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from the learning-something-new-every-day dept.
Common Dreams reports
Public schools are outperforming charter schools in Minnesota, in some cases "dramatically," according to a new analysis by the state's Star-Tribune newspaper.
In addition, many charter schools fail to adequately support minority students, close examination of the data revealed.
[...]Education analyst Diane Ravitch notes: "Minnesota was the home of the charter movement, which began with high expectations as a progressive experiment but has turned into a favorite mechanism in many states to promote privatization of public education and to generate profits for charter corporations like Imagine, Charter Schools USA, and K12. Today, charter advocates claim that their privately managed charters will 'save low-income students from failing public schools,' but the Minnesota experience suggests that charters face the same challenges as public schools, which is magnified by high teacher turnover in charter schools."
The findings back up a report (PDF) put out last fall by the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School, which examined the success and failures of the charter school system in Chicago, Illinois.
That study concluded:
Sadly, the [charter] schools, which on average score lower that the Chicago public schools, have not improved the Chicago school system, but perhaps made it even weaker.
Further, charters, which are even more likely to be single-race schools than the already hyper-segregated Chicago school system, have not increased interracial contact, an often-stated goal of charter systems.
Finally, the fact that Chicago charters use expulsion far more often that public schools deserves further study. In the end, it is unlikely that the Chicago charter school experience provides a model for improving urban education in other big city school districts.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by N3Roaster on Saturday February 28 2015, @04:48PM
By the time I entered elementary school, class sizes were larger than reasonable and one of the ways that teachers were dealing with this was by paying attention to who was coming in already knowing some stuff and who needed some extra attention. Early on I was with a handful of students off to the side and largely left to learn as we pleased and people came and went from that group as needed. In later years I would be sent to help out with some of the earlier classes or called over to do some tutoring. For the most part it worked pretty well. When I moved on to middle school, the culture among the staff was very different. I was getting called to the councillor regularly and my parents were getting called over to the school for some petty nonsense or other. Most of the time I didn't even know why. It's not as if I was causing trouble or disrupting classes, though I was frequently bored having already learned much of what was being taught in the classes I was put in. A couple teachers noticed that and gave me projects that I could get some value out of, but another one wanted me drugged into idiocy and the administrative side of the school seemed to be in agreement about that. They pulled the same thing with another kid who lived down the street from me. He was the artsy sort and the most intelligent kid I knew, but his parents went along with that teacher's recommendation and got him on to drugs he didn't need. It messed him up and he ended up transitioning to some less legal substances. Such a waste. As for my parents, they tried to get me transferred to a different public school, but the system wasn't cooperating with that so they stuffed me into a private school for a couple years just to get me out of that toxic environment. This was before "charter schools" were a thing. I was put in a class with a couple dozen kids who had been in the same class together for as long as they'd been going to school. Sheltered, shallow, stupid, and the material that was taught in those two years was entirely stuff that had already been covered in the public system. Wasted time, but by then I was already turning down job offers from companies that noticed I could program a computer but hadn't realized that I was a kid (because it was common sense at the time to be pseudonymous on the Internet and not disclose asl if you were a kid). My parents had recently started a business and it was clear that I was developing skills that I could use to do the same so while better preparation from school would be nice, I could afford to coast through. When it was time to go to high school the decision of where to go was left to me. Most of the people in my class were going to one of the other private schools but I couldn't see subjecting myself to another four years surrounded by those people. I looked around at other private schools and saw the same sort of boring, homogeneous students. Clean, modern facilities with unimpressive classes. I opted to go back to the public system. Overcrowded, dirty, and built like a prison, but I'd have options there. I tested into the advanced classes in cases where I was allowed to take those tests. Wasn't allowed to test out of algebra because administration didn't want too many people testing out of that. I loaded up on extracurriculars that could get me out of classes so there was the awkward situation of wasting time in the normal math track while beating out people a few years ahead of me on the advanced track for positions to represent the school at math competitions. I had some issues with a few of the staff. It was usually down to a fundamental disagreement over why I was there. I was there to learn. They wanted me to be there for a grade. My chemistry teacher got a good amount of teasing from physics teachers who took my side when he wanted to kick me out of his class to a more basic one after I ended up bringing back relevant awards at competitions and passing the IB chemistry test. Sadly he had some words for me at the end of that which made it clear that he hadn't learned a thing from that and would try to repeat that mistake in the future. A pity as he was a fantastic instructor during class. In later years, some of my former classmates from the private school ended up in the public system where they were hopelessly unprepared for even the most basic classes. There were some other teachers who I didn't have issues with personally but were just waiting for retirement. One would leave his morning classes unattended so he could go to his office to drink then spend his afternoon classes passed out at his desk. Another was upset that a class he thought should only be for seniors was allowing freshmen in so instead of teaching the class he just told stories about backyard barbecue. Despite all that, the quality of education available in the public schools was much better than what would have been available to me in the private schools. The students were more interesting, too. It's no surprise to me that charter schools are having many of the same problems that I saw in the private schools.
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(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 28 2015, @05:40PM
I wish they had taught you about paragraphs in school.