Post by dfx on Nov 8, 2010 14:25:52 GMT -5
I found a good article in today's Star-Ledger that helps frame the positives and negatives of a charter school. As I mentioned earlier, this will be debated publicly at an upcoming BoE meeting, however there are several things the article points out that I feel strongly about...
blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/11/nj_activists_parents_warn_agai.html
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Bruce Baker, a faculty member at Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, issues research reports on the relative success of charters and traditional schools. He also writes a blog, "School Finance 101," where he posts his research.
"What we’re finding is that, to the extent charter schools do better than traditional schools, it is often attributable to ‘creaming’ or ‘skimming,’ excluding special education students, poor students on free-lunch programs, or limited English-speaking children,’’ he says.
Like Rubin, Baker supports charters, but says they should be more closely regulated. He released research showing charters in New Jersey take fewer special education students — sometimes, none at all. When the test scores of regular students at both schools are compared, traditional schools often do better than the charter.
"When valid comparisons are made, claims of the charters can’t be verified," he says.
Baker also released data showing that, on statewide tests, charter students do about as well as students from the poorest districts in the state and far worse than students in suburban districts.
That isn’t because charter schools are only located in cities. Rubin’s group says an increasing number of charters are located in suburbs, including Princeton. She says charters often take top students while leaving poorer students — who are more expensive to educate — behind.
"By siphoning off limited resources, charter schools not only reduce the resources available to the students attending traditional schools, they also threaten the districts’ ability to serve special needs and at-risk students,’’ her group contended in legislative testimony.
Lawmakers are now considering expanding charters. The problem, suburban parents say, is school boards have no say in establishing a charter in their districts. But, once a school is approved, they must pay most of the costs of students leaving public schools for the charters.
"But the fixed costs of the district remain the same, even though we lose the money that now goes to the charters,’’ says Audrey Chen, another member of SOS-NJ.
And, while voters in Princeton can determine the fate of funding of traditional schools, they cannot stop the funding — with property taxes — of charter schools.
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Although this is only a snippet of the article, I encourage each of you to read this article in its entirety...
dfx
PS.
Tonight there will be a Board of Education meeting at Park Avenue Elementary School at 7pm. The agenda for tonight's meeting can be found on the district's website, but one of the topics being discussed will be our district's latest AYP test scores. I hope everyone can make it...
blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/11/nj_activists_parents_warn_agai.html
______________________________________
Bruce Baker, a faculty member at Rutgers’ Graduate School of Education, issues research reports on the relative success of charters and traditional schools. He also writes a blog, "School Finance 101," where he posts his research.
"What we’re finding is that, to the extent charter schools do better than traditional schools, it is often attributable to ‘creaming’ or ‘skimming,’ excluding special education students, poor students on free-lunch programs, or limited English-speaking children,’’ he says.
Like Rubin, Baker supports charters, but says they should be more closely regulated. He released research showing charters in New Jersey take fewer special education students — sometimes, none at all. When the test scores of regular students at both schools are compared, traditional schools often do better than the charter.
"When valid comparisons are made, claims of the charters can’t be verified," he says.
Baker also released data showing that, on statewide tests, charter students do about as well as students from the poorest districts in the state and far worse than students in suburban districts.
That isn’t because charter schools are only located in cities. Rubin’s group says an increasing number of charters are located in suburbs, including Princeton. She says charters often take top students while leaving poorer students — who are more expensive to educate — behind.
"By siphoning off limited resources, charter schools not only reduce the resources available to the students attending traditional schools, they also threaten the districts’ ability to serve special needs and at-risk students,’’ her group contended in legislative testimony.
Lawmakers are now considering expanding charters. The problem, suburban parents say, is school boards have no say in establishing a charter in their districts. But, once a school is approved, they must pay most of the costs of students leaving public schools for the charters.
"But the fixed costs of the district remain the same, even though we lose the money that now goes to the charters,’’ says Audrey Chen, another member of SOS-NJ.
And, while voters in Princeton can determine the fate of funding of traditional schools, they cannot stop the funding — with property taxes — of charter schools.
______________________________________
Although this is only a snippet of the article, I encourage each of you to read this article in its entirety...
dfx
PS.
Tonight there will be a Board of Education meeting at Park Avenue Elementary School at 7pm. The agenda for tonight's meeting can be found on the district's website, but one of the topics being discussed will be our district's latest AYP test scores. I hope everyone can make it...
