Critical study
of charter schools
contains flaws

As reported last week in The New York Times, an American Federation of Teachers analysis on charter schools concluded "charter school students mostly under perform and sometimes do as well as regular public school students." This misleading story caused a national uproar from charter schools across the nation and an immediate response from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, "The New York Times' front-page 'analysis' of charter schools used faulty methodology to come up with a flawed conclusion."

In other words, it was wrong. The Goldwater Institute countered with its own press release documenting a three-year longitudinal study of 60,000 Arizona students, which found that charter schools students may begin school lagging behind their peers, but they show a higher rate of achievement growth than public school students.

In spite of union, legislative and media animosity toward charter schools both locally and nationally, charter schools continue to break the cookie cutter mold of government schools to provide choice, individualized attention and diverse curriculae. Hawaii's 25 charter schools are thriving after a decade of struggling for equitable funding, adequate facilities and to revise a restrictive charter school law that limits the number of charters.

Hawaii's first year charter school scores have been combined as a district for the first time. Here are the results:

Grade 3 Reading PCS District 306 State 293 Math PCS District 270 State 258		Grade 5 Reading PCS District 314 State 294 Math PCS District 255 State 251
Grade 8 Reading PCS District 276 State 274 Math PCS District 240 State 243		Grade 10 Reading PCS District 312 State 280 Math PCS District 263 State 243

According to the Hawaii Department of Education, 42 percent of all regular public students statewide are proficient in reading and 20 percent are proficient in math.

By comparison, some charter schools boast up to 87 percent of their students meeting or exceeding performance standards with no students performing "well below." Hawaii's charter school scores are climbing, while Hawaii's regular public school scores have declined overall.

At any rate, while naysayers' motivations are suspect, it will be hard to convince families to go back to a bland public school recipe now that their children are having a thrilling taste of educational success.