Charters must commit to diversity
IN MASSACHUSETTS and across the nation, charter schools have emerged as the “it’’ for education reform. Charters are government leaders’ latest stock cure for all that ails schools with large shares of disadvantaged students. Governor Deval Patrick last week filed legislation that would lift the current cap on charter schools for some districts. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has made it clear that states would be at a disadvantage for receiving federal stimulus money if they did not lift such caps.
However, a review of research, most notably from the Economic Policy Institute, suggests it is unrealistic to expect charters to reverse the vast educational inequalities. An Institute study shows there is no evidence that charter schools - just by virtue of being charter schools - do better for students than regular public schools. Research findings closer to home are similar. A recent, rigorous and widely misrepresented Harvard/MIT study concluded that some charters in Boston do better than the city’s public schools. Some charters, the study concluded, do not do better. In several other cities, studies show that, generally, charter students either did less well or the same as similar students in public schools.
One thing about charters, however, is clear: Unchecked and unregulated, charter schools tend to worsen already high levels of racial and economic segregation. Since there is a disproportionately high percentage of minority students in charter schools, African-American students generally have higher levels of racial isolation than in public schools. (This has been borne out repeatedly in research conducted in North Carolina, Arizona, and elsewhere, and by a 2003 look at charter segregation levels by the Harvard Civil Rights Project.) With regard to racial and economic isolation, a research consensus has emerged: Racial and economic segregation in schools tends to engender and exacerbate educational inequality over the short and long term. Both the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education have issued statements and signed onto legal briefs in support of racial diversity and attesting to the harm of segregation. Unfortunately, these strong statements from organizations whose members rarely concur have been overshadowed by the sexy race to “charterize.’’
It need not be this way. As the Harvard Civil Rights Project study pointed out, properly designed and regulated, charter schools could increase racial and economic diversity, which enhances the educational experience and outcomes for all groups. Research on the benefits of racial and economic diversity in schools is far stronger than the research advocates often use to justify the creation of more charter schools.
Across the nation, elected leaders are exploring regional solutions for vast and growing unequal opportunities. Employing a regional vision for charter schools, Massachusetts could take the lead in providing high-quality education in settings that approximate the larger, increasingly diverse democratic society our students will join as adults. Incentives to create charter schools that enroll students from several demographically distinct school districts - for example, one city and several suburbs - could bring us good schools that could reduce inequalities. Why not take what we have learned from the well-functioning charter schools and replicate it in diverse settings that look like the real world?
There’s reason to believe that these schools would be popular among Massachusetts families. In a recent Pew/Kaiser poll, nearly 60 percent of people said “integrated’’ schools made education better. (Only 7 percent said “integration’’ made schools worse.) In Connecticut, the names of thousands of families sit on waiting lists for racially diverse regional magnet and charter schools. Likewise, thousands of families in Boston and Springfield remain on waiting lists for METCO, through which students who live in the city choose to attend schools in suburbs.
Patrick’s proposed legislation could represent an excellent opportunity for the Commonwealth. He and the state’s secretary of education, Paul Reville, should assign a working group to come up with ways to create racially and ethnically diverse regional charter schools. Ideally, such a group would include parent and community leaders, educators from public and charter schools, government officials, and university-based thinkers who understand these issues from a national perspective.
Our state is increasingly rich in racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity. However, our communities and our public schools remain highly segregated by race and economic class. This is a recipe for wasted potential. It also undermines establishment of a well-functioning democracy, in which we all have a stake.
Massachusetts has the chance now to do better. A modern, egalitarian vision for charter schools would be a good start.
Susan Eaton is research director and Gina Chirichigno is researcher and program coordinator at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. 