BEING INDEPENDENT
Charter schools can offer a different educational terrain for your child
OVER the past 25 years, the number of charter schools operating across New York City has risen to 270, educating 146,000 students from grades K-12, which represents 15% of all K-12 students, according to James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, a Man- hattan-based nonprofit orga- nization that helps new charter schools get their start.
With enrollments rising, “What’s clear from the data is that people are continuing to choose charters.
Before them, there were only neighborhood district schools — no choice. Parents should go and find out what the right school for their child is,” said Merriman. Created by state law and open to all New York City students, charters receive their funding from public school districts but aren’t operated by them. Rather, an independent board of trustees meets to create a school. These free-of-charge schools don’t mandate testing, interviewing, essays or auditioning in order to apply, but if there are greater applicants than available spots, charters must conduct lotteries to select students for admission. Those who don’t make the cut are placed on a school’s waitlist and may be offered admission as seats are freed up, said Merriman.
“One of the single biggest innovations of charters is that the people in these schools are clear on their mission — to make sure that everyone in the building is growing together in the same direction,” said Merriman.
A wider variety of schools to choose from offers greater opportunities to serve all kinds of students, including those with individualized education plans. For several years, NYC charters have enrolled students with disabilities in numbers comparable to the district, and 76 of them enroll a higher proportion of this population than the citywide average, according to the New York City Charter School Center website.
Furthermore, recently released (2022-2023) New York State Assessment scores for grades 3 through 8 English language arts and math exams show charter school students continue to grow their proficiency levels, according to the site.
Over the next couple of years, five new charter schools have been approved by the state Legislature to open in New York City.
“Four of five opening are replications of existing strong models which have shown they work for kids,” said Merriman.
Ashish Kapadia is executive director of Central Queens Academy Charter School, one of the five charters, which is set to expand this year. Kapadia’s also a parent of a student there; the flexibility to design schools that can create greater quantities of teaching and learning is exciting.
“What motivates me are the 800 scholars we have — their families want and deserve their kids to get the best education they can get. I see them every day, as do our 109 employees and all of us want to be our best for them,” Kapadia said.
Back in 2012, their first charter, a middle school, opened in 2012, expanding to an elementary school in
2021, which today serves 100 kids per grade. This August, CQA2, which was approved in October, will open as a kindergarten through first grade school.
“We do a strong job of getting to know every scholar and their family and working like a communitybased school,” said Kapadia.
Drawing from Elmhurst, Corona and Woodside, the school focuses on core academics, as well as engaging co-curriculum instruction in physical education, art, music and dance. “We try to push parent engagement as high as it can be,” said Kapadia.
Their longer school day and after-school program (serving upward of 300 scholars) increases learning time, which may contribute to the fact that they’ve academically outperformed their district, NYC and New York state on all state exams since 2013, said Kapadia.
With over 80% of their scholars being first- or second-generation immigrants, “We spend a lot of time on literacy instruction,” said Kapadia. “Our English language learners are from over 40 different countries and speak 20 different languages at home. There is a separate period for reading and another for writing.”
On the social and emotional side, “We dedicate time for this. We have five counselors and social workers for our students — a stronger ratio than other public schools,” said Kapadia.
Their facility opened in 2021, and “allows us to maximize our academic program, specifically our [science, technology, engineering and math] classrooms,” she said. “Our STEM program helped us catch up and get back to pre-pandemic math proficiency levels, which was important for us. Robotics and coding is built into our eighth graders’ instruction,” said Kapadia.
With a high demand for enrollment (up to 1,600 applications for their lottery), “our second school will be similar to our first,” said Kapadia. “Construction is underway. Our targeted programming is part of why we’ve been successful, and why we will continue to work hard to meet the needs of every scholar.” Daniel Diaz is the executive director of East Side House Settlement, a nonprofit in the South Bronx that serves surrounding communities and focuses on education and technology training, as a gateway out of poverty. He’s also a main applicant board member of Haven Charter High School, another newly approved charter. “We were seeing many of our young people graduate from high school, but unfortunately, not from college,” he said. “The idea on how to bring the workforce into the high school arena came about.” The new charter will launch with 100 students chosen by lottery and grow to 400, said Diaz. “We have partnered with different medical providers, including New York-Pres-byterian Hospital, to make sure our students are prepared to receive certifications right out of high school, including EKG, phlebotomy, certified nursing assistant. Our dream is for a young person to graduate with a high school diploma and a job offer from one of our employment partners,” he said.
To that end, students will have academic programming, Regents credits and electives after or before school to get trained on such tracks. There will be internship and job-shadowing experiences to ensure as much exposure as possible, said Diaz. And, if the medical field doesn’t interest a student, “My nonprofit will help to get other certifications. We will support them in those decisions,” he said.
Diaz’s passion comes from seeing students trying to go to school, but needing jobs to support families.
“It doesn’t mean they won’t go on to college, but they need to prepare a little earlier and have a backup plan,” said Diaz, whose nonprofit placed over 550 young people in jobs last year alone.
With the charter school option, “Parents can get an individualized approach for each child. We get to do things that aren’t the statusquo. We will make sure students get where they need to go — find their path, get on it and get a job at the end of it,” said Diaz.
During her seven years teaching in the public school system, Patience Brown hadn’t considered charter schools, but that changed after a school leadership internship in The Bronx.
“I’d shadowed my mentor and didn’t love the lack of autonomy in a district school,” Brown said. After accepting an assistant principal job at a charter school there, she never left. Today, Brown serves as chief academic officer of Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School, a K-8 started in 2010, which is currently at full capacity, serving 729 students.
“We’re a mom-and-pop charter and love who we are — one school, one building supporting kids in our central Brooklyn neighborhood,” she said.
Prepared to open a K-1 next year, with plans to grow to K-9, the schools will all be in the same building, eventually shifting their ninth grade to an annexed campus in Williamsburg, said Brown.
Their co-teaching model (two or three teachers in every class) sets this charter apart, as does their extended school day, and service and project-based learning, said Brown.
For example, a company called Scribble comes to work with kids on graphic stories, and Little Hand Brooklyn introduces students to ceramic and clay.
There are service-learning opportunities held at a local community garden, too. “We believe in choices for kids based over rigorous academics,” said Brown. “We have high expectations, leverage all teachers and embed partnerships into our curriculum. It’s not testprep all day. We filter in partnerships to experience the world outside our classroom.” Proof of success is in the metrics. “We produced the highest test scores in 2021 since our inception in [English language arts] and math. We are the second highest performing school in District 16,” said Brown. “We have a 92% retention rate of our teachers here; there’s no burnout.”
Despite other schools struggling, “we have a huge waitlist. I’m a firm believer that charters give parents choice. We are truly a little community school — doing our thing,” said Brown.
Christina Yi-Perry, founder and executive director of the freshly approved Kwenda Collegiate Girls Charter School (K-1) in Brooklyn, worked in and around public education for the past 15 years.
“We came into being around access,” she said. “New York City is home to some of the most prestigious private girls schools, but with the average tuition of $61,000, they’re not accessible for everyone. After talking with neighbors and parents, it felt clear the need was there to give families more choice for a model that didn’t exist for their neighborhood.”
Pulling students from Flatbush and East Flatbush, and set to open in 2025, the school has plans to grow to eighth grade, adding a grade per year, said Yi-Perry. There will be 108 open seats immediately.
“Kwenda means, ‘go’ in Swahili. Every girl should decide where she goes in life. It’s the role of a school to help her get there,” said YiPerry. This charter will hone-in on gender justice in science, tech, engineering, arts and math, also known as STEAM fields. There will be a daily voice and empowerment class concentrating on identity, public speaking and leadership. “Girls, particularly those of color, are underrepresented in the STEAM fields. Working with exciting folks in the tech space — former Googlers or those from AI — we’re working to develop appropriate curriculum, accessible for kindergartners,” she said.
Additionally, “We have a full-time social worker and are forming social-emotional supports,” she said.
“I think, by definition, charters are an equity issue,” said Yi-Perry, who is grateful for the work and opportunity ahead. “They allow more choice for parents to decide what’s best for their child.”