NY Board Of Regents: Only 10% Of Charter School Graduates Are "College Ready"

Buried in this NY Times article about the low percentage of NY State public school graduates who are "college ready" is the news that charter schools do not prepare students as well as traditional public schools:

New York State education officials released a new set of graduation statistics on Monday that show less than half of students in the state are leaving high school prepared for college and well-paying careers.

The new statistics, part of a push to realign state standards with college performance, show that only 23 percent of students in New York City graduated ready for college or careers in 2009, not counting special-education students. That is well under half the current graduation rate of 64 percent, a number often promoted by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as evidence that his education policies are working....

In the wealthier districts across the state, the news is better: 72 percent of students in “low need” districts are graduating ready for college or careers. But even that is well under the 95 percent of students in those districts who are now graduating.

The data also cast new doubt on the ability of charter schools to outperform their traditional school peers. Statewide, only 10 percent of students at charters graduated in 2009 at college-ready standards, though 49 percent received diplomas. The state has not yet calculated results for every district and school.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/nyregion/08regents.html


Might it be that the strategy we have been pursuing - charter school expansion, additional testing in every subject at every level, regulated curricula written from Washington, closing schools and firing teachers - isn't actually working?

REAL REFORM requires teaching skills and lessons beyond academics and it just isn't something that Bloomberg, Obama, Gates, Broad, et al. are going to want to do.

They would rather create KIPP factories that teach the three tenets of 21st century American society: WORK, SHOP, OBEY.

And then scapegoat schools and teachers for the "crisis" that they have created through economic inequity and that enriches them every day of their lives.

http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2011/02/ny-board-of-regents-only-10-of-charter.html

applications rejected wholesale by virtue alone of their "education" at a charter school. Their diplomas will be nearly worthless.

I shouldn't enjoy this. I really shouldn't. I'm a baaaaaad person.

But, hell. If there's no accountability, what did everybody expect?