SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Charter Schools: The Best Way to Help Students from Low-Income Families

A new study from the respected Brookings Institution looks at a trial program underway in Harlem to overcome the effects of poverty and low education. The Harlem’s Children Zone (HCZ) is a comprehensive approach that includes “early childhood programs, with parenting classes; public charter schools; academic advisors and afterschool programs for children attending regular public schools; and a support system for former HCZ students who have enrolled in college. Health components include a fitness program; asthma management; and a nutrition program. Neighborhood services include organizing tenant associations; one-on-one counselling to families; foster care prevention programs; community centers; and an employment and technology center that teaches job-related skills to teens and adults.“ The program costs hundreds of millions every year and there are plans to expand it.

Because by no means all of the students attending the HCZ charter schools were eligible for the complete package of social and community support, the Brookings Institution was able to compare the academic outcomes of HCZ students and non-HCZ students in the HCZ charter schools, finding that students from outside the Zone garnered exactly the same benefits from the charter schools as did the students from inside the Zone. In other words, they found no evidence that the HCZ program was affecting student achievement absent the charter school component.

Quoting from the study (pp. 8-9): “There is no compelling evidence that investments in parenting classes, health services, nutritional programs, and community improvement in general have appreciable effects on student achievement in schools in the U.S. Indeed there is considerable evidence in addition to the results from the present study that questions the return on such investments for academic achievement. For example, the Moving to Opportunity study, a large scale randomized trial that compared the school outcomes for students from poor families who did or did not receive a voucher to move to a better neighborhood, found no impact of better neighborhoods on student academic achievement. The Nurse-Family Partnership, a highly regarded program in which experienced nurses visit low-income expectant mothers during their first pregnancy and the first two years of their children’s lives to teach parenting and life skills, does not have an impact on children’s reading and mathematics test scores. Head Start, the federal early childhood program, differs from other preschool programs in its inclusion of health, nutrition, and family supports. Children from families enrolled in Head Start do no better academically in early elementary school than similar children whose parents enroll them in preschool programs that do not include these broader services. Even Start, a federal program that combines early childhood education with educational services for parents on the theory that better educated parents produce better educated kids, generates no measurable impact on the acadmic achievement of children…..

“In contrast to disappointing results for Broader, Bolder initiatives, there is a large and growing body of evidence that schools themselves can have significant impacts on student achievement. The most powerful educational effects over which we have any societal control occur within the walls of schools. They are the effects produced by good teachers, effective curriculum, and the changes in leadership, management, culture, and time to learn that are incorporated into schools that beat the odds, including successful charter schools.“