Just the facts: charter schools

Charter schools
Students at most charter schools score the same or lower than comparable students in regular public schools.

That’s the conclusion of the most comprehensive national study of charter schools, conducted in 2009 by researchers at Stanford University. They compared charter and district schools in 16 states that educate most of America’s school children, and discovered that one-third of the charters did worse than the average public school, one-sixth did better, and the rest were about even.

The Stanford group wasn’t the first. Researchers with the federal Department of Education did their own study in 2004 and came to similar conclusions.

These studies rarely find their way into media reports or politicians’ speeches on charter schools, which mostly tell about students from tough backgrounds who go to charter schools and do great.

There are plenty of students like that in district schools, too, but you’re less likely to read about them.

Sometimes, promoters of the charter school path to closing achievement gaps admit that many of these schools are weak. They say they don’t support all charters, just the good ones. But the schools they most often hold up as shining examples leave a lot of children behind.

Take the Knowledge Is Power Program-KIPP-probably the most praised chain of charters. The KIPP model includes extended hours, Saturday lessons, strict discipline, and parent contracts that screen out students without strong family support. KIPP boasts that 85 percent of its alumni go on to college. But KIPP has very high attrition rates, and unlike at most district schools, KIPP students who leave are usually not replaced. Those who stay, research says, tend to be the most motivated.

That doesn’t make KIPP a bad program. It’s just a bad yardstick for judging schools that take-and keep-all comers.

In human terms.
Many district schools do wonders with highly motivated students from poor backgrounds, too. Take the students in the AVID program that’s in thousands of schools across the country. The name says it all: “Advancement Via Individual Determination.”

They get up early, stay late, and work furiously to reach their goal of college graduation and the professional careers that a college degree can open up. These students and their teachers spare no effort.

Ana Segedincev was an English-language learner in San Diego taking non-college prep classes when a teacher steered her into AVID. It changed her life. “The AVID program was the pillar that helped me reach my goals by teaching me the organizational and study skills that helped me survive the rigorous world of college,” she says.

Segedincev became a teacher herself and worked for several years in AVID, helping students like her-students who had the motivation but needed guidance.

She’s still in touch with one of her former students, an English-language learner who became the first in her family to finish high school. “It’s so rewarding to see where she’s headed!” says Segedincev. “She’ll graduate this year from UCLA and she’s going for a Master’s next.”

http://www.nea.org/home/42390.htm