CHARTER SCHOOLS FLUNK IMPORTANT TEST
A new report from the National Alliance for Charter Schools argues that black students do better in charter schools than elsewhere, citing these reports:
- A national comparison of student achievement on 4th grade reading and math state tests conducted by Stanford University Professor Caroline Hoxby found that, on average, public charter schools serving a high percentage of black students have more students earning proficient scores than traditional public schools serving a similar student population
- A Florida Department of Education study shows public charter schools closing the achievement gap between black and white students at a faster rate than traditional public schools in key subjects and grade levels.
-- Black students in Massachusetts charter schools are overtaking peers in non-charters on state reading and math tests, according to a study by the Massachusetts Department of Education.
-- A 2008 survey of Chicago charter schools reveals that black students who attend a charter high school have an average composite ACT score half a point higher than black students in a traditional district school.
Missing from such arguments is one critical fact: charter school enrollment is less than three percent of public school enrollment and represents students whose parents had enough independence and initiative to place them there. From the start, charter school students are in no way typical, but come from atypical and more ambitious family backgrounds
This is obscured because the debate usually focuses on ethnicity or grades rather than on psychological factors. Parents who have enough drive to switch their children's schools out of an expectation - right or wrong - that they will do better elsewhere are most likely to apply that drive to their children on issues such as homework and classroom effort.
It is also true that charter schools tend to be smaller than public schools, another factor - again underrated in public debate - that may make a big difference.
When such factors are applied, bragging over a half point gain in ACT scores is a bit pathetic.
1 Comments:
The point here is that this study, as with countless other studies over the past decades, proves once again that there simply is no measurable difference between public, private and charter schools. They all come out the same. Public school advocates make all kinds of excuses (as this post does) to "interpret" the results, but the evidence is clear.
It's time for those who favor mandatory public education (as Hitler, Stalin and all dictators do) to acknowledge that their claims that public education is better than charter or private simply hold no water. People support mandatory public education not because it's better (it's not) but because they have a deep-seated desire to control other people.
Freedom of education is the most basic and fundamental freedom of all. People have the right to educate their children in whatever way they choose. And they have the right to pass their views, religions and lifestyles on to their children without the government looking over their shoulder and deciding what parts of ok and which aren't. Denying them that is textbook totalitarianism. All real progressives support freedom of education; it is, in fact, the definitive measure of a progressive. Anyone who cares about America understands how important it is that governments not be able to control everything that is taught in schools.
Government control of schools is precisely why we have such an apathetic, uninformed populace. Why can't people see this? It's so obvious.
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