The Puzzle: Charters, Choice, Performance and Achievement…

There are many inspiring charter success stories such as the Harlem Success Academy which is ranked 32 out of 3,500 public schools in New York (the school scored higher than any public school on the statewide math exam). In Chicago, all 107 seniors in the first graduating class at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men have been admitted into college. In 2008, the Oakland Charter Academy successfully raised the bar - sixth through eighth grade students scored a 902 on the API - outperforming public schools in their area by 250 points.

Then there are the mixed results: as I understand it, national research group the School Choice Demonstration Project has conducted an evaluation in Milwaukee (sample size of 3000 students) and the results were that achievement growth grates were found to be comparable between students in school choice programs and students in traditional Milwaukee public-schools.

So, what does it all mean? If charters don’t outperform traditional schools on standardized test results – does that imply we shouldn’t have charter schools? Does the measure of performance matter? According to Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute what we should acknowledge from the School Choice Demonstration Project (and possibly other such research) is that “standardized test scores are a terrible way to decide whether one school is better than another”.

According to the US Charter Schools web page, there are over one million students enrolled in more than 3,500 schools in 40 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico this year – In California we have some 750 charter schools and more than 200,000 charter school students. Parents and children are choosing charter schools in greater numbers each year. If it is true that not all of these charters are outperforming their traditional counterparts on standardized tests, why would parents continue to enroll their children?

My thoughts on this – and I welcome yours as well – is that choice is important - different approaches are needed to meet the unique needs of all of our children – parents should have a choice (not just wealthy parents who can pay private tuition) regarding the best educational setting or approach for their child – and standardized test scores are not the only way to measure success of students or schools.