Study: Wide variation in success of PA charters
by Celeste Lavin on Apr 08 2011 Posted in Latest news
Students at middle and multi-level charter schools in Pennsylvania perform worse than their peers in traditional public schools in both math and reading, according to a new study published by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University.
Students at elementary level charters, however, outperform their traditional school counterparts in both math and reading.
The study examined the success of students in charter schools in 17 states from 2004-2008, using math and reading standardized test scores.
In general, the study found that “reading and math gains for charter school students in Pennsylvania were significantly below their traditional public school peers,” according to a release from CREDO.
But the release emphasized that there has been great variability in success among charter schools, including at the elementary versus middle level.
Cyber charters for example, were much less successful than “brick and mortar” charters. The study found that in 100 percent of cyber charters, students performed “significantly worse” in math and reading than students at traditional public schools.
Of the brick and mortar charters, 35 percent performed better than traditional public schools in reading, while 34 percent performed worse. For math, 27 percent of brick and mortar charters performed better than traditional schools, and 42 percent performed worse.
CREDO noted that another variability in success in charters was based on race. Pennsylvania charter schools seem to work less well for Hispanic students, who as a whole, perform worse than students at traditional schools in both reading and math.
Black students at charter schools were also found to perform worse in math than Black students at traditional public schools, but did similarly well to those students in reading.
English language learners were one of the only groups to consistently benefit from charter schools. While there are relatively few ELL students enrolled in charters (775 compared to 61,770 total), the study found that they fared similarly to ELL students in traditional schools in reading, and had significantly better results in math.
In Philadelphia alone, there are several charters focused on immigrant students and multicultural studies, including Esperanza Academy and Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School.
“Without a vigorous focus on quality, the charter sector as a whole is put at risk by those schools that consistently underperform compared to their traditional public school peers,” said the research manager of CREDO, Devora Davis.
This report comes at a time when Governor Corbett is pushing for more charters in Pennsylvania.
The Notebook will follow up on this report with Philadelphia-specific information when it becomes available.
Comments (5)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/10/2011 - 21:32.
I am sure, Corbett won't read or trust the study. His whole objective is to save money for the state, lay off public school teachers and end teacher senority. He also wants education majors to come out of college making hardly any money. Thats the whole point right? less pay for educators, they don't deserve to make a decent salary because they are teachers. Aren't I sooo correct?
Submitted by Rachel (not verified) on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 13:12.
Two quick reactions to this article:
1) If students at elementary charters make bigger gains than students at elementary public schools, does that help explain why they make smaller gains in middle and high school (in other words, the charter school students have "less" to gain in middle and high school because of previous gains they made)? This would possibly imply that charter and public school students arrive at more or less the same point at the end of high school though, and I don't know if that is the case across the board - it seems like success and proficiency rates vary a lot from school to school and from student to student.
2) Much of CREDO's findings depend on how the "virtual twins" were constructed. If they matched comparison groups, CREDO would be on solid grounds, but it seems that they may have done something different. In fact, the Center for Education Reform (admittedly a pro-charter pressure group) attacked CREDO's 2009 report (which subsequently led to this current report) - http://www.edreform.com/_upload/No_More_Waiting_Charter_Schools.pdf.
In sum, CREDO's 2009 report seems to suggest to me that the performance of charter and public schools varies greatly from school to school and from state to state but that they do about the same, on balance, across the 15 states that they examined.
I think the focus now should be finding the poor-performing charters and shutting them down, and expanding the well-performing charters.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 18:19.
I will say it again---These Tea Party Extremists will end America as we know it if we let them. They are dangerous people out of the Joe McCarthy mold. They need to be recalled ASAP.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/16/2011 - 18:26.
Charters are a farce, a charade, a tool used by politicians to reward their friends and kickbacks coming their way.
Submitted by lamont cranston on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 22:23.
The vitriol some of you spew about charter schools is really misguided. You are so afraid that some of the charters have been successful, that you fear that they will lead to the demise of public schools. You speak nothing of the education of our young people, only spewing hatred to those who are making success possible. I won't argue that there are charters that do poorly and line the pockets of a select few, but in the face of big city politics, did you expect something else. The law will weed out those who do wrong...vitriol won't. I'm not against unions, seniority, or even political meandering, I'm for education in any form that is successful in bringing our children a quality education and giving them the foundation to create a niche for them in the 21st century. Look at Frankford HS, with some of the proudest traditions in the city of Philadelphia. Highest truancy rate in the city, 49% graduation rate, the champions logo just a whisper of its storied past, run into the ground by weak administration, a principal who "forgot" to get certified the 1st year, had a vote of "no confidence" by the staff, students openly laughing at him (when he leaves his office, rarely) and a wife still in Houston Texas. How is that for commitment to public education in the city of Brotherly Love? And we should allow the education of 1200 young people to be compromised by an abysmal situation, when a Mastery or an Aspira could come in and turn the school to past glory? Should we allow a charter to get rid of teaching deadwood, long past its freshness date, to save some ineffective and non-caring teachers because they have seniority? Frankly the farce and the charade is with you. A failing school with no future prospects, and nitwits named Anonymous spouting off just to hear themselves think. Yes, the Tea Party is a bunch of poorly educated disaffected old, white, farts, but they are not the ones to blame...it's the system that has so failed our young people, that it has left itself open to every two-bit knucklehead with an axe to grind. Does anyone believe that if the system were working that these half-baked nutballs would get any press? I think not. Change in a failing system in inevitable and necessary, and just because you disagree doesn't make it right and true. No, you sir are a tool, and remember, only the Shadow knows.
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