Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition:

Reformy Myth Busting, 2016 Edition

I see we're in the middle of a full-blown spasm of reformy self-congratulation, self-righteousness, and self-regard regarding matters of school "choice" and anti-unionism.

Let's get a few things straight, shall we?

Reformy Myth: School "choice" has led to better outcomes for all students.

Facts: There is no evidence charter schools or voucher schools get, in the aggregate, substantially better performance than public district schools. Yes, some charter schools do better than prediction when using regression-based techniques to measure their outcomes; however, those charters almost always have features such as a longer school day (generally useless but helpful when disadvantaged students don't have other good options), more financial resources, different student populations which likely produce peer effects, or high rates of attrition that almost certainly account for much of the realized gains.

In other words: There is no evidence charter schools' "charteriness" makes them any better than public district schools.


Reformy Myth: Charter schools are closing the "achievement gap."

Facts: No charter school study that I am aware of has ever shown the effect sizes of charter schools to be anywhere close to the gap in test scores that can be explained by socio-economic differences.
- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/01/reformy-myth-busting-2016-edition.html#sthash.lfEQIdXJ.dpuf