Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Pretty much as expected
But perhaps sooner than expected, the much vaunted charter schools are proving to be no better than the public schools they replaced.
As many as one in five U.S. charter schools should be shut down because of poor academic performance, according to a group representing states, districts and universities that grant them permission to operate.When your whole raison d'etre is to suck public money into private pockets, it is surprising that any charter schools do well.
The National Association of Charter School Authorizers said 900 to 1,300 of the privately run, publicly financed schools should close because they are in the bottom 15 percent of public schools in their states. The Chicago-based group’s members -- such as the Los Angeles Unified School District and the State University of New York -- oversee more than half of the nation’s 5,600 charter schools.
The announcement represents a challenge to the fast-growing charter-school movement, created as an alternative to conventional districts and operating without many of their rules. To hold the organizations accountable, states must pass new laws that would shut down poor performers, said Greg Richmond, president of the charter-school organization.
“For all the excellent charter schools, there are also many not serving students well,” Richmond said from Washington in a briefing with reporters. “That’s unacceptable.”
Comments:
<< Home
Not surprised in the least, we now have a large number of studies showing that charter schools have identical performance to public schools with the same student mix. On the other hand, this doesn't mean we should close the bottom 15% performing charter schools, necessarily. One of the interesting things I saw happen in Arizona when they passed their charter school law was the opening of many schools for "at risk" kids -- kids from poor families, homeless kids, kids with special needs, kids whose first language is not English, and so forth. These kids perform poorly regardless of whether they are in regular public schools or in charter schools, but there's no evidence that the charter schools do worse than the public schools at educating these kids. Yet these are exactly the schools that focusing on the bottom 15% of performers would close.
I am personally ambivalent on charter schools. I find them to be neither panacea claimed by their supporters, or demonic as claimed by their opponents. Vouchers, on the other hand... pure unmitigated evil. Just sayin ;).
I am personally ambivalent on charter schools. I find them to be neither panacea claimed by their supporters, or demonic as claimed by their opponents. Vouchers, on the other hand... pure unmitigated evil. Just sayin ;).
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment