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As NAACP Vote on Charter Moratorium Nears, Some Background on How Popular and Effective Charter Schools Are for African-American Families

Oct 6, 2016 12:00:00 AM

by Michael Vaughn

The NAACP National Board has scheduled an Oct. 15 vote on a proposed moratorium on charter schools, which are publicly funded, accessible and accountable schools that are privately run and have autonomy over staffing, spending and scheduling decisions. In the weeks since the proposal was made, African-American community leaders and education advocates across the country have been expressing their support for charter schools. "Millions of black students, teachers, principals, and advocates working in education prefer charter schools, but we are constantly marginalized out of view as if there is no good reason to exercise our choice on behalf of our children," education blogger and activist Chris Stewart  recently wrote on Huffington Post. "Recent actions by the NAACP and M4BL (Movement for Black Lives) only further push us to the fringes." "Particularly in underserved communities, charter schools are real difference-makers for kids," Education Post Executive Director Peter Cunningham said. "They provide quality choices for families who need them." In addition, both the  Black Alliance for Educational Options and the  United Negro College Fund have strongly backed charter schools for their service to African-American families in need of better schools for their children and opposed the NAACP’s proposed moratorium. A full rundown of voices speaking out against the NAACP proposal can be found  here. Recent research and polling clearly show that charter schools are both popular among African-American families and, in many cities, more effective than traditional public schools in providing a quality education.

Strong Academic Results

In a 2015  study from Stanford University’s respected Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), urban charter schools largely outperformed traditional public schools in both reading and math:
Across 41 regions, urban charter schools on average achieve significantly greater student success in both math and reading, which amounts to 40 additional days of learning growth in math and 28 days of additional growth in reading,” CREDO researchers concluded. “Compared to the national profile of charter school performance, urban charters produce more positive results.

Popularity among African-American Families

In the results of  Education Next’s annual poll released last month, nearly twice as many African-American respondents (45 percent) supported the formation of charter schools as opposed them (23 percent). Nationally and across all demographics, there are  more than a million students on charter school waiting lists, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Photo of parents and students at The Montessori School of Englewood.

Michael Vaughn

Michael Vaughn was the founding Communications Director of Education Post. Prior to that, Mike worked for 18 years in the communications offices of two urban school districts. He served in a variety of communications roles for the Chicago Public Schools starting in 1996, shortly after Mayor Richard M. Daley took control of CPS, and eventually served as the district's Communications Director until Arne Duncan’s appointment as U.S. Secretary of Education in 2009. Mike then served for five years as the Chief Communications Officer for the Denver Public Schools, a national leader in ed reform.

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