In The News.
By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
New Mexico charter school students overall tend to be performing "significantly worse" than their traditional school counterparts, a Stanford University report said.
The report, issued Monday, showed that Hispanics, American Indians and students starting out at the lowest performance levels were performing "significantly worse" in math and reading than in traditional schools.
The Stanford study covered 16 states and the District of Columbia, and found that effectiveness of charter schools varied widely. Outperforming traditional schools were charters in Denver and Chicago and in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri.
Charters in New Mexico were among those showing lower performance, as were those in Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas.
High Performers
New Mexico charters that outperformed traditional schools are Southwest Primary Learning Center, Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science and Twenty-first Century Charter School in Albuquerque; Sidney Gurtierrez Middle School in Roswell; La Academia Dolores Huerta in Las Cruces; and Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe.
The New Mexico Public Education Department, which commissioned the report by Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, said the majority of charters are keeping pace with traditional schools.
"It appears that the major difference provided by charter schools is choice in curricular focus and school size," Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said Monday in a prepared statement. "These factors are attractive to some of our families."
The state noted that the report, issued Monday, also showed that charters are drawing low-performing students from traditional schools, and that charters need to diversify their enrollment to reflect the state's student population. Students who had failed a grade showed "significantly better" results in charter schools in math and reading.
Lisa Grover, CEO of the New Mexico Coalition of Charter Schools, says the best explanation for school performance is in the report, which ties the results to state charter school laws.
"A performance contract is critically important to a strong charter school law," Grover said. Such a contract outlines expectations for student performance.
New Mexico charters that performed worse than traditional schools were Academy for Technology and the Classics, Horizon Academy Prep High School, La Academia de Esperanza, Los Puentes Charter School and North Valley Academy in Albuquerque; Deming César Chávez Charter School; Jefferson Montessori Academy in Carlsbad; Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe; Mosaic Academy Charter in Aztec; and Village Academy in Bernalillo.
Posted June 16, 2009