Report: Minorities driving surges in charter school enrollment
Report: Minorities driving surges in charter school enrollment
Black student NC charter school enrollment almost double that of White students between 2019-2022; Hispanic enrollment rates rose over 23%.
A new report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) looking at charter school enrollment trends for the years during and after the pandemic (2019-2022) shows the shift to such schools was “not a fluke.”
“No matter how you examine the data, families from all walks of life are making different choices for their children since the pandemic began and many have chosen charter schools,” President and CEO of NAPCS Nina Rees said in the press release. “The pandemic shifted parent views towards education and motivated them to find better options for their children. Public charter schools were there for communities during this trying time, resulting in an ongoing increase of enrollment. We’re proud that these unique public schools continue to serve parent and student needs across the country.”
This report is based on interim data available as of September 2022.
A big key takeaway from the report is that while overall charter growth is increasing, the data reveals minority students have become drivers for that growth both nationally and in North Carolina.
Public charter school enrollment from 2019 to 2022 grew in 39 out of 41 states included in the report’s analysis.
The data for 2019 through 2022 shows that since the start of the pandemic, enrollment gains in charter schools remained steady as were the enrollment losses by public schools.
Per the report, the first full year of the pandemic saw charter enrollment jump by 7% or 240,000 students. At the same time, public district enrollment dropped 3.5% or nearly 1.5 million students.
In the time period following the first full pandemic year, enrollment remained “relatively flat for both types of schools with data indicating that most students who left their district schools in the first year of the pandemic did not return, even after schools reopened and in-person instruction resumed,” per the press release accompanying the report, which goes on to say that enrollment change “appears to be a “new normal,” instead of a temporary reaction to turbulent times.”
While other states are grappling with learning loss, education officials may want to take a look at Tennessee where "17 charter schools not only recovered pandemic learning losses, they also exceeded that bar.”
The report asked three main questions about enrollment changes both at the state and national levels that included looking at racial demographic shifts as well as population growth trends of school-aged children.
Here are the questions and the statistical answers:
1. How did enrollment change during the pandemic (2019–20 to 2021–22) both nationally and at the state level?
From 2019 to 2022, charter schools saw 7.08% enrollment increase, gaining 236,742 students. During the same time, all other public schools saw a 3.46% enrollment decrease, losing 1,497,505 students.
39 of 41 states had an increase in the number of students enrolling in charter schools.
Two states, Illinois (−2,353) and Wyoming (−1), saw charter enrollment decreases during the pandemic, but those losses were substantially smaller than their public school counterparts.
2. How do enrollment trends differ for White, Black, and Hispanic students? Specifically, are there differences between sectors (charter and non-charter) and between states for different groups of students? Are there certain racial/ethnic subgroups driving enrollment changes nationally and/or at the state level?
As mentioned in the introduction, this year we were able to examine data for White, Black, and Hispanic students in 25 of 41 states included in our analysis. We were not able to include the other 16 states for two primary reasons: heavy data suppression due to too few students in racial categories, or the data source we obtained from the state education agency (SEA) did not include this information.
Based on our subpopulation analysis of 25 states, the overall number of Black students in charter schools increased by 34,381 during the pandemic (+5.08%), while district public schools in the same 25 states lost 178,746 Black students (−3.78%)
Charter schools in the 25 states in our analysis gained nearly 35,000 Black students during the pandemic. Black students, proportionally, are bolstering charter enrollment growth at a higher rate than White students, but at a lower rate than Hispanic students.
3. How do shifts in enrollment for charters and for non-charter public schools compare to state population trends? Specifically, how does population growth for 5 to 17-year-olds compare to enrollment trends seen in charters and district public schools?
In 34 out of 41 states, enrollment growth in charter schools outpaced state population trends. There were seven states (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Utah, and Wyoming) where charter enrollment growth was less than school-aged student population growth. In all 41 states, enrollment growth in district public schools underperformed state population trends.
The answers to these questions, along with surges in homeschooling and private school enrollment, arguably are a clear signal that families across the board wanted an option beyond their district public school.
Read the full report here:
Changing Course, Public School Enrollment Shifts During The Pandemic
More To The Story
Those opposed to public charter schools in North Carolina have consistently relied on the false premise that charter schools are “segregationist.” The data presented by NAPCS upends this narrative.
In the three years between 2019 and 2022, White student enrollment in North Carolina charter schools increased by 7.29% but minority student enrollment was much higher.
Black student enrollment was almost double that of White enrollment, coming in at 14.33% and Hispanic enrollment skyrocketed to 23.34%.
Here are the data sets for North Carolina by student demographics:
Page 26 of the report offers a "Deep Dive" into North Carolina's data:
North Carolina saw the nation’s fifth highest charter enrollment gain during the pandemic.
Charter enrollment in North Carolina increased by 8,528 students from 2019–20 to 2020–21 and by 5,784 students from 2020–21 to 2021–22 for a total of 14,312 new students enrolled in charters during the pandemic. This enrollment increase brings North Carolina’s charter enrollment from 118,597 students in 2019–20 to 132,909 students in 2021–22, a 12% gain.
During the same period, traditional district schools in North Carolina lost 48,283 students, and total enrollment in these schools went from 1,419,142 to 1,370,859 during the pandemic. North Carolina’s traditional district enrollment loss was the ninth largest in the nation.
North Carolina charter schools also saw increases in enrollment for White, Black, and Hispanic students. Of note, North Carolina’s charter sector gained nearly as many Black students as White students during the pandemic, gaining 4,482 White students and 4,438 Black students.
Enrollment increases for Black and Hispanic students are notable. Black student enrollment in charters increased from 30,969 to 35,407 during the pandemic, a 14.33% increase. Hispanic enrollment in charter schools increased by 23.34%, from 13,626 students in 2019–20 to 16,806 students in 2021–22.
Finally, North Carolina’s school-aged population (ages 5 to 17) increased by 1.01% from 2019 to 2021. During the same period, North Carolina’s charter school enrollment increased by 12.07%, far outpacing schoolage population growth. North Carolina’s traditional district enrollment decreased by 3.4% during the same period.
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