Prometheus 6

“As a group, they skew higher,” said Michael Duffy, who oversees charter schools for the city’s Education Department. “I think that charter schools are all about accountability. It’s baked into their DNA. They are data driven and focused on how their students are doing, so it’s not surprising to see them do well.”

Charter Schools Outshine Others as They Receive Their First Report Cards
By JENNIFER MEDINA

Education officials, acting under the city’s new system of accountability, released report cards on Wednesday for several charter schools, with the majority receiving A’s and B’s, but one school in Queens getting an F.

The grades came more than a month after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein released grades for the rest of the city’s public schools. Officials said that they had always intended to release grades for charter schools, but that it had taken longer to make sure the data was complete and accurate because the schools are privately run, though publicly financed.

Just 14 of the 60 charter schools in the city received report cards, but school officials and supporters of charter school said that the grades showed that the schools were outperforming their traditional counterparts.

“As a group, they skew higher,” said Michael Duffy, who oversees charter schools for the city’s Education Department. “I think that charter schools are all about accountability. It’s baked into their DNA. They are data driven and focused on how their students are doing, so it’s not surprising to see them do well.”

Mr. Duffy said that the city gave grades only to charter schools that were at least two years old and had state test results for third- and fourth-grade students. Like the grades for the rest of the city’s schools, the charter schools’ grades relied largely on test scores, with the progress students show each year making up the bulk of the grade. The charter schools were also judged on attendance, rather than on a mix of attendance and the results of surveys that were used to compile the rest of the grades.

The grades were given only to some of the charter schools overseen by New York City, Mr. Duffy said, and not to any of those located in the city but monitored by New York State or the State University of New York. He said the city was working with the state to receive enough data to assign those schools grades.