Georgia’s elected officials have chosen charter schools as their way to improve education. Thus far, their bet has not paid off.
A new report from the State Charter Schools Commission finds that charter schools perform about the same as public schools. This is similar to the conclusions of many states and districts and studies. Charter schools are free to choose their students and free to push out the ones they don’t want. They are free from most state regulations and are lightly supervised. But there are few differences in performance between the charter sector and the public schools. Some might argue that test scores should not be used as the yardstick of quality, but low test scores–and the promise of raising them–was the rationale for creating charter schools. So, it is duplicitous to make excuses for their inability to bring every child to high levels of proficiency, as they once claimed they could do.
A new report about the performance of schools authorized by the State Charter Schools Commission finds a mixed bag, with 15 statewide charter schools neither excelling far ahead of nor dragging far behind the traditional public schools against which they’re meant to compete.
At the elementary school level, most of the charter schools performed as well as the average traditional school in 2014-15, says the report by Georgia State University, which provides significant detail about the performance of each school. In general, by middle school, the charters were performing as well as or better than average. High school was a mixed bag.
The Charter Schools Commission was established in 2012 by a state constitutional amendment and began working in 2013. It authorizes a subset of charter schools, with local school districts still the lead authorizer for most (the local districts work with the Georgia Department of Education, a separate entity from the Commission).
As of December, 91,000 Georgia students were attending 441 charter schools, including 97 “start-up” charter schools, 18 “conversion” charter schools, and 326 “charter system” schools in 32 charter systems, which are regular school districts that have signed charters with the state, according to a recent Education Department report. The number of charter systems is growing, though.
Here is a link to the full report, written by Professor Tim Sass of Georgia State University.
Georgia plans to create an “Achievement School District,” based on the failed model in Tennessee. It promised to take over the state’s lowest performing schools (in the bottom 5%) and move them in five years to the top 25% in test scores by turning them over to charter operators. But the schools it has turned into charters have remained mired in the bottom 5-6%.
Cannot understand the constant talk about the performance of schools. I never met a failing school. I met many failing students that fail mostly due to factors outside the school. How about changing the dialog rather than playing into the “reformers” hands by using their terminology. It’s failing students. Why? (Poverty, broken homes, hunger, etc???)
Yes. We have to take back the language of education. Our kids are not failing, our schools are not broken, and our teachers are not bad. Too many of our children ARE shackled by poverty; too many of our schools ARE aging and underfunded; too many of our teachers ARE harassed and abused by disconnected top-down mandates.
Failing students? Please reconsider.
These probably are not his exact words, but W. Edward Deming once offered a gathering of top school administrators and others this:
“I grade my students’ papers. But I do not grade them to grade the students. I grade them to grade me. How am I doing? Where am I failing?! What don’t they seem to understand?”
So, if teaching isn’t learning, then what is it?
And if the teacher isn’t the principal student, then who is?
And if the students aren’t the principal teacher, then who is?
https://jaypgreene.com/2016/06/29/nyt-hatchet-job-on-charters/ Jay p Green’s site blocks all my comments. So does Fordham Instiutte/Education Next (the people who authorize charters in OH and the people who have brought you “grit” testing at NAEP).
Why does Fordham still have credibility? They designed Ohio’s charter school sector. It’s a mess. Yet every single newspaper piece has one of another Fordham lobbyist quoted.
Why is Ohio still listening to these people? God almighty. ask someone else.
Former Senator Landrieu at the charter schools conference:
.@SenLandrieu: We have a champion in Washington in @JohnKingatED #NCSC16
Too bad public schools don’t get a champion in Washington. Oh, well. I’m sure the unfashionable public sector schools will soldier on with or without DC.
It’s all very cozy of course, because former Senator Landrieu now works for the Walton heirs:
“WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has a new gig. She’s signed on as a paid “strategic adviser” for the Walton Family Foundation.
In an interview, Landrieu, who lost her bid for a 4th term last December to Republican Bill Cassidy, said the position will enable her to continue advocating for one of her priorities as a senator — helping encourage school reform. ”
They should really just merge with Wal Mart, Congress and the Administration. Drop this charade. They could save on office space.
Diane,
I know nothing about Georgia charter law.
Is it accurate that “Charter schools are free to choose their students and free to push out the ones they don’t want” or is that just hyperbole?
It’s getting hard to tell truth from fiction here.
I think any objective reader would construe “free to” to mean that it is legal to do this. Since I’ve been reading this blog for years, I know that you’re prone to say such things despite that not being true.
Maybe, you are implying that it happens all of the time despite being illegal (I guess you could say people are “free” to drive 5 mph over the speed limit since they won’t practically face penalties for that). Do you have evidence that backs those assertions up?
There are plenty of facts with which to have discussions or arguments. Why resort to untruths or exaggerations and risk credibility?
I assume it means what it says, that charter schools in Georgia choose their students from a pool of applicants and have the ability to kick out any existing students they don’t want.
Flerp!,
Yes, as would any reader who hadn’t learned to be skeptical of this blog as a source of information.
I just don’t get why it is necessary to deliberately mislead. I think these myths are just so often repeated here that the people who say them sometimes forget that they’re not true.
John,
Everything on this blog is sourced, including the front-page story in the New York Times about how charters have led to the collapse of education in Detroit. If you don’t like my opinions, don’t read the blog.
Diane,
So, when you say that charters are free to pick and choose their students and get rid of ones they don’t like, is that an opinion or is it “sourced”?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/21/success-academy-charter-school-students-got-to-go
Jeanhaverhill,
Yes, SA, and many other charters, don’t admit in all grades, a legitimate criticism and something that definitely inflates their results, though studies show it accounts for a small percentage of thei “gains”.
In MA, the Pioneer Institute says the “growth formula” is not helpful for the charter students. It is not helpful or useful or valid for ANY of our students.
though studies show it accounts for a small percentage of thei “gains”.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
The horrid “grit ” studies in Boston were testing students in charter schools and public schools; when they didn’t get higher “grit” in the charter schools, and their study did not show the results they wanted to praise the charter schools they said “the students must have lied” because they have self-reerence bias. When Jay P. Greene at U. Arkansas doesn’t get the results he wants favoring the charter schools he claims “the parents don’ know how to choose”… so once again they blame the feckless parents and the unmotivated , lazy kids and the “failing” teachers. Those vouchers/charters are coming from Peterson (I call him Schumpeter Peterson) who wants to rule every public policy by his fetish with an economist from Europe. That doesn’t work so well today when the professions rely on an ancient psychiatrist from Vienna.
Over the past several years I have commented here about the work of Helen Ladd. But, obviously , people don’t care to hear about her work if it differs from their preferred belief/fetish on vouchers/charters or ESAs. Sorry John but you probably dismissed all of her research.
Helen F. Ladd is the Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. She has written numerous articles on charter schools and other forms of choice in North Carolina, self-governing schools and parental choice in New Zealand, market based reforms in urban school districts, voucher programs, school reform in post-Apartheid South Africa, and school finance in the Netherlands.
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if you look at the archives here you will find Helen Ladd resources. (or goole her work at Duke University )
jeanhaverhill,
I hadn’t heard of her previously and will look. I don’t “dismiss” any real research, regardless of whether it supports or refutes something I believe. I make my mind up based on research, not select research based on my opinions.
Thanks for the reference.
John, that is simply a statement of fact, not opinion. There was a GAO report about the disproportionately small number of students with disabilities in charter schools; the disproportion is even greater in urban districts. When I reviewed reports on Boston’s high performing charters, I found that some had not even one ELL, even thought Boston Public Schools have 20% ELL. When I spoke at a conference in the South Bronx, one of NYC’s poorest districts, I reviewed the statistics for charters in the districts, and discovered that they had half as many students who were ELLs, and half as many students who are special ed as the public schools in the same neighborhood. Can you provide different data?
Diane,
Your findings that some charters have fewer ELLs and students with disabilities are consistent with what I’ve read, though it’s highly variable and seems to be improving.
However, this in absolutely no way implies that charters choose their students or get rid of the ones they don’t like, let alone that they are “free” to do that.
Charters are schools of choice, and the fact is that fewer of those families choose charters, for various reasons. Most charters are required to translate information, etc. in order to be more visible to ELL families, but in the end, it comes down to who enrolls.
If that’s the basis by which you inform your readers that charters can pick and choose their students and kick kids out, you are simply misleading them.
As I said, there are plenty of issues to legitimately raise regarding charters, including the issues of the numbers of ELLs and students with disabilities. Why not just say that instead of misleading people into thinking charters can choose their students? You must think your legitimate arguments are weaker than I do since you seem to feel the need to embellish so much.
John, this is the way it looks to me in Boston and New York and the east coast…. Perhaps your experiences have been different? But I think you are somewhat naive in assuming that the choice is by parents……. The forced removal of previously accepted students is most definitely not by the parental choice…. it is based on test scores and other judgments of the student who gets sent back to “general ed”. But we’ve discussed this here before and I think Chiara had some very useful comments in the past and I don’t want to repeat what she has said so well about the students who get removed from charters (selected out) ….. Who is making the choices? It is not the parents in most cases.
Most charters are required to translate information, etc. in order to be more visible to ELL families, but in the end, it comes down to who enrolls. If that’s the basis by which you inform your readers that charters can pick and choose their students and kick kids out, you are simply misleading them.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
jeanhaverhill,
So what is the means by which these schools do this “forced removal” of students?
To the best of my knowledge, they are not permitted to expel students for any reasons other than a traditional school can do that (we certainly can’t in NY).
I’ve seen allegations of schools making it uncomfortable for parents with discipline policies that result in parent’s withdrawing (and that is a serious issue, though I haven’t seen data that indicates that it’s widespread), but I haven’t see any of schools removing kids.
I know it’s a “talking point” (“midyear dump”), but I’m extremely skeptical that it exists except in rare cases because I haven’t seen any data that supports it and it is an easy thing to document. Pretty easy thing to sue over too, and there are certainly plenty of anti-charter groups that would fund that.
You?
http://www.progressive.org/pss/closer-look-reveals-taxpayer-funded-special-needs-vouchers-scam
jeanhaverhill,
I used to be 100% against vouchers, but I’ve moved towards supporting them for low income families and students with disabilities; enabling their parents to choose a different school that they consider better for their child at the same or lower cost to taxpayers.
But, I’m adamantly against religious schools receiving vouchers, and I do think that voucher programs can be prone to abuse.
My personal turnaround on this is just that it makes no sense to me to spend about $20,000/student for high school in my city when a parent without the means would prefer to send their student to an $8,000/yr private school. In many cases, it is simply a better option for the student, so if we could accommodate that on a limited basis (definitely means tested, maybe only for low performing schools, etc.), I think we should.
I hate to see parents who really can’t afford it scrape together money for private school while we the public would gladly pay 3x as much for their child’s education, but only if they go to a school they don’t think their child will be successful at.
we have a governor who is pushing Charter schools… because his neighbor likes them. The Commissioner of Ed Mitchel Chester says he is “neutral” on charter schools but then he goes on to say “Arts concentration” in charter schools — NO… Chinese education in charter schools NO… but “OK” for urban charter schools. (which I believe merely repeats the segregation of students — look at Carol Burris work on tracking and Helen Ladd’s research)
I don’t think the Commissioner is neutral at all. As you can tell from my posts I do not support the Governor of MA or the Ed Commissioner . Mitchel Chester is going around the country telling commissioners and governors to join up with Jeb Bush ; I am not supporting what Jeb Bush did in FL. A psychologist in Utah writes “it is very unfortunate if you live in FL and have school children”… he is approaching it from a broader viewpoint than merely test scores because of his psychological training (look up Gary Thompson in Utah; he writes articles that are often featured on the CA Opt out.)
Mitchel Chester says he needs Jeb Bush and he needs Sir Michael Barber because of the “implementation protocols”. There are many professional educators who disagree with him in MA but he tells the Boston Globe that “constituents are oblivious to facts” … they are HIS facts ; and he has his lawyers trying to defeat the parents in MA (who would like to exercise their choices by keeping the public in public education and not selling out to the corporate world making profits from experimental tests with no validity or reliability.
There are many issues; please do a more thorough examination so that you don’t make judgments by a local experience . I respect your description of what you see locally the way you describe things but I often say you can get the diagnosis correct but then impose wrong-headed solutions in the prescriptions. I would certainly recommend Helen Ladd over Mitchel Chester (and Greg Thompsons work from his clinic in child psychology in Utah). Another I have repeatedly recommended is Deborah Waber at Children’s Hospital in Boston who is opposed to all the experimental tests for our children in urban schools when it becomes test, sort and punish those who are found by inferior tests to be lacking in something (since there is no validity to the tests you can’t even figure out what the “something” is).
I don’t know your field at all but if you have any math background/statistics look at Peter Kramer MD who explains research in the medical field. He has a lot of caveats about evidence based medicine and he also explains very well how to interpret research (in his field) He explains the meta-analysis of research in the field of medicine using Gene Glass’s analytic approach. You might see why it is so “fuzzy” to be applying these so called “studies” in education when you make comparisons with the field of medicine; and he talks about all the “confounds” that interfere with interpretation of results. Kramer says it is still a profession that needs clinical experience from the doctors who practice the “art” of medicine not just the computer spitting out numbers from algorithms that were devised for working with metallurgy in airplanes or civil engineering measuring in the material world. Kramer describes the art needed to function in human services as an experienced clinician.
it is simply a better option for the student, so if we could accommodate that on a limited basis (definitely means tested, maybe only for low performing schools, etc.), I think we should. note: please be careful in making a judgment about what is good for “low performing ” schools. That is the serious error they have made in federal policy with the SIG funds “turn around ” models. They are horrid; flawed logic model.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
“free to”
To do things legally while at the same time those things are unethical, invalid and unjust educational malpractices.
So yes, charters are “free to”.
Duane,
The point is that it is not legal for charters to do these things, and very little credible evidence that they do. Anecdotes spread by critics, yes. Evidence, no.
Ah! Charters don’t have attrition! Charters don’t push out low-scoring students! Charters don’t enroll the same proportion of ELLS and students with disabilities as public schools!
Tell us some more of the charter propaganda, John.
Diane,
You didn’t seem disturbed the 50% attrition (drop out) rate at our local high school last week, calling it a “good school”.
But, my point is that there are legitimate things to criticize (e.g. schools that serve fewer than expected ELLs or students with disabilities, schools with attrition higher than neighboring schools), so why mislead by saying charters are free to choose their students and free to get rid of the students they don’t want? Those are factually untrue statements.
As for charters pushing out low-scoring students, I hear a lot of noise about that from charter critics, and the occasional anecdote, but if this were happening wholesale, I’d expect to see data. For example, my local district has said this for years. They have the data to release numbers (how many kids from each charter) but they never have. I know it’s not true for my charter, but have no way of knowing if it’s true for others. If it were a real issue, they’d be all over it, but instead they just vaguely refer to it.
Are you aware of some data that I’m not? A traditional public school or district that has given specific numbers of charter students that have returned to their schools? Any study regarding the test scores of students leaving charters?
Also, have you considered that almost all charter students are attrition from traditional public schools? How does that attrition compare? There are obviously more students leaving traditional schools for charters than vice versa. And I know in our city that the students entering the charters are lower performing than the city average. Should we call that the city “dumping” low performing students on charters?
Perhaps you don’t know how the lottery systems work? Perhaps you don’t know how students are assigned to schools when they move in from out of district? There are myriad ways that this is happening… I assume it is different in each state but we certainly have anecdotal evidence by observers where I live. They do purposely push kids out and send them back to “general ed” when they don’t get the test scores they want. There are also reports of the disciplinary rules in charter schools that affect the children in numerous ways.
so why mislead by saying charters are free to choose their students and free to get rid of the students they don’t want? Those are factually untrue statements.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
https://www.boston.com/news/education/2016/01/28/citing-harm-that-charter-schools-cause-naacp-and-mass-lawyers-committee-will-intervene-in-charter-cap-lawsuit
I always wonder how state reps who are anti-public schools get elected, because I know it isn’t true that most people oppose public schools. I also know our state politicians stand in our schools at campaign events and pledge their undying support.
How they do it is this- they go to their districts and say the LOCAL schools are good, it’s just all those other public schools that are very, very bad 🙂
“I’d like to replicate the Olentangy school district and board, and put them in other parts of the state, because we’ve got hundreds of dysfunctional boards and districts,” says state Rep. Andrew Brenner, chairman of the House Education Committee.”
Brenner wants to privatize all public schools, except, well, this one district I guess.
Pretty slick move, huh? They’re anti-public schools at the state capitol, but pro-public schools at the local level.
Yes, let’s do more of the same, on a much larger scale, and expect dramatically different results. That’s how the thinking seems to go. Because something that has not delivered anywhere else in the nation will magically deliver as promised here. Right.
On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 12:02 PM, Diane Ravitchs blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Georgia’s elected officials have chosen charter > schools as their way to improve education. Thus far, their bet has not paid > off. A new report from the State Charter Schools Commission finds that > charter schools perform about the same as public school” >