More on the Charter School Experiment: Skimming Students?
I recently had the chance to interview author and educational psychologist David Berliner, the Regents Professor of Education at Arizona State University, over on EdMedia Commons (find out if you are eligible to join!). It was a wide-ranging conversation, and I didn't quite have room to run everything in our "Five Questions" series.
In light of last week's New York Times' story about public schools copying charter schools, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of Berliner's remarks on that issue. I asked him what it says about the model that recent studies have found on average charter schools do no better (and in some cases do worse) than their "regular" public school counterparts.
Berliner told me that "charter schools were supposed to be crucibles of innovation that traditional campuses could then follow -- that's how the concept was sold to the public." But instead, "most charter schools today are