Teaching Profession

Critical Union Report About Charter Schools Raises Ire of Advocates

By Julie Blair — August 07, 2002 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

An American Federation of Teachers report condemning a majority of the nation’s charter schools drew substantial fire upon its release last month and, so far, appears to have spurred few second thoughts among state officials about their policies on the nontraditional public schools.

“Do Charter Schools Measure Up? The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years,” is available from the American Federation of Teachers. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)

The teachers’ union examined state data, among other information, and concluded that the country’s charter schools have failed to work as expected.

The 108- page analysis, “Do Charter Schools Measure Up?: The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years,” cautions against the expansion of such efforts. It contends that the schools, contrary to what supporters had anticipated, do not produce student achievement higher than that of other public schools, empower teachers, or serve as models for innovation.

Charter school advocates immediately contested the findings of the 1.3 million-member union, charging that the AFT was biased against the charter concept and that the data used in the report were outdated and skewed.

Meanwhile, officials in state education departments said they had read the report carefully, but had no plans to seek alterations in their charter school programs based on the conclusions. They’ve received only a handful of telephone calls about the study, the officials added, mostly from reporters.

“We’re always interested in the opinions ... of stakeholders,” said Steve Burigana, the executive director of the Ohio education department’s office of community schools, as charters are called in that state. But, he added, “I think it’s still early in the game” to condemn charter schools.

“We have charter schools which work very well and address the needs, and other charter schools that do not,” he said.

Of Ohio’s 3,700 K-12 buildings, 95 are charter schools, enrolling about 24,000 students.

‘A Dead End’?

The report, unveiled at the AFT’s biennial convention, held here July 15-18, found that:

  • Student achievement in charter schools remains comparable with that in regular public schools.
  • Charter school teachers feel less empowered to make changes in their workplaces than do their peers in traditional buildings, and they hold mixed feelings about administrators and governance structures.
  • Charter efforts encourage innovation at the organizational level, but are less successful at changing instruction.
  • Charters contribute to the isolation of students by race and class.
  • The schools fail to be more accountable financially than regular public schools.
  • Such schools generally get as much money from public and private sources as regular public schools receive from government coffers, but they educate fewer special-needs children, who tend to cost more to educate.

“They are a dead end,” said Tom Mooney, the chairman of the union’s program and policy council, which provided input on the report, and the president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

Charter proponents, meanwhile, countered claims made by the AFT report. For example, they cited studies undertaken in Arizona, California, and Chicago that found charter school students outperforming their counterparts in regular school systems.

“An AFT study on charter schools has about as much creditability as a Philip Morris study on smoking,” Lawrence Patrick III, the president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, argued in a statement circulated by his group and five other pro-charter organizations.

Still, a study released in North Carolina last month draws conclusions similar to those in the AFT report. The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, a nonprofit group based in Raleigh that studies public-policy issues, found that charter schools in the state did not perform as well as other public schools on end-of-grade reading, writing, and mathematics tests. Moreover, the charter schools lacked racial balance and showed problems with financial management, that report says.

“It is a road that is not terribly productive,” Joan Baratz-Snowden, the director of the AFT’s educational issues department, said of the charter approach. “Charter schools are a distraction from what we need to be doing.”

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the August 07, 2002 edition of Education Week as Critical Union Report About Charter Schools Raises Ire of Advocates

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
Reframing Behavior: Neuroscience-Based Practices for Positive Support
Reframing Behavior helps teachers see the “why” of behavior through a neuroscience lens and provides practices that fit into a school day.
Content provided by Crisis Prevention Institute
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Math for All: Strategies for Inclusive Instruction and Student Success
Looking for ways to make math matter for all your students? Gain strategies that help them make the connection as well as the grade.
Content provided by NMSI
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Equity and Access in Mathematics Education: A Deeper Look
Explore the advantages of access in math education, including engagement, improved learning outcomes, and equity.
Content provided by MIND Education

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Teachers, Tame the 'Sunday Scaries'
Many teachers feel a real dread of the pending workweek. Here's how to cope.
4 min read
Image of a weekly calendar with a sticky with a stressed face icon.
Laura Baker/Education Week via Canva
Teaching Profession Opinion My Life as a Substitute Teacher in Suburbia: Chaos and Cruelty
I was ignorant of the reality until I started teaching, writes a recent college graduate.
Charrley Hudson
4 min read
3d Render Red & White Megaphone on textured background with an mostly empty speech bubble quietly asking for help.
iStock/Getty images
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching This Is the Surprising Career Stage When Teachers Are Unhappiest
Survey data reveal a slump in teachers' job satisfaction a few years into their careers.
7 min read
Female Asian teacher at her desk marking students' work
iStock/Getty
Teaching Profession Video ‘Teachers Make All Other Professions Possible’: This Educator Shares Her Why
An Arkansas educator offers a message on overcoming the hard days—and focusing on the why.
1 min read