Report: Charter schools do a better job sending minorities to college

Charter schools are doing a better job sending all kids, especially minorities, to college than traditional public schools, a new report concludes.

Black and Latino students are applying to and enrolling in University of Califoia campuses at almost double the rate of their peers in regular public schools, the Califoia Charter Schools Association study states.

Charter schools “have a laser focus on what it takes to get a child into college,” said Kathleen Hermsmeyer, superintendent of River Springs Charter Schools, which has 14 locations and serves about 5,300 students in Riverside County. It also home schools about 800 youths in San Beardino County and runs a kindergarten- through eighth-grade leaing center in Rancho Cucamonga.

“It’s their No. 1 priority, and they will do whatever it takes to get there,” she said.

Some educators say charter schools, which operate with public money but are free of some regulations that gove regular public schools, have inherent advantages that make it easier to succeed.

Charter schools operate without attendance boundaries and attract parents who select them because they have a specific focus, said Elliott Duchon, superintendent of the Jurupa Unified School District.

“It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison because charter schools tend to be specialized,” Duchon said. “Public schools do every bit as good a job but also offer comprehensive programs, a full array of sports and extracurricular activities.”

Since 1992, the number of charter schools has grown to more than 6,800 nationally, serving nearly three million students. Califoia has 1,230 charter schools, with 581,100 student; while Riverside and San Beardino counties have 64 schools and 46,355 students, Califoia Department of Education statistics show.

The report, released last week, estimated that in 2013, 35 percent of black and Latino students in charter schools were likely to apply to UC schools, compared to 19 percent for the same groups in traditional public schools.

In that same year, 19 percent of black and Hispanic charter school graduates were accepted to UC campuses compared to 11 percent for the same students in regular public schools.

In addition, charter schools with a majority of low-income students have a 21 percent UC acceptance rate, almost twice as high as similar traditional public schools.

More than one-third of charter school students are finishing college preparatory classes in high school, compared to about one-fourth of their traditional public school peers.

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The association combined data from the UC and Cal State systems and all Califoia public high schools. The results are not broken down by individual campuses or by county.

Charter schools deliver on the promise of preparing kids for college and careers, said Elizabeth Robitaille, the group’s senior vice president for achievement and performance management.

Because charters have complete control over staffing, budgets, curriculum and programs, they can “provide a whole different level of support” to students, she said. That could include Saturday programs, counseling and dual enrollment classes, allowing students to take college-level courses while in high school.

“There are freedoms and the ability to adapt quickly to needs and to deliver on their mission in a way that a traditional school might struggle to do,” Robitaille said.

Santa Rosa Academy, a 1,500-student kindergarten- through 12th-grade school in Menifee, embraces a curriculum, Project Lead the Way, that encourages youths to pursue engineering, biomedical studies and computer science.

“Kids in third grade can tell you what a fuselage is in an airplane,” Executive Director Laura Badillo said.

The school has class sizes of no more than 25 students and requires uniforms. Along with academics, the focus is on honesty, integrity, respect and other character traits. Students receive tutoring and can take extra classes if they fall behind.

About 40 percent of its students are black or Latino and one-quarter qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. Its valedictorians and salutatorians the past three years have been students of color, Badillo said.

Of Santa Rosa’s 106 seniors expected to graduate this year, seven plan to attend UC schools, 10 are set to enroll at Cal State campuses, 15 are committed to private or out-of-state colleges and 45 kids have selected community colleges, she said.

“Parents are making a conscious effort to choose our program because we have good results,” Badillo said.

Critics say charter schools’ flaws include the use of overly harsh discipline practices.

Charter schools suspend higher numbers of blacks and students with disabilities compared to white and non-disabled students, according to an analysis by the Center for the Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

“They have policies that push certain students of difficulty out of the system, leaving those students that remain as high achievers,” said Ed Sibby, a communications consultant for the Califoia Teachers Association.

River Springs offers inteships in medical, computer science, performing arts, business administration, culinary arts, robotics and other fields, Hermsmeyer said.

“We’re igniting curiosity and giving kids authentic skills so they’re not just taking academic classes and passing them at high levels,” she said.