SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Poor kids do better in charter schools

Critics of choice and charter schools in particular, say that studies show there is no difference in how kids learn and that in many cases kids do worse.  Well, this interesting look at those charter school studies says while affluent kids don’t do any better, poor children absolutely do benefit from attending charter schools.

“On the bright side, low-income students, on average, learn more at charters than at regular public schools, according to the Stanford and the Department of Education reports. Stanford also found that charter students who were not proficient in English outperformed their counterparts in regular public schools.

“‘This is no small feat,’ the Stanford researchers stated. ‘Charter schools that are organized around a mission to teach the most economically disadvantaged students in particular seem to have developed expertise in serving these communities.’

At the same time, higher-income charter students performed notably worse than their counterparts in regular public schools in both the Stanford and Department of Education studies - a reflection, perhaps, of the higher quality of regular public schools in middle-class communities.”

There is no doubt that results for charter schools vary widely across the U.S.  The key is to emulate what the good ones do well and go the step further by shutting down the ones that do not—which is far more than happens in regular public schools!