Breaking Barriers: Transforming College Dreams into Reality
By Myrna Castrejón, President & CEO, California Charter Schools Association
Graduation season is a time of celebration and reflection. Students and their families reflect on their educational journeys and look forward to the futures they’ve worked hard to secure, often breaking barriers and celebrating family “firsts.”
For so many families, it is not unusual to see our young graduates flanked by their parents as their names are called to the stage as a marker of the generational support and weight of the accomplishment traces a family’s sense of hope and advancement. For educators, graduations also culminate years of effort in the success of the core mission: have I done my best to prepare my students for what comes next?
Recently, I spoke at River Oaks Academy graduation in Ventura County; one young graduate shouted out to her teachers as she received her diploma: “That was 12 years!!! Thank you!!”
We live for these moments, knowing that our schools are delivering on our core mission to open up transformative opportunities for students to imagine, design, and confidently strive toward a successful future. And we’re particularly good at this outcome.
This year, charter public school educators in California should stand tall because new research shows they’re doing an exceptional job of closing post-secondary gaps among historically disadvantaged students.
The 2024 Portrait of the Movement, an annual report produced by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), finds that charter public schools are sending more than double the percentage of English learners and students with disabilities to University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses compared to the public school average.
The study finds this significant achievement extends to socioeconomically disadvantaged, Latino, and Black students, showcasing the profound impact these schools have on educational equity.
Charter schools with site-based programs are particularly excelling, nearly tripling the percentage of English learners and students with disabilities who move on to UC and CSU institutions. For Latino graduates of these schools, the college-going rate is nearly twice that of the state average, with 10% attending UCs and 23% enrolling in CSUs.
In addition to those results, our study focuses on ten charters that have among the highest college-going or CTE-completion rates for historically underserved students in California:
AIMS High School (Oakland)
In 2021, 91% of their Black students went to college, with nearly half (48%) attending a UC. This compares to only 5% of Black students from the Oakland Unified School District going to UCs.
Aspire Ollin University Preparatory Academy (Los Angeles)
In 2022, nearly half (49%) of its socioeconomically disadvantaged graduates attended a CSU, significantly higher than the 20% average for similar students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Birmingham Community Charter High School (Lake Balboa)
In 2021, 49% of Birmingham’s Black graduates completed a Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway, the second highest rate among all charter high schools in the state.
Da Vinci Design (El Segundo)
In 2022, 78% of its Black student graduates completed a CTE pathway, highlighting its strong career preparation program.
Ednovate-USC Hybrid High College Prep (Los Angeles)
In 2022, 87% of its Black graduates went to college, with over half (53%) attending a CSU, far above the district average of 14% for Black students.
Lighthouse Community Charter High (Oakland)
In 2022, 85% of its socioeconomically disadvantaged graduates and 84% of its Latino graduates completed a CTE pathway, among the highest rates statewide.
Making Waves Academy (Richmond)
In 2022, 34% of its socioeconomically disadvantaged graduates attended a UC, surpassing the district average of 11%.
Renaissance Arts Academy (Los Angeles)
In 2023, 100% of its Latino and socioeconomically disadvantaged graduates completed a CTE pathway.
The Preuss School UC San Diego (San Diego)
It had the highest UC college-going rates for Latino graduates (45%) and low-income graduates (46%), with 36% of its Black graduates also attending a UC in 2022.
The School of Arts and Enterprise (Pomona)
In 2022, 93% of its Latino students and 92% of its socioeconomically disadvantaged students completed a CTE pathway.
These schools’ achievements are rooted in five critical practices: a clear purpose focused on college and career access, embedding preparation into school schedules and curricula, raising awareness of options, removing access barriers, and continuously tracking data for improvement. These practices provide a blueprint for other schools aiming to replicate their success.
During interviews with leaders at each school, a clear intentionality of purpose consistently emerged as a critical factor in a school’s success. These schools have missions deeply connected to supporting college and career success, overcoming barriers to college entry, and maintaining a forward-looking approach that envisions the end goal.
Another crucial ingredient for success is strategically embedding college and career support into the school’s structure. This involved ensuring graduation standards met college and career preparation requirements, adding advisors to the school’s programs, and creating required classes preparing students for college and careers. Schools that excelled in helping students complete CTE pathways used similar structures to those that achieved high college-going rates.
In addition to setting a solid foundation for college and career readiness at the start of a student’s high school experience, schools found success in continual reinforcement, including making students aware of options and opportunities, removing access barriers, and continuously tracking data for improvement.
Employing these practices, charter public schools are closing post-secondary gaps among California’s most vulnerable students. In the process, they are creating positive generational change and breaking cycles of poverty in low-income communities.
As graduation season unfolds, I celebrate all educators’ dedication to ensuring student success. Just as the students don their caps and gowns to recognize their achievements, we should also celebrate the educators who were there for them and the remarkable strides made in paving the way for a more equitable future.
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For more information about charter public schools in your area, including those specializing in college and career preparedness, visit https://www.ccsa.org/find-a-school.
