tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post8573555862830142157..comments2024-03-03T02:00:28.295-05:00Comments on Teaching Your Middle Schooler: Should We Expand the Charter School Program in Wake County?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-31837588916756775482011-03-06T20:44:56.107-05:002011-03-06T20:44:56.107-05:00Thanks for your kind words.
In terms of understan...Thanks for your kind words.<br /><br />In terms of understanding the performance statistics, it is a complicated picture. As you say, charter students are self-selected, and probably have more familial support than an "average" student, which statistically helps their grades and scores. However, not so much in Raleigh, but on a national scale, many charters are located in the "worst" school districts and are geared toward serving the poorest and least academically prepared students. Such charters may do significantly better than the traditional public school in that neighborhood, but because of the learning problems associated with low-income, non-English speaking, low parental educational achievment families, they may still fall below the "average" school for the entire school district.<br /><br />The other thing is, education is a tough business. People have a lot of great ideas about transforming education, but they don't all work. One of the ideas behind charters is to try some different educational approaches on a small scale. But like any experiment, they aren't all going to pan out. So, to some extent, parents of children in charter schools, especially new ones, are taking a gamble: this new approach may work out better for their children than the traditional one, but it could also do worse--sometimes significantly worse. So far, at least on a national scale, there are more that have ended up doing worse than there are ones that have done better.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11164883668587344597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-2698798755164581652011-03-06T12:33:13.181-05:002011-03-06T12:33:13.181-05:00Charter Schools Are Popular
They are very popular...<i>Charter Schools Are Popular</i><br /><br />They are very popular. I think part of that popularity is the idea that families are able to "escape" the typical public system.<br /><br /><i>Charter Schools Are Innovative</i><br /><br />Very much so. I think that a lot of people enjoy the "family" feeling that surrounds charter schools.<br /><br /><i>Charter Schools Outperform Traditional Schools</i><br /><br />This one is big for me. I would really love to have a better understanding here. I have often thought that the families that send their kids to charter schools would outperform other families in a public setting. That is, strong students self select in.<br /><br /><i>Charters Reduce Diversity</i><br /><br />I suspect this is due to the fact that it is not a negligible sacrifice to go to charter schools. No free/reduced lunch, volunteer requirements and no busing.<br /><br /><i>Charters Do Not Serve Low-Income or Special Needs Students</i><br /><br />Again, I think families are self selecting in or out. Knowing that a school didn't have a strong special needs program, a parent of a special needs child may not even bother applying.<br /><br /><i>Charters Will Drain the Public Schools of Resource if Expanded Dramatically</i><br /><br />I don't think it'll drain resources, but I firmly believe that it'll drain affluent families leaving larger pockets of lower income families in the public schools.<br /><br />Great post!pinohttp://www.tarheelred.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-82838359372822609372011-02-28T08:42:14.168-05:002011-02-28T08:42:14.168-05:00Exactly. I would say that nationwide, charter sch...Exactly. I would say that nationwide, charter schools represent more of a hope of something better than a guarantee. Plus, their students are not representative of the "average" student population. Even without the issues of racial overrepresentation of certain ethnic groups, or the lower percentage or absence of low-income or special needs students, these students have parents who are concerned enough and knowledgeable enough to jump through the required hoops to get them into the charters. And greater parental involvement is one of the predictors of educational success.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11164883668587344597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-46177339759922450782011-02-28T05:02:25.259-05:002011-02-28T05:02:25.259-05:00Carol, it was clear from your write-up you were su...Carol, it was clear from your write-up you were summarizing existing opinions. Interesting statistics on charter performance - I did not know that! It tells me there is no single "charter variable" correlating with high (or low) level of success. There are such variables in all styles of homeschooling: parental love, or Bloom's 2-sigma, or teacher choice of curriculum.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_Sigma_Problem <br /><br />So, your data say charters don't form a single category for statistical analysis.MariaDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00769513929584082597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-53911062269552909472011-02-27T23:01:32.131-05:002011-02-27T23:01:32.131-05:00I should have stated that I am not necessarily adv...I should have stated that I am not necessarily advocating any of these positions. Rather, I am trying to have people know some of the statistics in Wake County that support whichever side. <br /><br />So, for example, the performance of charter schools nationwide have not been so good. Overall, (according to a national study done by Stanford University), less than 20% of charter schools outperform traditional public schools by a signficant percentage. However, on the other side, nearly a third of charter schools have a student average that indicates that the kids do worse than their peers in the schools. <br /><br />But that seems not to be the case in Wake County.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11164883668587344597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603765641072392630.post-49356059165394309312011-02-26T08:20:53.110-05:002011-02-26T08:20:53.110-05:00The last argument, "charters will drain publi...The last argument, "charters will drain public schools of resources" assumes The Public School System (the one and the only) is the default of public education.<br /><br />That's a pretty big assumption.<br /><br />Also, there is an assumption that income-success connection, and large rich-poor gaps in learning success, are universal. This assumption comes from public school studies (The System). We know it's not true for homeschoolers. What other populations and education methods have weak outcome differences by socioeconomic class?MariaDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00769513929584082597noreply@blogger.com