Talk:Charter schools in the United States

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 August 2021 and 8 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Dtheodoreprivateer.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:52, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
Parents of children attending charter schools do not have options for before/after school transportation, partly because charter school's aren't required to provide transportation. With a majority of parents working outside the home, typically an 8-5 job, this makes transportation before/after school extremely difficult. A potential solution would be to implement a before and after school child care program held at the school.

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Gmschnei.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:15, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Article on TX charter schools
See: Radcliffe, Jennifer "Charter schools on the chopping block?" Houston Chronicle. March 20, 2007. WhisperToMe (talk) 15:39, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

This work generally finds
I edited the section entitled "Learning Gains Studies." Whoever wrote the section claims that "this work generally finds that charter schools outperform traditional schools," but only provides citations for four (randomly selected, I presume) papers. Until you provide a meta-analysis that shows what this work "generally finds," I've changed the wording to reflect the uncertainty of the claim. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexandergreenb (talk • contribs) 23:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Agreed. The original phrasing benefited from a rephrase, as it seemed to suggest that these studies are conclusive without offering substantive sources to prove this. I don't think this kind of evidence exists, so this edit was very poignant overall. Gmschnei (talk) 05:17, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

A criticism or a compliment?
The description under the subheading "Too much power for teachers and parents" does not appear to explain why it is not beneficial to give more power to parents and teachers. More info is needed. Otherwise, maybe it would be better to move that section to another section such as "Structure and Characteristics." mezzaninelounge (talk) 15:14, 22 March 2011 (UTC)

Regarding the Stanford study on charters
SPELLING ERROR ON CHART: The graphic chart for the Stanford U study misspells "performance" in the graphic as PERFORMACE.69.126.88.80 (talk) 05:40, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

FIX THE SPELLING ERROR ON THE CHART! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.126.85.7 (talk) 00:38, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Regarding the numbers in the CREDO study, if 46% of charters are the same as public schools, 17% better and 37% worse, does that mean Charters have an overall net result of being 74% worse than public schools (or in other words, only 26% as good as public schools)? Did I do something wrong because it seems much too negative. CartoonDiablo (talk) 23:06, 27 January 2011 (UTC)


 * No, they're just dumb. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.101.161.38 (talk) 13:15, 4 June 2011 (UTC)


 * 46% + 37% is 83% and this would only be the amount that are worse if you consider those that are the same to be worse. 26% are not the amount that are "as good" as public schools according to this study. They are the amount that are better.--Jorfer (talk) 16:08, 4 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually I answered the question to myself a while ago. If we take we do 37%-17% (worse - better) to get a net improvement of 20% and add it to the 46% that are as good, we find that charters are 66% as good as public schools. Obviously based on the figures charters are overall worse. CartoonDiablo (talk) 19:37, 4 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I think you are mixing apples and oranges here. The percentages are the number of charter schools that are better than, or the same as, or worse than public schools, and not the amount better. If a charter school does 1% better than public schools, than it would go in that 17% while a charter school that does 50% worse would go in the 37%. So you can't draw any conclusions about how much better or worse charter schools do compared to public schools. You can say that 83% are do no better than public schools, and/or that 54% do no worse than public schools, but that's about it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wschart (talk • contribs) 19:36, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Joravsky- Chicago Reader
Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader has written some interesting critiques of local charters... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scroblachoir (talk • contribs) 00:23, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

"Chocha power"?
I have no idea what chocha power is, but I imagine it is a defacement. In any case, this statement should be corrected or barring that, clairified. Unit335 (talk) 03:13, 16 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Fixed. TJRC (talk) 04:25, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

More charters
WhisperToMe (talk) 01:04, 16 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Kastenbaum, Steve. "Charter schools: Wave of the future?" CNN. December 15, 2011.

origin
Shouldn't the introduction make it clear that Charter schools are an American term for a private school that receives some government funding? The concept goes under different names in other countries.124.197.15.138 (talk) 01:25, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

reference replacement
Recommend replacing dead reference link #59 with http://www.aft.org/issues/schoolchoice/charters/ Gprobins (talk) 16:30, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Entry needs an extensive rewrite
I'm a charter school noob, but even I can tell this article needs a major rewrite. The section about the United States, in particular, meanders aimlessly. Much of it could be removed without lowering the article's information content. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeffme (talk • contribs) 22:43, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Recent addition to external links
A couple of days ago added  to the "External links" section. I, followed by a.

From what I can tell, the two links provided are to two essays written by the user adding them. I think they are an overly promotional addition to this article's external links, and inappropriate per WP:ELNO and WP:NOT. Granted, the "Further reading"-section,, could use a fair bit of pruning. But that is no argument in favour of adding links to these two articles. Gabbe (talk) 12:55, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

CREDO Bar Graph on Charter Schools
I’ve removed the following image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charter_School_Performance_Study.svg due to problems with its factual accuracy. I’d fully support its return if the image can be corrected to not overstate the claims of the source material to the point of it being POV or original research.

First off, charter schools are ‘’’public schools’’’, so the labels used are nonsensically contrasting the identical. The actuate term used in the CREDO source material is traditional public school (TPS).

Secondly, and more importantly, it misrepresents the source data from page 44, table 9, labeled: “Table 9: Market Fixed Effects – Percentage of Charter Schools by Significance”. The CREDO study repeatedly states that it is not comparing charter schools to any actual traditional publics schools, but rather it’s comparing charter schools to heuristically adjusted virtual TPS. In other words, it’s comparing charter schools to purely theoretical schools, these are not public schools that actually exist, however, the bar graph labels give this impression. The source material does not make the claims made in this bar graph. Understanding this distinction is vital, as that portion of the study’s validly is unpinned by the assumption that educational performance gains scale equally and linearly at all levels and demographics. As this is a controversial assumption, if this is incorrect then the demographic virtual modeling adjustment would also be inaccurate.

Source Material: http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf

“The analysis employs a statistical technique, fixed effects, which is applied to each pair of charter and virtual schools to remove all the effects that are shared and constant over time. The average growth of students in each charter school is then computed relative to the average results of their virtual twins.” –page 43

“This finding says nothing about how well the local traditional schools are doing; it merely assesses the expectation that whatever the level, charters serving the same population should produce results at the same level.” –page 44 Jadon (talk) 15:47, 17 May 2013 (UTC)


 * I appreciate the concern but a few things should be said. First, that is how the study labels the schools, as "public" and "charter" meaning we need to stick that phrasing in order to fulfill NPOV. Second, while they may not be "real" schools, the study did base it off of the real performance of respective pupils and counted it as such. Again, it was the study's conclusion based on its methodology.


 * But more importantly, how the findings are discussed is exactly how reliable sources report on it:
 * New York Times


 * Washington Post


 * Seeing as how even mainstream sources use that terminology there is no problem with the image. CartoonDiablo (talk) 21:31, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Sentence in 2nd paragraph is unclear
The following sentence in the second paragraph appears to be in reference to some timeframe or other modifier but no such content exists. This should either be rewritten\clarified or removed.--Aleding (talk) 18:19, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

"Over 600 new public charter schools (7%) opened, serving an additional 288,000 students (13%), totaling 2.5 million students."

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Charter schools in the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100802101120/http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/memo_on_the_credo_study.pdf to http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/Memo_On_The_Credo_Study.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110823123012/http://www.charterschoolsinsider.com:80/news/2011/08/poll-indicates-70-percent-of-americans-favor-charter-schools.aspx to http://www.charterschoolsinsider.com/news/2011/08/poll-indicates-70-percent-of-americans-favor-charter-schools.aspx

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 09:00, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Bias favoring Charter Schools
This article has a strong bias in favor of charter schools. Positively presents data from studies that support charter schools and downplays sources that have an unfavorable view of charter schools. Examples:
 * Questioning the reliability of a NEA study.
 * Examples of study critique instead of neutral reporting
 * Biased single source section
 * Superiority? of Charter Schools — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gargolito (talk • contribs) 16:02, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The article is structured with case studies that provide evidence for charter schools, but seem to ignore or not seek any expansion of counter evidence, even if such counter evidence is used in studies that are cited across the article. It seems to pick and choose based on what is necessary to justify a positive outlook on charter schools, especially in "Local evaluations of charter schools." Gmschnei (talk) 05:36, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 13 one external links on Charter schools in the United States. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090917181603/http://www.edreform.com/Issues/Charter%5FConnection/ to http://www.edreform.com/Issues/Charter_Connection/
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090917052643/http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?Accountability_Lies_at_the_Heart_of_Charter_School_Success&year=2009 to http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?Accountability_Lies_at_the_Heart_of_Charter_School_Success&year=2009
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090207043345/http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Charter%20School%20Funding%202005%20FINAL.pdf to http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Charter%20School%20Funding%202005%20FINAL.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080421032157/http://www.ed.gov:80/news/pressreleases/2004/08/08172004.html to http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2004/08/08172004.html
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080227174254/http://www.edreform.com/_upload/NewYorkTimesAd.pdf to http://www.edreform.com/_upload/NewYorkTimesAd.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20071113192918/http://www.prospect.org:80/cs/articles?articleId=8638 to http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=8638
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090703171445/http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?No_Free_Lunch_Study_Wrongly_Discredits_Charter_Success&year=2006 to http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?No_Free_Lunch_Study_Wrongly_Discredits_Charter_Success&year=2006
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090705133359/http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/research/ShowResearchItem.do?id=10093 to http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/research/ShowResearchItem.do?id=10093
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090727134034/http://www.edreform.com/Archive/?New_Poll_Shows_Georgians_Want_More_Educational_Choice to http://www.edreform.com/Archive/?New_Poll_Shows_Georgians_Want_More_Educational_Choice
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090727134004/http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?Wyomingites_Want_Fundamental_Change_in_States_Charter_School_Law&year=2008 to http://www.edreform.com/Press_Box/Press_Releases/?Wyomingites_Want_Fundamental_Change_in_States_Charter_School_Law&year=2008
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090917175716/http://www.edreform.com/_upload/ranking_chart.pdf to http://www.edreform.com/_upload/ranking_chart.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090917030255/http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_charter_numbers.pdf to http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_charter_numbers.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160129151033/http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-2/charter.htm to http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-2/charter.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at Sourcecheck).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 06:55, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

Local evaluations of charter schools
The structure of this portion of the article is strange. Why does it reference only two local evaluations as pointing to how urban charter schools in two districts can outperform public schools? This portion of the article would do well to represent both sides of the debate, in that it currently only evaluates two case studies and treats them as if there is no counter evidence. This CREDO report that is referenced throughout the article lists 11 cases in which students learned less than there peers in math and 10 cases where they learned less in reading. Overall, this portion would do well to be more comprehensive and actually a broader outlook on this discussion, rather than limiting it to two studies that seem to offer confirmation bias. Gmschnei (talk) 05:34, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Racial segregation
The "Criticism" portion of article talks about "Racial segregation," but the phrasing does not at all capture the central point of the critique. In discussing the central point of the UCLA article, the criticism should address how "charter school enrollments often do not match their surrounding communities." It should also cite the study itself and not a UCLA Newsroom press release.Gmschnei (talk) 05:41, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Adding to page
Hello Wikipedians,

I am adding some parental considerations for charter school choice from research studies. Also a section on possible resources that can help in that decision making process all from research studies. Copied from my sandbox: User:Elizabethgaribay58/sandbox Elizabethgaribay58 (talk) 02:32, 15 August 2019 (UTC)