Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, issued a statement saying that the study demonstrates "that charter schools are not the panacea they often are made out to be, and that our national focus must continue to include discussion of how to support and improve our regular public schools."
Jed Wallace, executive director of the California Charter Schools Assn., which represents and supports charter schools, said he welcomed the report, even those parts that showed charters in less than a flattering light. Asked why California charters were doing worse in math than their traditional counterparts, Wallace said, "My sense is that we've got a lot of relatively young charter schools, and a lot of the entrepreneurial thrust and momentum is translating into progress in English arts, and math, which requires a greater sophistication in many ways . . . is just not there yet."
He added that some charter schools were "just not up to the challenge" and should be closed.
The researchers had access to individual student records, and could assess student progress over three years of testing. They were able to compare charter students who had left traditional public schools with "virtual twins" who had stayed. To do this, they matched up the charter students with all the students at their former public school who closely matched them in terms of test scores, ethnicity, family income and other factors. Then they created "twins" by taking an average of those other students' scores over the ensuing years.
This methodology drew criticism from the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based nonprofit that is an advocate for charter schools. Jeanne Allen, the center's president, issued a statement saying that the Stanford report "fails the most important and most objective test of student data analysis through their use of virtual twins to replicate real student growth by creating 'straw men' subjects."
However, Priscilla Wohlstetter, a professor of education at USC who issues an annual report on the progress of California charter schools, said she had reviewed the study and found the methodology to be sound.
She urged the researchers to focus on why some schools do better than others.
"Let's take a look at what's making the difference," she said. "What are the educational strategies that are being used in the high fliers, or in the ones that consistently don't do well?"
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mitchell.landsberg@latimes.com
