Do charter schools cherry pick?

Students in Arizona charter schools did better on this year’s AzMERIT test than those in district schools.

In just about every grade level.

In both the math and reading portions of the test.

And among just about every group — white, Hispanic, rich, poor, disabled — you can think of.

Yes, I know. Those are fighting words. There’s a pervasive belief that charter schools are only doing well — or, at least, better than district schools — because they cherry-pick the best students, leaving district schools to educate everyone else.

And, yes, there are nuggets of truth fueling that stereotype.

Charter students generally remain whiter and richer than their peers in district schools. Charter schools also serve a fraction of the English-language learners, economically disadvantaged and disabled students that district schools do, and in smaller percentages.

But that’s changing.

Despite rapid growth, charter schools still educate less than 20 percent of the state’s public-school students. But they are becoming more diverse as they grow — and key populations are growing at faster rates than they are in district schools.

To compare apples to apples, let’s look at the number of students tested in English language arts across all grade levels from 2015 to 2018:

❚ Hispanic students in charter schools grew 33 percent in three years (to 44,353), compared to 9 percent in district schools (to 301,406).

❚ Black students in charters grew 31 percent (to 7,097), compared to 7 percent in districts (to 33,536).

❚ Asian students in charters grew 40 percent (to 7,173) but basically stayed the same in districts (15,311).

❚ Students with limited English proficiency increased 33 percent in charters (to 5,347), compared to 18 percent in districts (to 40,791).

❚ Economically disadvantaged students grew 19 percent in charters (to 43,492) but decreased 3 percent in districts (to 290,477). Caveat: While the number of economically disadvantaged charter students has steadily increased over three years, the number in districts peaked in 2016 and has decreased each year since.

❚ Students with disabilities grew 25 percent (to 11,734) but declined 2 percent in districts (to 71,087). A similar caveat applies here: The disabled population in charter schools grew steadily over three years, but the number in district schools grew in 2016 and 2017 before falling in 2018.

The latter three groups are particularly important in this cherry-picking debate because arguably, if charters were only taking the best and brightest, we wouldn’t see steady increases of students that typically require more resources to educate.

A study from the Center for Student Achievement also found that about 85,000 students transferred schools between the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. Nearly half moved from one district to another, while less than a third moved from a district to a charter.

What’s more, the study found, the average AzMERIT scores of those who transferred from districts to charters were below the state average. Students transferring between charters had the highest average scores.

Now, to be clear: Just because a higher percentage of charter school students are passing in these groups doesn’t mean they’re excelling.

❚ An abysmal 5 percent of charter students with limited English proficiency passed the English portion of the exam in 2018, compared to 3 percent in district schools.

❚ Only 16 percent of students with disabilities passed AzMERIT’s English test in charter schools, compared to 10 percent in districts.

❚ A somewhat better 36 percent of Hispanic students in charters passed that portion of the test, compared to 29 percent in districts.

❚ Meanwhile, 61 percent of white students and 79 percent of Asian students passed in charter schools, compared to 54 percent and 62 percent in district schools, respectively.

Both forms of public education have a lot of work to do to close these achievement gaps.

That said, charter and district schools are improving their scores consistently each year — something you wouldn’t expect to see if charter schools were stealing the best and brightest from district schools. Charter schools should be improving at the expense of district schools if that were the case. But AzMERIT and National Assessment of Educational Progress scores suggest it is not.

In fact, Arizona schools are showing more improvement on NAEP than schools in most other states. Charter fan or not, shouldn’t that be something to celebrate?

Some say no. Not when the news is filled with reports of charter schools profiting off school construction, entering no-bid contracts and paying companies to recruit students.

I get that. While all of this is legal for charter schools, it’s anger-inducing, especially for those who believe publicly funded charter schools should play by the same rules as district schools.

But in the zeal to reform the system, it also would be a mistake to overlook the role charter schools play in our state’s academic success.

Test scores are improving despite the funding woes and teacher shortages that also should be killing achievement. Whatever is happening across the state, a rising tide truly seems to be lifting all ships.