Impressive ELA, math results for UFT charter schools

Jun 24, 2008 2:09 PM

Students at the UFT Elementary and Secondary Charter Schools made great strides on New York State math and ELA tests, union officials said on June 24.

“While the measure of a school should not be reduced to one set of test scores, these results strongly suggest that the union’s approach to charter schools is working,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten.

“We took the risk to show that unionization was a help not an impediment to student academic achievement and growth. With this early success, the UFT charter schools are debunking a number of myths about teachers’ unions, collective bargaining contracts and charter schools.”

Results show:

• 98 percent of 3^rd grade students in the UFT Elementary Charter School met or exceeded state standards in math, compared to 81 percent in its home district, District 19, in Brooklyn.
• Nearly 82 percent of UFT Elementary Charter School 3^rd grade students met or exceeded standards on the state English Language Arts tests, compared to 50.6 percent of District 19 3^rd graders.
• Sixth- and seventh-graders at the UFT Secondary School, also in Brooklyn, scored above other District 19 students in math and far above the district in ELA.

UFT Charter Schools Compared to Home District (District 19) Schools
2007/08 Percentage of Students Meeting or Exceeding Standards, ELA & Math

MATH RESULTS

ELA RESULTS

In addition, the secondary charter school added to student gains over the past year. While 46 percent of entering sixth-graders met or exceeded ELA standards last year, 60 percent of those same students met seventh-grade standards this year. That same group went from 61 percent meeting math standards in sixth-grade to 67 percent meeting the seventh grade standard.

Weingarten pointed to five factors the union built into the schools’ instruction plan that have been instrumental in their success:

• Small class size (limited to 25 students at both schools), with a low student-to-teacher ratio (in early childhood classes) and adequate instructional resources;
• A fair and consistently applied code of conduct, emphasizing the school's five core values of Community, Respect, Excellence, Scholarship, and Trustworthiness (“CREST");
• Job-embedded professional development, to help all of school educators gain more expertise in their practice;
• Parental engagement to strengthen the home-school connection;
• Collaboration among educators to support each other and the students, coupled with responsible governance willing to make tough decisions.

UFT charter schools operate on the same playing field as other New York City public schools:

• At both schools, students are admitted via random lottery and are representative of students at neighboring district schools. At the elementary school, 82% of students are eligible for free and reduced price lunch (a common indicator of school-level poverty). At the secondary school, 91% are eligible for free and reduced price lunch. By comparison, 91% of students throughout District 19 were eligible for free and reduced price lunch last year, suggesting that our secondary school is highly representative of the district. (Given the elementary school's enrollment, the percent difference equates to merely a handful of students.)
• Teachers were not “cherry-picked” from public schools across the city. Although we sought to have a range of experience within our faculty, we also have a number of new teachers.
• Although there have been private fundraising efforts to support the school, these dollars only served to close the gap between charter school funding and the resources of a comparable public school (estimated to be around 10%). Existing resources have been put into the classroom by eliminating layers of management and bureaucracy.

“In following the terms (and flexibilities) of the contract negotiated between the City of New York and the UFT, these two schools demonstrate how to ensure student achievement by investing in schools and in teachers, by respecting teachers and parents, and by managing educators’ work in a supportive, reflective way,” Weingarten noted.

“Let's put to rest the canard that a union contract is in some way a barrier to student achievement and focus on the real issues, including creating respectful management that values teamwork, providing adequate resources, small class size, and building the expertise and capacity of our educators.”