A couple of days ago, New York Times’ writer David Leonardt wrote a column endorsing Question 2 in Massachusetts, which would expand charters by 12 a year for the indefinite future. He presented some studies to buttress his view that charters are “schools that work,” which he defines as “high expectations, high support.” He visited the MATCH charter school and talked to some of the researchers, who were excited about their findings. Leonardt acknowledged that not all charter schools were as effective as the ones in Boston, but nonetheless thought it was a good idea to authorize more charters in Massachusetts.
I invited Jersey Jazzman, who is a teachers and also a graduate student at Rutgers, to review the column and the evidence. Here is his response, as he is an expert on charter research.
He begins by suggesting that the comparisons in the study cited by Leonhardt are inadequate.
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