Sunday, June 21, 2015

Despite special advantages they are given, charter schools don’t deliver on their promises

Finally, a report from a completely non-political, non-ideological source about charter schools. The report, co-sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and Public Agenda, lays out the facts and the issues. Different sides may take heart from different aspects of the report.
  
Certain factual findings stand out:

“Nationally, there is very little evidence that charter and traditional public schools differ meaningfully in their average impact on students’ standardized test performance.” 

“In some states charter schools have had positive impacts on student learning, in other states they have had negative impacts, while in others charters have had no differential impact compared with traditional public schools.”

“Charters schools enroll proportionately fewer special education students than traditional public schools do”

“Charter school students are less likely to be English-language learners than traditional public school students”

Charters receive less public funding than public schools, but spend more on administration than public schools.