The results challenge federal and state accountability policies seeking to either turn such schools around or shut them down, says Fordham president Chester E. Finn, Jr. Among the study findings:
- Barely 1% of the low-performing charter or regular schools dramatically improved their performance and only 9% improved even moderately over five years.
- After five years, although 19% of charter schools and 11% of regular schools with consistently poor performance were closed, the vast majority lingered in limbo, neither getting off accountability life support nor being closed by governing authorities.
- Poorly performing charter and public schools were more than twice as likely as better performing schools to be located in an urban center. They also had twice as many poor and minority students as their better performing counterparts.
