Educational Research: Charter Schools Descriptive vs. Experimental

Educational Research: Charter Schools

Descriptive vs. Experimental Research

Experimental research studies seem to be 'cleaner' on their surface than descriptive research studies. A researcher can, in experimental research studies, apparently control all extraneous external variables. He or she can simply focus on the variables that are being studied and analyzed over the course of the study. For instance, in the lengthy descriptive "Fourth-Year Report" conducted by the United States government in 2000 on Charter Schools, variables as diverse as the proportion of students on public assistance for their lunch, proficiency in English, income of families, income of the district, all had to be taken into consideration when analyzing the results of the comparison between public and private schools.

Because the multi-variable descriptive study comparing charter and public schools across the nation was quite broad in its demographic sweep it was difficult to extrapolate conclusive data from its findings. It analyzed overall school performances in their success at helping students pass proficiency exams, student retention, and grades. It also measured the schools against objective standards thought to indicate the schools were providing a better student education, such as student to faculty ratios. Economic and demographic differences between districts and schools were important in creating a picture within the context of the research in terms of offering conclusions. It would be easy to compare an affluent public school with a poor charter school and conclude that the student to faculty ratio was of no bearing upon educational success, and that charter schools were not valuable to students. (Fourth Year Report, 2000)

The value of experimental research, upon reviewing such a sprawling study, one might contend was greater control and brevity of focus. No matter how many variables one took into consideration, others sprung into focus upon further analysis -- simply taking into consideration parent's economic situations might be enough, one might need to consider parental involvement, whether more parents were single or divorced, the youth of the parents, etc.

Too many uncontrolled demographic differences between charter and public schools were one of the criticisms levied against the most recent report of the Education Department's study of charter schools. The study did not take into consideration the greater poverty of many charter schools, for example. (Schermo, 2004) But using experimental research, such as comparing two classrooms created in isolation for the purpose of a study, while it may create more similar conditions in the 'laboratory' of the study, ultimately fails to take into the long-term nature of education. What works for a student in the short run may be less valuable than what works in the long run -- for example, the question is never if the whole language or the phonetics method teaches a student to read more quickly. The ultimate question is what creates a better reader over the course of a student's entire academic life, rather than focusing on one year or even one test, as did the descriptive and charter school-friendly but ultimately limited study conducted by Harvard University. The "Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research: Achievement in Charter Schools and Regular Public Schools in the United States: December 2004" study compared charter and public schools of similar composition in Massachusetts, but by comparing only a year of standardized test scores, failed to paint a long-term and holistic picture of the effects of charter schools overall.

Proposed Study of Descriptive Research

A long-term study of charter vs. public schools within the same area is necessary. However, until charter schools produce a substantial population of graduates to be demographically compared against public school students, one potential descriptive study might be to examine a school district identified as 'at risk' that had a recently created charter school within its borders, perhaps designed to cope with an 'at risk' population. Then, one could measure improvement of all the pupils in the district, in terms of grades over the course of a year, not only in the public schools but also in private and parochial schools as well.