1. An Exploratory Examination of North Carolina Charter Schools and Their Potential Impact on White-Minority Achievement Gap Reduction.
- Author
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Harman, Patrick, Bingham, C. Steven, and Hood, Art
- Abstract
One of the greatest challenges facing education today is the difference in achievement among students of varying ethnic and racial groups. Historically, Edmonds' and Lezotte's effective-schools' research indicated that some schools tended to educate students successfully without regard to students' categorical membership. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of charter schools on the white-minority student-achievement gap in North Carolina. Using End-of-Grade scores in reading and math for a matched sample of charter-school and regular public-school students, grades 3 through 8, researchers found that the growth scores of all students tended to be less in charter schools. The achievement gap in charter schools, as contrasted with regular public schools, thus tended to increase, particularly for African-American students. Because neither charter nor regular public schools appeared to be reducing the achievement gap, the researchers recommend additional studies to identify ameliorating interventions. Appendix A contains two tables of total sample results, and Appendix B is a summary of independent evaluations of charter-school impact on student achievement. (Contains 19 references.) (RT)
- Published
- 2002