A new policy report from RAND takes a comprehensive look at the education scene in New Orleans, comparing the city’s many charter schools to traditional neighborhood schools.
The report relies on answers to a series of surveys sent out to principals asking about instructional time in the classroom, the length of the school year, satisfaction with alternative teacher accreditation pipelines like Teach For America and teacher professional development.
Here are some key findings, beginning with responses concerning educational manners:
• Charter schools average two fewer education days per year than traditional schools, 177 to 179.
• The instructional day was half an hour longer in traditional schools than charters, 7.6 to 7.1 The national average, according to National Center on Time and Learning, is 6.7 hours.
• On a scale of 1 to 4, teachers at charters averaged a 2.5 to the statement they can maintain discipline in the classroom; teachers from traditional schools averaged 1.9.
Some results are counter-intuitive, but the study seems to play into the hands of organizations and advocacy groups skeptical of charter schools as reliant on less qualified teachers and as contracting out transportation and nutritional services.
