Aug. 18—Charter schools, the alternative to public schools the Bush administration has made a key part of its educational platform, routinely trail behind public schools in academic achievement, according to data obtained by AFT.
Comparing math and reading scores on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the “nation’s report card,” AFT found fourth-grade students attending charter charters for the most part score worse and sometimes roughly as well as public school students.
The findings, released Aug. 17, are significant because President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind education law punishes schools that persistently fail to make progress—and one possible sanction is restructuring a public school as a charter school.
“Being transformed into a charter school is being held out as a solution for struggling public schools,” says F. Howard Nelson, lead author of the AFT report. But the new data “reinforce years of independent research that show charter schools do no better and often underperform comparable, regular public schools.” AFT represents public school teachers nationwide.
Since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted in 2002, teachers and school administrators say they increasingly are hard-pressed to meet its goals because the Bush administration has not adequately funded the law.
Everything the No Child Left Behind Act calls for costs money, says Linda Jackson, an AFT member and teacher in Detroit. “The children are suffering because without more money, teachers are being laid off and class sizes are ballooning.”
Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) supports a National Education Trust Fund to ensure schools get the funding they need and also has said he will ensure the No Child Left Behind law is fully funded to ensure schools and teachers can meet its goals.
Bush Administration Delays, Spins Results
AFT’s report also finds that NAEP, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education, is delaying and spinning the charter school results.
The 2003 results are the first to include a national representative sample of charter schools. But while overall NAEP scores were released this past November, federal officials are not formally releasing separate results from charter schools until December 2004—nearly a year later. AFT researchers independently uncovered and analyzed the charter school results.
Further, AFT leaders say federal officials are planning to analyze the charter school data with a method that adjusts the results. This is the first time in the exam’s 35-year history that such a method would be used.
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