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Yet, at a July National Education Association meeting, Duncan told teachers "You must be willing to change," so get in step, go along, or be left out. Obama, stressed the same theme in saying do it or you're out of the money and perhaps in violation of federal law when Congress enacts one, most likely later this year.
Left out entirely are the interests of millions of parents and children who'll be victimized by marketplace education if states adopt ObamaEd. If legislation passes, public education will be privatized so corporate interests can cash in at the expense of youths from lower and middle income families, especially ones of color.
National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel expressed concerns in a prepared statement saying:
"If we continue to focus narrowly on test scores, then students in need of the most support will continue to get more test prep rather than the rich, challenging, engaging education they deserve." As for judging teachers based on student performance he said: they "should be evaluated on their practice using multiple criteria, not just one," and that's what parents, principals, and local school boards are for, not Washington bureaucrats or corporate officials answering to shareholders and Wall Street analysts.
Assessing Charter v. Public School Performance
Conceptually, charter schools are troublesome in that they're quasi-private, near-autonomous, and may freely choose their students and exclude unwanted ones. Effectively that disadvantages youths with disabilities, from poor neighborhoods, and those less favored because of race, ethnic background, or other disqualifying considerations. Their performance compared to public schools causes more concern.
In a first ever national assessment of charter schools, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) June 2009 report titled "Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States" analyzed their "impacts on more than 70 percent of the students in (US) charter schools."
Results showed 17% provided superior education, half were no different from public schools, and 37% "delivered results that are significantly worse than their students would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools." The challenge "is how to deal constructively" with varying performance levels in deciding on the merits of one approach v. the other. So far, charters fall way short of the promise advocates claim for them.
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