Abstract: The National Charter School Research Project, an initiative of the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education, has released a guide to help reporters evaluate the quality of charter school achievement studies. It also can be used to interpret other charter school or general education research. The document presents a list of "critical consumer questions," such as: (1) does the report compare apples to apples; (2) how large and representative is the study's sample and comparison group; (3) does the report look at test scores from one or more than one year; and (4) are the findings overstated. The guide also lists problems with common methods for measuring achievement in charter and traditional schools.
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