Despite Popularity, Charter Schools Still Short on Results

Despite support from the Obama administration, education-overhaul advocates, and high-profile foundations and donors, charter schools have yet to live up to their promise of consistently producing student success, says The New York Times.

Although about 5,000 charter schools currently operate in the United States, research — including a comprehensive study last year from Stanford University — showed charter-school students performing no better, and often worse, than students at local public schools on standardized tests.

A minority of high-achieving charter schools have gained the support of philanthropists like Eli Broad, Bill and Melinda Gates, and the heirs of the Wal-Mart mogul Sam Walton. But the maturing of the 18-year-old charter-school movement, the Times says, have served to highlight just how difficult and expensive it can be to educate poor children in urban areas.

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