California group proposes new way to evaluate charter schools

From The Los Angeles Times: The leading organization of charter schools in California is proposing a new way to evaluate them, one that could lead to the closure of many low-performing schools. The proposal from the California Charter Schools Association comes on the heels of a Stanford University study released earlier this week that found wide variation in quality among the state's 800 charter schools. Under the organization's proposal, school districts that authorize charter schools would review them based on their "predicted performance" on standardized tests. This would be determined by comparing charter students with their peers in traditional public schools who have similar backgrounds and a past record of similar test scores. The idea is to measure the "value added" by a charter school.