New study finds Tennessee’s charter schools tied for highest student learning gains for reading in the country
Nashville, Tn. — Tennessee is among eleven states in which charter school performance has outpaced traditional public school growth in both mathematics and reading, according to a newly published study by the independent Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University.The study, titled National Charter School Study 2013, evaluated charter school performance in 26 states and New York City. Tennessee’s charter school students, in comparison to their traditional public school counterparts, were found to gain the equivalent of an additional 86 days of learning in reading and 72 days in mathematics, results among the highest of all schools studied. Tennessee is tied with Rhode Island among states studied for the highest growth in reading.
“The Tennessee Charter Schools Association believes that growth is the most significant measure of how well a school is serving its student population, so we are truly pleased to see that Tennessee’s charter schools are making such a strong impact on student gains,” said Tennessee Charter Schools Association Executive Director Matt Throckmorton. “This study reaffirms the fact that strong accountability for charter schools at the district and state level in Tennessee leads to positive results for our students.”
In a press release regarding the study’s publication, Dr. Margaret Raymond, director of CREDO at Stanford University, is quoted as stating: “The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average and that charter schools are benefiting low-income, disadvantaged, and special education students.”
This fall, Tennessee is projected to have an estimated 70 charter schools serving more than 16,500 students. The majority of the Tennessee’s charter schools serve students in the state’s largest urban areas, Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga.
Top Stories
Posts
A link to the report:
ReplyDeletehttp://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft.pdf
This is pretty important data. For ONCE, you get an apples-to-apples comparison of the charter students vs. the same demographics in the TPS (traditional public school).
The charter game has always been to only allow the academically and financially poor to attend the charter schools and then quickly declare them a failure by comparing them to the full TPS population. Andy Berke, et al, tried hard to push this on Tennessee Virtual Academy (after ONE year) because it was "almost" in the bottom 10% academically of all public schools - while for some strange reason they had no recommendations whatsoever for the public schools actually IN the bottom 10% (which are the feeder schools for the charters). For some reason there was a legislative cap put on the blossoming enrollment in TVA (despite the "poor" academic claims by Berke & Co.). Why would all those additional parents choose TVA of their own free will? This report tells you why. You never will be told how those charter students performed BEFORE they went to the charter school. You never know how far behind they were as a baseline although you can be absolutely certain the data is there.
This report gets a little closer to the truth in comparing the same demographics in both camps. This scenario that the public schools use to whine about losing their "best and brightest" if students are given a choice is EXACTLY the scenario that is forced on the charter school populations. The academically worst are the only ones allowed to attend. See Haslam's voucher bill. Only the bottom 5% academically are allowed - and then cap total vouchers at 5,000 students.
Maybe one day the children's interest will be put first.