The Florida Department of Education recently published a report consisting almost entirely of simple graphs comparing achievement levels, achievement gaps, and achievement gains on statewide tests among charter school students to those among traditional public school students. The Department’s press release touted the report as showing that the state’s “charter school students consistently outperform their peers in traditional public schools.”
The release also quotes
Florida’s Education Commissioner, asserting that the “report provides
further evidence that [school choice policies] are right for Florida”
and that there’s “no denying that choice works.” The press release’s
spin was then echoed in pieces published/broadcast by several television stations, newspapers, and online outlets.
Yet simple comparisons
such as those in this report reveal very little about the relative
effectiveness of charter schools. Robert Bifulco of Syracuse
University, reviewed Student
Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools: A Comparison of the
Performance of Charter School Students with Traditional Public School
Students, and found it to be of extremely limited use.
Beyond the odd exercise of
counting the number of comparisons that appear favorable to charter
schools, the report offers no discussion. The comparisons are not even
explained. The fact that the report merely presents comparisons required
by law without putting any policy “spin” on them might be considered a
virtue. But the danger is that such reports can (and do) encourage
erroneous conclusions.
At the very least,
Professor Bifulco believes, the report should have clarified the
purposes of its comparisons and cautioned the reader against drawing
unwarranted and potentially harmful conclusions.
Find the review, by Robert Bifulco, at:
Find Student
Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools: A Comparison of the
Performance of Charter School Students with Traditional Public School
Students, published by the Florida Department of Education, at:
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