There appears to be some doubt about the numbers that the Christie administration has been using to “prove” its contention that charter schools are the panacea to the problems facing poor school districts.
Robert Braun, in The Star-Ledger, took the state to task for its selective approach to statistics a month ago. More recently, Gordon MacInnes does the same thing. In an opinion piece on NJ Spotlight, the former education commissioner, raises questions about the structure of studies cited by Gov. Chris Christie and acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf to support charter schools. In fact, he writes, the “evidence for this contention is thin.”
To bolster its case, the NJ Department of Education (DOE) released in January tables of test results showing that about three-quarters of charters had higher proficiency rates on state tests than their district peers.
Not so fast.
Columnists, respected academics and public school advocates lost no time in pointing out that meaningful performance comparisons must involve students with similar characteristics — like free lunch eligibility, special education or English learner status.
Failing that, the comparisons cannot be used to decide which schools do the better job.
The department returned on March 11 with much more expansive documentation that — surprise — supported the same conclusion concerning the superiority of charters. Accompanying the multiple charts, tables and bar graphs were statements confirming and strengthening the Christie administration’s policy preferences.
Poverty status is at the core of the DOE’s contention.
Essentially, the department anchors its argument that charters are pretty much like district schools when it comes to poor kids by dismissing the distinction between “free” and “reduced” lunch eligibility.
And that, MacInnes says, makes little sense. There are significant differences in scores between free and reduced lunch students, as well as between girls and boys in charter and public schools and those of English learners and all of these variables need to be controlled for in order that studies be taken seriously.
MacInnes — who served under Christie Whitman and serves as an assemblyman from conservative Morris County — is not taking sides in the charter debate. Rather, he is asking for an honest accounting, especially given that a handful of national studies offer evidence that directly contradicts what the Christie administration would have us believe.
Before the Christie Administration bets just about everything on charter schools, it should conduct a fair and more complete assessment of the performance of similar students. When Stanford undertook a large-scale evaluation in 17 states, it did just that. It found that only 17 percent of charter school students outperformed their district peers, but 37 percent underperformed them. The rest did about the same.
Eighty-three percent doing worse or about the same does not sound like the answer to New Jersey’s educational woes.
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