Charter students score well on tests

Students in charter schools in the state's largest and most troubled school systems score higher than students in regular public schools on the vast majority of standardized math and English tests, a Globe review has found.

In Boston, for example, 56 percent of the charter school students scored proficient or advanced last year on the 10th-grade English test, compared with 38 percent of students in the regular public schools.

Looking at tests across all grades in eight cities last year, charter school students finished ahead of regular school students by an average of 12 percentage points.

In the last five years, charter schools have stayed ahead of noncharter schools on most MCAS exams in those cities, which are at the center of the state's debate about whether to let more children attend the independent, publicly funded schools.

In Boston, which has more than 4,500 charter students, the largest amount in any city or town in the state, charter school students outdid public school students on every Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test but fourth-grade math. In Fall River, 62 percent of charter school seventh graders reached the advanced or proficient score in English, compared with 42 percent in regular schools. And in Lawrence, about a third of charter-school eighth-graders hit advanced or proficient marks in math, compared with 10 percent of the regular schools.

The Boston Globe analyzed test scores over five years in Boston, Worcester, Lawrence, Lowell, Fall River, Springfield, New Bedford, and Brockton. Those districts account for more than half of the nearly 20,000 charter school students in the state and are among those with the lowest test scores.

Whether students perform better or worse in charter schools is a contentious topic in the debate about how much Massachusetts should embrace the experimental schools. The Globe's review indicates that charter schools outpace regular public schools overall, but results are mixed in spots. Some individual public schools score higher than individual charter schools.

Charter school opponents, including teachers unions and public school system leaders, say it's unfair and misleading to compare the performance of charter and public schools, because they serve different groups of students. Urban charter schools, like their public counterparts in the eight cities, include many poor students, but serve far fewer students in special education or who are learning English as a second language, according to state Education Department data.

''I'm not surprised that they score higher, but they score higher because they self-select their student population," said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, who opposes expanding charter schools. ''There's no miracle in the charter schools."

Charter school supporters say that their schools vary and that it is hard to have a complete comparison between them and regular public schools. But they point out that they have long waiting lists of applicants who want to get in, rather than stay in the eight school systems, which are among the lowest-performing in the state on the MCAS. Charter schools select students by lottery.

Charter schools are held to a stricter standard than regular public schools, state officials say. Unlike public schools, charter schools are up for renewal every five years and can be shut down if they are underperforming.

''There were a lot of excuses before we came on: These kids can't learn; they can't speak English," said Sheila Balboni, executive director of the Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence. ''You can't say that anymore, because they are doing OK up here."

Charter schools have been controversial since the state established them a decade ago to offer another public school option for parents. The schools, which serve about 2 percent of the state's nearly 1 million students, are supposed to be laboratories of innovation. They are often formed by teachers and parents and have more freedom than regular public schools in hiring teachers, spending their budgets, and running the school.

In Boston, charter schools generally serve high-poverty students and high percentages of African-Americans. In most charter schools, all students are fluent in English, while almost one in five students in the city's public schools is not. The city's public schools serve students with more severe disabilities than those in the charter schools, said School Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant.

''It's an apples-and-oranges comparison," Payzant said.

About 11 percent of the charter school students in the Globe's analysis were in special education classes last year, compared with an average of 18 percent in the eight urban school districts, according to state data.

Class sizes also can be smaller. In Lawrence, for instance, state figures show the average student-to-teacher ratio at the two charter schools was 8 to 1 last year, compared with about 14 to 1 in regular public schools.

Some lawmakers are trying to make it easier to add more charter schools in 19 communities that have the lowest-scoring public schools in the state, including the eight in the Globe review. If a student goes to a charter school, the money for his education comes from the local school system's budget, although there is a cap on how much money a school system must give up for charter students.

In early December, state Senator Robert A. Antonioni proposed requiring school systems to increase the amount of money they would spend on charter schools, from 9 percent to 20 percent of their budgets. The Legislature, in response to school systems' complaints, has adjusted the funding formula to be fairer to regular public schools, Antonioni said. Teachers' unions and many school boards oppose lifting the cap.

Antonioni, chairman of a joint education committee, said that the charter schools' higher test scores in urban areas are a good sign, but that he doesn't view charter schools as the only solution for struggling public schools.

''The fact that they're doing better provides an argument for some additional flexibility, at least in those communities," he said.

The Globe examined 26 charter schools in eight cities that had charter schools within their borders. The other 11 communities where the cap could be lifted send students to charter schools, but lacked comparable test scores for many reasons. Many of those towns' children go to charter schools in other communities, for example.

Schools were included in the Globe review if they had test scores and drew about 80 percent or more of their students from the city where they are based. Three additional schools didn't meet those criteria and were excluded from the Globe's review.

Charter schools say they are trying to be creative in the ways they help students.

The Neighborhood House Charter School, for instance, one of the highest-scoring schools last year in Boston, requires uniforms and has longer days for students. Another one of the highest scorers -- the Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, formerly the South Boston Harbor Academy Charter School -- requires French and pushes every student to go to college.

The Community Day Charter Public School produced a guide to MCAS math vocabulary after teachers pored over test scores and realized that some students struggled in math because they didn't understand the terms in the test questions, such as coordinates or lines of symmetry. This year the school started selling the guides to school districts across the state.

Success among charter schools, however, is not universal. Boston Renaissance Charter School trailed many city public schools on the tests last year. In December, the state Board of Education voted to close Roxbury Charter High School for Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship in June, citing weak leadership and near bankruptcy.

In Boston, charter schools scored lower in fourth-grade math; only 12 percent of charter school students were proficient or better in fourth-grade math, compared with 22 percent of the public school students. The reasons for the gap are unclear.

Charter school advocates acknowledge the weaknesses, but say they're held accountable for them.

''If I don't succeed, we close down," said Kevin Andrews, headmaster of the Neighborhood House Charter School, one of the highest-performing charter schools in Boston. ''That should be across the board no matter what the school is."

Nationally, studies have been mixed, with some proclaiming charter schools a success and others saying they fare about the same or worse than regular public schools. The results differed, depending on the number of charter school students in the samples.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association said the state still has insufficient proof that charter schools work.

''We think the jury is still out on charter school performance," said Robert Duffy, the association spokesman.

Globe correspondent Bill Dedman contributed to this report.