This KSEC commentary was faxed to all members of the PA General Assembly this weekend
In a rush for more
charter schools?
Questionable
Academic Performance and Results for Kids
A new
study by Stanford
University casts doubt on whether Pennsylvania charter schools are a better choice
for students. The study by Stanford's Center for Research on
Education Outcomes (CREDO) concluded that "students in Pennsylvania charter schools on average make
smaller learning gains" when compared with their traditional counterparts.
It
notes that strong examples of quality charters do exist in the state, but
policymakers need to "drive quality throughout the sector."
Researchers
reported that students at 25 percent of the state's charter schools made
significantly more learning gains in reading and math. But they found that students at nearly half
of the charter schools made significantly lower learning gains in both subjects
than their traditional public school counterparts.
Researchers
also reported what they described as "alarming" results among all
cyber charter schools. Cyber students in
Pennsylvania
perform substantially lower than students at traditional public school in both
subjects. In May, 2011 it was
reported that students graduating from the growing ranks of online high schools
are running into a hurdle if their goal is to join the military: The Pentagon
doesn't want many recruits with non-traditional diplomas. A Department of
Defense spokesperson noted that “Those who've opted out of the traditional
educational system just don't stick with military service, she said. That includes
students from what she called "any computer-based, virtual-learning
program."
Since 2003, scores on
the benchmark National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered to be the
gold standard in K-12 standardized assessment, have never shown an advantage
for charter schools as compared to regular public schools.
A June 2009 Stanford University/CREDO study done in partnership
with the pro school choice Walton Family Foundation and Pearson Learning
Systems looked at charter performance in 15 states and the District of Columbia
covering more than 70 percent of the nation’s charter school students. It found that only 17% of charters had
academic gains better than traditional public schools; 37% were worse and 46%
showed no significant difference.
A June 2010 study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and
commissioned by the US
Department of Education found that, “On average, charter middle schools that
hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public
schools in improving student achievement, behavior, and school progress.
Governor Corbett
recently attended the graduation at Philadelphia’s
Boys Latin Charter
School. The combined proficient and advanced math and
reading PSSA results for Boys Latin were 29.2 percent - the 29th
worst out of 3051 schools statewide last year.
Sixteen charter schools had combined PSSA scores that would place them
on the list of our 144 failing schools; somehow charter schools were not
included on that list when it was prepared in support of the voucher bill, SB1.
Governor Corbett also visited the state’s largest charter school, Chester Community Charter
School, which is operated
under contract by a management company.
If you examine the AYP status of Chester Community compared with the five
traditional elementary school in the Chester Upland School District it does
better than some and worse than some.
Statewide, 2008-2009 data on the Pennsylvania Department of
Education’s website showed 75 % of public schools making AYP; for the charters
this was closer to 60%. For 2009-2010,
the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported that
about 75 percent of Pennsylvania
public school students scored advanced or proficient in reading and math,
compared with about 59 percent of charter school students. When raising these statistics to charter
school supporters they tell us that their students come from disadvantaged and
challenging backgrounds. Somehow that
same excuse is not acceptable when mentioned by advocates of traditional public
schools.
We regularly hear that
competition will improve performance for all, or that charter schools that do
not perform will be shut down by market forces.
There are presently 135 charter schools in Pennsylvania. To our knowledge, since Pennsylvania passed its charter school law
in 1997 only one charter school has been closed for academic performance
reasons.
Great “Gold Standard”
Results for Owners, CEOs, Politicians
There is little doubt,
however, that the owner of Pennsylvania’s
largest cyber charter, who took $10 million of taxpayer money from his school’s
fund balance to build a state-of-the-art performing arts center for his town,
would tell you that charters are an unbridled success; with potential we have
not yet seen. So would the owner of Pennsylvania’s largest charter school, who, according to Pennsylvania’s Campaign
Finance Reporting website is able to regularly write large political donation
checks.
Political
Contributions of Vahan Gureghian from 2007 to present:
|
2007 YTD
|
$224,620.00
|
|
2008 YTD
|
$267,205.93
|
|
2009 YTD
|
$330,302.76
|
|
2010 YTD
|
$421,025.00
|
|
2011 YTD
|
$77,500.00
|
|
Total
|
$1,320,653.69
|
A
June 2009 Inquirer article cited state records showing that the management
company contracted to run the Chester Community Charter School had been paid
$60.6 million in public funds since 1999.
Those records showed that the portion of the school's expenditures going
to business and administration was consistently among the highest for Pennsylvania charter
schools, and its spending percentage on instruction was among the lowest. The management company had sued to block
release of the records, citing trade secrets.
While
the compensation of all of our public school superintendents is public
knowledge, no one seems to know what Mr Gureghian’s compensation is as the owner
of Charter Management Company. Doesn’t the public have a right to know how public funds are
spent by public schools and by private management firms that receive those
public funds?
In April 2010, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Superintendent of
the Lower Merion School District,
one of the highest performing public school districts in the state, with 6943
students was being paid $201,800.
Compare that with the
reported salaries of 5 Philadelphia
charter school CEO’s and their respective enrollments:
$ 241,033 with 588 students
$193,510 with 929 students
$189,844 with 155 students
$155,000 with 896 students
$153,629 with 1202 students.
It is interesting to
note that at the same time that we have been debating whether to consolidate school
districts to save money on buildings, superintendents and senior staff we would
advocate creating additional charter schools, each with their attendant
overhead costs.
Difficult enough in
traditional public schools, public scrutiny and accountability become all the
more difficult as these entities and their attendant for-profit management
companies proliferate. Charter school
boards, owners and operators should be subject to the same fiscal transparency,
accountability and reporting requirements as traditional public school boards.
Keystone State Education
Coalition Co-Chairs:
Lawrence A. Feinberg, School District of Haverford
Township, Delaware County
Shauna
D’Alessandro, West Jefferson Hills School District, Allegheny County
Lynn Foltz, Wilmington Area School
District, Lawrence County
Mark B.
Miller, Centennial School District, Bucks County