Researchers at Indiana University reviewed state test scores and found that students who transferred from public schools to charter schools lost ground academically for the first few years. Eventually, if they remained in the charter school, they caught up to their public school peers, but nearly half transferred back to their public school. It may be, as in the case of voucher studies in I Diana, that the weakest students were likeliest to leave the charters.
”Researchers from the Indiana University School of Education-Indianapolis examined four years of English and math ISTEP scores for 1,609 Indiana elementary and middle school students who were in a traditional public school in 2011 and transferred to a charter school in 2012. The main findings were that students who transferred had lower math and English score gains during the first year or two in their new school than if they had stayed in a district school.
“The researchers were able to draw the conclusion by using a type of statistical analysis that enabled them to compare students’ actual score gains at the charter school to potential gains had they not transferred from a traditional school.
“But for the students who stayed in charter schools for three years or more, some of those gaps disappeared, and students caught up with where they would have been if they hadn’t transferred. Both of these results — the dip in score gains after transferring and the increase over time — are consistent with other studies, researchers said.
“Overall, these results indicate that the promise of charter schools as a vehicle for school improvement should be viewed with some skepticism,” said study co-author Gary R. Pike, a professor of education at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. “Our results suggest that charter school experience for most students does not measure up to expectations, at least for the first two years of enrollment.”
“The researchers also found that of the original number of students who transferred to a charter school in 2012, 47 percent returned to a traditional public school by 2016. Only about a third of students remained enrolled in charter schools long enough to see their scores catch back up. The study called the mobility “problematic,” and suggested other researchers look into it further.”
The study contradicts an earlier CREDO study of Indiana charters.
However, the researchers cautioned not to draw national generalizations from the study of one state.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
And apparently, charters never made fantastic progress that outshone the public schools? So we support two school systems, taking resources from public schools to fund charter schools that do no better (at best) than public schools that are doing as well (if not better) with diminished resources.
Seriously, after so much brouhaha about faulty tests and scores you are bringing up the research, which is just a bunch of scores?
“students who transferred had lower math and English score gains during the first year or two in their new school than if they had stayed in a district school — this can be many things. It can be that the charters have worse programs and teachers. Or it can be that the charters are so elitist that 50% of the students cannot cope with the program. Or it can be that the charters are more honest with their grading, not giving C just for a couple of senseless scribbles on a worksheet.
“47 percent returned to a traditional public school by 2016.” — again, the charters may suck. Or the students may be not the brightest in the bunch. Or they became so lazy in their laid-back public schools that they could not fit into a no-excuses environment. Can be anything.
“However, the researchers cautioned not to draw national generalizations from the study of one state.” — THAT.
Reformers claim that they have secret sauce to raise test scores but they don’t. They deserve to be judged by their own measure. Hoist by their petard.
I can agree with you on that Diane, but perhaps a disclaimer about the complete invalidities (yes, plural) of the standards and testing malpractices would be in order. And I would call them “assessments or evaluations” and not “measures” as nothing is being measured by those tests.
Nah. This simply levels you with them. Kind of like, if they gas their enemies, we can to. That is what I am seeing from your kampf: forgetting about what this whole thing is about – upbringing young generation, teaching it laws of the Land and laws of math and laws of logic and laws of physics – and instead concentrating on “us” vs “them”.
Gruff,
I don’t like your sneering reference to my “Kampf.” As a Jew, it offends me. Knock off the insults or go away.
Gruff: As a Holocaust educator, I’m horribly appalled at your comments. You owe Diane and the rest of us a real apology.
“That is what I am seeing from your kampf:”
Help me out, to whom does the your refer Diane or me? Thanks!
Not you, Duane.
So it DOES mean Diane? You are a scum, Gruff.
Thank you, TOW. I was going to respond earlier today, but decided to chew on my proverbial tongue. My only correction: no need for “a” in your comment (which was much more measured than I had in mind).
And since you are a Holocaust educator, I hope you have read Erich Maria Remarque’s “Spark of Life” (“Der Funke Leben”) and will consider including it on your reading list for your students. I send you a Gentile mazel tov!
TOW, you are reading too much into words. You would not fare well on a close reading test.
I wish it mattered in Indiana but I don’t think it does. They have the same data on Ohio and have had it forever. Didn’t matter a bit. Indiana followed right behind Ohio on charter-mania. Pennsylvania too. And Michigan.
They’re carrying this “data” on horseback or something state to state. It seems to take 20 years to cross state lines. Pennsylvania lawmakers could have gotten IN THEIR CARS driven 20 miles and looked at Ohio ed reform themselves, one by one, personally and it would have been faster.
Bipartisan doesn’t mean “good”. They could all agree on bad policy. In fact, it’s MORE likely it’s bad, because there is no dissent.
I think Ohio changed their school measures as a result of pressure from the charter lobby. When the scores didn’t come in to meet the hype they all of a sudden decided they needed growth measures. Public school advocates made the same complaint for 20 years and they were told they were “making excuses”. The charter lobby backed “growth measures” and now it’s no longer “making excuses” but has somehow become “science”.
I don’t know why they don’t just admit the obvious- there are good charter schools and bad charter schools and it’s entirely possible there will be no net gain, and in fact could be net losses, if one includes the damage to public schools. If you open a good charter school across the street from a mediocre public school and harm the public school, it’s a wash system-wide. The idea that risk comes with no downside is just not true. It could be a net gain, it could be a net loss, or it could be a wash. That’s how systems work.
Charters were supposed to be the few places where experimental programs were tested and if successful, adopted by mainstream public schools. Did not work this way.
The complete and utter disregard for kids in public schools is just amazing. I did not know Oklahoma public schools were closing one day a week due to lack of funding.
How many times have ed reformers talked about extended school days? This whole state was losing a day a week and no one cared. Because it was public school students.
In other words all the disruption and harm to the quality of the public education is not worth the “choice.” A quality public school can offer far more options for the diverse needs of the students than most “one size fits all” charter or voucher schools.
I got this mental image in reading about this, another study with test scores either moving up or down or staying about the same.
https://www.youtube.com/create_channel
Sorry try this
I can see your point, Laura. Excellent!
I would like to associate myself with what Duane wrote!
Using invalidities to evaluate anything can only result in invalid conclusions that are, in essence, worthless. Unfortunately, people assign value to those invalidities.
Insanity, eh!
As a former Indiana PS teacher I am thoroughly disgusted by how the GOP lawmakers have been making war on our public schools for years, The word :Hoosier” originally meant a person who is not very bright. Are Hoosier voters trying to restore it?
In St. Louis the term “hoosier” is definitely a pejorative used to describe “poor white trash rednecks.”