Education Law

Charter schools: finding out the facts

“From the available research, it seems that the attention paid to charter schools outweighs the effect they have had on public education, either good or bad.”

That’s just one of the findings of the new report released today by the Center for Public Education, “Charter Schools: Finding Out the Facts.”

With the Race to the Top competition, it’s clear charter schools are poised for growth. But the lack of rigorous research on the topic means that states may be heading into a reform strategy without a clear understanding of whether this is a promising path to take or not.

The Center’s report, authored by independent researchers Chuck Dervarics and Eileen O’Brien, aims to solve that by taking a clear look at the available charter school research. Some findings:

• Reliable charter school research is still in its infancy. One recent analysis rejected 70 out of the 210 studies it found. Many studies are descriptive snapshots of a school or district’s achievement, rather than examining achievement across states or comparing charter school achievement to that in traditional public schools.
• Of the reliable research, studies generally showed that charter school students did better in elementary school reading and middle school math, but worse in high school. The recent CREDO study found that, overall, some (17%) charter schools do better than traditional public schools, but the majority do the same (46%) or worse (37%).
• Local education agencies (school boards) are the most common authorizers of charter schools.
• States with ?multiple authorizers? — i.e., various pathways for authorizing charter schools — had the weakest student achievement data for charter students when compared to students at traditional public schools.
• Charter schools remain primarily an urban strategy. The National Charter School Research Project reports that 89 percent of U.S. school districts ?have no charter schools within their boundaries, perhaps in large measure because so many school districts are so very small.?
• For profit education management organizations (EMOs) run about 16 percent of all charter schools. (Non-profit EMOs run about 13 percent.)
• Virtual charters are a small but growing segment of the market. However, very little research is available about the impact of these schools, and what is available indicates ?mixed outcomes.?
• Charter schools generally are not drawing the best students away from local traditional public schools, and the racial composition of charters is similar to that of the traditional public schools the students previously attended.

Go beyond the surface and find out the facts by reading the summary or the full report.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on March 24, 2010 (boomark / email).