a c t F i n d e r

F
Home at Last
Charter Schools Retain Students Better than Nearby Public Schools

Myth
Charter schools have a higher-than-usual rate of students transferring out to
other places of learning.

Fact
The percentage of students who transfer out of charter schools is
roughly half that of the neighborhood public schools which charter
students would likely otherwise attend.
Education Brief

Charter schools are a new kind of public
school, attended solely by choice. They
must take all comers, irrespective of past
performance in school or on tests. Through
state law, charter schools are given the freedom
to create “new look” schools that break with
the outworn, bureaucratic policies of inner
city education. Several studies have shown that
charter schools in Chicago are outperforming
the norm at district-run public schools; there
are more than 15,000 students on waiting lists
as a result.
As schools of choice, one might expect that
charter schools would lose students more
frequently than district-run schools. It is
extremely easy to leave a charter school for
another public school; yet the strong academic
track record of charter schools appears to help
find a long-lasting scholastic home. A review of
the data shows that the percentage of students
who transfer out of charter schools is roughly
half that of the neighborhood public schools
charter students would likely otherwise attend.
The Office of New Schools at Chicago Public
Schools publishes an exhaustive performance
report of charter schools every year. For each
charter school, the district examines students’
zip codes in order to identify which district-run
school each student would likely attend. That
data is then used to create a weighted average
of vital performance statistics, to which charter
schools’ statistics are then compared. The
student transfer rate is one of the key statistics
that the district reports. The data is compiled
here and examined in further detail.
In 2008-09, the transfer rate of students at
charter schools was lower than the comparison
average at more than 90 percent of charter
campuses in Chicago. On average, the transfer
rate at charter schools was half that of
comparison schools.
It is sometimes alleged that high performing
schools usher problem students out the door,
inflating their record of success. If this were
true of charter schools, it would be reflected
in a school’s transfer rate—and the data show
that students are far less likely to leave charter
schools than they are in district-run public
schools.
See the table on the following pages for
more information.

Collin Hitt is the Director of Education Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. Ashley Muchow, a Public Policy
Analyst at the Illinois Policy Institute, assisted in the research and writing of this brief. The Illinois Policy Institute’s
Fact Finder series specifically aims to debunk myths about public policy issues that affect Illinois.
 Chart 1: Chicago Charter School 2008-09 Transfer-Out Rates
Transfer-Out Rate (percent)

Charter Comparison Comparison/Charter Charter over

School School Average Difference Comparison Percentage

ACT Charter Middle School 10.3 15.3 5.0 67%

ACT Charter School High School 6.6 18.1 11.5 36%
Amandla Charter School 19.4 17.4 -2.0 111%
ACE Technical Charter High School 9.2 16.1 6.9 57%
Alain Locke Charter Academy 1.2 15.3 14.1 8%
Aspira of Illinois—Early College 9.1 11.9 2.8 76%
Aspira—Haugan Middle School 6.2 8.1 1.9 77%
Aspira—Mirta Ramirez 4.7 11.4 6.7 41%
Bronzeville Lighthouse 7.4 14.6 7.2 51%
Catalyst Charter School—Howland 13 16.4 3.4 79%
CICS—Avalon-South Shore 5.2 14.8 9.6 35%
CICS—Basil 3.8 17 13.2 22%
CICS—Bucktown 2.2 9.5 7.3 23%
CICS—Ralph Ellison 3.4 15.4 12.0 22%
CICS—Irving Park 4.9 7.8 2.9 63%
CICS—Longwood Elementary School 4.1 12.5 8.4 33%
CICS—Longwood High School 5.9 16.5 10.6 36%
CICS—Loomis Primary 3.9 13.8 9.9 28%
CICS—Northtown Academy 3 10.9 7.9 28%
CICS—Prairie 5 17.6 12.6 28%
CICS—Washington Park 6.2 17.2 11.0 36%
CICS—West Belden 1.4 7.6 6.2 18%
CICS—Wrightwood 2.4 12.7 10.3 19%
CMSA Middle School 7.6 11.8 4.2 64%
CMSA High School 3.5 18.1 14.6 19%
CVCS Elementary School 13.8 11.8 -2.0 117%
CVCS High School 19 13 -6.0 146%
Choir Academy Charter School 24.1 14.3 -9.8 169%
Erie Elementary Charter School 8.7 9.6 0.9 91%
Henry Ford Academy: Power House High 7.2 18.1 10.9 40%
Galapagos Charter School 8.3 15 6.7 55%
KIPP Ascend Charter School 8 14.6 6.6 55%
LEARN—Excel 8.2 14.9 6.7 55%
LEARN—Butler 4.1 16.3 12.2 25%
Legacy Charter School 7.2 15.3 8.1 47%
Namaste Charter School 3.2 9.4 6.2 34%
Noble Network—Comer 16.3 16.9 0.6 96%
Noble Network—Golder 6.3 12.4 6.1 51%
Noble Network—Noble 4.5 12 7.5 38%
Noble Network—Pritzker 4.7 11.7 7.0 40%
Noble Network—Rauner 5.4 12.3 6.9 44%
Noble Network—Rowe Clark 5.4 15.4 10.0 35%
Noble Network—UIC 5.5 14 8.5 39%
NLCP—Christiana 8.1 16 7.9 51%
 Chart 1: Chicago Charter School 2008-09 Transfer-Out Rates
Transfer-Out Rate (percent)

Charter Comparison Comparison/Charter Charter over

School School Average Difference Comparison Percentage

NLCP—Collins 7.3 17 9.7 43%

Passages Charter School 14.4 12.3 -2.1 117%
Perspectives—Calumet 6.3 16 9.7 39%
Perspectives—Calumet Tech 8 16.5 8.5 48%
Perspectives—Calumet Middle School 7.3 14.1 6.8 52%
Perspectives—IIT Middle School 12.1 11.4 -0.7 106%
Perspectives—IIT High School 9.6 16.3 6.7 59%
Perspectives—Joslin Middle School 2.5 11.2 8.7 22%
Perspectives—Joslin High School 3.8 14.8 11.0 26%
Polaris Charter Academy 6 16.7 10.7 36%
Providence Englewood 8 16.7 8.7 48%
Shadazz—Betty Shabazz 2.4 15.4 13.0 16%
Shabazz—Sizemore 5.4 14.4 9.0 38%
Shabazz—DuSable 3.9 16.8 12.9 23%
UofC—Donoghue 2.9 13.3 10.4 22%
UofC—North Kenwood 1.7 14.2 12.5 12%
UofC—Woodlawn Middle School 37.1 12.5 -24.6 297%
UofC—Woodlawn High School 10.1 14.7 4.6 69%
UofC—Woodson 3.1 13.5 10.4 23%
UNO—De Las Casas 1.5 7.4 5.9 20%
UNO—Fuentes 0.7 8.1 7.4 9%
UNO—Garcia 5.4 13.1 7.7 41%
UNO—Marquez 4.4 7.3 2.9 60%
UNO—Paz 6.1 11.2 5.1 54%
UNO—Tamayo 2.2 6.7 4.5 33%
UNO—Torres 3.2 8.9 5.7 36%
UNO—Zizumbo 5.2 8.6 3.4 60%
Urban Prep Charter Academy 6.1 15.7 9.6 39%
Young Women’s Leadership Middle School 9.9 10.8 0.9 92%
Young Women’s Leadership High School 5.1 15.9 10.8 32%
Averages (unweighted) 7.0 13.5 6.5 52%

Source: Chicago Public Schools. Note: CPS publishes separate comparisons at the elementary, middle and high school levels for charter schools that enroll students
over a wide grade span.