[NYC] Charter Schools Win Top Grades: Surpass Traditional Public Schools on Report Cards

The New York Sun ^ | December 20, 2007 | ELIZABETH GREEN

[Aristotelian]

The city is pulling charter schools into the letter-grade game, and the privately run public schools have quickly jumped to the head of the class, claiming the top two spots in the city and raking in more A and B grades than traditional public schools.

Just 14 of the city's 60 charter schools were graded this year, but city officials said that next year grades would go to all eligible charter schools.

Of the graded schools, only one received an F, while five earned As and six earned Bs. That means 79% of the graded charter schools got As and Bs, compared to 62% of the city's traditional public schools.

Two "A"-graded middle schools, the Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn and the KIPP Infinity Charter School in West Harlem, got the two highest grades in the city, when you look at the numeric scores that justify the letter grades.

"They clearly just knocked it out of the park," the Department of Education's executive director of charter schools, Michael Thomas Duffy, said. "It shows what is possible. I think that's one of the best things that a charter can do, is say, 'We can take these same students, and we can do amazing things with them.'"

[Aristotelian]

"It shows what is possible. I think that's one of the best things that a charter can do, is say, 'We can take these same students, and we can do amazing things with them.'"

Here we have inner city kids in some of the worst neighborhoods in NYC suddenly doing well in school -- really learning for perhaps the first time in their lives -- thanks to the efforts of the private sector. Public schools generally don't work -- and neither does throwing money at the problem. I'd love to see the states turn to a voucher system for education. That's the ultimate solution to the problem of education.

[bpjam]

Time for Obama, Clinton and Edwards to call the NEA and AFT and ask for some more cash to keep this kind of thing from spreading beyond NYC.

And I bet Sheldon Silver up in Albany and Mayor Bloom(ing idiot)berg are looking for a way to make the union bosses happy and start banning these schools. Or force them to unionize their teachers or adopt the curriculum of the NY public schools or require the charter schools to teach Islam, or..... it shouldn’t take long.

[wintertime]

I’d love to see the states turn to a voucher system for education. That’s the ultimate solution to the problem of education.

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Tax credits are a better idea. There is less opportunity for government interference.

The BEST solution would be for parents to abandon the government schools. Then they should organize a massive school tax revolt.

The best solution would be for a complete and total collapse of the government system, and then rebuilding a universal K-12 system based on free market principles.

[Young Scholar]

And I bet Sheldon Silver up in Albany and Mayor Bloom(ing idiot)berg are looking for a way to make the union bosses happy and start banning these schools.

Completely wrong. Bloomberg has been a big supporter of charter schools.