Even when researchers can evaluate charter schools that are large enough to contribute useful results to a study, old enough to have a track record, and representative of a substantial share of all charter schools, they face a daunting analytical challenge:
finding students in the regular public schools who are truly comparable to the charter school students.
Not exact matches
The new version would leave the state with the same result as did its predecessor: Charter
school students would
find themselves
in classes taught by teachers whose training was far less rigorous than that demanded of
regular public school teachers.
The same Stanford researcher conducted an RCT of charter
schools in Chicago and
found: «
students in charter
schools outperformed a comparable group of lotteried - out
students who remained
in regular Chicago
public schools by 5 to 6 percentile points
in math and about 5 percentile points
in reading....
In other findings, it says that charter schools» students score significantly below those in regular public schools on achievement tests, and it faults American students».
In other
findings, it says that charter
schools»
students score significantly below those
in regular public schools on achievement tests, and it faults American students».
in regular public schools on achievement tests, and it faults American
students»...
Abdulkadiroglu et al. (2011) and Angrist, Pathak, and Walters (2013)
found similar estimates of the impact of a year
in a Boston area charter
school whether they compared charter
school admission lottery winners and losers or whether they compared charter attendees to
regular public school students with similar observed characteristics.
Jim O'Connor, principal of the KIPP Ascend middle
school in Chicago, told me this month that five
students from his last year's eighth grade who are
in regular public high
schools are having the most difficult time, because their
schools lack the focus on strong academic results they
found at KIPP.
More than two - thirds of charter
students were
found to perform better
in reading and math and to have a significant achievement advantage over
students in the nearest
regular public school.
Hoxby quickly gathered data, and just a month after the AFT study grabbed headlines, her study, A Straightforward Comparison of Charter
Schools and Regular Public Schools in the United States, is making news with findings showing that, on average, students in charter schools are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math than students at the closest public schools with similar racial compo
Schools and
Regular Public Schools in the United States, is making news with findings showing that, on average, students in charter schools are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math than students at the closest public schools with similar racial compos
Public Schools in the United States, is making news with findings showing that, on average, students in charter schools are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math than students at the closest public schools with similar racial compo
Schools in the United States, is making news with
findings showing that, on average,
students in charter
schools are 5 percent more likely to be proficient in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient in math than students at the closest public schools with similar racial compo
schools are 5 percent more likely to be proficient
in reading and 3 percent more likely to be proficient
in math than
students at the closest
public schools with similar racial compos
public schools with similar racial compo
schools with similar racial composition.
Looking at
students in grades 4 - 8, the researchers
found that the
regular public school population
in North Carolina has become less white over the past 15 years (from 64.1 percent white to 53 percent white), while the charter
school population has grown more white (from 58.5 percent white to 62.2 percent white).
Released
in the wake of last week's report about charter
schools in New York City, the study
found that compared with the academic progress that
students made
in regular public schools,
students in charter
schools in Massachusetts gained an additional one and a half more months of learning per year
in reading and an additional two and a half more months of learning per year
in math.
That's despite an American Federation of Teachers study released last month that
found charter
school students nationwide performed significantly worse than
students in regular public schools.