There may have been some smirking recently among charter-school opponents when the accountability grades came out from the Mississippi Department of Education.
The state’s first three charter schools, all located in Jackson, showed up toward the bottom of the rankings. Two had the same accountability grades that they received the year before — a D and an F. The third, after its first year, received a D.
“See,” we could imagine charter opponents saying, “we told you charter schools were a waste of time and only take precious financial resources from already underserved public schools.”
Not so fast.
A closer look at the numbers shows that, although the charters have not performed any miracles in their first year or two of operation, at least two of them are doing a whole lot better than their peer middle schools in the failing Jackson School District.
Of the 13 traditional middle schools, 11 of them received F’s, including 10 of them for the second year in a row. The students in these 11 most closely match the demographics from which the three charter schools draw — low-income, mostly African-American.
Two of the charters — both operated by the Nashville-based Republic Schools — not only were a grade higher, but the percentage of their students who scored proficient or better on state tests in reading and math were two to three times higher than the 11 failing traditional middle schools.
Meanwhile, the one F-rated charter, Midtown Public, was indistinguishable in its dismal performance after two years than the failing traditional schools. If you were to judge it today, you’d have to shut it down.
To do so, though, might also be premature. Even state Superintendent of Education Carey Wright, no cheerleader for charter schools, says it takes three to five years to see what if any difference they are making, since most of the students who enroll in them start off two grades or more behind academically.
So, let’s not give charter schools a pass, but let’s not rush to judgment either. This experiment in education has only just begun in Mississippi. The first rural charter school has yet to open. That comes next school year with one in Clarksdale.
Like a lot of experiments — including the state Department of Education’s own two decades of trying to turn around failing schools and districts by taking them over — some are going to work out better than others.
In the next couple of years, it will be clear which charters schools are successes and which are failures. Those that are not operating at least at a C level by the time their five-year charter comes up for review should be closed. There’s no purpose in having charter schools if they’re as mediocre or dysfunctional as the schools to which the charters are supposed to provide an alternative.
It would be wrongheaded, however, to root for their failure. Successful charter schools are not just good for the children who patronize them. They can also help children who stay in traditional schools by spurring these schools to get better and by providing examples of how to do it.
The Greenwood Commonwealth
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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