Charter school performance has been a popular topic in education research for years. Research results are mixed -- one can find support for whatever position one wishes to take on the issue. My opinion is that the diversity of outcomes in charter schools means that they aren't the panacea some advocates claim, but they can serve a useful purpose as laboratories for experimentation. The schools are as varied as our students and we should seek a policy framework that provides them their essential freedom to experiment while simultaneously recognizing that they must exist within the community of public schools: they have an important though limited role in that community. They must serve their students and the larger purpose too.
Ideally, charter school experimentation will find new solutions to larger educational problems, but currently the competition for funds, space, students, and public attention has fouled the atmosphere of cooperation that should exist within the community of schools. We need policies that provide charters with adequate resources without making them compete with existing schools are necessary -- some sort of recognition that "good fences make good neighbors". And equally important, we need more inter-school collaboration so that experiences can be usefully shared and all parties can benefit from the charter school work.
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Why Charter Schools Fail the Test (NYT Opinion)
How to measure student performance? A charter schools advocate explains why charter schools don't necessarily do any better on standardized tests.
"But for all their support and cultural cachet, the majority of the 5,000 or so charter schools nationwide appear to be no better, and in many cases worse, than local public schools when measured by achievement on standardized tests, according to experts citing years of research."
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I agree that current policy, as it stands, brings about a negative co-existence between charter and non-charter schools that are co-located and often results in an unhealthy relationship. All schools should be working toward what is best for students, including modeling positive relationships between schools and among the people within them--especially since the students who attend both come from the same communities, and interact and live side-by-side outside of their school buildings.
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