Why did charter scores fall more?
August 10, 2013 pm31 1:50 pm
Stephen Krashen warned (in advance, in a letter to the NYDN):
…Robert Linn of the University of Colorado and his colleagues have shown that test scores are typically low when a new test is introduced. Then the scores improve, about one to two points a year, as students and teachers get more familiar with the test. This is not because of brave new “rigorous” curricula; the improvements stop after a few years, after students and teachers have adapted to the new measures.
Gary Rubinstein looked at NYC charter school scores, and noticed (and made a convincing-style chart):
…As can be clearly seen, the charters are, in general, the ‘outliers’ meaning the schools that had the biggest drops relative to other schools with similar 2012 scores.
The simplest explanation is often the best. Charters fell further, because they had risen further. Which fits with the common observation that many charters in NYC are fairly effective test prep centers.
And what happens to a test prep’s centers scores when they are preparing for a test they haven’t seen before? They fall. And in time, rise.
We should be worrying about teaching kids, so they learn, not teaching kids so they can game tests.
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JD2718 
How true. My friend who retired came back as a Math teacher in a Charter school and he told me the majority of the day was on Math and English test prep. Science, Social Studies, and the other subjects were limited to one or two periods a week.
Hello from Francis,The real issue of the debate Jonathan is that there is no silver bullet in better education to all. Charter schools were supposed to be “miracle schools” and yet it was not demonstrated by the test experiment. “The reformer narrative just blew up”, plain and simple. Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 17:50:30 +0000 To: fsmedu@msn.com
I do agree. We teachers need to get back to teaching students and not just preparing for that one test that does not reflect the whole of the student. The overemphasis on standardized test scores stresses out the students, teachers, and principals. Schools in the past do much more than prepare students for that one test given out annually. Everything is data driven. Students are people, not data.