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One thing that gets lost in the comparison between charter schools and public schools is that charter schools get to cherry pick their students. The students no
by partisan 11y ago
One thing that gets lost in the comparison between charter schools and public schools is that charter schools get to cherry pick their students. The students not accepted into charter schools are sent to public schools. Public schools then have a higher concentration of underperforming students and therefore perform worse when compared to charter schools.
If you are given the best students and money is thrown at you, you are being handed success. The rest of the schools are being handed failure. When all schools are charter schools then we will see many of them fail and be replaced by more charter schools and the problem will just be perpetuated in a different form.
I wish it were true that charter schools were all about giving students a better education. It is unfortunately not. It is part political and part financial. The political aspect comes from showing success through change (see my first paragraph to understand how that success is gained). The financial aspect goes to the higher salaries paid to administrators. The school districts are happy to pay higher salaries now to rid themselves of unions and more importantly, pensions since charter schools are not unionized. Teachers at those schools work long hours for slightly higher pay. The approach is churn and burn. They hire younger teachers who are just passing through the system on their way to their true careers after they burn out and become disillusioned about the system. Some people will make off pretty well during this growth stage, but the long term outlook is poor.
- ThomPete 11y agoCharter schools like Success Academy function by lottery so no cherry picking at all. And keep in mind it was started in Harlem not exactly the best base for the kids with the best resources. The reason why charter schools like Success Academy are popular is because it's strong focus and philosophy.
- dublinben 11y agoEvery single student in that lottery had to be entered by a parent concerned about their education. That already presents a selection bias that will deliver better testing results than the entire student population.
- ThomPete 11y agoAnd every single student who want to go to the public school in Tribecca have to have an address there to be zoned for it. If you want to talk about selection bias thats your case not a lottery. Plenty of kids in Harlem goes to Success Academy. Most of the kids in Williamsburg comes from fairly low-income families. That was the very premise of the school and why it's popular. Watch the documentary The Lottery on Netflix it's quite illuminating.
- drumdance 11y agoMy recollection from Freakonomics is they found that the children who lose the lottery still do as well as those who get in. The differentiating factor seems to be parents who care enough to enter the lottery in the first place. Their research was based on magnet schools in Chicago in the nineties. I don't know how well that model correlates with Success Academy.
- ThomPete 11y agoIt's I believe the Hawtorne Effect I believe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
- drumdance 11y agoI don't believe that applies in the Chicago study because they just looked at data retrospectively. There were no observers when the events were taking place.
- dalke 11y ago> The reason why charter schools like Success Academy are popular is because it's strong focus and philosophy. Which from today's NYT at http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-academy-charter-school-singling-out-pupils-who-have-got-to-go.html?_r=1&referer= http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/nyregion/at-a-success-a... apparently includes pushing out any students. That is, says Brown, principal at Success Academy Fort Greene: "Some of them needed an alternative setting with highly specialized services". You know where those (expensive) 'highly specialized' services are? Public schools. After 19 suspensions, this both with ADHD now attends "Public School 119 in Brooklyn, where Ms. Wimbish said he was very happy and had not been suspended once." Is it really the parents to blame? Or a 'one size fits all' discipline model that just happens to select for the easier, most compliant children?
- dalke 11y agoFFS! Did Success Academy really release the records of a 10 year old student, in all likelihood in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, just because that student and his mother were the only ones willing to voice their complaints about the on camera?