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Smart List: 60 People Shaping the Future of K-12 Education
“Skimming” is a term open to interpretation. Sure, many Charter schools are not allowed to “skim”, they have to enroll the same populations of students as public schools. However, after a student gets into a charter system, there is a great deal of evidence that shows many charters have processes in place that allow them to weed out kids that they deem problematic. This “no excuses” model, over time, creates a cohort of students that are higher achieving (if you believe standardized test scores are accurate measurements of achievement). Your students with serious behavior disorders and psychological problems are sent back to the traditional public system. In addition, a large portion of the charters cannot provide the full range of services for students with special needs. Not necessarily blaming the charter school for this, but the fact is that charters simply do not have the funding in most cases to take the range of kids with disabilities as public schools do. Charters also have a much lower percentage of kids that speak English as a second language. In the end, if we define skimming only as a school rejecting kids we can say that many charters do not skim. However, if we look at the systems used by charters to, OVER TIME, create cohorts of kids that are selectively higher achieving than what public schools must take, I think in that respect there is a lot to criticize about charters schools.