Charter schools are independent public schools that are given greater

Question

Charter schools are independent public schools that are given greater autonomy in exchange for increased accountability. Charter school operators are freed from many of the regulations of the traditional public school bureaucracy, thereby allowing them to pursue more innovative educational ideas than non-charter public schools can pursue. At the same time, charter schools are held accountable for achieving specific educational outcomes and are closed down if those outcomes are not met.

Which of the following, if true, best supports the assertion that students attending charter schools will, on average, perform better on assessments of writing ability than students attending traditional public schools?

A. Students who attend schools that emphasize order and discipline perform worse on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that do not emphasize order and discipline.

B. The majority of students who score in the 99th percentile on assessments of writing ability attend charter schools.

C. Public schools that operate outside of the traditional public school bureaucracy spend more time teaching students writing than do traditional public schools.

D. Students who attend schools that are allowed to experiment with their writing curricula perform better on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that have less flexible curricula.

E. There are far more students attending non-charter public schools than students attending charter schools.

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Saks116 · Answer

Charter schools are independent public schools that are given greater autonomy in exchange for increased accountability. Charter school operators are freed from many of the regulations of the traditional public school bureaucracy, thereby allowing them to pursue more innovative educational ideas than non-charter public schools can pursue. At the same time, charter schools are held accountable for achieving specific educational outcomes and are closed down if those outcomes are not met.

Which of the following, if true, best supports the assertion that students attending charter schools will, on average, perform better on assessments of writing ability than students attending traditional public schools?

A. Students who attend schools that emphasize order and discipline perform worse on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that do not emphasize order and discipline.  Not relevant, no such info or relation mentioned in argument

B. The majority of students who score in the 99th percentile on assessments of writing ability attend charter schools.  Quite tempting, But sample size is in question here. Majority ? how much ? what propotion?, not sufficient

C. Public schools that operate outside of the traditional public school bureaucracy spend more time teaching students writing than do traditional public schools.   confusing but not supporting actively, cause if it happens so, but how to confirm that they are good at writing ? 
 
D. Students who attend schools that are allowed to experiment with their writing curricula perform better on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that have less flexible curricula.  Would strengthen, if you catch hold of key words mentioned Innovation >Experimentation>Improvement>better ability. Makes sense

E. There are far more students attending non-charter public schools than students attending charter schools.  Not relevant

IMO D

chanhthang1802 · Answer

The answer is  (D). 
(A) "Order and discipline" is too general, we only care about whether the schools have innovative educational ideas or not.
(B) This answer only deals with top 1% performing students, but the assertion is about students in general.
(C) This answer kind of weakens the support in the stimulus.
 (D) Correct.  This is the "innovative education ideas" mentioned in the stimulus, providing more explanation for that information in the stimulus.
(E) The assertion is concerned about the average, so the number of students is irrelevant.

Dereno · Answer

We need to find evidence that charter school students are likely to write better than traditional public school students.
 
 Why is option D the most effective choice?

D states that schools with flexible writing programs (like charter schools) have students who perform better in writing.   This directly supports the idea that charter schools, with their freedom, will have better writing results.

A. Students who attend schools that emphasize order and discipline perform worse on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that do not emphasize order and discipline.

Talks about discipline, which is irrelevant to writing ability.

B. The majority of students who score in the 99th percentile on assessments of writing ability attend charter schools.

Mentions high scorers, but not average performance.

C. Public schools that operate outside of the traditional public school bureaucracy spend more time teaching students writing than do traditional public schools.

States that non traditional public schools spend more time teaching writing, this does not directly support charter schools.

D. Students who attend schools that are allowed to experiment with their writing curricula perform better on assessments of writing ability than students who attend schools that have less flexible curricula.
 Answer choice

E. There are far more students attending non-charter public schools than students attending charter schools.

Compares the number of students, which doesn't relate to writing quality.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The question asks for information that will support the conclusion that students attending charter schools will, on average, perform better on assessments of writing ability than students attending traditional public schools. The passage specifies that charter schools differ from non-charter public schools in that charter schools have more freedom to innovate and that they are held accountable for meeting specific educational outcomes. One way to support the conclusion is to demonstrate that one of the two differences cited between charter and non-charter public schools is somehow tied to higher performance on writing assessments.

(A) While the passage mentions that charter schools themselves are freed from many regulations, no information is presented about any difference in emphasis with respect to order and discipline between charter and non-charter public schools. As such, it is impossible to tell whether this information would support the conclusion in the question.

(B) This choice presents information only about those students who score at the very highest level of the writing assessments. However, this presents no information about the difference, on average, between all charter school students and non-charter public school students. It is possible, for example, that while the students who perform at the highest level on writing assessments are those who attend charter schools, on average non-charter public school students perform better.

(C) There is no necessary link between the amount of time spent teaching writing and student performance on writing assessments. For example, a good teacher who spends one hour teaching writing may have a more positive impact on student performance than a poor teacher who spends three hours teaching writing.

(D) CORRECT.  The passage specifies that charter schools have more freedom to pursue innovative educational ideas than non-charter public schools. It follows that charter schools are allowed to experiment with their curricula to a greater degree than non-charter public schools. This choice links this difference to higher student achievement on assessments of writing ability.

(E) The number of students attending charter vs. non-charter schools has no bearing on the conclusion. The conclusion focused on student performance on average, thereby eliminating raw numbers of students as relevant to this measure.

Charter schools are independent public schools that are given greater

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Charter schools are independent public schools that are given greater

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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