Curious2

School Progress Report Statistics

The New York City Department of Education produces an annual progress report for every school in the city for which there exists sufficient test data.  The DOE website gives a good description of the reports.  The DOE also makes available an Excel workbook with all of the results for the year 2007-08.

I compared the results for charter schools with traditional schools.  Here is the workbook with my additional calculations and results.

Some conclusions:

1. With respect to overall letter grades (i.e. A,B,C,D,F), charter schools performed slightly better than traditional schools, but the results are not statistically significant.

2. With respect to the overall numeric scores (which range from 9.6 to 106.5), charter schools performed significantly better than traditional schools.  The difference between this result and the letter grade result is explained by a disproportionate number of very high scores for charter schools.  This information gets "lost" in the large number of schools that get A's.  (Almost 40% of schools received an overall grade of an A.)  The following graph gives a good picture of the situation by plotting the different frequencies of scores normalized by the mean and standard deviation of the overall school population.  Notice that very high scores are much more common for charter schools.  Notice also that there are a disproportionate number of charter schools with very low scores.  This is attributable to two charter schools that received amongst the worst overall scores in the city.

3. Charter schools performed significantly better than traditional public schools in all three components of the overall score: environment, performance, and progress.  The most impressive average score was actually the "environment" component which is based on attendance figures and surveys given to teachers, parents, and students.  In other words, charter schools performed particularly well on the metric that has nothing to do with test scores, but rather attempts to represent teacher, parent, and student impressions.

4. I looked at the performance of various "support networks" for schools.  In New York City, traditional public schools can select one of a number of different support options to help to manage their school.  Only two of the support organizations had statistically significant results: the Empowerment Schools showed small but statistically significant out-performance; the schools using the Knowledge Network Learning Support Organization (KLSO) showed larger and statistically significant under-performance.

Waiting for Contracts

As we watch the KIPP/UFT battle unfold, one thing seems clear: we won't see a union contract between the two organizations anytime soon.

The unionization process for KIPP AMP is governed by the Taylor Law and overseen by the Public Employment Relations Board ("PERB").  If and when the PERB certifies the UFT to represent the AMP teachers, KIPP will be required to begin collective bargaining.  This won't necessarily lead to a contract, though.  From a primer published by Atlantic Legal:

"In essence, collective bargaining is the obligation of the union and the employer to meet and confer in good faith concerning employees' terms and conditions of employment.  Thus, a good faith effort must be made by both parties to seek agreement.  However, an agreement is not required or guaranteed, since neither side is forced to accept any terms it does not want."

The teachers at Merrick Academy, a charter school in Queens, were organized by the UFT in November, 2007.  Today, sixteen months later, there still is no contract. 

Green Dot New York Charter School was formed in partnership with the UFT and began operation this past September.  Again, there still is no contract.  (I have heard that a 50-page contract is coming soon.)

Meanwhile, the UFT faces a difficult situation in agreeing to a new contract with a charter school.  If they agree to a short contract (like the Amber contract or the Green Dot contract in Los Angeles), it begs the question of the necessity for the standard 165-page version.  Moreover, shorter contracts have the potential to infuriate teachers that are already unhappy with contract compromises of recent years as well as UFT sponsorship of charter schools.

I have never read a teachers' union contract that seems consistent with the operations of a KIPP school (or any of the other high-performing charter schools that I have visited).  The UFT has its own political issues in agreeing to a short contract.  There is nothing that forces a compromise.  We might be waiting for a very long time.

    

  

Another Great Charter School: KIPP Infinity

Last week I visited another great New York City charter school: KIPP Infinity in West Harlem.  Infinity serves grades 5 through 8.

In the most recent NYC Department of Education progress report, KIPP Infinity received the highest overall score amongst all 1,043 elementary, middle, and K-8 schools that were graded.  On their 2007-08 "Learning Environment Survey Report", in which parents, teachers, and students are surveyed, the scores were uniformly excellent and, often, outliers.  For example, on parent engagement, they scored a 125% on a scale from 0 to 100%.   

As I talked with principal Joe Negron in his office (a table in the hallway), it was clear that his focus is on further improvement.  He noted, for example, that while most of Infinity's students pass the state tests, few of them have advanced into the most selective high schools. 

The students at Infinity seem focused and mature for middle schoolers.  Unlike the great elementary charter schools I have mentioned (here and here), Infinity generally has one teacher per classroom with an average class size of 25.  Still, the students seem attentive and engaged.  Many of the teachers have been at the school since day one and turnover has been very low.  Clearly, they are doing a tremendous job.

Interestingly, all KIPP schools plan on using MAP tests to help them to better assess student progress on a national level.  Infinity is happy about this development: they don't believe that the state assessments are sufficient for them to take their students to the next level.

As part of the larger KIPP NYC network, Infinity staff can focus on educational issues.  A "Shared Services Team" for the network provides support in the core functional areas of finance, HR, operations, technology, and development.   

Of course, being a KIPP NYC school has brought the distraction of the KIPP AMP unionization controversy.  Negron confirmed that, contrary to some early media reports, Infinity teachers were not involved in the situation. 

Charter School Statistics: Philanthropy

I have been compiling some New York City charter school data from tax filings.  "IRS Form 990" is the required federal filing for tax-exempt organizations.  On these public documents, you can find information about fundraising and spending.  Since these forms are usually filed several months after the end of the reporting period, the most recent data I could find was for the 2006-2007 school year.  (I hope to get 2007-2008 data later this year.) 

For the 39 schools for which I could get good data, the total amount of contributions received directly from individuals and foundations was $11,625,432.  These same schools served 9,898 students in that school year.  Therefore, the average per pupil philanthropic contribution was $1,175.

Several notes on this:
1. The 39 schools were taken from a list of 50 New York City charter schools in my database.  These 50 schools were chosen because they have taken state exams in 2007-2008. 

2. 11 schools were not included because either I couldn't find the 990 form (8 cases) or the filing didn't make sense to me (3 cases). 

3. I think it is possible that some of these schools receive additional philanthropic funding through other entities.  I intend to do further research on this.