Boston residents and/or supporters of charter schools should be reading a list of very interesting statistics compiled by MATCH School founder Michael Goldstein It's apparently not online; Eduwonk has the full list, and here are a few choice ones:
1. You knew that there continues to be an achievement gap, with race and income as the big predictors. You probably didn't know, however, black and Hispanic students in some suburban districts do better than in others. Framingham and Brookline have 57% and 55% of their African-American kids earning "proficiency" on Grade 10 MCAS math, whereas Newton and Lincoln-Sudbury have just 39%.
2. You're used to Boston Public Schools getting constant criticism. On the same test, black sophomores in Boston earned "proficiency" at a 30% rate, beating the Lexington mark of 25%. Would you say Lexington High's math department is failing? No Child Left Behind was designed, in part, precisely to do this: identify struggling kids in well-regarded suburban schools...
7. When charters started a decade ago, you heard Boston charters would "cream off the white kids", because their parents are more motivated. The DOE 2003 data shows Boston charters serving 70% black students - more than the 47% in the district as a whole.
Posted by kswygert at January 9, 2005 12:44 AM