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August 27, 2006

charter schools, not so hot

From the New York Times:

Exploding the Charter School Myth

A federal study showing that fourth graders in charter schools score worse in reading and math than their public school counterparts should cause some soul-searching in Congress. Too many lawmakers seem to believe that the only thing wrong with American education is the public school system, and that converting lagging schools to charter schools would cause them to magically improve.

The study, based on data from 2003 on students' performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found charter school students significantly behind their non-charter-school counterparts. But it also showed that not all charter schools are created equal.

On average, charter schools that were affiliated with public school districts performed just as well as traditional public schools. That may be a disappointment to advocates who expected them to show clear superiority. But the real stunner was the performance of free-standing charter schools, which have no affiliation with public school systems and are often school districts unto themselves. It was this grouping that showed the worst performance.

Charter schools are a core obsession of the Cory Bookerite/Talking Android wing of the Democratic party. You don't know how many genuinely nice black Ivy League graduates I know who get all het up about charter schools, swearing up and down how a new generation of non-ideological race men (i.e. them) is going to roll their sleeves up and finally, really get something done in the community at the most basic levels, starting with its children.

It's a noble aim, but the hype over charter schools has always struck me as neo-conservative un-cola. (I guess it is technically true that it's a different color and has hint of lemon-lime, but at the end of the day it's just another can of soda.) I feel slightly bad for charter school folks, who tend to be genuinely well meaning and are likely assuring each other that study or no they are just getting warmed-up. But to parody some the movement's own rhetoric, there is no "E for effort" when running an underperforming school. You claimed you had a better way to do this, so maybe you should spend a little less time at the think tank, and shut the fuck up and educate some black kids, already.

Posted by ebogjonson in talking androids, on August 27, 2006 9:59 PM