After babbling about himself to the NRA, Donald Trump signed some words written for him by someone else declaring next week National Charter Schools Week.
This week, we acknowledge the critical role charter schools play in providing students with rigorous education that holds them to high standards. A great education is the foundation for a better future for students facing the demands and challenges of the 21st century [Donald Trump, proclamation, 2018.05.04].
It’s kind of hard to say charter schools are playing a “critical role” in giving kids “rigorous education that holds them to high standards” when only one in four produce results noticeably better than regular public schools:
While innovation and choice sound like great buzzwords, not everything is great in the land of charter schools.
Jim Schul, an education professor at Winona State University who has studied the history of charter schools, cited a 2017 report from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes that stated 75 percent of charter schools studied perform the same or worse than traditional public schools.
“The niche charter schools provide is different than what was envisioned in the eyes of policy-makers,” Schul said. “We have policy-makers that view the miracle of the market as the answer to the academic crisis we’re in now” [Brian Todd, “Charter Schools Learning from 25 Years of Lessons,” Rochester Post-Bulletin, 2018.05.04].
Charter schools that post better student outcomes may do so by capping enrollment (i.e., turning kids away, which regular public schools cannot do) to maximize per-student dollars and teacher attention. The ACLU has also found that a majority of charter schools in Arizona have capped or discouraged the enrollment of “students with disabilities, students who struggle academically, students with disciplinary history, and students from immigrant families.”
The White House and all other public officials should not cheer models of education that exclude some children and fail to produce superior results. Government should focus exclusively on providing a strong public education system that is free and open to all students.
I love studies Cory.
Participants in a year-long study who doubted the scientific consensus on the issue “opposed policy solutions,” but at the same time, they “were most likely to report engaging in individual-level, pro-environmental behaviors,” writes a research team led by University of Michigan psychologist Michael Hall.
Conversely, those who expressed the greatest belief in, and concern about, the warming environment “were most supportive of government climate policies, but least likely to report individual-level actions.”
https://psmag.com/environment/mission-compostable
Why don’t you post the charter school study so we can look at the methodology?
Any other studies back up the one you posted about?