8/24/04 -- Students who attend charter schools often perform worse academically than public school students, according to data drawn from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
The controversial findings, first reported by the New York Times Aug. 16, were collected by researchers at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Average scores at charter schools for grades 4 and 8 lagged by about "a half year of schooling" behind public schools, the AFT reports in Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
"Being transformed into a charter school is being held out as a solution for struggling public schools," says F. Howard Nelson, lead author of the AFT report. "But these NAEP data reinforce years of independent research that show charter schools do no better and often underperform comparable, regular public schools."
For years, charter schools have been touted as a free-market alternative to force reform on traditional public schools -- and to provide students with an alternative to academically low-performing schools. Nationwide, 3,000 charter schools serve more than 600,000 students.
Yet, the charter school movement also has come under its share of criticism. More than 80 schools have closed because of financial improprieties, mismanagement, or poor academic performance, the Times reports.
In California, the Los Angeles Times recently reported that the state's largest charter school operator, the California Charter Academy, has shut down 60 campuses amid "new state restrictions and an investigation into financial and academic practices."
The report is based on NAEP data available online. AFT officials say they undertook the study after the federal government repeatedly delayed reporting the findings on charter school achievement results.
The achievement gap exists even when researchers take into account demographic data, the AFT says. Other studies have suggested there is little statistical difference between public and charter school student performance, and even the AFT found states where charter school performance was equivalent or slightly higher than that of public schools.
The AFT report quickly came under fire from charter school advocates. The Center for Education Research released a statement complaining the union's analysis did not consider that many students enter charter schools two to three grade levels below average. It also suggested that a better judge of school success would be to review students' year-to-year progress.
By that measure, charter schools show their worth, says Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. The center tracked scores at 569 charter schools and found that student test scores rose significantly over a three-year period.
"They actually reduced the [achievement] gap by about 40 percent," he says.
Marcus Egan, director of NSBA's Voucher Strategy Center, says the complaints against the AFT report are "interesting" as charter school advocates have long used the same kind of data to criticize public schools -- and have dismissed similar arguments made by public school educators about the dangers of single-test indicators of school performance.
"I don't remember Secretary Paige issuing a statement on public school achievement that explains the need to keep in mind that public schools are diverse and a lot of students come from disadvantaged backgrounds -- and that we should be looking at student progress over time, not just the scores from one year," Egan says. "Maybe the fury this story has unleashed will be a starting point to discuss how all public schools are judged."
At the AFT, spokesperson Celia Lose says the report should encourage school boards, if state law gives them oversight of local charter schools, to revisit their regulation of charter schools and make sure they hold these schools accountable.
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Associate Research Director Kathleen Porter-Magee urges school board members to withhold judgment about the effectiveness of charter schools until more research is conducted.