Charter schools called inadequate

Charter schools, which hundreds of thousands of families look to as an alternative to low-performing public schools, rely heavily on young, inexperienced, uncredentialed teachers, according to a new study that draws on a national survey of charter school educators.

Also, it said the schools often do not have the resources to provide the instructional help that so many of their students need.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California and Stanford University, suggests that some charter schools, particularly those serving low-income and minority students, may be replicating the problems of the public schools they were intended to replace.

"Unless government can equalize the resources available to charter schools, we may deepen the inequalities that advocates claim these schools would eliminate or reduce," said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, who led the study.

Fuller's earlier research on charter schools raised questions about whether charter schools improve achievement for low-income students.

"Without attention to these inequities," Fuller said, "charter schools could be another failed reform for working-class and low-income families."

The study based its conclusions on a survey of charter school teachers and principals gathered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the National Center for Educational Statistics.

More than 2,600 charter schools have opened since 1991. They operate with public funds but are independent of local school boards and most government rules. They serve nearly 700,000 students in 36 states and Washington, D.C. Yet, little national data on achievement in those schools is available.

Critics, who include the American Federation of Teachers, say that charter schools are siphoning off money and resources from the public school system at a time when that system is already underfunded. In addition, the critics say that there is no evidence that charter schools are improving achievement for large numbers of students and that minority students are being isolated in charter schools.

But those who support them believe that charter schools, freed from the constraints and bureaucracy of the public school system and with local autonomy, can raise achievement and be more responsive to the needs of individual students and families in particular communities.