Black and Latino Public Charter School Students Twice as Likely to Be at Grade Level: NJ Test Scores

Fifth grade students during their homeroom class at Achievement First Bushwick charter school in Brooklyn, New York, Jan 30, 2014. Petr Svab/Epoch Times

Recently released test scores show that black and Latino students in New Jersey public charter schools are twice as likely to be at grade level compared to their peers.

According to a Dec. 19 press release (pdf), an assessment of 2022 test scores compiled by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) shows that black and Latino students attending public charter schools in the six largest charter cities—Newark, Trenton, Paterson, Camden, Jersey City, and Plainfield—are twice as likely to be proficient in English language arts and mathematics when compared to their district peers. Test scores were not assessed during the two-year COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

School-by-school results of spring standardized tests in the state’s public school system showed a loss of seven years of academic progress during the lockdowns. New Jersey, along with Vermont and Maine, were the last states to publicly release their test results.

The Law

In 1995, the New Jersey Legislature enacted the Charter School Program Act (N.J.S.A 18A:36A), permitting the establishment of charter schools as an alternative to public schools. The law designates the Commissioner of Education as the sole authority in overseeing charter schools and the implementation of the charter school program.

“The Legislature further finds that the establishment of a charter school program is in the best interests of the students of this State and it is therefore the public policy of the State to encourage and facilitate the development of charter schools,” the law clarifies.

The program shall authorize the establishment of not more than 135 charter schools during the 48 months following the effective date of this act. A minimum of three charter schools shall be allocated to each county. The commissioner shall actively encourage the establishment of charter schools in urban school districts with the participation of institutions of higher education.

The law prohibits charter schools from employing discriminatory admissions policies based on “intellectual or athletic ability, measures of achievement or aptitude, status as a handicapped person, proficiency in the English language, or any other basis that would be illegal if used by a school district; however, a charter school may limit admission to a particular grade level or to areas of concentration of the school, such as mathematics, science, or the arts.”

In June 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed through a ruling (pdf) that the State Commissioner of Education’s obligation under the state constitution is to assess and convey the impact of charter schools on district funding and student segregation. The New Jersey Supreme Court was the first and only high court in the United States to impose a constitutional duty on a charter authorizer to ensure these schools do not segregate students by race, disability, or language status or undermine funding and resources for students in district schools.

The law also requires that the school district of residence “shall pay directly to the charter school for each student enrolled in the charter school who resides in the district an amount equal to 90 percent of the sum of the budget year equalization aid per pupil and the prebudget year general fund tax levy per pupil inflated by the CPI rate most recent to the calculation.”

The school district of residence shall also pay “directly to the charter school the security categorical aid attributable to the student and a percentage of the district’s special education categorical aid equal to the percentage of the district’s special education students enrolled in the charter school and, if applicable, 100% of preschool education aid. The district of residence shall also pay directly to the charter school any federal funds attributable to the student.”

The Challenge

In December 2018, the Education Law Center urged the NJDOE to “take immediate steps to reverse course from a decade of explosive and improper growth of charter school enrollment, targeted in the state’s high poverty, racially isolated school districts.”

Data submitted by ELC showed an increase in charter school enrollments under the Christie administration of 300 percent. The growth was concentrated in several high-poverty, urban districts. Newark saw the largest increase, 307 percent. Camden, Asbury Park, and Trenton, also saw large increases in charter school attendance.

“In allowing charter schools, the Legislature wanted to encourage local stakeholders to pilot innovative practices on a school-by-school basis to improve education for all students in districts served by charter schools,” ELC Executive Director David Sciarra said. “Over the last decade, the State has facilitated the rapid expansion of charter school networks designed to compete with, and replace, district public schools altogether, in direct violation of constitutional mandates and the Legislature’s intent.”

The ELC’s recommendations to address the problems in New Jersey’s charter school program were outlined in a six-page letter of written comments (pdf) submitted to the NJDOE.

The letter contends that, under the direction of former Governor Chris Christie, the DOE “shifted from authorizing single, community-based schools to allowing national charter management organizations to establish entire networks of schools, most notably in the State-operated districts—Camden, Newark, Paterson, and Jersey City.”

“Beyond race, the data on other forms of student segregation is stark,” the ELC charged, suggesting that “charters do not educate the same population of students as district schools.” The ELC further complained that charter students are less poor, with “fewer free-lunch-eligible students,” they serve fewer students with disabilities, and “includes very few, if any, English language learners.”

“This,” the ELC argued, “is the main reason why any claims of charter success based on test score comparisons between charters and district schools must be discounted at the outset.

“These raw comparisons are grossly misleading since they do not account for the significant differences in student populations served by charter and district schools.”

In February 2020, the New Jersey Supreme Court granted a petition (pdf) requesting a review of the State Commissioner of Education’s 2016 decision approving an enrollment increase of 8,500 students.

An October 2021 report by the ELC argued why comparisons of school district spending “must take into account demographic differences in student composition rather than relying on simplistic comparisons of per-pupil spending levels.”

A March 2 report by the ELC—“The Color of Opportunity”—showed that “the average Black (-$1,560) and Latino (-$1,806) student attends a district that is spending far below their SFRA Adequacy Spending Target, while the average white ($1,106) and Asian ($253) student attends a district that spends at or above their Adequacy Target.”

A Response From the NJPCSA

The ELC’s position that charter schools are a problem is an assessment with which the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association (NJPCSA) disagrees.

“Given the student achievement results released last week by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), it is confounding to me as to why any leader or group in New Jersey would want to limit the opportunities for children and their families,“ NJPCSA President Harry Lee said in a statement issued to The Epoch Times. ”It is as if they are ignoring the evidence-based research that will offer a lifeline of opportunities for a bright future for thousands of public school students in New Jersey. We should be looking for ways to increase those opportunities for them to attend public charter schools, not limit them. More than a dozen public charter schools have applied to serve additional students throughout New Jersey and with this new data, the NJDOE has the information they need to make the right decisions for students and families on charter school applications.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the ELC for comment.