The Center for Education Reform (CER) disputes findings on charter school performance released today by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), believing they used uncorrelated variables, contradictory demographics and virtual methodology. More than 16 years of charter school research and analysis from the Center for Education Reform (CER) shows that charter schools are outpacing their conventional public school peers with fewer resources and tremendous obstacles.
CREDO’s analysis does not account for the great variances in charter laws from state to state or how those laws may differ from paper to practice. For example, states reported to have significant learning gains are, in fact, states which have earned an average "C" grade for the strength of their law, based on CER’s 2009 charter law analysis, released today. Their study misses the impact of key variables in charter school law through their selection of states based on student population and not the overall strength of their charter system. Charter laws must include: strong, independent authorizers, operational autonomy, and fiscal equity to be most effective.
The CREDO study concludes that the effect of charters is greater than conventional public schools for students in poverty, yet at the same time finds charter performance is lower for African Americans and Hispanics demographics. Well-documented and nationally recognized survey work representing more than a third of all charters finds such demographics to be one and the same.
"The CREDO report fails the most important and most objective test of student data analysis through their use of virtual twins to replicate real student growth by creating 'straw men' subjects," says Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. "This suggests that virtual methodology can overcome comparative analysis by making the study world look real, act real and sound real. Clear conclusions and obvious results can only be seen over time, year by year, and individually. The real test of an academic study is whether students will have access to schools that best meet their needs. That is absent from this and scores of other reports to date."
For more information:
• There They Go Again... Understanding the Latest Research on Charter School Achievement
• The Race to the Top for Charter Schools: Which States Have What It Takes to Win -
2009 Laws Scorecard and Ranking
• The Accountability Report: Charter Schools • 2008 Annual Survey of America’s Charter Schools
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The Center for Education Reform drives the creation of better educational opportunities for all children. CER changes laws, minds and cultures to allow good schools to flourish.
