Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Charter Schools Lagging Behind U.S. Test Scores Reveal

For those of you who don't know, this was my seniors thesis in college.

Nice to know that the report I filed with the DOE (Department of Education) nearly 8 years ago has finally been properly released to the public...not that it'll get the attention it needs.

"The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter schools
and regular public schools shows charter school students often doing worse than
comparable students in regular public schools.

The findings [were]
released without public announcement. And have dealt a blow to supporters of the
charter school movement, including the Bush administration.

The data
shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing about half a year
behind students in other public schools in both reading and math. Put another
way, only 25 percent of the fourth graders attending charters were proficient in
reading and math, against 30 percent who were proficient in reading, and 32
percent in math, at traditional public schools.

Because charter schools
are concentrated in cities, often in poor neighborhoods, the researchers also
compared urban charters to traditional schools in cities. They looked at
low-income children in both settings, and broke down the results by race and
ethnicity as well. In virtually all instances, the charter students did worse
than their counterparts in regular public schools.

Charters are expected
to grow exponentially under the new federal education law, No Child Left Behind,
which holds out conversion to charter schools as one solution for chronically
failing traditional schools."


Free-market fix, my ass.

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