"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Charters: Another point of view

Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 16, 2014

Mathew Kaminski's enthusiasm for Success Academy and for charters in general, ("Teachers Union Enemy No. 1", February 15) presents only part of the story.

The high test scores achieved by Success Charter Schools in New York has been thoroughly discussed in a series of blogs by Diane Ravitch (http://dianeravitch.net/category/harlem-success-academy/). The series includes evidence that Success schools devote an astonishing amount of time to test preparation and devote little or no time to subjects that are not tested, evidence that teachers, parents, students and staff were required to attend the pro-charter rally last fall, and evidence that suspension rates at Success schools are very high.

It should also be pointed out that research has shown that in general charter schools do not do as well as public schools, even though may are very selective in who they admit, and can expel "problem" students.

Stephen Krashen

Source:: Performance of charter schools: National Charter School Study. Can be downloaded at http://credo.stanford.edu/.

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