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<blockquote type="cite" cite>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Visionaires:</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
<br>
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<div>This article on Charter Schools appered in the NY Times.
Apparently, it had</div>
<div>been sitting around the U.S. Department of Education for some
time, and the</div>
<div>rumor is that someone leaked the story to the Times.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Tom Trail<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
size="-1"><b><br></b></font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="+2"><b>Nation's Charter
Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal</b></font><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1"><b>By DIANA JEAN
SCHEMO<br>
<br>
</b></font>WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - The first national comparison of test
scores among children in charter schools and regular public schools
shows charter school students often doing worse than comparable
students in regular public schools.<br>
<br>
The findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department
released without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of
the charter school movement, including the Bush administration.<br>
<br>
The data shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing
about half a year behind students in other public schools in both
reading and math. Put another way, only 25 percent of the fourth
graders attending charters were proficient in reading and math,
against 30 percent who were proficient in reading, and 32 percent in
math, at traditional public schools.<br>
<br>
Because charter schools are concentrated in cities, often in poor
neighborhoods, the researchers also compared urban charters to
traditional schools in cities. They looked at low-income children in
both settings, and broke down the results by race and ethnicity as
well. In virtually all instances, the charter students did worse than
their counterparts in regular public schools.<br>
<br>
Charters are expected to grow exponentially under the new federal
education law, No Child Left Behind, which holds out conversion to
charter schools as one solution for chronically failing traditional
schools.<br>
<br>
"The scores are low, dismayingly low," said Chester E. Finn
Jr., a supporter of charters and president of the Thomas B. Fordham
Foundation, who was among those who asked the administration to do the
comparison.<br>
<br>
Mr. Finn, an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan
administration, said the quality of charter schools across the country
varied widely, and he predicted that the results would make those
overseeing charters demand more in the way of performance.<br>
<br>
"A little more tough love is needed for these schools," Mr.
Finn said. "Somebody needs to be watching over their
shoulders."<br>
<br>
Mr. Finn and other backers of charter schools contended, however, that
the findings should be considered as "baseline data," and
could reflect the predominance of children in these schools who turned
to charters after having had severe problems at their neighborhood
schools.<br>
<br>
The results, based on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational
Progress, commonly known as the nation's report card, were unearthed
from online data by researchers at the American Federation of
Teachers, which provided them to The New York Times. The organization
has historically supported charter schools but has produced research
in recent years raising doubts about the expansion of charter
schools.<br>
<br>
Charters are self-governing public schools, often run by private
companies, which operate outside the authority of local school boards,
and have greater flexibility than traditional public schools in areas
of policy, hiring and teaching techniques.<br>
<br>
Federal officials said they did not intend to hide the performance of
charter schools, and denied any political motivation for failing to
publicly disclose that the data were available. "I guess that was
poor publicity on our part," said Robert Lerner, the federal
commissioner for education statistics. Mr. Lerner said further
analysis was needed to put the data in its proper context.<br>
<br>
But others were skeptical, saying the results proved that such schools
were not a cure-all. "There's just a huge distance between the
sunny claims of the charter school advocates and the reality,"
said Bella Rosenberg, an special assistant to the president of the
American Federation of Teachers. "There's a very strong
accountability issue here."</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Of the nation's 88,000 public schools, 3,000 are charters, educating
more than 600,000 students. But their ranks are expected to grow as No
Child Left Behind identifies thousands of schools for possible closing
because of poor test scores.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Once hailed as a kind of free-market solution offering parents an
escape from moribund public schools, elements of the charter school
movement have prompted growing concern in recent years. Around the
country, more than 80 charter schools were forced to close, largely
because of questionable financial dealings and poor performance, said
Luis Huerta, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College. In
California, the state's largest charter school operator has just
announced the closing of at least 60 campuses, The Los Angeles Times
reported on Monday, stranding 10,000 children just weeks before the
start of the school year.<br>
<br>
The math and reading tests were given to a nationally representative
sample of about 6,000 fourth graders at 167 charter schools in
February 2003. Some 3,200 eighth graders at charter schools also took
the exams, an insufficient number to make national comparisons.<br>
<br>
The results are not out of line with earlier local and state studies
of charter school performance, which generally have shown charters
doing no better than traditional public schools. But they offered the
first nationally representative comparison of children attending both
types of schools, and are expected influence public debate.<br>
<br>
Amy Stuart Wells, a sociology professor at Columbia University
Teachers College, called the new data "really, really
important."<br>
<br>
"It confirms what a lot of people who study charter schools have
been worried about," she said. "There is a lack of
accountability. They're really uneven in terms of quality."<br>
<br>
Detractors have historically accused charters of skimming the best
students, those whose parents are most committed, from the poorest
schools. But supporters of charter schools said the data confirmed
earlier research suggesting that charters take on children who were
already performing below average. "We're doing so much to help
kids that are so much farther behind, and who typically weren't even
continuing in school," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center
for Education Reform, in Washington, which represents charter schools.
She said the results reflect only "a point in time," and
said nothing about the progress of students in charter schools.<br>
<br>
That, she said, could be measured only by tracking the performance of
charters in future tests. For the moment, however, the National
Assessment Governing Board has no plans to survey charters again.<br>
<br>
One previous study, however, suggests that tracking students over time
might present findings more favorable to the charter movement. Tom
Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the
Brookings Institution, who conducted a two-year study of 569 charter
schools in 10 states found that while charter school students
typically score lower on state tests, over time they progress at
faster rates than students in traditional public schools.<br>
<br>
The new test scores on charter schools went online last November,
along with state-by-state results from the national assessment. Though
other results were announced at a news conference, with a report
highlighting the findings, federal officials never mentioned that the
charter school data were publicly available.<br>
<br>
Researchers at the American Federation of Teachers were able to gain
access to the scores from the national assessment's Web site only
indirectly: by gathering results based on how schools identified
themselves in response to a question.<br>
<br>
In a significant departure from earlier releases of test scores, Mr.
Lerner said the charter school findings would be formally shown only
as part of a larger analysis that would adjust results for the
characteristics of charter schools and their students.<br>
<br>
In the 1990's, the National Assessment Governing Board had rejected
requests from states for such analyses, with Mr. Finn, then a member
of the board, contending that explanatory reports would compromise the
credibility of the assessment results by trying to blame demographic
and other outside factors for poor performance.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>But Mr. Lerner said he thought such an
analysis was necessary to put the charter school test scores in
context. He called the raw comparison of test scores "the
beginning of something important," and said, "What one has
to do is adjust for many different variables to get a sense of what
the effects of charter schools are."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>-- <br>
Dr. Tom Trail<br>
International Trails<br>
1375 Mt. View Rd.<br>
Moscow, Id. 83843<br>
Tel: (208) 882-6077<br>
Fax: (208) 882-0896<br>
e mail ttrail@moscow.com</div>
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