Charter Students Outperform State Average for Four Consecutive Years
Phoenix, Ariz. (Aug. 7, 2018) – Released today, the AzMERIT results show public charter school students scored better than the state average in nearly every grade level and subject area for the fourth straight year.
The AzMERIT scores, released by the Arizona Department of Education, show Arizona’s public charter students, teachers and leaders continue their progress on Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards.
“Due to the hard work of our public charter school leaders and teachers, our students are outperforming the state average,” said Arizona Charter Schools Association President and CEO Eileen B. Sigmund. “Public charter schools foster dynamic learning environments to offer a diverse array of school opportunities, allowing our schools to continue to lead in academic achievement.”
AzMERIT Public Charter School Highlights:
• Public charter students outperformed the state average of students passing the English/Language Arts test by 9 percentage points.
• Public charter students outperformed the state average of students passing the Mathematics test by 8 percentage points.
• Since 2015, public charter schools have positively increased test results in both English/Language Arts and Math by about 2 percentage points each year.
• 50 percent of charter students passed the English/Language Arts test, which is the highest percentage of charter students to pass the exam; 49 percent of charter students passed the Math exam, which is also a record.
• Charter students in every ethnic group scored higher than their peers statewide.
Arizona public charter schools have been providing a choice for families seeking a high-quality public education since the first schools opened in 1995. Since then, parental demand for an Arizona charter school education has skyrocketed. Today, a record 189,000 students now attend one of 556 public charter schools statewide.
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About the Arizona Charter Schools Association
The Arizona Charter Schools Association is a nonprofit organization that advocates and strengthens the autonomy, equity, and quality of Arizona’s diverse public charter schools. As a national leader in the public charter school movement, Arizona’s 556 charter schools serve over 185,000 students in the 2017-18 school year. Academically, Arizona charter schools continue to produce excellent results. For the last three years, public charter students outperformed the state average on the AzMERIT assessment. In fact, if Arizona’s public charter students were separated and measured as their own state, it would rank among a handful of the top-performing states in the entire country on the Nation’s Report Card. For more information, visit www.azcharters.org or call 602.944.0644
