Florida charter schools (proficiency levels not much higher)

DATA SHOWS STUDENT PROFICIENCY LEVELS NOT MUCH HIGHER AT CHARTER SCHOOLS; December 14, 2010; The Florida Independent

Florida legislators gathered last week to watch Waiting for Superman, a documentary that advances two solutions for the problems with America’s education system: school choice and accountability for teachers. It also emphasizes the role charter schools can play in the educational debate.

But new Florida data shows that students at charter schools are not significantly more proficient at reading, math and science than those at traditional public schools…

The report highlights the increase in the number of charter schools with an A grade from 2002 through 2009, and states that “charter school students outperformed traditional public school students” in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (aka the FCAT).

But a closer look at the results shows the proficiency percentages for both charter and traditional public schools were similar:

In reading proficiency at the elementary level, 76 percent of charter school students were proficient, while 73 percent of public school students were. At the middle school level, charter school students had 69 percent proficiency, compared to 63 percent for public school students. At the high school level, charter school students had 44 percent proficiency. Public school students had 43 percent.

In math proficiency, at the elementary level, charter students stood at 73 percent and public school students were at 72 percent. The middle school level shows 65 percent for charter school students versus 62 percent for public school students…

The data makes clear the need to look carefully at the average percentage of students meeting high standards in reading, math and science in each school district to determine whether charter schools offer parents a better choice to solve the problems facing education in Florida…

There are also for-profit education management companies such as Charter Schools USA, which is based in Fort Lauderdale and manages 18 charter schools in Florida. The company’s website says Charter Schools USA is

one of the largest providers of charter school management services in the nation. We successfully manage private and municipal charters for grades pre-K through 12. Charter Schools USA assists corporations, government entities, developers or nonprofit agencies with all phases of charter school design, planning, development, financing, construction, operations and curricula.

Jonathan Hage — the current chairman, president and CEO of Charter Schools USA — is a member of Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s education transition team. Hage served as director of research for Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future, a strong advocate for school choice. He has also worked for George H.W. Bush and was a member of Charlie Crist’s education transition team.

On its website, Charter Schools USA calls for readers to actively lobby the legislature to strengthen educational options.

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Serious quality challenge in national charter school sector: Stanford CREDO study

NEW STANFORD REPORT FINDS SERIOUS QUALITY CHALLENGE IN NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOL SECTOR; June 15, 2009; CREDO Press release 

Report Recognizes Robust Demand, Supply and Exceptional Charters, Faults Quality Controls, Authorizers and Charter Caps

Stanford, CA – A new report issued today by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

While the report recognized a robust national demand for more charter schools from parents and local communities, it found that 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public school counterparts, with 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no significant difference.

The report found that the academic success of students in charter schools was affected by the individual state policy environment. States with caps limiting the number of charter schools reported significantly lower academic results than states without caps limiting charter growth. States that have the presence of multiple charter school authorizers also reported lower academic results than states with fewer authorizers in place. Finally, states with charter legislation allowing for appeals of previously denied charter school applications saw a small but significant increase in student performance.

The Stanford report, entitled, “Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States,” is the first detailed national assessment of charter school impacts since its longitudinal, student-level analysis covers more than 70 percent of the nation’s students attending charter schools. The peer-reviewed analysis looks at student achievement growth on state achievement tests in both reading and math with controls for student demographics and eligibility for program support such as free or reduced-price lunch and special education. The analysis includes the most current student achievement data from 15 states and the District of Columbia and gauges whether students who attend charter schools fare better than if they would have attended a traditional public school.

“The issue of quality is the most pressing problem that the charter school movement faces,” said Dr. Margaret Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University. “The charter school movement continues to work hard to remove barriers to charter school entry into the market, making notable strides to level the playing field and improve access to facilities funding, but now it needs to equally focus on removing the barriers to exit, which means closing underperforming schools.”

The report found several key positive findings regarding the academic performance of students attending charter schools. For students that are low income, charter schools had a larger and more positive effect than for similar students in traditional public schools. English Language Learner students also reported significantly better gains in charter schools, while special education students showed similar results to their traditional public school peers.

The report also found that students do better in charter schools over time. While first year charter school students on average experienced a decline in learning, students in their second and third years in charter schools saw a significant reversal, experiencing positive achievement gains.

The report found that achievement results varied by states that reported individual data. States with reading and math gains that were significantly higher for charter school students than would have occurred in traditional schools included: Arkansas, Colorado (Denver), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana and Missouri.

States with reading and math gains that were either mixed or were not different than their peers in the traditional public school system included: California, the District of Columbia, Georgia and North Carolina.

States with reading and math gains that were significantly below their peers in the traditional public school system included: Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas.

"If the supporters of charter schools fail to address the quality challenge, they run the risk of having it addressed for them," said Dr. Raymond. "If the charter school movement is to flourish, a deliberate and sustained effort to increase the proportion of high quality schools is essential.

The replication of successful charter school models is one important element of this effort. On the other side of the equation, however, authorizers, charter school advocates and policymakers must be willing and able to fulfill their end of the original charter school bargain, which is accountability in exchange for flexibility."

To download a copy of the full report and executive summary, visit: http://credo.stanford.edu

About CREDO at Stanford University

CREDO at Stanford University was established to improve empirical evidence about education reform and student performance at the primary and secondary levels. CREDO at Stanford University supports education organizations and policymakers in using reliable research and program evaluation to assess the performance of education initiatives. CREDO's valuable insight helps educators and policymakers strengthen their focus on the results from innovative programs, curricula, policies or accountability practices. http://credo.stanford.edu

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Charter schools show no significant overall impacts on achievement: Mathematica study

CHARTER SCHOOL STUDY SHOWS NO SIGNIFICANT OVERALL IMPACTS ON ACHIEVEMENT: MATHEMATICA’S EVALUATION FINDS WIDE VARIATION IN ACHIEVEMENT IMPACTS ACROSS SCHOOLS; June 29, 2010; Mathematica Media Advisory 

Issue: Charter schools are an important and growing component of the public school system in the United States. As of the 2009-2010 school year, more than 5,000 charter schools served over 1.5 million students—approximately three percent of all public school students—in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Charter schools are intended to play a key role in school improvement under the existing Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), as well as the programs established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. However, there remains considerable debate as to whether, how, and under what circumstances charter schools improve the outcomes of students who attend them.

Study: Mathematica Policy Research recently completed a large-scale randomized trial of the effectiveness of charter schools, the most comprehensive charter school study of its kind to date to use an experimental design. The evaluation, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, covers 36 charter middle schools across 15 states and a sample size of 2,330 applicants. It compares outcomes of students who applied and were admitted to these schools through randomized admission lotteries (lottery winners) with the outcomes of students who also applied to these schools and participated in the lotteries but were not admitted (lottery losers). This experimental research design produces the most rigorous estimates of charter school impacts on student outcomes. The study’s results apply to this group of participating charter middle schools that held lotteries, and do not necessarily apply to the full set of charter schools in the U.S.

Findings:

On average, charter middle schools that hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving student achievement in reading and math. However, these averages mask wide variation across individual charter schools in their impacts.

Study charter schools were more effective for lower income and lower achieving students and less effective for higher income and higher achieving students. In addition, charter schools in large urban areas had positive impacts on students’ achievement in math; those outside these large urban areas had negative impacts on achievement.

Study charter schools did not significantly affect most of the other outcomes examined, including attendance, student behavior, and survey-based measures of student effort in school.

These charter schools did positively affect levels of satisfaction with school among both students and their parents.

Quote: “This report helps us make sense of previous charter school studies that have generated a wide range of findings,” said Phil Gleason, senior fellow and lead author. “In this study—the most comprehensive and geographically diverse using charter school lotteries to date—our findings are consistent with prior evaluations that focused on a broad range of schools. We found that the average charter school in our sample did not have positive impacts on students’ math or reading achievement. And like previous lottery-based studies that have focused on single, urban districts, we found that charter schools in large urban areas and those serving a more disadvantaged student population had positive impacts on students' achievement in math."

Report: “The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts.” Philip Gleason, Melissa Clark, Christina Clark Tuttle, and Emily Dwoyer, June 2010. Executive Summary.

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