Checking in on Chicago Charters

Yesterday's Chicago Sun Times put it this way with respect to charters - "there's little evidence in standardized test results that charters are performing better than traditional schools operated by the Chicago Public Schools system." Talk about an eye popper.

This statement isn't made without evidence. For example, on the math portion of the ISAT, 7.3% of CPS neighborhood school students exceeded standards while 5.3% of kids at the privately run schools exceeded standards. Want more? Among charter or contract elementary students, 7.9% exceeded standards on the ISAT for reading compared with 9.8% of students at neighborhood schools.

These results were gathered by the Chicago Sun Times and the Medill Data Project at Northwestern University. The Chicago Sun Times and the Medill Data Project at Northwestern University gathered the information.

As you might expect, both charter and neighborhood schools had some that performed well and others that languished.

One thing is a certainty here in Chicago...the myth that charters outperform traditional schools just isn't true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Dick