Students in charter schools outperformed their peers in traditional schools in nearly every category, according to The Florida Department of Education's annual charter school performance report.
“There is simply no denying that choice works, particularly for minority and low-income students," says Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran. "These results represent hundreds of thousands of Florida families who were empowered to make the best education decisions for their children and are
The report, Student Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools: A Comparison of the Performance of Charter School Students with Traditional Public School Students, compared achievement and learning gains across a variety of grade levels and ethnicities.
The statutorily mandated report is based on more than 4.2 million test scores and makes 195 comparisons of academic success between students attending charter schools and students attending traditional public schools.
Key Findings
- In 63 of the 77 (82%) comparisons, students enrolled in charter schools demonstrated higher rates of grade level performance than their peers in traditional public school.
- The report concluded that the achievement gap was lower for charter school students in 19 of 22 (86%) comparisons. The achievement gap component included English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
- In comparisons of achievement and learning gains, African-American students in charter schools performed better than African-American students in district-managed schools in 89% of the comparisons.
- In comparisons of achievement and learning gains, Hispanic students in charter schools performed better than Hispanic students in district-managed schools in 93% of the comparisons.
- In comparisons of achievement and learning gains, students eligible for free/reduced lunch in charter schools performed better than students eligible for free/reduced lunch in district-managed schools in 93% of the comparisons.