A new U.S. Department of Education report evaluating public charter schools in a number of states confirms findings of two separate AFT reports that raise serious doubts about student achievement in charter schools.

The new Education Department report, Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools Program, found that in case studies of five states, charter schools are less likely to meet state performance standards than public schools, even when socioeconomic factors are considered. The report, released in mid-November in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times, also shows that charter schools are less likely to hire certified teachers and enroll fewer students with special needs. It also finds that few charter schools are closed because of poor student performance.

The Public Charter Schools Program (PCSP), established in 1995 and administered by the U.S. Department of Education, provides grants to help with charter school planning and start-up costs and supports charter school research and demonstration programs.
In August, an AFT analysis of federal data on charter school students' performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that that compared to students in regular public schools, charter school students had significantly lower achievement in math and reading at grade 4 and math in grade 8 (see earlier story www.aft.org/news/AFT_charterschools.htm). That remained true after controlling for students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, with the gap between regular public school students and their charter school counterparts reaching the equivalent of more than a half-year of schooling.

Bella Rosenberg, assistant to the AFT president and an author of the AFT's Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, noted that although the Education Department used a different data set and time frame than the 2003 NAEP charter school results, the ED study "nonetheless largely confirms the NAEP charter schools results, as well as numerous other independent studies: charter schools underperform regular public schools on average and on most like-to-like comparisons."

AFT researchers unearthed the NAEP scores on charter schools from federal data that had not been publicly released; the union made its analysis and the data available to the New York Times, which reported the story on Page 1 in August.

The Education Department's new report echoes another AFT report, Do Charter Schools Measure Up? The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years, released in 2002. The AFT report said that while some charter schools have been successful and should be used as models, the majority of existing charter schools failed to fulfill their promise to bring greater achievement and innovation into the classroom.

This latest report raises more questions about the role of charter schools in turning around poor academic performance, notes AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese. "It is especially troubling that under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, converting schools into charters is presented as one solution for traditional schools that are failing," she said. "While there are some good charter schools in districts around the country, these reports add to the growing research suggesting that they are not the silver bullet for improving the educational achievement of disadvantaged children. Ultimately, we must focus resources on improving teaching and learning in all public schools."

Nov. 24, 2004