Atlantic County (N.J.) charter schools (high failure rate)

AS MORE CHARTER SCHOOLS PLAN TO OPEN, SOUTH JERSEY'S TRACK RECORD SUGGESTS A TOUGH PATH AHEAD; March 31, 2011; Press of Atlantic City (NJ) 

Three new charter schools in Atlantic County and one in Millville have been approved to open in September.

They face tough odds.

Only four of the nine charter schools approved for Atlantic County since 1999 are still in operation. Statewide, more than one out of three either never opened, closed or were shut down by the state Department of Education…

A review of local charter schools by The Press of Atlantic City finds the challenges of the past decade - financing, enrollment, test scores, facilities - still remain obstacles to success.

The New Jersey Charter School Law of 1998 promised choice and academic innovation at a lower cost. Run by private boards of trustees and authorized by the state Department of Education, charter schools receive 90 percent of the per-student cost in the school district where they are based…

Of three Atlantic County K-8 charter schools, only Oceanside in Atlantic City outperformed the local district public schools in some grades in spring 2010 testing…

Rutgers professor Bruce Baker has looked at the test data in New Jersey, especially in Newark, and determined that, with a few exceptions, charter schools don't perform academically better than their local public schools. His schoolfinance101 blog notes that charter schools tend to have fewer students with special education needs or limited English proficiency, both of which contribute to poor test scores in urban public schools.

State data show that in 2010, based on total student test results, the Atlantic City public schools outperformed the Oceanside charter school in math until seventh grade.

Oceanside performed better than the district in language arts in every grade except third. But neither came close to the state average. When students with disabilities or limited English are removed, Oceanside outscored the district on every state test except third-grade math. But some individual schools in the city performed better than the charter school.

In 2010 Pleasantville public schools outscored PleasanTech Academy charter school in every subject in every grade, though both were far below the state average…