Finally, a report from a completely
non-political, non-ideological source about charter schools. The
report, co-sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and Public Agenda, lays out the
facts and the issues. Different sides may take heart from different aspects of
the report.
Certain
factual findings stand out:
“Nationally,
there is very little evidence that charter and traditional public schools
differ meaningfully in their average impact on students’ standardized test
performance.”
“In
some states charter schools have had positive impacts on student learning, in
other states they have had negative impacts, while in others charters have had
no differential impact compared with traditional public schools.”
“Charters
schools enroll proportionately fewer special education students than
traditional public schools do”
“Charter
school students are less likely to be English-language learners than
traditional public school students”
Charters
receive less public funding than public schools, but spend more on
administration than public schools.