NYC CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENTS MAKE IMPRESSIVE GAINS IN MATH AND ELA
Data Shows NYC Charter Schools Continue to Outperform District, Continuing a 20 Year Trend
(NEW YORK) – This week, the full results of the Spring 2025 English Language Arts (ELA) and Math assessments for district students, as well as overall test score data for charter schools was released. In line with a decades-long trend, the results show that charter school students continued to make impressive gains in both subjects, and had considerably higher rates of proficiency than their district counterparts. A complete comparison will be available to further explore when NYSED releases the full charter school data set this Fall.
Fast Facts:
- 67.5% of charter school students scored proficient on their ELA exams, compared to 56.3% of district school students – an 11.2 percentage point difference.
- In math, 68.6% of charter school students scored proficient compared to 56.9% of district school students – a 11.7 percentage point differential.
- Year over year, charter school students’ scores went up 9.2 percentage points in ELA, and 2.1 percentage points in math.
- While demographic data for charter schools is not currently available, the NYC charter school sector’s student population is 90% Black and Hispanic. On the 2024 ELA and Math exams, Black and Hispanic charter school students outperformed their district peers in Math and ELA by 27.5 and 24 percentage points, respectively. Given that there have not been demographic changes to either sector, we expect that these extremely large gaps will be present in this year’s results.
“For decades, New York City’s charter schools have opened the door for public school students to excel – and this year’s data shows yet again that their continued hard work is paying off,” said James Merriman, Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Charter School Center. “This incredible progress is only possible thanks to the tremendous charter school teachers and leaders who challenge and support their students every day. When families are empowered with great public school choices, students rise to the occasion.”
By the Numbers:
As soon as all data is available, the New York City Charter School Center will update its interactive Power BI presentation.
