A new study shows graduation rates in Ohio's public schools are higher than those in charter schools. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.
The study shows even when excluding dropout-recovery schools, the four-year graduation rate of charter schools in Ohio is just under 45 percent, faring worse than public schools in Ohio’s six largest cities. Schools in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron and Toledo graduated 73 percent of their students. Howard Fleeter of the Ohio Education Policy Institute, the group who conducted the study, says there are racial disparities too.
“White non-hispanic students graduated at a 92.8 percent rate. Hispanic students graduated at an 80.4 percent rate. Black, non-hispanic students graduated at a 78.4 percent rate.”
Fleeter says poor, rural districts performed better than their urban counterpoints. 92 percent of students in those rural districts graduated on time.