STATE HOUSE — Special education students and English language learners enrolled at charter schools are more likely to earn higher scores on the state's standardized tests and reach certain other achievement markers than their peers in district schools, according to a study of Boston students presented Monday.
The study, conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Elizabeth Setren and discussed at an education conference held by MIT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, found that special education students and English language learners in Boston charter schools experienced larger test score gains than members of the same groups in the city's traditional public schools.
Effective arguments are becoming harder to come by for charter school opponents. At first their big claim was that charters "siphon" money from traditional public schools, but that's a tough sell now that school districts receive more than two years of funding after a student chooses to leave for a charter school.
Next came the claim that charter schools "push out" lower-performing students. That one was derailed by data showing that retention rates in urban charters are no worse than in the surrounding district. The big difference is that traditional school students usually drop out when they leave; charter students return to the district and generally graduate with no problem thanks to the increased rigor they encountered in their charter school.
