Reply to Should the Ed Reformers just quit?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Should the Ed Reformers just quit?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sort of.  Poor charter students tend to have slightly more able and motivated parents, or grandparents, than poor DCPS students.   Mostly they simply have access to a better school their families get them to easily.  The difference isn't enormous.

[/quote]

The difference is statistically significant.  You should revisit your own education, unless you're one of those "I 
don't like numbers" types.[/quote]

NP here who also has a PhD in the social sciences. It is perfectly possible for population mean differences to be statistically significant, but quite small. That suggests that the differences aren't policy relevant. No one can look at the data here and conclude that the answer to the achievement gap is to put kids in charters. Nationwide, the preponderance of the research suggests that charters are on average no better than the neighborhood schools they replace. Certainly, some individual charter schools do quite well, but there are enough Options and Excel.Academies to prove that it isn't sufficient just to be a charter.

[b]In general, the Ed Reform movement is plagued by a lack of rigorous research backing up any of the proposed reforms. Charters, TFA,  etc. Gget little support from the data. [/b]The business people running the New Centuries and the Eli Broads don't know how to evaluate research. I went to college with one of the board members of Flamboyan, basically a guy who was a successful manufacturer. He came to our reunion and imlplied that their program was responsible for increases in test scores at the schools in which they worked, despite admitting that "other changes " were also taking place in the schools. They don't really understand the idea of controls.

Some policies that do work include universal pre school, targeted feedback for teachers, and evidenced based curricula. A good summary of the research, targeted at a lay audience, is here.

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Opportunity-Inequality-Challenge-Education/dp/1612506348[/quote]

In general, as in nationwide, that is true.  It is not true in the District of Columbia, where there is substantial evidence that charters outperform district-based schools, particularly with respect to students of color and/or students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics