Today we present the fifth and final installment of the 2nd Edition of the Democratic Guide to Public Charter Schools. And we saved the best for last: The reason we support public charter schools is because they work for those students whom they are intended to serve. Across the entire country, public charter schools have given low-income students and children of color an alternative to the chronically low-performing traditional public schools to which they would have otherwise been assigned.
The most rigorous and methodologically sound studies indicate that students of color, students in poverty, and English Language Learners (ELLs), enrolled in public charter schools make significantly greater academic progress compared to their peers with similar demographics in traditional public schools. Our best urban public charter schools provide students with the equivalent of three to five months of additional learning time in math and reading as compared to what they would have received otherwise.
Read the full section here.
Also see: Part 1, Origins, Part 2: Support from Democratic Leadership, Part 3: Public Opinion Research, and Part 4: Charter Enrollment in Democratic Strongholds.