New York City Charters Are Safer Than District Schools: An Analysis of Student and Teacher Opinions
Most analysis of, and debate about, public charter schools focuses on student performance on standardized reading and math tests. These are important indicators of school quality; but school safety is also a crucial consideration. Unfortunately, whereas standardized test score data are universally available, reliable data on school safety are scarce.
New York City, however, administers a school-climate survey to students and teachers every year that includes several questions about safety. Using responses to these questions for the 2016–17 school year, this paper provides a comparative descriptive analysis of New York City student and teacher perceptions of safety at 150 charter schools and their neighboring traditional (“district”) public schools.
- Overall: 64 of 150 charter schools provide a safer climate than their neighboring traditional public schools, 24 charters are less safe, and 62 charters are roughly as safe.
- Elementary schools: 24 charters are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 12 are less safe, and 20 are roughly as safe.
- Middle schools: 26 are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 3 are less safe, and 25 are roughly as safe.
- High schools: 14 are safer than their neighboring traditional public schools, 9 are less safe, and 17 are roughly as safe.
- After demographic differences between students are accounted for, the charter school safety advantage remains statistically significant.
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Max Eden is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
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