BAEO Joins Parent Choice Advocates and the Charter School Community in Celebration of National Charter Schools Week
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is proud to join parental choice and charter school advocates across the country in celebration of National Charter Schools Week (NCSW) this week. NCSW is a week-long celebration acknowledging the work charter schools are doing to improve public education across the country.
"National Charter Schools Week is a great time to reflect and consider what innovation in public education looks like," said BAEO Interim President, Jacqueline Cooper. "This is a week to highlight the ways charter schools have improved learning for low-income and working class Black families as well as recognize the value of having charter schools as a high-quality educational option."
BAEO is celebrating this week by honoring Black charter school leaders from across the country as well as by sharing relevant statistics about charters. Over 6,700 charter schools are open and serving over 3 million students across the country. Despite these impressive numbers, the collective waiting list for families hoping to place their children in charter schools remains over 2 million.
A recent report by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), titled "Urban Charter School Study" covered 41 urban communities in 22 states and found the typical student in an urban charter school receives the equivalent of 40 additional days of learning growth in math and 28 days of additional growth in reading compared to their matched peers in traditional public schools. Also a 2013 study by CREDO titled "National Charter School Study", found Black and Hispanic students have higher learning gains than their peers in traditional public schools in reading and math.
"There are examples of progress made for charter schools as recently as this year. Alabama just passed its first charter school law creating a pathway to charters in the state," said Cooper. "Year after year, we are seeing charter schools improve outcomes for student achievement and we want to ensure that message is heard."
About BAEO
BAEO is a national, nonpartisan, education advocacy organization whose mission is to increase access to high-quality educational options for Black children by actively supporting transformational education reform initiatives and parental choice policies that empower low-income and working-class Black families. BAEO was founded in 2000 and champions parental choice policies and programs that serve low-income and working-class Black families, but is equally focused on promoting quality to ensure that Black students have access to high-performing schools. BAEO envisions a future where low-income and working-class Black families are empowered to choose a high-quality primary and secondary education for their children that enable them to pursue the college or career path of their choice, become economically independent adults, and engage in the practice of freedom.
SOURCE Black Alliance for Educational Options
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