On variations in charter school quality
The NYT Times had a piece on the variation in charter school quality over the weekend that is well worth reading. The premise is fairly well known – there is large variation in charter school quality, and nationally only a minority of charters outperform their traditional public school counterparts. The more interesting pieces of the story come in explaining why these schools seem to vary so much in quality, and what separates the great schools from the mediocre.
One important and oft-discussed driver of the strong regional differences in charter quality is how accountable charters are held by their authorizers. As the article notes:
What most experts can agree on is that charter school quality varies widely, and that it is often associated with the rigor of authorities that grant charters. New York, where oversight is strong, is known for higher performing schools. Ohio, Arizona and Texas, where accountability is minimal, showed up in Ms. Raymond’s study with many poorly performing schools.
Perhaps the sharpest knock on charters — one that even some proponents acknowledge — is that mediocrity is widely tolerated. Authorities are reluctant to close poor schools. Some advocates concede that the intellectual premise behind school choice — that in a free market for education, parents will remove students from bad schools in favor of good ones — has not proved true.
Additionally, as Matt Yglesias notes, this discussion serves as another important reminder that school quality is variable, and matters a great deal in the educational outcomes of students. Although student demographics and socioeconomic status certainly play a role in student performance, it is undeniable that certain schools and school districts ( be it high quality charters in LA or Boston Public Schools) significantly outperform their peers in the performance of low-income students from underserved communities.
The last critical takeaway is that if we are serious about getting every child a great public education in our generation, we must transform public education and traditional public schools as we know it, and not merely fixate on charter schools. I think President Obama’s Secretary of Education hit the nail on the head in this article, saying “We do not favor one kind of school over another. We favor educational quality and accountability for all schools.” High quality charters are a critical part of education reform – they provide choices for parents, better educational outcomes, and give parents real leverage to negotiate for broad reforms – but at the end of the day we must never lose focus of the need to transform our traditional public education structure into one that is designed for student success rather than adult needs.
