Business-Managed Democracy

“Business-managed democracies are those in which the political and cultural arrangements are managed in the interests of business.”
Sharon Beder, 2009.

 

 

 

For more on this subject see
This Little Kiddy Went to Market:
The Corporate Capture of Childhood, Pluto Press, London, 2009.

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pointer Business-Managed Democracy » Education » Privatising Schools » Charter Schools in the US » Performance

Business-Managed Education

Charter School Performance

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Reference: Martin Carnoy et al., ‘The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement’, Washington, DC, Economic Policy Institute 2005, p. 3.

In general the teaching standard in charter schools varies enormously. However, studies have failed to show that, on average, charter schools perform significantly better than public schools with similar demographics. In fact some show they perform worse. Researchers have noted that whilst a few charter schools use their freedom from regulation to innovate and hire talented but uncertified teachers, others use it to cut costs and run schools badly: ‘If bonanzas are realized in some places, they are apparently offset by catastrophes in others.’

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Reference: Diana Jean Schemo, ‘A Second Report Shows Charter School Students Not Performing as Well as Other Students’, New York Times, 16 December 2004; ‘Reining in Charter Schools’, New York Times, 10 May, 2006.

An Education Department analysis also found that the longer a charter school had been operating, the more test scores declined. Another study by researchers at Western Michigan University found that states where charter schools are mainly run for profit have worse learning outcomes.

Performance of Charter Schools – Some Studies

Year Researchers Scope Comparison with other Public Schools
2003 Rand Corporation for state government California No significant difference
2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fourth graders No measurable difference
2004 Education Department fourth graders Performance worse
2005 Economic Policy Institute eleven states and DC No difference or performance worse
2006 Western Michigan University researchers Michigan, Ohio Performance worse
2006 National Center for Educational Statistics National Performance worse
2007 Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU), Arizona State University Six Great Lake states Performance worse
2009 CREDO National Charter School Study National Performance worse
2011 National Education Policy Center New York No significant difference, fewer English learners
Sources: Rand study ciited in ‘Charter Schools’, EPE Research Center, 10 September 2004; National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), ‘America’s Charter Schools: Results from the NAEP 2003 Pilot Study’, US Department of Education 2003, p. 1; Education Department study cited in Cited in Diana Jean Schemo, ‘A Second Report Shows Charter School Students Not Performing as Well as Other Students’, New York Times, 16 December 2004; Martin Carnoy et al., ‘The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement’, Washington, DC, Economic Policy Institute 2005, p. 2; Western Michicgan University study cited in ‘Reining in Charter Schools’, New York Times, 10 May, 2006; ‘A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling’, National Center for Education Statistics, US Dept. of Education, August 2006; Gary Miron et al., ‘Evaluating the Impact of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A Longitudinal Look at the Great Lakes States’, Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU), Arizona State University and Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC), University of Colorado at Boulder, June 2007; 'New Stanford Report Finds Serious Quality Challenge in National Charter School Sector', Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), Stanford University, 15 June 2009; B. D. Baker & R. Ferris, 'Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy among New York City Charter Schools'. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center, 2011.
NB: These studies compared schools and students of similar socio-economic background.
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Reference: 'New Stanford Report Finds Serious Quality Challenge in National Charter School Sector', Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), Stanford University, 15 June 2009.

The 2009 CREDO study by Stanford University, which examined 2400 charter schools in 16 states found wide variation in charter school performance but concluded that on the whole, "students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools". 17% of charter schools had significantly better academic gains, 37% had significantly worse gains and 46% were not significantly different to traditional public schools.

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Reference: Associated Press, 'Most Mo. Charters Fall Short of State Standards, Report Finds', Education Week, 14 February 2011.

In Missouri, most charters schools do not meeting state proficiency standards and the state does not have the power to close even the worst performing of them.

Pie Chart "Of the 8,518 Columbus students attending a charter school that had received a state rating for the 2007-2008 academic year, over 79% attended a school ranked D or F." This compares with 34 % of students in the Columbus City Schools (CCS) system.
Source: 'Funding Sub-Standard Local Charter Schools At The Expense Of CCS Students', Columbus Education Association, accessed 2010.
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Government Advocacy of Charter Schools

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Reference: David J. Hoff, ‘Bush Offers 'Blueprint' for NCLB’, Education Week, 31 January, 2007, p. 1.

Despite the dismal record of charter schools’ performance President Bush tried to facilitate their expansion with the reauthorisation of the NCLB Act by enabling school districts to ignore state caps on the number of charter schools if schools fail to reach Annual Yearly Progress for five years in a row. The Education Department also proposed to offer rural areas online charter schools.

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Reference: ‘Barack Obama on Education’, On the Issues, 2008

President Barack Obama is also a supporter of charter schools: ‘I doubled the number of charter schools in Illinois despite some reservations from teachers unions. I think it’s important to foster competition inside the public schools.’ He is promoting charter schools with the Race to the Top Fund.

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See also: Charter Schools | Finances | Teaching | Edison Schools | Edison in Practice | KIPP Schools | KIPP and Social Control

© 2011 Sharon Beder
http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/education/privatising/performance3.html