12/14/04 — Traditional public schools generally do a better job of meeting state performance standards than charter schools, reports a study commissioned by the U.S. Education Department.
The report, prepared by SRI International, a research firm in California, compares charter schools and regular public schools in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Texas. “In each of the five states examined, charter schools were less likely to meet state performance standards than traditional public schools,” the report states.
In Texas, the report found that 66 percent of charter schools met state performance requirements in 2001-02, compared to 98 percent of public schools. Texas public schools outperformed charter schools by a statistically significant amount even “after controlling individually for the proportion of low income students, the proportion of minority students, student mobility, and student enrollment.”
In North Carolina, 88 percent of charter schools and 100 percent of traditional public schools met state performance standards. Public schools continued to do better “after controlling for the proportion of minority students and enrollment.”
In Colorado, Massachusetts, and Illinois, however, while public schools significantly outperformed charter schools, they met the state standards at similar rates when certain background variables were taken into account.
In all five states, more than half the charter schools met state performance standards.
“These findings do not indicate that charter schools were less effective than traditional public schools but suggest that many charter schools will have difficulty meeting the standard established by states under No Child Left Behind,” the report states.
Under NCLB, one of the potential sanctions for poorly performing public schools is a conversion to charter school status.
According to the study, charter schools were more likely to enroll African-American students, Hispanic students, and students from poor families — but fewer special education students — than traditional public schools.
It also found charter schools are likely to be smaller and to have fewer certified teachers than traditional public schools.
There are about 3,300 charter schools in 41 states, compared to 90,000 traditional public schools.
The study is the third and final report of a comprehensive examination of charter schools commissioned by the Education Department in 1998. It was submitted to the department in June but was not released until November after the New York Times filed a Freedom of Information request.
A statement on the report by Deputy Education Secretary Gene Hickok says the fact that charter schools were less likely to meet state performance standards than traditional public schools in 2001-02 “does not mean that traditional schools are outperforming charter schools or vice versa. This study is a snapshot, and it is impossible to know from one picture whether charter students are catching up or falling behind.”
Hickok notes that “other more sophisticated studies have shown that charter schools do, in general, help students make faster progress than do traditional public schools, though charter students have more distance to cover.”
But some researchers have come to different conclusions. A study issued this summer by the American Federation of Teachers, for example, found students in charter schools performed at lower levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress than students in regular public schools.