Local Charters Compared to Individual PUSD Schools

GUEST OPINION – PART 3

Marshall Fundamental students working on their Senior Defense (File Photo – Felita Kealing)

This part compares the scores of individual PUSD schools with those of charter schools that have similar grade spans.

By Adrienne Ann Mullen

Elementary schools and K-7, K-8 schools

In the first graph, the scores of PUSD’s fourteen K-5 and K-8 schools (plotted as blue circles) are compared with those of five local charters of similar grade spans (two K-5, two K-7, one K-8) (plotted as red triangles):

Three of the five charters perform below the trendline, versus only five of the fourteen PUSD schools. Three of the charters that have lower relative poverty than any of the PUSD schools have scores that are higher than those of most PUSD schools, but those just follow the socioeconomically-correlated trend. Two PUSD schools have higher scores than the scores of all but one charter school, even those of lower relative poverty.

Secondary schools

In the second graph, the scores of PUSD’s nine 6-8, 6-12 and 9-12 schools (plotted as blue circles) are compared with those of two local charters of similar (6-12) grade spans (plotted as red triangles).

Both charters have scores significantly below the trendline, versus only one of the nine PUSD schools. Further, five of the nine PUSD secondary schools have higher scores than the much lower relative poverty secondary charter school, and eight of the nine PUSD secondary schools have higher scores than the high relative poverty secondary charter school.

In conclusion, these comparisons and those of the previous article (Part 2) show that PUSD’s test scores compare very well with those of local charters and, in general, both PUSD schools’ and charters’ scores follow the well-known socioeconomically-correlated trendline

Dr. Adrienne Ann Mullen is a former Pasadena Unified school board member.

> Part 1:
Voters Did Not Fall for the Anti-Pasadena Unified Arguments

> Part 2
Local Charters Compared With LA County School Districts Like Pasadena Unified