AFT Welcomes Release of U.S. Department of Education’s Study Comparing Student Achievement in Charter and Regular Public Schools 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education released an analysis of 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores comparing the academic achievement of students in charter schools with that of their peers in regular public schools. "The department’s study provides further evidence against unchecked expansion of the charter school experiment," American Federation of Teachers president Edward J. McElroy said today. 

The Education Department's analysis shows that charter school students for the most part performed at lower levels than students in regular public schools.  "The AFT has been calling for the release of this data analysis for more than two years, and we are pleased that the Department has finally made it public," McElroy continued. 

The study confirms the findings of a 2004 AFT Report on the 2003 NAEP charter school data, which showed that charter school students usually do not perform as well as their peers in public school.  In a 2004 advertisement in The New York Times, critics of the AFT report said characteristics such as parental education, household income and the quality of learning resources in the home were necessary to make a more accurate comparison between achievement in charter and regular public schools.  The analysis released today adjusts for race, socioeconomic status and other characteristics.

Some of the same charter school advocates who attacked the AFT report for not having access to those data now have launched efforts to undermine the Education Department’s expanded analysis even though it includes those data.  "These results are inconvenient for charter school proponents," McElroy said.  "But charter supporters can’t just keep moving the goalpost when they don’t like the results.  Their 'see no evil' attitude ultimately hurts the charter movement." 

While the department's study shows that the majority of charters are underperforming public schools, we know that there are some charter schools that are doing well.  "We should learn effective practices from successful schools that can be adopted in traditional as well as charter schools," McElroy said.  "Charter schools were not conceived to replace traditional public schools.  Charter schools were intended to serve as laboratories for innovation, from which we could learn how to further improve the public schools attended by the vast majority of our nation’s children," McElroy added. 

"Charter supporters should not be blinded by ideology.  It only weakens the original intent of the charter experiment," he continued.  "It is time to learn what we can from the few successful charter schools and shut down those that are not working." 

This is the second study released today that contains good news for America’s public schools.  The annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools once again shows strong confidence in our nation’s schools.  The vast majority of respondents prefer improvements to education to come through the existing public school system, rather than through an alternative system.  "With charter schools in many states operating virtually unchecked, and because conversion to a charter school is a possible sanction through the federal No Child Left Behind Act, policymakers should take note of these findings," McElroy concluded. 

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