How Well are Charter Schools Doing in 2010?
In the 2009-2010 school year, more than 5,000 charter schools admitted over 1.5 million students in the United States. The mission statements and, therefore, the focus of attention of these schools varies considerably. Some are founded with a child-centered philosophy or progressive approach. Others favor traditional educational goals or emphasize academic performance. Some offer specific curriculums; or cater to a particular population. Because of these variations, developing a single charter school report card for all the U.S. is not a simple matter. However, some trends have been appearing in recent years.
Education Trends and Outcomes for Charter Schools
In 2009, The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) reported that there is a wide variety in the quality of education provided in these schools. Their study shows that compared to traditional public schools:
- Students from low income or disadvantaged families, English language learners, or special education children perform better in the charter school setting. However, the Civil Rights Project considers these schools to be too segregated and racially isolated.
- First year charter school students did not show improvement but saw positive gains in their second and third years at the school.
- Higher income and higher achieving students in charter schools showed no significant increases in achievement than their counterparts in traditional schools.
- Charter schools in large urban areas tend to do better than those in non-urban situations.
An earlier study (Betts and Tang, 2008) found that levels of reading and math were higher in charter schools at the elementary levels but showed no significant difference at the high school level. A broad set of studies comparing charter schools with traditional schools found the following: 17 percent of charter schools performed better than traditional schools. 37 percent performed worse, and 46 percent did neither better nor worse.
Online Charter Schools
A new educational trend being applied across the board is the online school. Charter schools are no exception. The benefits and disadvantages of the virtual charter school are many. Those on each side of the debate have valid arguments. The benefits are individualized attention—allowing the pace and program to be customized to the student’s needs—within the home environment. This protects from possible social problems such as bullying and from the distractions that disruptive students can cause in a traditional classroom. The disadvantages are that online teachers may not belong to a union and thus create a competitive environment based on merit that is not now in effect. For the student, there is the loss of the socializing aspects that the bricks and mortar school provides. Some fear that the online charter schools will take much-needed funds from the traditional schools.
Charter School Report Cards
Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute says that the most successful charter schools have been “boutique-style” operations. These rely on the passion and dedication of the teachers, on philanthropic donations and what he calls the “missionary zeal” of its founders and operators. If you have a charter school of this caliber in your community you are fortunate and its report card should show high grades for a job well done. As for the others, their report cards will be as varied as the locations where they operate, their student population, their mission statements and the agencies that oversee and authorize them. Much like students, charter schools with straight A's are hard to come by and worth encouraging.
