I have been thinking hard on the charter plan being pushed by Gov. Chris Christie, a retread of the tired schools choice debate that has been going on nationally and pushed by free-market zealots for years.
Gov. Christie used a (flawed) Star-Ledger special report issued earlier this week to back up his contention that school choice works:
The report obtained by The Star-Ledger compared 2010 standardized test scores for charter schools against district schools. The scores were from grades 3 through 8, and 11th grade. That data is contained in a report expected to be released today by the state Department of Education.
The newspaper analysis shows 76 percent of charter school eighth grades outpaced performance in their districts in language arts, for example, as did 68 percent of fourth-grade classes in language arts, and 58 percent of fourth-grade classes in math. At the high school level, 69 percent of schools outperformed district classes in the language arts portion of the high school proficiency exam, and 54 percent outdid district classes in math.
There are about 73 charter schools operating in New Jersey now, most in urban areas, serving varying grade levels.
Bob Braun, the Ledger’s fine columnist, reminds us that we must look at the charter numbers with a jaundiced eye. The report — later issued by Christie — did little more than prove “that the charter schools best able to exclude the neediest students got both the highest test scores,” which is something charter critics have long argued. If the best students can migrate away from urban schools, it has a residual effect on the schools left behind.
From a statistical standpoint consider this:
We have a school district with 35 kids. The median test school is 70 (the student with the 18th highest score; 17 higher and 17 lower) and the average is 70 (meaning that, when you add all scores together and you divide by the number of students you get 70). If you remove the top six students — say they average 90 — then you move the median figure downward — the median would be the 15th highest (14 higher and 14 lower). No change in results, but the median drops. Same with the average — take the top six scores out and you are left with 29 students with a 66 average without anything else changing.
Braun calls school choice another broken promise to the state’s neediest children:
School choice—that’s the latest ticket to “equal educational opportunity,” according to the governor. Finally, a solution that won’t require children to be with other children who don’t look like them. A solution that won’t require a lot more money or state effort.
But it’s not helping, either. It’s just further isolating the neediest children. Charters enroll far fewer very poor children with educational problems than do the traditional schools.
And, while a few charters might be helping a small number of inner-city children, their test scores, like those of traditional schools, still lag behind the rest of the state.
Addressing the failings of poor schools will take far more of a commitment of resources than we seem willing to provide and it will mean addressing the long-standing racial, ethnic and class segregation that has plagued this allegedly liberal state. But then, no one seems to be all that concerned with fixing things for he poorest of the poor.
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