GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Formally the CREDO study would have accounted for changing demographics since it follows cohorts over time and the SES variable was matched in Title 1 status of students..Nevertheless, the CREDO study was seriously flawed in its research design as I pointed out in detail in a post last week here when it was first published, essentially because it does not hold constant the influence of the self-selection status of students and their families in choosing charters schools. and the residual classroom effects of larger special ed and ELL students in the non-charter schools. As such, they erroneously draw the conclusion that it is the charter school itself rather than the student body differences that account for the difference in academic achievement between charter and public schools..

The same can be said for the KIPP study as well. Both are non-peer reviewed studies which simply means they have enough money to publish whatever they want for distribution to high profile news organizations to reprint in dramatic headlines, and politically and ideologically driven op-ed pieces for public consumption.

I personally no longer think facts matter in this debate. Essentially what we have here is a mass propaganda campaign funded by wealthy individuals, foundations and think tanks to completely distort what is going on in educational reform for ideological purposes. Since NCLB is largely recognized as a failure at this point (100% HS graduation rates by 2014 remember!), someone has to be blamed other than the politicians, so teachers and unions have become the convenient scapegoat, with the new solution offered by private enterprise waiting to sink their teeth into the 20 billion dollar DOE budget.

Yes, there are parents who want to opt out of public schools and I do not blame them for it. But this solution to choose charter schools will not and never can be a system wide solution, because charter schools are only segregating out families and students able and willing to learn (creaming), from the remaining students and families who for whatever reason are unable to do so. It is this second group of students who should be the focus of genuine reform but are not in the neo-liberal and charter school movement agenda.

This will be the tragedy of American education for another generation. But the more ominous and dangerous implications are the perversion of democratic process itself by powerfully connected money interests and ideologues for their own purposes. If it can happen in education, then the very future direction of the country is imperiled across the board.