But the most interesting thing to come of this radio show was the illumination that the PA Department of Education (PDE) has allowed test scores of charter schools to be elevated by treating each school as an individual District as opposed to an individual school.
Even though I disagree with the use of test scores to compare grades, schools, etc, the charter advocates general do use them, so we'll analyze their rationale. According to this metric, 4thd grade in Charter School should compare only its 4th grade students against those at Public School Y in order to see which students are performing better. What PDE has allowed is for charter schools to average all their scores together in order to compare, which might inflate scores for individual grades.
This practice seems unfair to both charters and public schools alike. By playing games with numbers, the PDE will inflate certain grades' scores while deflating others. And the comparison is based on more students, changing the nature of said comparison.
While I do not advocate using these scores this way, at least use them fairly!