Children Left Behind - Part II

There are enough assessments and studies of charter schools to literally choke a horse. The Brookings Institution, Stanford University, Harvard University, the NAEP, the U. S. Department of Education, the Economic Policy Institute and hundreds of other schools, think tanks and scholars have studies the impact that charter schools have on learning.

The vast majority of findings that I reviewed found that, nationwide, the performance of charters, with some notalbe exceptions, was anything but stellar. Perhaps the most expansive study of charters was conducted by Stanford's Margaret E. Raymond. Ms. Raymond analyzed data from 2403 charter school (there are around 4600 nationwide in 2010). Ms. Raymond found that 37 percent of charters had learning gains below those of public schools; 46 percent had learning gains that were no different and only 17 percent showed growth that was significantly better than public schools.

The data reveals that, contrary to what many believe, public schools, overall, get the job done just as well as charters. There are public school students, just like charter school students, who perform poorly. People need to know that alternatives to traditional public schools, as they proliferate, aren't the answer. The data suggests that the type of school, structurallly, isn't what makes a difference in student achievement.

What makes a difference in any school are such factors as; parental support of student learning, a rich curriculum, thoughtful and caring teachers, and the proper resources.

Though Schools Count Corp has no control over the first three, of the above elements, we can help with resources. As public schools are attacked for what they don't accomplish, we will continue to aid students and schools that face the perceived panacea that standardized testing and 'choice' will cure the nations public education ills. Up to this point in time, such testing and 'choice' have not proven that they can improve the quality of American education.

Dick Flesher