6 Scholars 6 Questions
School Choice....Their Choice....Your Choice....My Choice?
Forest Of The Rain Productions asked six well respected scholars, researchers, and higher education professionals to share their perspectives on the issue of school choice. We asked each a different question. Their responses are informative and insightful.
Dr. Doris Lee
Q. What are a few misconceptions about school choice?
School Choice offers the opinion that charter schools provide better options than public schools especially for minority and low-income students. However, they often service lower percentages of students with disabilities and English language learners boosting their performance statistics when compared to their public counterparts. Moreover, their enrollment policies allow them to deny applicants mid-year or only accept students in certain grades while public schools are mandated to enroll students at any time of the year in any grade. Some charter schools also have discipline policies that can not be replicated in public schools. Providing more options that may not always equate to quality. A study by Stanford University revealed that 19% of charter schools do significantly worse than their public school counterparts in reading and 31% of charter schools do significantly worse in math. They also suggested 56% of charter schools perform at the same levels as their public school counterparts in reading and 40% in math. It seems that we are spreading limited resources with the middle school choice model and we are getting the intended outcomes in approximately a quarter of charter schools.
School Choice offers the opinion that charter schools provide better options than public schools especially for minority and low-income students. However, they often service lower percentages of students with disabilities and English language learners boosting their performance statistics when compared to their public counterparts. Moreover, their enrollment policies allow them to deny applicants mid-year or only accept students in certain grades while public schools are mandated to enroll students at any time of the year in any grade. Some charter schools also have discipline policies that can not be replicated in public schools. Providing more options that may not always equate to quality. A study by Stanford University revealed that 19% of charter schools do significantly worse than their public school counterparts in reading and 31% of charter schools do significantly worse in math. They also suggested 56% of charter schools perform at the same levels as their public school counterparts in reading and 40% in math. It seems that we are spreading limited resources with the middle school choice model and we are getting the intended outcomes in approximately a quarter of charter schools.