Bronx charter kids excel on NY math and reading tests, surpassing public school students by 25%

The Bronx is learning — at least in charter schools.

Students from charter schools in the borough’s poorest neighborhoods, including the South Bronx, excelled on state reading and math exams — with pass rates exceeding 90% in some classrooms, according to new data.

Those results vastly surpassed the scores of students at traditional public schools in The Bronx by at least 25%, according to a Post review of the numbers.

At the Zeta Charter Schools network — four in The Bronx and two in northern Manhattan — an average of 91.9% of students in grades 3-8 passed the reading exam and 94.8% aced the math test.

“Zeta is focused on the whole child, not just academics,” said mom Laura Manzano, whose three children attend the Zeta South Bronx K-to-8 school — where a whopping 93.8% of students passed the reading test and 93.5% score proficient in math.

Among all 99 charter schools in the borough, 68.6% of students in grades 3-8 passed the English Language Arts exams, compared to a measly 43.6% for Bronx traditional public schools, the data show.

The gap widened even more, to a roughly 26% difference, on the math test, with an average 69.2% of all charter school students in The Bronx scoring proficient, compared to 43.3% for neighboring public schools.

The Post’s review of the results found: 

• Students at Success Academy’s five Bronx charter schools soared. At Success Academy IV and V, 100% of pupils passed the math test, while results for the ELA exam ranged from 92% to 99% in all five of the schools.
• At all four of the South Bronx Classical Charter schools 95% or more of students passed the ELA exam and 96% or more score proficient in math.
• Students also performed well at the Icahn network of seven schools in The Bronx. At Icahn Charter Schools I and IV, 99.5% passed both the ELA and math exams. Students in six of the schools had pass rates of 80% or more on the ELA and students at 5 of the school had 80% or more in math.

“The Bronx is learning,” said Lawford Cunningham, superintendent of the Icahn charter network, referring to the infamous headline “The Bronx is Burning” during the borough’s dark days of the 1970s when raging fires engulfed scores of buildings.

Citywide, 67.5% of all charter school students scored proficient on their ELA exams, compared to 56.3% of traditional public school students – an 11.2 percentage point difference, according to an analysis by the New York City Charter School Center.

In math, 68.6% of charter school students scored proficient compared to 56.9% of public school students – a 11.7 percentage point differential.

Critics said the test scores for the traditional public schools — despite seeing some gains compared to last year — were nothing to brag about given the Big Apple school spending tops $41 billion and the state’s $36,293 per pupil tab is the highest in the nation. 

More than 40% of kids in the traditional public schools scored below proficient on both the math and reading exams.

The results show that charter schools remain a great option for city parents and their children, said James Merriman, CEO of the NYC Charter School Center.

“This incredible progress is only possible thanks to the tremendous charter school teachers and leaders who challenge and support their students every day. When families are empowered with great public school choices, students rise to the occasion,” Merriman said.

New York City has 285 public charter schools serving about 150,000 students — or 15% of the pupils in Big Apple public schools, the largest district in the nation with some 1,800 schools.

Nearly 90% of the students at city charter schools are black or Latino, 83% come from low-income families and 19% have special needs.

Charters are publicly-funded, but privately managed and most have a longer school day and year than traditional public schools. Most have staff that don’t belong to a union, unlike in public schools.

Despite their popularity and success, the Democratic-run state legislature has refused to lift the charter school cap set in law to open more of them across the city, something the powerful United Federation of Teachers’ union fiercely opposes.

Manzano, the Zeta charter mom, said the school encourages parental involvement, including writing letters of encouragement to their child before exams, and also provides small group instruction for struggling students.

There are fun events before exams to lessen stress and anxiety, as well as class trips to experience music and arts, such as to Radio City Music Hall.

Her son, Gohan, is entering 8th grade, daughter Yatziri will be starting 5th grade and Manzano’s youngest, Ailyn, is enrolled in kindergarten for the upcoming school year.

“I wish I had a school like Zeta when I was young,” said Manzano, who attended traditional public schools.

Emily Kim, founder and CEO of Zeta Charter Schools, was thrilled with the test results and noted that the network is expanding into Queens, with new schools in Jamaica and Elmhurst opening this fall.

Zeta also reported that 100% of its 4th graders at the Bronx Tremont Park charter school and all of 7th graders at its Manhattan Middle School passed the state math exam.

“The results show that our academically rigorous, whole-child model works, and that all children thrive when they are challenged academically, encouraged creatively, and equipped with the tools they need to grow emotionally,” Kim said.

Cunningham, who started with the Icahn network when it opened its first school in 2002, said: “Everything we do has the students in mind.”

That starts with hiring and training of teachers, adopting a rigorous and engaging curriculum, providing state of the art technology and conducting data analysis, he said.

“Who you put in front of the kids matters. We prepare our teachers so they are ready to teach our kids,” he said.

The charter network — named after its founder, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn — also encourages competition and stresses the importance of holding each other accountable for results, Cunningham said.

Bronx state Sen. Luis Sepulveda, who has many charter schools in his district, applauded the results.

“Overall the charter schools are doing well. We congratulate them,” he said. “I support the charter schools and traditional public schools.”

Candidates for mayor in the November election have not promoted charter schools despite their success.

Socialist Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is on record opposing charter schools. Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent, did not fight to increase the cap on charter schools when he had the opportunity to do so.

Andrew Cuomo, who is also running as an independent, championed charter schools when he was governor but has toned down his support as a mayoral candidate.

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa does not mention charter schools as part of the education plan on his website, but he has publicly supported lifting the cap in state law to increase them in the past.