Panelists Call for More Data to Evaluate Charter Schools

Washington

Better data are needed to answer critical and controversial questions about the nation’s experiment with charter schooling, researchers agreed at a forum here last week. But they didn’t see eye to eye on what studies have shown to date, or what are the most important topics that scholars should address in the future.

Defending her recent report on charter school students’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a researcher from the American Federation of Teachers said the numbers showed that claims of “miracles” by charter supporters were off base.

The report, which ignited a late-summer skirmish between pro- and anti-charter forces, found that 4th and 8th graders in charter schools lagged behind their peers in regular public schools on the 2003 NAEP. ( "AFT Charter School Study Sparks Heated National Debate," ...