Charter schools 'harmful' says study
By Isaac Davison
The Government has reaffirmed its keenness to implement charter schools despite a damning study which says they may do more harm than good to the under-achievers the Government is targeting.
Under a National-Act agreement, charter schools will be trialled in areas where education achievement is low - South Auckland, Christchurch East, and possibly Wellington.
A group of education experts at Massey University has investigated similar models to the proposed charter schools - Sweden's "free schools", England's "academies", and privatised schools in the United States.
Convener Professor Emeritus Ivan Snook said the group used similar sources of evidence to the Government but came to different conclusions.
"The evidence is clear that charter schools have the potential to cause
Researchers voice alarm over charter schools ‘experiment’
Professor John O'Neill
The Government announced New Zealand will trial charter schools with the first likely to be in South Auckland, Christchurch East and possibly Wellington.
In response the Education Policy Response Group, consisting of 12 College of Education experts, conducted an in-depth examination of research studies from Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States; countries with models on which New Zealand charter schools may be based.
Group convenor Professor Emeritus Ivan Snook says they based their analysis on similar sources of evidence to those used by the government but came to some different conclusions. “The evidence is clear that charter schools have the potential to cause harm to the very groups of students they are supposed to help,” he says.
The report says while it is encouraging that the National-ACT proposal recognises the need to address educational underachievement through wider economic and social policies, the charter school proposal seems to persist with narrow assessments of individual student progress. This is very risky. Even if some charter schools do show gains for disadvantaged students, it is often achieved at the cost of further