RCSD has a lot to learn from charters

It is enough to make your blood boil.

When the state Education Department released standardized test scores for last year's fourth-graders, charter schools outperformed every other Rochester city school in English language arts. In fourth-grade math, three out of the four charter schools that administered the exam dominated over all 36 district elementary schools. One charter school performed better than all but a handful of suburban schools.

Charter schools are proving that it's possible to give Rochester's children a better future. We now have local models to examine, in order to determine what best practices should be replicated elsewhere to help other students do well, too. This should be cause for celebration.

But, instead of turning cartwheels, Rochester school board members are largely turning a blind eye to the charters' successes.

The school board is making no effort to find out why — of the 90 fourth-graders who took the ELA test at True North Rochester Prep last year — 60 percent of them demonstrated proficiency. The highest-performing district school achieved only a 21 percent proficiency. Most scored below 10 percent. Of the 43 fourth-graders who took the test at the Rochester City School District's Dr. Walter Cooper Academy, none were rated proficient. Not one.

It gets worse.

The fourth-grade proficiency rate in math was 72 percent at Rochester Prep. Only four Monroe County school districts managed to do better than that, but not by a lot. At three RCSD elementary schools, however, the fourth-grade proficiency rate was zero percent. Zero percent.

EXPLORE: True North Rochester Prep Charter School test scores

The various charter schools in Rochester are beginning to unite; sharing ideas, best practices and teacher training. The Rochester school board, however, has stubbornly opted out of this kind of exchange.

Two years ago, all but one board member, Malik Evans, voted to turn down a half-billion dollar state grant allowing district teachers to train at Rochester Prep.

"If I believed the charter schools had learned something they could pass on to us, that would be useful," Commissioner Willa Powell said at the time, as she helped reject the money.

Current board President Van White held a Best Practices Summit last year, inviting charters to participate, and he has started meeting with some charter school officials. There is movement, but it is slow.

While this Editorial Board doesn't endorse charter schools as the only reform option for the district, several charters clearly offer hope to families who have long gone without. Charters have something to contribute, and the Rochester school board should be bending over backward to find out what it is. To do otherwise is an utter and heartbreaking disgrace.