This is regarding “Testing scores lag in charter schools” (News, Aug. 17). More than 10 years of comprehensive research demonstrates that charter schools produce strong student achievement, especially among minority and at-risk students. In Illinois, 30 charters are successfully meeting the needs of nearly 12,000 students.
Unfortunately these students are caught in the middle of a political battle. Opponents of charter schools are threatened by the growth of independent public schools that offer a promise of performance, are held to account by contract and open to parents by choice. The most important test data for all public schools are those that are used by states to measure student achievement. Those data, coupled with national data, reveal that charter students are achieving despite their challenges.
They perform at least as well as their public school counterparts and many achieve at even higher levels.
For example, 4th grade students in Arizona and California outperform their traditional public school counterparts in reading–and those states are home to more than a third of charter schools.
Charter schools are working, here in Illinois and across the country. It is time to stop playing politics with America’s kids.
