Simeon Slovacek, Antony Kunnan and Hae-Jin Kim, Program Evaluation and Research Collaborative, Charter College of Education, California State University at Los Angeles
March 11, 2002
In case you didn't know, California State University at Los Angeles has a "charter college of education," two of whose faculty members (Simeon Slovacek and Antony Kunnan), together with doctoral student Hae-Jin Kim, recently issued this brief but bullish appraisal of the performance of 42 California charter schools in boosting the achievement levels of disadvantaged children over a two-year period, compared with non-charter schools serving similar kids. The bottom line: charters are producing greater learning gains for these children, though their average scores remain slightly lower than those of the non-charters. Two additional points bear mentioning: (1) The poorer the students, the greater the charter-school edge in achievement gains; and (2) the smaller the charter school, the wider the edge. The statistical analyses are complex and you may want to see for yourself. You can download a PDF copy at http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/ccoe/c_perc/rpt1.pdf.
