By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Five charter public schools in western Washington recently announced their remarkable graduation outcomes for the class of 2024. Showcasing their dedication to academic excellence, the charter schools –which include Summit Olympus in Tacoma, Whatcom Intergenerational High School in Bellingham, Summit Atlas (Atlas), Summit Sierra, and Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) here in Seattle — has helped guide 68% of their graduates to get accepted into 4-year colleges, ensuring the future success of many of their students beyond high school.
“We are so excited to be celebrating these students’ successes. The outstanding data shows that charter schools in Washington provide excellent education and help prepare students for success, whether they choose college, other training, or a career of their choice,” says the Washington State Charter Schools Association in a statement.
In Washington state, charter schools attract and serve a disproportionately high percentages of Black, Indigenous, students of color, and students from low-income households, and for many students provides them with an alternative learning environment that allows them to succeed.
“While we do serve a higher proportional percentage of students from the golden majority, and also students with disabilities, I would say that every student who comes to our school has a story for why they are there and are also coming to us from a system that wasn’t working for them,” says Dan Effland, Executive Director at Summit Atlas, a charter school in Seattle that serves students in 6th through 12th grade. “Our school was built with beliefs around equity, anti-racism, and inclusion at the center whereas nationally schools are not always built with those same beliefs at the center of their mission. So, I think that attracts disproportionately students from marginalized backgrounds.”
Summit Atlas is a relatively small school with essentially 100 students per grade. The school, which focuses on ensuring that its students are set up for whatever comes after high school, strives to make sure that their students have multiple options after graduating and saw over 95% of its students get accepted to a four-year college.
Effland is very proud of the fact that the school has been able to maintain very strong graduation and college acceptance rates.
“We intentionally keep our schools small because we believe that it just allows for ultimately more successful outcomes for kids,” says Effland. “We had a 97.2% graduation rate for this past year, and the one student who was unable to is actually enrolled with us now coming from a failing 9th-grade year at a different high school. [The student is] technically included in our class of 2024 data, but will be graduating next year, which I think is awesome.”
“That concrete next step for us is giving [our students] the option to go to a four-year college,” added Effland. “If you don’t have more than one option, then it’s not a choice at that point and if our students don’t have at least one four-year college acceptance, we do not really consider our work done, because they don’t have that sense of a whole set of doors open for them.”
Although Washington state’s charter school law mandates high standards for performance and accountability in exchange for flexibility to offer innovative programs and individualized instruction to meet the unique needs of students, Effland believes that charter schools have faced a few minor challenges when it comes to high graduation rates but does not view them as something unachievable.
“We don’t have the ability to transfer students to a credit recovery school, so we have to take responsibility for every single student, and so I guess that is technically harder for us, but it definitely makes me prouder of the work we do,” says Effland.
While the efforts of the teachers in these schools do not go unnoticed, many charter school students come from difficult circumstances that have challenged earlier aspects of their education. However, the schools provide the framework for an intentional collaborative relationship with the students, their families, and teachers the helps jumpstart the success and growth of their students.
“The saying it takes a village to raise a child resonates deeply at RVLA (Rainier Valley Leadership Academy, says Baionne Coleman, CEO of RVLA, a charter school in South Seattle. “We are proud of our families and educators who have collaboratively worked to cultivate the brilliance of our scholars, and we are most proud of our scholars’ tenacity, resilience, and excellence for doing what only they can do, taking the first step on their path to success.”
As a parent himself who has experienced his own bumps and bruises in life, ensuring that all students are set up for life-long success is something that Effland holds close to his heart.
“I believe it is a birthright to have a fulfilled life and to have these options for financial security, education, health, and many different aspects, says Effland. “Seattle as a community does not have equitable academic data that we can be proud of, so to even be able to contribute to that even on a small scale the way we are in charters and our school of 600 students I think is really impactful for the community.”
Effland shared that charter schools have less funding than traditional schools, which impacts our students who are coming from Black and Indigenous communities because they are being supported by less funding.
Despite the success of charter school in the state, Effland hopes that one day charter schools will receive the same funding as traditional public schools so they can further support their mission of providing an alternative education option for students and their families.
“Thinking about how to succeed for the following years, we need to ensure that we have equitable funding that is permanent and stable from the state because we need that permanent stable funding to have permanent stable programs that ensure all of our students across our state get the opportunities they deserve, and that fulfilled life that is their birthright,” says Effland.