Fourth of July fireworks
2008 Cityfolk Festival
Spotted at the Cityfolk Festival
Dayton charters get better scores
Compared to public schools here and to other big-city charters, more students pass
Thursday, August 23, 2007
DAYTON — A new study suggests that students who attend Dayton's charter schools posted higher scores in reading and math than those in all but one other big-city school district.
Only Canton posted a higher reading score among charter schools in the eight big-city school districts. Dayton's charters ranked first in math from that group.
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The analysis was conducted by the pro-charter Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, based on just-released state report card data. The study showed Dayton was the only district among the big eight that had a greater percentage of charter school students passing reading and math tests than kids who attended the public schools.
Fordham Vice President Terry Ryan acknowledged there is room for improvement.
"Fordham believes charter schools have to outperform traditional public schools in time," he said. "There are schools in every city doing it. There simply aren't enough that are."
When it comes to school district performance, all urban districts scored poorly. However, Dayton ranked last among the eight big-city school districts. Six of the eight saw their performance index score drop, including Dayton. The index score is the state's measure of test performance across all tests taken.
And while Dayton Public Schools has made gains over the past five years, Dayton's test-score gain for the period ranked sixth among the eight urban districts, beating only Canton and Columbus.
"The influence and impact of poverty on these numbers becomes increasingly something we need to look into," Ryan said. "The schools that struggle on state report cards the most are in Cleveland and Dayton and Cincinnati in the poorest areas. They're starting at a tougher starting point."
Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack said hitting the state's benchmarks, which change nearly every year, is a challenge for urban districts.
"It's a tougher climb," he said. "But we're working to do that."
For elementary and middle schools in the city, the top 10 test scorers were split evenly among charters and district schools, as were the bottom 10.
Fordham found that 40 percent of Dayton Public Schools are rated in academic emergency compared to 28 percent of the city's charters. The district did have two schools — the Charity Adams Earley Academy for Girls and the Dayton Early College Academy — earn an excellent rating. No charter schools reached that top level.
The Richard Allen charter schools continued a run of strong test performance, with its three schools ranked fourth, sixth and 11th out of 46 total schools.
Among charter high schools, which mostly focus on dropouts and kids at risk to drop out, nearly all ranked below the district's high schools for test performance.
Dayton ranks second behind New Orleans for the highest percentage of schoolchildren attending charter schools. New Orleans went to a charter-based public school system following Hurricane Katrina.
