NEW YORK CITY CHARTER SCHOOLS APPROACH RECORD 100,000 STUDENTS AS 12 NEW SCHOOLS OPEN, OVER 120 EXPAND FOR 2015-16 SCHOOL YEAR
Demand Continues to Far Outpace Supply as Nearly 43,000 Students Remain Waitlisted; African American & Hispanic Charter Students Continue to Outpace District Counterparts in Academic Performance
112 Charters Start Before September – Approximately 49,000 Students Will Have Already Received an Average of Two Weeks of Instruction Before District Schools Open Their Doors
NEW YORK – This school year, a record 95,000 New York City students will attend charter schools, a dozen new charter schools will open and 121 existing schools will scale up as they add seats and grades to meet demand, the New York City Charter School Center announced today. New and growing charters schools are concentrated primarily in New York’s lowest-income communities including the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan, and immigrant-heavy areas of Queens. Strong demand has continued to far exceed supply, as this year an estimated 42,600 students are stuck on waitlists, despite the new and expanding schools. And, as recently released state test scores show, many of the highest-need African American and Hispanic charter school students in the city continue to beat the odds by outpacing their district peers in academic performance. Check out the new 2015-16 Charter School Fact Sheet.
“This year, more New York City students than ever before will have access to a school of their choice,” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center. “This is a step in the right direction, but doesn’t erase the fact that demand persistently exceeds supply and that, yet again, tens of thousands of students languish on charter school waitlists. It’s a new school year: let’s leave politics behind, pay attention to persistent parent demand, and get to work to create a high quality seat for every kid that needs one.”
The upcoming school year will welcome the opening of 12 new charter schools as diverse as the communities they represent. Among this year’s cohort:
Eight schools located in the Bronx, including four in the South Bronx, among the highest areas of charter concentration – and charter demand – in the city;
Six schools replicating successful school models, including one, Brooklyn Prospect Charter School – Downtown, that incorporates the International Baccalaureate (IB) program into its curriculum.
New Ventures Charter School is an alternative high school for over-age and under-credited students ages 16-21.
Rosalyn Yalow Charter School will utilize a team teaching model that pairs teachers with licensed social workers to ensure a holistic approach to child development.
The following is a list of the 12 new charter schools that will open to approximately 1,500 students this year:
Brooklyn
Brooklyn Prospect Charter School Downtown
International Charter School of New York
Bronx
Atmosphere Academy Charter School
Bronx Charter School for Better Learning II
Charter High School for Law and Social Justice
Rosalyn Yalow Charter School
South Bronx Classical Charter School II
South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School
Storefront Academy
Amber Charter School II
Queens
New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science IV
Staten Island
New Ventures
Last week, statewide proficiency test scores confirmed that once again, charter schools were among the city’s highest scorers, with African American and Hispanic charter students outperforming their peers in district schools. Specifically, 2014-15 test scores showed:
African American students in charter schools are more than twice as likely to be proficient in math than their peers in traditional district schools (43.1 percent compared to 19.1 percent). In English Language Arts (ELA), they are 50 percent more likely (29 percent to 19 percent) to be proficient.
In math, 39 percent of all NYC African American students who achieved Advanced Proficiency (Level 4) were from a charter school – even though African American students in charters only make up 16 percent of this sub-group population.
Hispanic students in charter schools are nearly twice as likely as their district peers to be proficient in math (42.1 percent compared to 23.7 percent) and considerably more likely in ELA (26.6 percent to 19.8 percent).
Compared with the district overall, charter schools students had a 44.2 percent proficiency rate in math; traditional district schools were at 35.2 percent. In ELA, charter school students’ proficiency rate was 29.3 percent compared to 30.4 percent for the district.
Finally, many education experts have attributed charter school academic achievement in no small part to longer school days and longer school years. The 2015 – 2016 school year is no exception. In fact, 112 schools – over half of NYC charters – will have started on or before August 31, 2015. This amounts to approximately 49,000 students receiving on average 75 hours of instruction before district students even walk in the door. This underscores the urgency that characterizes the charter school movement and why parents so often are ready to leave district schools for charters.
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About the New York City Charter School Center
The New York City Charter School Center is an independent non-profit committed to fostering an environment in which public charters can open and flourish, and, through their innovative approaches, provide models for improving all public schools. The Charter Center helps new charter schools get started, supports existing schools, and engages the charter school community around key issues. Learn more about the New York City Charter School Center at www.nyccharterschools.org.
About NYC’s Charter Schools
Charter schools are free, independently run public schools that are able to innovate in their classroom structures, curriculum, and teaching methods. In return, they’re held to higher standards of accountability. More than 90 percent of the City’s charter school students are African-American or Latino, and over 70 percent are from low-income families. There will be 207 public charter schools serving over 95,000 students in all five boroughs for the 2015-2016 school year.
