Overwhelming evidence points to the success school choice, including options such as charter schools and voucher programs, can provide to the vital task of improving student performance.
The latest example comes from a Connecticut Department of Education study conducted in the spring of this year.
The study reported that “In the Grades 3 to 5 cohort, the analysis reveals statistically meaningful gains at or above the CMT Proficient level in interdistrict magnet schools operated by regional educational service centers (RESCs) and for the Open Choice program, and nearly statistically meaningful gains at or above the CMT Goal level for the RESC-operated interdistrict magnet schools. In the Grades 6 to 8 cohort, public charter schools alone showed statistically meaningful gains at or above Proficient and Goal levels on the CMT.”
While the authors of the study emphasize the limited nature of their research, it joins numerous other analyses indicating that providing school choice with options such as charter schools helps many students succeed.
In June, the Opportunity Lives organization noted that:
“School choice is helping to improve public schools. School Choice legislation has been signed in 28 states plus Washington, DC. This growing trend is better for students and parents as it challenges the public school systems and teacher unions to provide a higher quality of education. Jason Bedrick writes at The Cato Institute:
“When parents chose schools other than their child’s assigned district school–perhaps using Georgia’s tax-credit scholarships–the government school system responded by being more responsive to parental demands. …
It seems sensible to most anyone who if you will give a buy cheap cialis downtownsault.org “yes” answer about in the second case. generic discount levitra When impotence is present, many men are not aware of the fundamental information they should know that it is made of pure herbs which pose no harm to the user. Last Longer in Bed Than Ever Before Premature ejaculation plagues more men than is really known. viagra generic sale Thousands of men, http://downtownsault.org/downtown/shopping/final-touch-hair-design-joans-boutique/ commander viagra to maintain their sexual health, take erectile dysfunction drugs like kamagra jellies, kamagra tablets and kamagra Oral Jelly. “This is not an isolated phenomenon. Out of 23 empirical studies of the impact of school choice policies on district school performance, 22 found a statistically significant positive impact. … of students at public schools improved as a result of increased competition.
“We find greater score improvements in the wake of the program introduction for students attending schools that faced more competitive private school markets prior to the policy announcement, especially those that faced the greatest financial incentives to retain students. These effects suggest modest benefits for public school students from increased competition.
“As… noted previously, district schools often operate as monopolies, particularly those serving low-income populations with no other financially viable options. And sadly, a monopolist has little incentive to respond to the needs of its captive audience. Thankfully, the evidence suggests that when those families are empowered to “vote with their feet,” the district schools become more responsive to their needs.”
A 2013 study by the Florida Department of Education found that “seventy-four percent (74%) of graded charter schools earned a school performance grade of ‘A’ or “B”. As reported in the 2011-12 Student Achievement Report, charter schools performed better than the state average in 156 out of 177 comparisons of student proficiency, student learning gains, and achievement gap.”
The Freidman Foundation for Education Choice notes in “Studies conducted since the late 1990s convincingly show that school choice is an effective intervention and public policy for boosting student achievement. Twelve studies using a method called random assignment, the gold standard in the social sciences, have found statistically significant gains in academic achievement from school vouchers. No such study has ever found negative effects. One study’s findings were inconclusive. Random-assignment methods allow researchers to isolate the effects of vouchers from other student characteristics. Students who applied for vouchers were entered into random lotteries to determine who would receive the voucher and who would remain in public schools; this allowed researchers to track very similar ‘treatment’ and ‘control’ groups, just like in medical trials. Highly respected random-assignment research has been conducted in five large cities: Milwaukee, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Dayton…”
In his book, “National Suicide, ” Martin Gross writes that state governments “have permitted, even openly aided, the educational establishment–the teachers unions, the education professors, the education colleges and education departments of universities, and the educational personnel from teachers to principles to superintendents–to operate as it sees fit, which is almost always at a very low academic level.”
Despite these and other studies, there continues to be opposition to school choice from many union officials who fear the loss of control. That opposition is echoed by the politicians that those unions heavily influence through their contributions.