Why Don’t We Have Real Data on Charter Schools?

[Sancho]

2. There may be more data than the current version of charter schools want to reveal....

Even with the version of "charter schools" being considered now, "alternative schools", "laboratory schools", and "demonstration schools" have been created and died off over the history of modern education - likely dating back over a hundred years.

The current movement has specifically been an effort by the political right to get their hands on public school money.

Researchers have lots of research reports and experience that are pretty compelling. Simply changing standards, curriculums, and homework has an effect on achievement, but not as much as you'd think. One-to-one tutoring (small class size), prescribed teaching (no one size fits all), and well-prepared teachers (not TFA recruits) are well documented positives.

The current version of charters don't want scrutiny, because they are really no better than a typical public school, but they siphon off dollars, cater to the white flight, and avoid any real examination. Public schools have been examined carefully for decades.