Oh, wait. MI will not compare charter schools with public schools. Really? [View All]

[madfloridian]

I can not imagine why they would say they will only compare charters with charters? A note of sarcasm there.

Public schools are compared with each other, pressured to do better even when funding is being taken from them. In our area their scores are published, bad or good, and they are permitted zero tolerance on poor scoring.

Read this about Michigan's new policy.

Are charters' students doing better? New way of grading schools will tell

The latest report on Michigan's charter schools, to be presented to the state Board of Education today, does not compare the performance of charter students to those in traditional public schools -- a controversial practice done in past years.

A controversial practice? Why would it be controversial to expect the scores of charter schools to be compared with public schools?

In previous years, the annual report compared test scores in all charter schools with the average score of 20 traditional (and mostly low-performing) districts in which about 75% of Michigan charter schools are located. By that measure, charter schools do better.

Comparing scores of all charter schools with the average of "20 traditional (and mostly low-performing) districts"...and they do better? Goodness I hope so.

The new 33-page annual report, created by the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan State University, explores topics including student performance and profiles. The report also recommends giving the department more authority over charter schools and a small increase in funding to pay for that.

But when it comes to how charter school students are faring academically, the report focuses only on charter school performance, stating in this year's report, "Performance growth is measured as it should be: not against any other school, but against the PSA's (Public School Academy's) own track record of achievement."

A PSA is a charter school.

Here is the telling statement:

The report shows charter student performance improving on the MEAP exam. In math, for instance, 73% of student met or exceeded expectations in 2008, compared with 67.1% the year prior.

However, when the report was released last year, a Free Press analysis comparing charters with other schools in their host district found that almost three out of five charter schools score worse on the MEAP than the traditional schools.

State education department officials acknowledged that their analysis was flawed and promised to change their methodology this year.

Problem: "almost three out of five charter schools score worse on the MEAP than the traditional schools"

Solution: Don't compare charter schools with public schools.

Oh, yeah, that will solve the problem.