Rating Education Gains
We seem to be doing a bit better educating our most disadvantaged students. But many educators think that is not enough.
The numbers displayed in the graphic smorgasbord known as "The Condition of Education 2007," from the U.S. Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, reveal the struggles of a generation to make schools work for all children...
Mark Schneider, commissioner of the national center, summed up the achievement results during that period of demographic shifts: "Since the early 1970s, there has been improvement in the scores of 9- and 13-year-olds on national reading and mathematics assessments, but the scores of 17-year-olds have remained flat."
Those results have not been good enough for the many parents who have put their children in taxpayer-funded public charter schools, which operate independently of school districts in 40 states and the District. There were 3,294 charter schools in 2005, compared with 90,000 conventional public schools.
Charter schools are much more likely to have black students. In 2005, 31 percent of charter school students were black, compared with 17 percent in conventional schools. According to research, charter schools on average have not raised student achievement more than conventional public schools, although parents are still drawn to successful charters such as the KIPP DC:KEY Academy in Southeast Washington, with a nearly all-black enrollment and the city's highest middle school test scores.
Rating Education Gains
Achievement Gaps, Advanced Placement Exams, Demographic Shifts and Charter Schools: What Do They Add Up To for Students?
Achievement Gaps, Advanced Placement Exams, Demographic Shifts and Charter Schools: What Do They Add Up To for Students?
posted by Whitney Tilson at 4:06 PM
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