Impressive Charter School Stats Offer Only Partial Picture

Students celebrate after the graduation. Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative

He was born to a drug-addicted mother, struggled in school, and as a child he was bounced among the homes of several relatives. Yet doors began to open for Shantell Hopkins four years ago after he entered a new charter public high school in Chicago. Now he is preparing for his freshman year at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., on a full-tuition scholarship from the school.

Shantell received his opportunities because of the Renaissance Schools Fund, a Chicago philanthropy started by business leaders through the Commercial Club of Chicago. Since 2005 the group has raised $50 million for 67 new charter and contract public schools in Chicago. Six of the fund’s high schools graduated their first class this spring, and more than 90 percent of their graduates have been accepted to a two- or four-year college. By contrast, the most recent data in 2008 Chicago Public Schools shows 52 percent of all graduating seniors had enrolled in college for the following fall.

Supporters of the charter schools see the new program as an impressive model for transforming Chicago’s beleaguered neighborhood high schools. But some education leaders caution that graduation rates do not tell the full story — many students still face hurdles on the road to college success.

First, as is the case with all Chicago public schools, college enrollment rates only look at graduating seniors who enroll in college and do not include students who dropped out or transferred to other high schools. For example, there were 158 students in Shantell’s freshman class at the Chicago International Charter Schools’ Ralph Ellison campus. At his graduation from the South Side school, there were 92.

“Clearly, you’re talking about selective retention,” said Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University.

Ms. Radner said she also worries that many schools — not just charter schools — are becoming sophisticated about getting students into college but then are not helping them to succeed at the next level.

“Are we preparing kids for college or are we preparing kids to be accepted to college?” Radner said.

While praising the charter schools’ success, Bernard McCune, deputy director of the school district’s Office of College and Career Preparation, said charter schools have greater leeway than regular public schools in weeding out underperforming students.

“At our neighborhood high schools, we have the responsibility of making sure all students receive a quality education, and we give them that opportunity,” Mr. McCune said. “At the charters, they can do it with discretion. If students aren’t meeting their standards, they can recommend that they be moved on to neighborhood high schools.”

Renaissance officials contend that students have the choice to remain with the charter school in which they are enrolled.

The six schools that graduated classes this spring through the Renaissance Schools Fund initiative were launched in 2006: Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, Englewood Campus; two campuses of Noble Street Charter School, Rauner College Prep and Pritzker College Prep; University of Chicago Charter School, Woodlawn High School Campus; Perspectives Charter School, Calumet High School Campus, and Chicago International Charter School, Ralph Ellison campus.

Impressive college admission rates are commonplace at the city’s selective-enrollment high schools and at top-performing high schools around the state. But the six charters are open-enrollment schools that accept students through a lottery system. Nearly all the students are minorities living in poverty and are often the first in their families to graduate from high school.

Many of the students read well below grade level when admitted — at Urban Prep, an all-boys charter school on the city’s South Side, only 4 percent of students were reading at grade level as freshmen. But on average, a student attending a Renaissance-funded school from kindergarten through high school gets five more years of instruction in core subject areas than the city’s public schools’ minimum, said Phyllis Locket, president and chief executive of the Renaissance 2010 Initiative, which invested $2.6 million to launch the six high schools.

At all six campuses, there is an intensive effort to create a “college-going culture,” and conversations about college often begin even before the first day of school. The schools hire more college counselors than the typical Chicago public school, take their students on the road for college tours and hold a year-long senior course on filling out college applications, financial aid forms, housing applications and entrance essays. Many schools also have longer school days and an extended school year.

But getting students into college does not guarantee they will show up in the fall. The Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago published a report in 2008 that found 9 percent of students accepted to college did not enroll for reasons that include financial trouble and family and work obligations.

“Every step of the way, the problem manifests itself,” said Christopher Mazzeo, associate director for policy and research at the Consortium. “We lose students through the high school years. We lose students who are capable of going to college and just don’t go. And even for those students who do go to college, clearly not all of them earn a four-year college degree.”

Despite concerns about the college success of the district’s graduates, Chicago public school leaders consider the charters’ success so far as a starting point. Tim King, Urban Prep’s founder and C.E.O., recounted the struggles so many of his students endured to get to graduation— traversing neighborhoods plagued by violence, confronting homelessness and poverty. One student’s father killed his mother and the student became the head of his household while getting through school.

“These stories may all sound super-melodramatic,” Mr. King said. “But one thing that has always been tough for me to deal with is just how commonplace the hardship and tragedy is that our students have to deal with.”

Mr. King and other charter school directors said it helps to build smaller schools with rigorous academic standards and strict discipline. The schools often require four years of English, mathematics, science and social studies, and directors say they seek to hire staff who are willing to be available for after-school tutoring, late-night phone calls and other support.

Charter school leaders also emphasize that they’re ramping up efforts to support students after graduation by hiring full-time guidance counselors to track them in college.

While Shantell Hopkins was at Ellison, his mother went in and out of prison for drug-related offenses and his father died. He said he often felt like an outsider as he was shuttled among various relatives. Yet he said he found a home at Ellison because of a supportive principal, teachers and counselors. Many teachers gave him their cell phone numbers. One even lent him a car.

“I’ll be motivated to exceed beyond even my own expectations now,” said Shantell, who is looking forward to the liberal arts experience at Knox College. “My principal at Ellison, Eboni Wilson, always said it’s all about breaking the cycle of what’s around you.
“I just think you have to learn to say, ‘I want better.’”