U.S Department of Education
2004
The U.S. Department of Education contracted with SRI International to evaluate the federal charter school assistance program, and the bulk of this hundred-page report consists of such an evaluation. It tells how the program works, where the money goes, how charter schools work, who attends them, how states (and authorizers) hold them accountable, limitations in state charter laws (and federal statutes), and more. In general, it's a helpful introduction to the "charter movement" and high-level tour of the charter scene (though its latest data are 2+ years old). Much of what you'll find is supportive of charter schools, such as their disproportionate enrollment of poor and minority youngsters. What has drawn all the spotlights, however, especially in the charter-hating, union-hugging New York Times, is the section reporting five state case studies that sought to appraise how well charter schools - versus regular public schools - met "state performance standards" in 2001-2. Bottom line: more than half the charters in each state did meet those standards, but more district-operated public schools did. "This finding," the authors carefully note, "does not imply a lack of charter school impact on student achievement" and "may be linked to the prior achievement of students or some other factor. The design of this study did not allow us to determine whether charter schools are more or less effective than traditional public schools." You'd never learn of those limitations from the hubbub, however, as charter critics seize upon this as further proof that charter schools are failing. The truth is that this is just another "snapshot" look at school performance in a single year in a handful of states. It's contradicted by Caroline Hoxby's national study. And it tells us nothing about how much value these schools do (or don't) add to their students or how effective they are. It reminds us, however, that a lot of charter schools have a distance to travel if they and their students are going to meet the expectations laid down by NCLB and state academic standards. You can find it here.
"Charter schools: Fact and fiction," New York Post, November 20, 2004
"Charter schools' progress lags," by George Archibald, Washington Times, November 23, 2004
Statement by Deputy Secretary Eugene Hickok on Charter Schools Report, November 19, 2004
"Charter schools fall short in public schools matchup," by Sam Dillon and Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times, November 23, 2004 (registration required)
