CHARTER SCHOOL 4TH-GRADERS LAG OTHERS, U.S. SAYS.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

WASHINGTON -- Fourth-graders in traditional public schools did significantly better in reading and math than comparable children attending charter schools, according to a report released on Tuesday by the federal Education Department.

The report, based on 2003 test scores, thrust the Education Department to the center of the heated national debate over school choice. It drew a barrage of criticism from supporters of charter schools, the fastest growing sector in public education, who had sent out press statements casting doubt on its methodology and findings even before they were officially announced.

Gary Larson, spokesman for the California Charter Schools Association, cited a dozen independent studies conducted over the last five years that he says proves charter campuses are more effective than public schools.

``This is a national study, which includes states that have just much more recently passed charter school laws and typically in those states, you get more of a concentration of charters in urban, underserved communities, so it takes a couple of years to get the students they're serving back on track,'' Larson said. ``You're soon going to see the national picture improving to where California is just landing -- we've just had more time to demonstrate success and that's why you're seeing exponential growth in the charter school movement here.''

He said the success of charters in the Los Angeles Unified School District is fueling its growth, with the district approving more than 100 charters -- the most of any district in the nation -- and 30 more slated to open this fall.

LAUSD school board President Marlene Canter said the contradicting conclusions in different studies only prove that there is no one answer to raising student achievement.

``These studies and comparisons only prove to me that there are no silver bullets in education,'' Canter said. ``There are so many success stories, both in traditional public schools and in charters -- the idea is that we learn from each other, to the benefit of all students.''

And as the federal commissioner of education statistics, Mark S. Schneider, released the report, he said the agency should no longer put its official imprimatur on research comparing charter with public schools and leave such studies to independent researchers.

The study found that in 2003, fourth-graders in traditional public schools scored an average of 4.2 points better in reading than comparable students in charter schools on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, often called the nation's report card. Students in traditional schools scored an average of 4.7 points better in math than comparable students in charter schools.

Students in charter schools that said they were affiliated with local school districts did better than those in schools largely independent from local systems, scoring on a par with children in regular public schools in both reading and math.

The study also compared traditional public schools with charter schools in central cities serving mostly minority students, and found no significant difference in reading achievement at the different schools. However, math scores at such urban charter schools still lagged behind those at traditional schools, except when those charters were affiliated with a local district.

``We know they are not doing harm,'' Schneider said of charter schools, ``so they pass a fundamental test of policy analysis.'' But this is weak praise considering that proponents of charter schools have long argued that students at these institutions would show progress far greater than those at neighborhood schools.

The Bush administration is a strong proponent of charter schools. In a statement on Tuesday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, ``Charter schools are empowering low-income parents with new educational options and providing an important lifeline for families in areas where traditional public schools have fallen short of their responsibilities.''

Edward J. McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the study ``provides further evidence against unchecked expansion of the charter school experiment.''