Mark Schnieder writes book

When Mark S. Schneider began working on a book about charter schools several years ago, he was a political science professor at Stony Brook University—and a relative unknown in Washington.

But now, as the book goes on sale in stores and on Amazon.com, he carries a more prominent title: commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.

Mr. Schneider is today in the unusual position of having a book published on an important, and often hotly disputed, education topic while serving as the head of the NCES, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Education, and an agency that seeks to protect its reputation for objectivity.

The book, Charter Schools: Hope or Hype?, uses research methodology to examine charters’ performance in the District of Columbia. The results are “sobering,” and suggest charter schools often “fall short of advocates’ claims,” the description on the book’s jacket says...