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AFT Report Actually Bolsters California Charter Schools' Effectiveness at Improving Student Achievement
By Gary Larson
California Charter Schools Association Press Release
Sacramento, CA
August 18,2004
Despite Less Funding and Clear Political Obstacles, Report Shows that California’s Charter Schools Perform as Well, and Slightly Better, than Broader Public School System
A report released yesterday by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and prominently covered in yesterday’s New York Times actually showed that students in California’s public charter schools are doing as well and even slightly better on student achievement than those in California’s broader public school system. The AFT study looked at reading and math scores from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
The AFT report showed that 52 percent of California’s charter school students are reading at or above basic levels, compared to just 50 percent for California’s broader public school system. The AFT report also showed that 68 percent of charter school students are performing at or above basic levels in math, the same level as in the broader public school system.
"California’s charter schools have shown that even despite significantly less funding and in the face of constant political obstacles, teachers that are given freedom to implement real reforms can improve student achievement for their students," said Caprice Young, CEO of the California Charter Schools Association. "Considering that California's charter schools are performing as well or better while serving a higher percentage of lower-income students, imagine how well we could do with equal funding and with less politics."
The AFT report supports findings from more thoroughly researched reports on California’s charter schools and student achievement. This includes this year’s report by California’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), and last year’s landmark report by the RAND Corporation (2003). According to the LAO, last year's RAND report determined "charter schools cost-effective – finding that charter schools achieve academic results similar to those of traditional schools even though they obtain significantly less state and federal categorical funding."
However, the AFT’s methodology in analyzing the NAEP scores was flawed in several places. First of all, the report only looked at a tiny sample of test scores from one percent of charter school students in only seven states. Second, the report used data from only a single grade level. Third, the report did not look at how long charter schools have been in existence as a factor in determining a state’s charter school success. In a recent analysis of student achievement released in March 2003 by the Charter School Development Center (CSDC), California’s charter schools operating for five or more years outperformed all public schools, as well as their younger charter peers.
The AFT report’s conclusions were also flawed. The report credited California’s “large percentage of ‘conversion’ schools, that is, regular public schools that became charter schools” as a factor that leads to raised student achievement for charter schools. This directly contradicted the findings of the RAND report, which found that on average, "start-up" charter schools outperform conversion charter schools, as well as conventional non-charter public schools.
More recently, California’s charter school movement has embraced new accountability standards for improving student achievement. Last year, the California charter school community supported new legislation, Assembly Bill 1137, that gave charter schools new flexibilities, but would shut down charter schools that did not score within the top 60 percent of all similar public schools on the state’s Academic Performance Index.
"Charter schools are leading the way in ensuring that all public schools be held accountable for how well they educate kids," said Young. "The fact is all of public education has a long way to go before every child receives a quality education. We should not be afraid of embracing new and innovative practices like those found in charter schools that can lead to improved student achievement."
The AFT’s press release, entitled "Charter School Scores Mostly Trail Achievement in Regular Public Schools Casts Doubt on Wisdom of Conversion to Charter School..." shows a pattern by the AFT to stop the expansion of the charter school movement. In July 2002, the AFT released a report entitled "Do Charter Schools Measure Up? The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years." In this 2002 report, and even prior to more recent studies like the 2004 LAO report, which called charter schools "a viable reform strategy", the AFT demanded a halt to new charter schools "until more convincing evidence of their effectiveness or viability is presented."
Click here for the AFT’s press release on their recent report.
Click here to download the full text of the AFT’s report.
The California Charter Schools Association is the membership and professional organization for the state’s 471 public charter schools serving approximately 170,000 students in the State of California. The Association’s mission is to increase student achievement by strengthening and expanding public charter schools throughout California.
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