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Reporting misses crucial bias behind charter school study
This morning's headline was: "Pa., N.J., and Del. all get lower grades on charter school ranking." What WHYY didn't tell listeners was that the study authors, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), are a staunchly pro-charter organization.
Reporting misses crucial bias behind charter school study
This morning's headline was: “Pa., N.J., and Del. all get lower grades on charter school ranking.”
What WHYY didn't tell listeners was that the study authors, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), are a staunchly pro-charter organization.
Since publicly funded and privately managed charter schools are at the center of a heated debate in Philadelphia and nationwide over how to improve American education, WHYY should have clearly noted NAPCS' strong political orientation.
“This is a national advocacy group that wants more charter schools. It speaks for the charter industry,” says Diane Ravitch, a prominent education historian and critic of charters. “Asking them to judge your charter law is like asking Philip Morris whether your state is doing enough to regulate tobacco.”
NAPCS gave low marks to states that had laws making it harder to start a charter school and high marks to those that offer “support for charter school funding and facilities.” These are not neutral or objective analyses of state charter laws. Instead, they measure how well states are doing to support goals outlined by the charter school movement. Opponents, who point to studies showing charter schools do no better than traditional public schools, believe there should be more regulation of charters — not less.
Other news outlets provided better context. The Tula World opened their story, “A national pro-charter school group dropped Oklahoma's ranking five spots — to 27th — this year in its national rankings for public charter school laws.” And the Orlando Sentinel called NAPCS “a national charter advocacy group.” But the Honolulu Star Advertiser headline did even worse than WHYY: “Proposed charter school fix given an A by experts.”
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