Yet another charter school study finds no difference between performance of charter schools and public schools.
Why do reformers continue to push charters as the “answer” in cities across the nation, like Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Detroit, etc.? Do reformers read research?
This one was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and the charter-friendly Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington.
Here is the summary from the U.S. Department of Education’s “What Works Clearinghouse”:
What is this study about?
The study examined the effect of non-profit charter-school management organizations (CMOs) on middle school student achievement, high school graduation rates, and post-secondary enrollment rates. Researchers estimated the effectiveness of each CMO separately by comparing the outcomes of CMO school students with those of matched non-CMO school students.
What did the study find?
The study found that, on average, CMOs did not have a statistically significant impact on middle school student performance on state assessments in math, reading, science, or social studies. Similarly, there was not a statistically significant impact of CMOs on graduation rates and rates of post-secondary enrollment for high school students. However, there was substantial variation in the direction, magnitude and statistical significance of the impacts for individual CMOs.
Citation
Furgeson, J., Gill, B., Haimson, J., Killewald, A., McCullough, M., Nichols-Barrer, I., . . . Lake, R. (2012). Charter-school management organizations: Diverse strategies and diverse student impacts. Report prepared by Mathematica Policy Research and the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
School privatization zealots ignore empirical evidence that proves their claims false because their goals are power, control and wealth–not quality education and equity. Acquisitiveness, not altruism, drives the movement to pillage the vulnerable $500 billion in public education funds.
To the corporate education reformers, systematic studies and empirical facts are obstacles to marketing self-serving myths. They find their inspiration for “the new civili rights movement” in Ayn Rand, not Martin Luther King.
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Nonprofit charter-school management organizations? Here in Michigan, which is ground zero in the charter school movement, all of the charter management companies are for-profit, 185 in 2010. Why is this study limited to non-profits?
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I believe the answer to your question”Why do reformers continue to push charters as the “answer” in cities across the nation, like Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Detroit, etc.?” is economics. IF the academic results between charter and public schools are the same, then the charter model is more profitable because it has lower fixed costs (pensions) since the model depends on a rapid turn-over in teachers who get burned out before they can receive a pension. No pension = lower overall costs to the owners of the charter = greater profit. Profit is driving education.
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Instead of all these redundant posts, let’s get up thing tank group together like the Republicans do. Diane, we do not have that time to cipher through the multitude of posts we receive. Please start editing
Sent from my iPhone
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Skip those you consider redundant.
Did you not want to know about the latest charter research?
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Rita:
You take charge of getting up a” think tank.”.
Most of us don’t mind selecting and reading the posts, and also reading the comments after them.
I’ll bet that you aren’t half as busy as Diane is…and not even on the the same planet when comparing effectiveness.
Do your own damned editing!
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