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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Liberal think tank’s support for charter schools ignores the facts. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Liberal think tank’s support for charter schools ignores the facts. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

Liberal think tank’s support for charter schools ignores the facts.

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has issued a report calling for more charter schools as a key solution to what they think ails US schools.

But a review of the report by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, calls the report “a dangerous guide for those policymakers looking to turn around struggling schools.”

Charting New Territoryargues that charter school operators should have a more prominent role in “fixing” America’s consistently low-performing high schools. The report based this recommendation on the experiences of the Los Angeles and Philadelphia school districts. However, Lazarín overlooks preliminary research on Philadelphia’s charter “turnarounds,” which showed an increase in the number of uncertified, inexperienced teachers.

Lazarín’s report calls for expanding Charter Management Organization autonomy over all aspects