In Saturday’s Wash. Post CA State Board of Ed member and founder of Accelerated Academy, Jonathan Williams, responds to this op-ed from charter foe Amy Stuart Wells.
Williams writes:
Charter schools are doing a lot better than critics acknowledge. Granted, charter school performance varies. But research by the Rand Corp., the Hoover Institute and the Brookings Institution shows that over time the performance of the charter sector is improving. In California, where charter schools were the subject of a damning 1998 report by Wells, Rand found last year that the performance of charters is now comparable to that of other public schools, achieved with considerably fewer resources.
Note the last graf as well. It’s another good example of a larger problem that falls squarely in the category of “I’ll take really stupid ways to make your political party unpopular in some communities for $1000 Alex”…
Also, on charter policy, new GAO report. Highlights here (pdf), full report here (pdf). Punchline: Collect more data (and U.S. Department of Ed is working on that issue).