Bill Ayers and Charter Schools, MPS and Choice Schools

UPDATE, March 30, 2011: Voucher testing data takes a new twist: Voucher, MPS kids on par, study finds

A day after the release of state test scores showed voucher-school students in Milwaukee achieving lower levels of reading and math proficiency than students in Milwaukee Public Schools, new data from researchers studying the voucher program's results over multiple years shows those students are doing about the same as MPS students, not worse.

The contradictory report is part of the latest installment of data from a group of researchers at the University of Arkansas who have been tracking a sample of Milwaukee voucher students matched to a set of MPS peers since 2005-'06.

After looking at achievement results on state tests over three years for those matched samples of students, the researchers' data continues to show little difference in academic achievement between both sectors in 2009.

...Patrick J. Wolf, the lead researcher on the latest voucher-school study results, said the type of studies he's involved in don't always produce clear answers because they can be like Rorschach tests: People see different arguments in the same basic set of facts

"If voucher school students aren't doing dramatically better than public school students, some people view the program as a failure," Wolf said. "But some people can look at the same results and say that's success, you've expanded choice and opportunity and there's no harm caused by it.

"Then you look at finances, and the fact that vouchers cost less than half the amount of money spent per student in public schools (in Milwaukee)."

Summary of findings

According to the fourth-year results of the five-year voucher school evaluation, Wolf and other researchers found:

• No meaningful differences over three years in student achievement growth in either math or reading between a matched set of voucher and MPS students. The first year was used as a baseline for student test scores.

• A sample of ninth-graders in the voucher program had slightly higher rates of graduation and enrollment in a four-year college than at matched sample of MPS ninth-graders. Some of the attainment benefit in voucher schools appears to be due to family background, such as mothers with higher levels of education.

• Independent charter schools in Milwaukee - public schools that are nonunion and authorized to operate by non-MPS entities - outperformed MPS students in both reading and math after three years, after controlling for baseline achievement and other student characteristics.

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Bill Ayers is a radical, a domestic terrorist, and a liar.

Ayers lies about the effectiveness of charter schools.

Vanessa Jean-Louis challenges Ayers with facts. Ayers doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't care about results and what's best for the children.

Ayers considers charter schools to be a threat. He fears giving parents options. He wants children to be trapped in traditional public schools rather than allow them to take paths that offer a better chance for academic success.

This is a great video by Vanessa Jean-Louis, Afroconservative, via Breitbart.



This enlightening video was posted on YouTube two days ago.

It comes just as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals test results for students in Milwaukee's school choice program.

Students in Milwaukee's school choice program performed worse than or about the same as students in Milwaukee Public Schools in math and reading on the latest statewide test, according to results released Tuesday that provided the first apples-to-apples achievement comparison between public and individual voucher schools.

The scores released by the state Department of Public Instruction cast a shadow on the overall quality of the 21-year-old Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which was intended to improve results for poor city children in failing public schools by allowing them to attend higher-performing private schools with publicly funded vouchers. The scores also raise concerns about Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to roll back the mandate that voucher schools participate in the current state test.

Voucher-school advocates counter that legislation that required administration of the state test should have been applied only once the new version of the test that's in the works was rolled out. They also say that the latest test scores are an incomplete measure of voucher-school performance because they don't show the progress those schools are making with a difficult population of students over time.

...The big news for those plugged into the education world, however, was the choice vs. public school results in Milwaukee. MPS results overall showed 59% of students scoring proficient or better in reading, while 47.8% of students scored proficient or better in math.

In the voucher program, 55.2% of students scored proficient or better in reading while 34.4% of students scored proficient or better in math.

The percentage of low-income students in MPS proficient or better in reading - 55.3% - was about the same as the voucher program, which currently serves only low-income students.

It's unfortunate that some will likely use these numbers to try to strip parents of their right to choose what's best for their kids.

The numbers don't offer a complete picture of students' progress. They are an inadequate measure of results, a snapshot without context. There's no measure of specific students' performance in MPS compared to their performance in the school choice program. If the skills of individual children have improved, that's success. What would be their level of achievement if they attended MPS?

The test results don't provide that information.

Another issue is the sample--

The group of voucher students tested is dramatically smaller than the number of MPS students tested, potentially impacting the results.

The performance of each voucher student is given greater weight than each MPS student when it comes to arriving at the percentages of academic achievement.

In sum, these latest test results don't necessarily tell the whole story.

The JSOnline headline for the article, while factually accurate, is incomplete and, therefore, misleading.



I remain staunchly pro-choice when it comes to education.

It seems odd that many of the same teacher union members complaining about losing their rights are in favor of limiting or taking away parents' right to choose.