only a randomly selected sample of Arizona students take the NAEP test.
As part of its new analysis, the Harvard team attempted to take these results and extrapolate them across Arizona’s more than 560 charter schools and 230,000 students.
The results run contrary to years of independent analysis, including state assessments.
Charter schools rank among the best
Let’s start with Arizona’s own AzMERIT assessment, which (unlike NAEP) is taken by every student.
Between 2015 and 2021, Arizona charter schools had higher passing rates on AzMERIT than the state average — and charter students of virtually every racial and ethnic group did better than their peers statewide.
The Arizona State Board of Education takes into account AzMERIT, graduation rates and a host of other factors when issuing letter grades for public schools.
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Preliminary grades for 2022-23 were just issued. The results: nearly 4 out of 5 Arizona public charter schools earned an “A” or “B” grade.
It’s also notable that when U.S. News & World Report compiled its 2023-24 rankings of the best public high schools, charters accounted for seven of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20 in Arizona.
Other national reports have confirmed similar results.
Arizona school choice involves many factors
Our work is far from done, of course. Academic achievement continues to lag among both charter and district students of color, a challenge educators across Arizona are addressing every day.
Additionally, there is no single assessment that can account for every measure of school success.
Parents must weigh not only academics, but also extracurricular activities, safety, student support and myriad other factors when deciding whether a school is the right fit.
While we have our challenges in public education, Arizona is blessed to have many amazing public district and charter schools. That is a testament to our teachers, schools and families.
It’s estimated that roughly 50% of students in Maricopa County attend a school other than the one to which they are assigned — whether by utilizing district open enrollment or attending a public charter.
Parents vote with their feet, and public charter schools play an important role in that process, along with our public district school colleagues.
While we have many challenges in Arizona public education, public charter schools have proven to be a key ingredient in student success.
Jake Logan is president & CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association. Reach him at jake@azcharters.org.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona charter schools are not the low performers that Harvard claims
