Charter vs. traditional schools: snapshot sheds little light.

Despite recent test scores that show charter school fourth-graders faring slightly lower than their traditional public school counterparts in reading and math, a few educators and experts agree that it doesn't mean all that much.

The National Center for Education Statistics recently conducted a pilot study of charter schools. The results were part of the 2003 fourth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress assessments with a sample of 150 charter schools and more than 6,700 public noncharter schools.

Results include:

* The average charter school mean in reading was 5.2 points lower than the average public noncharter school mean.

* In math, the average charter school mean was 5.8 points lower than the average public noncharter school mean.

Charter school supporters claim this was merely a snapshot of performance. Jon Hussey of the Center for Education Reform says comparisons must look at achievement over time, mentioning work performed by Paul Hill, research professor at the University of Washington and a member of the Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel. Students who left public schools and are now in charter schools would be the best gauge of how charters compare to traditional schools, Hussey says.

Even National Education Association President Reg Weaver stopped short of using the results as a rallying cry for public schools. Charter schools and nontraditional schools have potential to develop creative teaching methods that can be used in traditional schools, "but they are not the solution," Weaver says. The solution is about adequate and equitable funding for all schools. Then, he says, "we will no longer have to debate which system is better."