Are Charter Schools Really Better?The state Department of Education admits charter school data is too fragmented to support overall conclusions
The presentation to the state Board of Education yesterday was clearly meant to be a positive portrait of charter schools in New Jersey, with charts of the growing interest statewide and glowing examples from some superstar schools.
It didn’t go quite as planned.
Once the PowerPoint presentation by the state Department of Education was done, several members of the board were openly critical of the report and skeptical about claims that charters do any better than traditional public schools.
As to the fundamental question of how New Jersey’s 73 charters are doing in terms of student achievement, neither the department nor the board had any answers.
“It is important that we do that kind of analysis and study,” said Rochelle Hendricks, the acting