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Macro Cheat Sheet
Free and Reduced-Price Lunch
Top Stats
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Our FRL population is comparable to that of our host districts. Across all geographies in our
network, 85 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, compared with 85
percent of traditional district students in Brooklyn and 86 percent of traditional host district
students in Connecticut.
Geography
Connecticut
New Haven
Bridgeport
Hartford
Brooklyn
Providence
AF % FRL
Host District %FRL
89%
81%
80.6%
99.9%
84.5%
85.6%
86%
68.9%
99.1%
89.8%
85% (Brooklyn)
83% (Providence)
*Achievement First percentages are from 2013-14. Connecticut percentages are from 2011-12, and New York and Rhode Island percentages are
from 2012-13.
Potential Questions
Q: “Are Achievement First’s students ‘less poor’ than their peers?”
A: The vast majority of our students receive free and reduced-price lunch, and our FRL percentages
are reflective of the communities we serve. Our FRL population is more than twice that of the states
we serve. For instance, in Connecticut, 89 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price
lunch, in comparison to 35 percent of their statewide peers.
Q: “Why doesn’t Achievement First serve as many FRL students as its host districts?”
A: In some of our geographies—New Haven, Hartford and Providence—we are serving more FRL
students than our host districts. We are also serving a comparable percentage of FRL students in
Brooklyn. This is particularly noteworthy because Achievement First cannot give lottery preference
to students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. Also, our host districts operate based on a
federal policy that allows schools to give all students free lunch regardless of their qualification
status. This leads to inflation in the districts’ FRL percentages.
Q: “What is Achievement First doing to serve more FRL students?”
A: We recruit in some of our most historically underserved neighborhoods, and we grant lottery
preference to students from low-income communities in every city where it is allowed. For
example, Amistad Academy grants neighborhood preference to students living in the Dwight
neighborhood, one of New Haven’s lowest-income communities. Amistad Academy Elementary
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serves a greater percentage of free and reduced-price lunch students than New Haven Public
Schools.
We grant lottery preference based on the low-income status of the neighborhood because it is not
currently legal for us to grant preference based on FRL status. We support legislation that would
allow us to do so.
Q: “How has your FRL population changed in recent years?”
A: Our network-wide free and reduced-price lunch population is steadily increasing—it grew from
76 percent in 2010-11 to 80 percent in 2012-13 and 85 percent in 2013-14. At individual schools, this
increase has been even more dramatic. For example, the free and reduced-price lunch population at
AF Bushwick Elementary was 74 percent in 2010-2011, nearly a 20 percentage point jump from the
prior year. This school year, 2013-14, it rose to 92 percent.
Top Quote
“Years ago in New York, the naysayers first accused charters of not serving enough poor families. When
charters demonstrated otherwise, the naysayers finely parsed the statistics to charge that those families
somehow aren't poor enough. The ‘richest’ charter in Bridgeport still serves families that are poorer
than 80 percent of all other Connecticut School district. Charters in city like Bridgeport are reaching
some of the neediest students in the state.” –Bill Phillips, president, Northeast Charter Schools Network
Achievement First General Highlights
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With the opening of three new schools in our network—AF Aspire Elementary, AF University
Prep High and AF Providence Mayoral Academy Elementary—we now serve nearly 8,100
students across three states, five cities and 25 schools. We will open four new schools in the fall
of 2014, serving more than 9,100 students.
At both of our full-size high schools, 100 percent of graduating seniors have gained college
acceptance in every graduating class. More African Americans at our one, small New Haven high
school passed at least one A.P. exam than at any other school district in Connecticut. Our
students, most of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, are not only gaining
acceptance to college, but they are persisting toward graduation. While only 16 percent of
students nationwide who are the first in their families to enter college will graduate within six
years, 82 percent of our high school graduates are still persisting in college.
For two consecutive years, AF Bushwick received an A and scored in the top 15 percent of all city
schools on the New York City Department of Education Progress Reports. The NYC DOE
highlighted AF Bushwick as one of eight city schools with high-needs populations that excel at
preparing students for college and careers. AF Bushwick earned special credit for making
outstanding gains with special education students.
AF Brownsville also received an A for two consecutive years on the NYC DOE Progress Reports
and was recognized for making higher-than-average gains in math and English Language Arts.
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We announced our first class of 52 “Distinguished Teachers” in Achievement First’s Teacher
Career Pathway, which has been nationally recognized by both the New Teacher Project and the
Aspen Urban Superintendents Network as one of the most promising teacher evaluation and
career paths in the country.
There is high—and increasing—demand from our families and communities for more
Achievement First schools. Across all of our schools, we received an average of seven
enrollment forms for every available seat.
We have been working hard to address issues of diversity and inclusiveness. We increased the
percentage of new teachers and school leaders identified as black, Latino or multiracial from 28
percent to 36 percent and, last year for the first time, we retained a higher percentage of our
staff of color than our network average.
Across Achievement First’s Brooklyn schools, our more than 1,600 kindergarten, first and second
graders outperformed 92 percent of their peers across the country in math.
Achievement First’s eighth graders outperformed affluent eighth graders in Rye by 13
percentage points on the New York State Test.
More than 90 percent of Achievement First New York high school students are proficient in
history and math.
We now have a Common Core-aligned curriculum in place in all Connecticut and New York
Achievement First schools. While there is still work to be done (notably in K-4 ELA), our schools
now have a much better sense of the realistic college-ready bar.
Achievement First was named one of three finalists for the 2013 Broad Prize for Public Charter
Schools. According to The Broad Foundation, Achievement First was selected, in part, because
its “students performed better than their peers in school districts with similar income
demographics in Connecticut and New York in all available comparisons—elementary, middle
and high school reading, math and science in Connecticut, and elementary reading, math and
science and middle school reading and math in New York.”
At AF Brooklyn High, graduates were accepted to an average of 6.7 colleges per student, and at
AF Amistad High, 40 percent of the graduating class was admitted to colleges and universities
considered “more selective” or “most selective” by U.S. News and World Report.
For more information, please read our Talking Points at http://www.achievementfirst.org/marcommresources/communicating-af/talking-points/.
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