The percentage of charter-school eighth-graders who performed well enough to qualify for one of the city’s specialized high schools has declined by nearly half since 2009, according to data obtained by The Post.
Just over 5 percent of the 677 charter kids who sat for the Specialized High School Admissions Test in 2011 got offers from Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech or five other elite high schools.
A ninth specialized high school, La Guardia Performing Arts, requires an audition for entry.
The data show that while the number of charter kids qualifying for an elite seat has dipped only slightly since 2009 — from 42 to 35 — the number sitting for the exam has grown by more than 200.
Two years ago, 9.2 percent of the 459 charter applicants aced the rigorous entrance exam.
“It follows the same trend we saw last year where the public schools outperformed the charter schools,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
When state officials raised the passing bar on state tests in 2010, charters saw larger drops in pass rates overall than did traditional public schools — although charters maintained a slim lead in performance in both math and reading.
Last year, for the first time, however, traditional public schools outperformed charters on the city’s A-through-F report cards, which emphasize year-to-year progress.
Charter operators gave several explanations for the dwindling success of their students on the elite entrance exams.
Several said that with top operators growing from elementary and middle schools to also serving the high-school grades, the best of the charter kids were less likely to apply to a traditional public high school.
One Brooklyn charter-school director suggested that the increase in the number of charter kids sitting for the entrance exams this year included a large number who formerly wouldn’t have even considered applying to an elite high school.
Democracy Prep Director Seth Andrew said his sixth-through-10th-grade school takes in kids whose reading is initially as low as the third-grade level, so they require more than a couple of years to get up to speed.
“Despite making the most growth of any middle school in New York, not all our students are ready for the specialized schools by that time,” Andrew said. “But I would put our 10th grade’s academic rigor up against Bronx Science’s any day of the week — and I know that because I went to Bronx Science.”
The drop in charter-school success with the elite high schools was slightly steeper than but mirrored the drop in the percentage of black and Hispanic students citywide who qualified for the elite schools.
Just 11 percent of black and Hispanic test takers qualified for a specialized high school this year — down from 13 percent in 2009.
The vast majority of students served by charter schools are black and Hispanic.