Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio helped to create an excellent website that allows anyone to review and compare data about charter schools and public schools in Ohio. All the data comes from public sources. Know Your Charter is a product of Innovation Ohio and the. Ohio Education Association.
“When we started http://www.KnowYourCharter.com, some criticized us for only posting district and charter school data. They said the only “fair” comparison (even though it is districts that lose money from the charter school funding system, not schools) was to look at building-to-building data. We chose to look at district-level data first because it is districts, not individual schools in them, that lose money to charters.
“Well, today we posted the building data as well. So now it is possible to compare every Ohio school building — district or charter — with each other, as well as districts. This adds to the comparative data available at Know Your Charter. Including the building level data increases by 17 the number of data points now available for the public to compare. Adding those 17 points to the 26 from the original site and there are now 43 data points for comparing districts, schools and charters.
“Can we finally stop claiming Know Your Charter isn’t fair? Everything is there for all to see. And what you’ll see is that urban buildings more than hold their own with charter schools overall — outperforming them on proficiency tests while having higher levels of poverty. You’ll also see that less than 10% of charter school children are in buildings that outperform urban districts. Overall, urban buildings do better than charters, with a few exceptions in Cleveland and other places.
“The time has come to stop debating whether the Ohio charter school program is working. It clearly isn’t in the vast majority of cases. It’s up to the state to figure out how to make it work better for the kids in the charters without unduly hampering the educational opportunities for the 90% of Ohio children in local public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Common denominator: kids.
Has anybody looked at the kid-factor? Perhaps it’s more about where the kids come from than the educational environment? But, that trail leads to looking at poverty and/or mis-parenting. Both of which are much more influential than the 46 minutes a day I have with a child. Much more politically expedient to dehumanize teachers than parents, and as for that War on Poverty, well, the War on Teachers is so much more profitable and, apparently, win-able.
LikeLike
I think Know Your Charter is really valuable, and related to your point, because it insists on the reality that public schools are systems.
What ed reform has done in this state is ignore context, and that applies to both ignoring all the factors outside schools and also ignoring the effect of ed reform on existing public schools.
They cannot credibly tell me there is NO effect on my local public school when they set up a “cybercharter” system alongside it. The one and only question is if the effect is beneficial, detrimental or neutral. There is no question if there is an effect on existing public schools. Yes, there is. I want existing public schools considered.
LikeLike
I;d also like to mention that Governor Kasich’s single minded focus on his preferred charter and private schools hasn’t changed one iota.
http://ohioschools.org/news/governor-kasich-we-need-charter-schools
In fact, he’s increasing funding to charter schools while cutting funding to more than half of public schools. This despite reams of reports that say public schools equal or outperform Ohio charter schools. Our schools will again be placed SECOND to the ed reform “choice” agenda.
In my opinion, the only way to reach lawmakers in this state to petition your individual state representative and ask them to act in the interest of the existing public schools in their district. They will listen to that because, 90% of the kids in this state attend public schools. When you contact them, list the existing public schools in their districts. Use names and locations. As we all know in this state, our elected representatives speak very differently about public schools in their districts when they are getting elected than they do when they are promoting “reform” statewide. Remind them.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Less than 10% of charter school children in Ohio are in buildings that outperform urban (public school) districts.
LikeLike
Bill Bush in the Columbus Dispatch on Monday, “Ohio Online School Churn Rate High”… Thousands of students enrolled for just a few weeks or months in Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow…many were withdrawn for being truant…Despite that ECOT, is a program for K-12, the median start date of all students who attended last year was mid September 2013.” Beyond the length of stay issue, the date is weeks after Ohio’s public schools began their instruction for the year.
Once again, media quote Fordham for the article but, remain hell-bent on not disclosing the Foundation’s funders. And, media makes no effort to get a comment from superintendents, who lose resources to the pockets of the Republican donors behind online education.
Fordham’s mealy-mouthed response was, “Churn has long been considered a negative thing…It’s sort of the brave new world, the online education sphere.”
And, when the students return from cyber world to school districts, their poor educational outcomes will be used against the community public schools.
Catch 22 in Ohio
LikeLike
They should have to take a portion of their funding and compensate the public schools who have to deal with the “churn”.
Particularly because public schools will be blamed for the inevitable negative effects of the churn.
We need some accountability in this system.
LikeLike
Chiara: as I see it, the term “midyear dump” also applies to the situation you and Linda describe.
It’s the usual “education reform” twofer: they garner a school year’s worth of $tudent $ucce$$ and dump the worst test suppressors/behavior problems on local public schools.
From their POV, it’s a win-win for them and a lose-lose for us. They couldn’t be happier.
And from another angle, when it comes to that sort of thing, the leaders and enablers of the “new civl rights movement of our time” ARE systems thinkers.
Although, from a moral standpoint, when they do that I think it would be more accurate to call them “systems stinkers.”
But what do I know? I just a most insanely krazy TA that believes in truth in advertising.
Thank you both for your comments.
😎
LikeLike
Krazy TA,
And you, for yours.
I feel change in the air. Diane’s Fairtest postings show significant growth in quantity and reach.
LikeLike
I would love to see this website replicated in other states. How can anyone make an informed decision without information?
LikeLike
The only reason any charter parent I know has selected a charter is because of the peer group at the home district school. They never mention academics.
LikeLike
I heardn that Brennan’s charter schools in Akron Ohio were the best in the nation
LikeLike
Brennan’s charter schools in Ohio are mostly low-performing. Don’t believe what you hear. Check out “Know Your Charter.”
LikeLike