No state has done more to support the proliferation of charter schools than Arizona, reports the Washington Post’s Nick Anderson. And, according to at least one study, it’s not working:

Under a 1994 law that strongly favors charter schools, 500 of them operate in this state, teaching more than 100,000 students. Those totals account for a quarter of Arizona’s public schools and a tenth of its public school enrollment, giving charters a larger market share here than in any other state.

But a Stanford University research institute reported in June that Arizona charter students did not show as much academic progress as their peers in traditional public schools. Charter backers dispute the study’s methods and findings but agree that schools vary widely in quality.

The article goes on to show how charter schools appear radically different from one another. But for all their wacky and creative ideas about learning, charter schools in Arizona are united by their emphasis on testing, testing, testing. Yet there are more Arizona public schools the Stanford study rates as highly performing than charter schools.

Does this mean that the Obama administration is wrong to throw billions of dollars worth in grants at state education departments that promote charters? Not necessarily — the charter school project is still in its experimental phase; data 10 years from now might validate the pro-charter “education reform” movement. But it again shows what’s wrong with Obama and Education Sec. Arne Duncan seeming so certain about charters. Duncan wants to give money to states with “innovative” ways to improve schools. But these mean Duncan-approved innovations like charters. Such rigidity in seeing charter schools as undoubtedly good is as damaging as the teachers’ unions who continue to view charters as undoubtedly bad.

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