Did a Think Tank Censor Its Charter School Report?
Something big is up at the think tank Education Sector. They appear to have scrubbed a report on big challenges Charter Management Organizations face as they try to expand. True to form, education blogger Alexander Russo got the story first. He noted that the report did not bear the name of its original author, Tom Toch:
Asked about the situation, Toch said, "I removed my name from the report because a good deal of my analysis was removed and, as published, the report does not reflect my research findings on the current status and future prospects of charter management organizations." (See Russo's post for more.)
The bowdlerized final report isn't a mere a pro-charter whitewash. It does more than most to acknowledge real problems of expanding the best charter school networks. But the report's recommendations don't reflect what Toch published in his Education Week preview.
Read both, and judge for yourself.
Update: As Alexander noted in the comments below, I should not have republished his entire post. My enthusiasm got the better of me.
I've excerpted the post. Go to Alexander for the whole story. My apologies to Alexander.
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Interesting story. Will the
Interesting story. Will the end result be an exercise in huffing and puffing but not blowing their house down? Charters are practically teflon coated in the current ed. climate. (To clarify, I don't want to see the charters blown down, just the rhetoric around them).
glad you liked the post,
glad you liked the post, claus, but you excerpted the whole thing. the usual practice is to snip a line or two and send readers to the original source.
/ alexander
Sorry, Alexander. You make a
Sorry, Alexander.
You make a good point, and the implications of my practice didn't dawn on me. I'll revise....
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