Charter Schools’ Obsession With Test Scores Deliberately Misses the Point
by Shawgi Tell / February 28th, 2021
Putting aside the endless problems with punitive high-stakes standardized
tests produced by a handful of large for-profit corporations, charter
school advocates have never stopped making a fetish out of students’ scores
on these political instruments. Charter school promoters obsess endlessly
over racist psychometric tests that have been rejected by many for decades.
They appear to be immune to all criticism of these widely-rejected tests.
No critical examination of these top-down corporate tests is even
attempted. It is as if everyone is expected to automatically embrace them
and treat them as being useful, flawless, and meaningful.
What is odd, however, is that thousands of charter schools, which
frequently cherry-pick their students, actually perform poorly on such
corporate tests, more poorly than many under-funded public schools, and
about the same as some under-funded public schools. There is really not
much to boast about. The charter school record is not impressive,
especially when viewed in its totality. Thirty years after their
appearance, segregated charter schools cannot seem to claim victory for
much.
It is no surprise that more than 150 privately-operated non-profit and
for-profit charter schools close every year due to academic failure (and
financial malfeasance). Literally thousands have failed and closed in three
decades, leaving many black and brown families out in the cold.
Overall, it remains hard to make a compelling argument for the existence of
private business like deregulated charter schools. Why have another
“system” of schools that undermines public schools and still fails to
deliver? What is the reason for such wasteful redundancy, especially when
it undermines the public interest? Competition makes losers out of
everyone. If it was indisputable and crystal clear to everyone that
deregulated charter schools are the silver bullet that advocates keep
stubbornly claiming they are, there would be little or no controversy
surrounding these contract schools. But every year the controversy around
charter schools only intensifies.
Even if all students in a charter school scored 100 on an unsound corporate
test, there is no justification for the existence of privately-operated
charter schools. The main criteria for judging whether a school should
exist is not whether students pass or fail unsound corporate tests.
The tests and students’ scores are meaningless at many levels—for both
charter schools and public schools. They are methodologically,
philosophically, and statistically flawed. Focusing on the tests pressures
people to ignore the core issue regarding charter schools, which is whether
they are public or not in the proper sense of the word. They are not.
Charter schools are privatized marketized schools. Once it is recognized,
understood, appreciated, internalized, and not forgotten that charter
schools are not public schools, then all other issues become moot or
secondary. The “publicness/privateness” of segregated charter schools is
the key issue. Thus, for example, because they are private businesses,
charter schools were able to seize hundreds of millions of dollars in
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds from the CARES Act. Public schools
were not permitted any access to PPP funds because they are not private
businesses, they are public entities.
Once it is grasped that segregated non-profit and for-profit charter
schools are not public entities then the issue becomes: why are they
receiving any public funds, assets, facilities, resources, or authority?
What valid claim do private entities have to such things? Public and
private cannot be equated, they mean very different things. The public and
private spheres have different aims, agendas, and preoccupations. The
dictionary even defines public and private as the opposite of each other.
Why confound terms that are antonyms?
It is helpful to recall that charter schools are *contract* schools that
are segregated, deunionized, run by unelected officials, have high teacher
turnover rates, siphon money from public schools, regularly under-perform,
dodge many public laws and standards, frequently over-pay administrators,
often cherry-pick their students, and are constantly plagued by endless
scandal, fraud, and corruption. Charter schools on average also suspend
students at a significantly higher rate than public schools. Who supports
any of this?
If charter schools wish to exist, so be it. But like private schools they
must not be permitted to have access to any public funds, assets,
facilities, resources, or authority. They must fund and support themselves
without any reliance on the public sphere. Public funds and resources
belong to the public and public schools, not someone else.
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Shawgi Tell is author of the book Charter School Report Card
<https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1681232952/dissivoice-20>. He can
be reached at stell5@xxxxxxx.. Read other articles by Shawgi
<https://dissidentvoice.org/author/shawgitell/>.
This article was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2021 at 7:52pm and is
filed under Charter Schools
<https://dissidentvoice.org/category/education/charter-schools/>, Education
<https://dissidentvoice.org/category/education/>, Public Schools
<https://dissidentvoice.org/category/education/public-schools/>.
