Washington, D.C. New research from The 74 Million finds that public charter school students are graduating from college at three to five times the national average for children from the lowest-income families. The research, reported through the multimedia series The Alumni, focuses on nine large charter school networks that have instituted innovative programs and supports to get their students to and through college helping to ensure students earn a four-year bachelor’s degree within six years of graduating from high school.
About a decade ago, 15 years into the public charter school movement, a few of the nation’s top charter networks quietly upped the ante on their own strategic goals, reads one article in The Alumni coverage. No longer was it sufficient to keep students on track to college. Nor was it enough to enroll 100 percent of your graduates in colleges. “Hold us accountable,” the educators said, “for how our kids do once they leave us, marking a remarkable paradigm shift in the way charter schools define success.”
Only about nine percent of children from the lowest-income families go on to complete college within six years. The charter school networks featured in The Alumni are graduating college at significantly higher rates, including:
Uncommon Schools: 50 percent college graduation rate
YES Prep Public Schools: 47 percent college graduation rate
KIPP Public Charter Schools: 38 percent college graduation rate
Achievement First: 32 percent college graduation rate
Other charter school networks studied include IDEA Public Schools, The Noble Network of Charter Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, and Green Dot Public Schools.
“Public charter schools across the country are going above and beyond to support their students in college and life,” said National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nina Rees. As The Alumni points out, it’s not just large charter school networks that are implementing these critical supports. Independent, single-site charter schools, like Boston Prep in Massachusetts, instill a college-going mindset from a young age, referring to high school cohorts by their college graduation year. Marion P. Thomas Charter School in New Jersey helps their graduates with college scholarships. And countless others across the country name their classrooms after universities, provide essential mentoring to their graduates, and more creating a culture that not only gets their students to college, but through college.
The benefits of graduating from college are life-long. According to a recent report from Georgetown University, virtually all of the 11.6 million new jobs that have been created since the great recession have gone to workers with at least some college education, and 72 percent of these jobs went to workers with at least a bachelors degree. Additionally, The College Board found that in 2015, median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients were 67 percent higher than those with only a high school diploma.
Reads The College Board report Education Pays 2016, “College education is associated with healthier lifestyles, reducing health care costs. Adults with higher levels of education are more active citizens than others and are more involved in their children’s activities.”
Read more about public charter school students graduating from college in The Alumni’s continued coverage:
Charter Grads Get a Leg Up in College
Data Show Charter School Students Graduating From College at Three to Five Times National Average
Uncommon Schools: Against Common Schools of Thought, a Focus on GPA, SAT Scores, and One Dirty Little Secret Boosts Networks College Success Rates to 50%
At Newarks North Star Academy, 100% of the Class of 2017 Is Going to College
Barth, Feinberg, Levin Measuring Outcomes Beyond High School: Why Schools Must Raise the Bar in Helping Students Attain Choice-Filled Lives
Emilio Pack Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal: How STEM Prep Is Preparing Its High Schoolers For the 21st-Century Economy
The Data Behind The Alumni: Unbundling Facts, Figures, and Caveats
The Alumni Tell Their Stories: College Gave Jadah Quick Upward Mobility
About Public Charter Schools
Public charter schools are independent, public, and tuition-free schools that are given the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Since 2010, many research studies have found that students in charter schools do better in school than their traditional school peers. For example, one study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University found that charter schools do a better job teaching low income students, minority students, and students who are still learning English than traditional schools. Separate studies by the Center on Reinventing Public Education and Mathematica Policy Research have found that charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, stay in college and have higher earnings in early adulthood.
About the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the public charter school movement. Our mission is to lead public education to unprecedented levels of academic achievement by fostering a strong charter sector. For more information, please visit www.publiccharters.org.
