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August 24, 2006
Charter Schools Test Scores Slightly Behind
Categories: Classes
I picked up a USA Today at my dad's hotel yesterday and saw an interesting article. A new report shows that fourth grade students at charter schools score slightly lower than those at traditional publics schools on a battery of standardized tests. Apparently, charter schools are not a magic bullet to educational success.
One of the things that struck me about the USA today article was Jeanne Allen's remarks about how the report underestimates the number of poor students in charter schools. Her remarks imply that the schools are not doing as well because they primarily serve poor students. Ironically, this is what public school advocates have been saying since, well, forever.
Combine this with the article I spoke about a few months ago, which showed that private school students score slightly lower than public school students on standardized measures when SES is controlled for, and we see increasing evidence (as if more was needed), that SES is what must be overcome in order for schools and their students to succede.
The full report can be accessed here.
Posted by Nakia at August 24, 2006 12:07 PM