A few weeks ago, a reader asked me to comment on this paper:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20792
It says, in summary, that students in schools subject to charter “takeovers,” who were “grandfathered in,” saw substantial academic gains. That is, they did not enter the charters by lottery but were kept enrolled after the school turned from public to charter. The two districts studied were Néw Orleans and Boston.
I sent the link to Kristen Buras, who spent ten years studying charters in Néw Orleans.
This was her response:
Hello Diane:
I am astounded by this paper’s assertions. To my knowledge, there is no foundation for the claim that New Orleans students attending a closed school have the right to be “grandfathered” into the newly chartered school.
First, I am unaware of any such legislative mandate (and if there is, it’s certainly not enforced).
Second, I am very aware that the reality on the ground is just the opposite.
When charters takeover, they gut the entire school of teachers and students and then redesign to their liking through an array of methods.
Time and again, the community has complained in public forums that claims about charter operators “transforming” schools in New Orleans are bogus because the charter operators rarely serve students who originally attended the school.
In fact, to avoid such a burden and to start anew, charter operators in New Orleans often open the school with only select grade levels offered, generally the grade levels exempt from state testing, and slowly build from there. The paper’s authors have built on a model disassociated from reality, but I’m sure there are lots of fancy formulas in the paper that look really impressive.
All my best,
Kristen
Director | Urban South Grassroots Research Collective
Kristen L. Buras
Associate Professor of Educational Policy
Educational Policy Studies
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 3977
Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977
United States
kburas@gsu.edu
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Atila Abdulkadiroğlu is a paid consultant for charters. From his bio, “he has consulted several school districts in redesigning student assignment systems, including Boston (MA), Chicago (Il), Denver (CO), New Orleans (LA), New York City (NY)”. I call conflict of interest!
Has Dr. Baker done an analysis on this?
Conflict of interest doesn’t seem to mean a thing in education these days. The head of our elementary and secondary ed department in MA is the head of the board for PARCC.
Conflict, heck, I just wish they even had interest in education in Ohio. Here, it is all about money for the few well connected, not learning.
Thank you Dr. Buras for the response.
Three of the paper’s authors are at MIT. Fred, and sons, Charles and David Koch, were all, educated at MIT One son currently serves on the Board of MIT. Greenpeace identified 2005-2012 Koch Foundation funding, for MIT, as among the top 10 universities funded by the Kochs. (The listing appears to be exclusive of their medical research donations.)
The President of the NBER is also at MIT.
From a 1974 Charles Koch speech, recently reported at the Greenpeace website, “…Much of our university support has been involuntary through taxes…and we have contributed voluntarily to universities…. we should cease and only …support those programs, departments or schools that contribute in some way to our individual companies or, to …the free enterprise system.” And, he cited the now infamous Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell’s memo.
A quick look at acknowledgements and disclosures illustrates why this paper does not pass the sniff test. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20792.ack
Mary Ollie,
The link provides the bio for Pathak, would you provide the link for the other 3? Thanks.
Mary Ollie,
Thanks for the link. I see that the authors thank the Arnold Foundation. And, a couple of them, are on the Board of the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice. That site provides a listing of the contracts the organization has received.
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
But Mark Twain is so, like, 19th century. When it comes to the thought leaders of cage busting achievement gap crushing 21st century self-styled “education reform” it’s so tiresome to maintain a distinction between fact and fiction. The greatest priority is to ensure that the latest eduproducts ensure their patrons and employers the greatest amount of $tudent $ucce$$, hence those most excellent offerings must be explained with words that promote the brand and build the customer base. Negatives, out; positive, in.
Fiction? Non-fiction? Information text? Close reading? Always keep in mind that when writing or talking about charters and vouchers and privatization that the 20th century serves their purposes much better. For example, they remind us that George Orwell urged us, one and all, to think like this:
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
¿? Oh, it was an admonishment against, not encouragement for, that sort of thinking…
😱
Wow. Could anyone disagree with the writer of 1984? ANIMAL FARM? Shouldn’t we all take heed of his warnings?
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
Rheeally? Is that possible, even in the the most Johnsonally sort of ways?
So we should believe that just like grandfather clauses, she took “her” students from the 13th to the 90th percentiles.
Not really. Let’s stick with George Orwell on this.
😎
The daughter of paper writer, Angrist, works at the UP Academy Charter School of Boston, which receives funding from the New Schools Venture Fund, which receives funding from …you guessed….Pearson, ETS, Gates, Broad, Walton, etc.
The authors state that their 9 schools were part of the RSD district which they say is not selective. They also state that the sample included about 70 grandfathered students per school. These were K-8 schools. They were mostly ‘no excuses’ schools. Seventy students per school were grandfathered in across grades 4-8? Is that all? Must give us pause.
If they were in no-excuses schools, the 70 were the ones who survived. Did the authors track down any grandfathered students who were “counselled” out. Do they even teach about selection bias at MIT?
One MIT graduate, who became highly visible, nationally, for his writing and testimony on the subject of pensions, had his work criticized, in at least one national forum, in the strongest terms I’ve ever seen.
IMO, the professor’s extremely short written defense of his work, stating that more data would improve research, did not address the seriousness of the criticism leveled at him.
Coupled with the Buras post and the Legg comment above, and the failure of economists to meaningfully arrest the economic-growth downward spiral, caused by concentration of wealth (really! It took a French scholar to even elucidate it), the measurement of university economics departments, based on their performance is overdue. It would be a better starting point, for the U.S. Department of Education than, Teacher Prep Issues.
One thing noticed from the acknowledgements is that “Data from the Recovery School District were made available to us through the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice.”
We are to trust data provided the subject of the study?
Diane, What is the best way for supporters to send information to you about news articles, reports and studies (such as this), in case you may find it interesting or useful? Is there a separate link or e-mail to submit such information to you without inserting it as an off-subject comment in a posted blog? Thank you.
My former neighbor, and a friend, teaches at a low-rating inner-city middle school in Boston. The school “failed,” and was taken over by a private charter company. The students stayed. The teachers stayed. According to my friend, all the students do now are worksheets all day long. The scores went up. I don’t think the education improved.