It is well known that, on average, performance in school is directly linked to family income, and it is primarily for this reason that urban school systems struggle to improve the academic performance of their students, most of whom are poor. Overwhelmingly, poor students start school with huge deficits in literacy, cultural exposure, social development, even health. None of these problems is the fault of the schools but schools must do whatever they can to close the gap between disadvantaged and better-off students.
Overall, 78% of D.C. public charter school students are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program, the best current measure of poverty. Most of these students – including the very youngest -- are years behind where they should be when they first enter their charter schools. A number of the charter schools, especially at the elementary and middle-school levels, have had remarkable success with these students, while other schools, especially high schools, have made much smaller gains.
FOCUS has begun its drive to help charter schools close the achievement gap by exposing potential charter school leaders to the realities they will face and helping them to design their schools to effectively address the many deficiencies their students will need to overcome. As time goes on, we will work with the D.C. Public Charter School Association to ensure that already-existing schools have the same degree of understanding.
We also are working closely with the State Education Office and others to develop a data collection and dissemination system that will help charter school leaders (and principals of school system schools) better understand which of their efforts to address the literacy and other deficits of their students are working and which are not, enabling them to make needed changes.
