2010 Charter School Performance

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2010 Charter School Performance

Colorado Growth Model | Adequate Yearly Growth | CSAPs | Awards

Colorado Growth Model

In 2010, 59 percent of the charter school grade levels (i.e., all elementary, middle, and high school grades served within charters) meet or exceed the state’s median growth percentile in mathematics, 61 percent meet or exceed the state median in reading, and 63 percent meet or exceed the state median growth in writing.

Between 2009 and 2010:

The percentage of charter elementary schools to meet or exceed the state median growth percentile increase in all three subject areas;
The percentage of charter middle schools to meet or exceed the state median growth percentile increased in mathematics and writing; and
The percentage of charter high schools to meet or exceed the state median growth percentile increased in reading.

Adequate Yearly Growth

This year the state introduced a new measure by which to rate schools on their effectiveness at reaching all students—the median adequate growth percentile. The median adequate growth percentile for a school represents the growth that is needed by the “typical” student in the school to reach proficiency within three years or by 10th grade, whichever comes first. For this analysis we compared the actual median growth percentile achieved by all schools in the state to the median adequate growth percentile needed to bring students to proficiency. The figure below illustrates the percentage of schools across the state, and for charters alone, whose actual median growth percentiles were equal to or greater than their median adequate growth percentiles.

*charter schools are included in the figures for all state.

The percentage of schools, both statewide and by charters alone, to meet or exceed adequate median growth in reading was quite impressive. In all grade levels, at least 70 percent of schools met the adequate growth percentile for reading, with charter middle schools achieving this 90 percent of the time.

The state as a whole appears to have struggled more to meet adequate growth percentiles in both writing and math. In both math and writing, however, a higher percentage of charter schools met their adequate growth percentiles than all schools in the state—with the exception of high school level writing.

CSAPS: Percent Proficient or Advanced

While not as good an indicator of school effectiveness as growth, the percent of students in a school to score proficient or better on the CSAP is an important snap shot of how students are performing academically in our state.

In 2010, the overall proficiency results among charter schools closely mirrored those for the entire state. Charters are outperforming the state average for percent proficient and advanced in all subjects at the elementary and middle school levels. When looking at charter high schools it seems that they have lower percentages of students reaching proficiency and above, however, when Alternative Education Campus (AECs) are removed from the analysis, charters are performing as well as the state at the high school level for the subjects of reading and writing.