CREDO study on charter schools funded by liberal Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation funded in part the study on the successes and failures of [public?] charter schools, CREDO national charter school study [alert: this is one of the most visually boring websites you'll find on the internet--Stanford needs a new web designer] The Joyce Foundation in its causes and in its directors is left wing, with Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett members of its board of directors.

The 2009 CREDO report, “Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States,” “recognized a robust national demand for more charter schools from parents and local communities, it found that 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public school counterparts, with 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no significant difference.”

The full report plus supplements since the 2009 issue, includes those states like Indiana and California where charter school students did better than those in traditional classrooms, but also those in Ohio who did worse. (This could mean that Ohio's public schools were better at the starting gate than Indiana's or California's.) With 46% demonstrating no difference and 17% better, that’s at least 63% positive--at least they didn't loose ground. And then there’s the unmeasurables--parental involvement, safety, bullying, behavior, spiritual and moral guidance, special focus (art, music, math, sports) etc. . . . some things aren't measured in test scores. Also, I don't know of a way to account for the "head start" that traditional public schools have over the charters--public or private--nor how to account for the positive affect of competition on the public schools.

It will be interesting to see how the report is used by the various sides, including the unions, within the school system to woo the parents. Also it looks to me like Ohio charters ought to visit Indiana to see what's happening.