Charter School Activists Suffer From Truth Deprivation
''Rarely in the history of education have so many been willing to risk so much on the basis of so little evidence." This cogent statement was included in a 1996 Education Policy Institute report, alluding to the "risky business" of private management of public schools. It is truly amazing how little has changed in promoting school reform initiatives in the 18 years since this prophetic pronouncement.
Consider the reality that, as a nation, we continue to follow and accept the declarations of education reformers in their relentless promotion and implementation of "cures" that generally have no documented research base for school improvement. Conversely, these same strategists apparently have little time to consider existing research and evaluation findings, which rebut the very reform strategies and initiatives they are espousing.
A prime example of such "evidence avoidance" is apparent in the accelerating growth of the high-profile charter school movement. It is truly difficult to comprehend the escalating commitment to, and major infusion of federal and state funds for, this movement—especially in the absence of supportive data on its effectiveness in the education of young people.
"In reality, the charter activists may very well be suffering from a form of truth deprivation."
Ironically, this apparent evidence avoidance comes on the heels of the No Child Left Behind Act, which required states, school districts, and schools to use only research-based programs and initiatives in school reform efforts—a directive that is oft-cited in the legislation. It is truly amazing to grasp the contradiction within the federal government in mandating accountability for NCLB, and then taking a completely different approach in validating the progress of charter schools.
To this latter point, one has to really wonder what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was thinking when he informed states, with no documentation to support his edict, that they would jeopardize their applications for Race to the Top funds unless they lifted any existing ban on the growth of charter schools . In reality, his pronouncement resulted in marching orders for governors and legislators to jump on the charter school bandwagon.
The Obama administration's focus on charter schools as an innovative model for school improvement seems imprudent given the absence of desired outcomes, including student achievement. To this point, Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, the former director of the Institute of Education Sciences, offered a prescient warning for the fast tracking of charter schools in 2009 when he wrote: "Unless effectiveness is thought of as a central dimension of innovation, the current innovation zeitgeist will subject the nation to yet another fad and fantasy in education rather than continuous improvement." As the nation Charter School Activists Suffer From Truth Deprivation - Education Week: