Charter school students score lower in reading, math than students in traditional schools

By: STEPHEN OHLEMACHER - Associated Press | Tuesday, August 22, 2006 4:07 PM PDT ∞

WASHINGTON -- Charter school opponents got a boost Tuesday from an unlikely source: the Bush administration.

President Bush has been a big supporter of charter schools -- public schools that are usually free of many of the regulations that govern traditional schools.

Nevertheless, a study by the Department of Education found that fourth graders in traditional public schools were doing better in both reading and math than students in charter schools.

"We welcome the release of this data," said Nancy Van Meter, deputy director of the American Federation of Teachers, which has been critical of charter schools. "We've been calling for it for two years."

Charter school foes said the findings show that the schools are a failing experiment that drains resources from traditional public schools. Charter school supporters called the report flawed and outdated and said charter schools improve public education by creating competition.

Fourth graders in regular public schools scored an average of 5.2 points better in reading than students in charter schools on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress test. Students in traditional schools scored an average of 5.8 points better in math, said the report by the National Center for Education Statistics, an agency of the Department of Education.

Mark Schneider, commissioner of the NCES, said a small staff and other priorities had delayed release of the report.

"The fact that this is 2003 data being reported in 2006 is something that I'm not proud of, frankly," Schneider told reporters.

He cautioned against reading too much into the report's findings.

"This was a pilot study and not meant to be definitive," Schneider said. "What does this report say to a parent? Not much, frankly."

The NCES studied fourth-grade math and reading scores at 150 charter schools and 6,764 traditional public schools nationwide. At the time, there were nearly 2,700 charter schools in 36 states. There are now more than 3,600.

The test scores were from the 2003 National Assessment, a test given to students across the country.

The report offered some good news about charter schools: Reading scores at charter schools in central cities serving mostly minority students were comparable to scores at traditional public schools. However, math scores at such charter schools still lagged behind those at traditional schools.

"On average, they're not doing harm," Schneider said.

Van Meter said the report confirms research by the teachers union showing that charter schools are not improving education in America.

"It says that they were not able to deliver on their promises on a consistent basis," Van Meter said.

Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said the report was flawed because it did not measure academic progress over time. He said many students enter charter schools after struggling in traditional schools, only to improve their test scores over time.

He also noted that many charter schools in the study had been operating only a short time.

"It takes charters a year or two to get their sea legs, and then their performance goes up," Smith said.

The Center for Education Reform, which supports charter schools, issued a list of studies showing that charter school students in several states outperform students in traditional public schools.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, "Many charter schools are still relatively new, and we need to examine how they improve student performance over time for a better picture of how they compare to traditional public schools.

"These schools are pioneering new classroom strategies that will help us raise achievement in all our public schools," she said.

On The Net:


National Center for Education Statistics: http://www.nces.ed.gov

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