a new job Paper The National Bureau of Economic Research provides additional evidence that charter schools can increase students’ academic potential compared with typical public schools.
The paper studied a sample of students from 15 urban and nine non-urban charter schools in Massachusetts and found that charter school students were more likely than non-charter school students to attend and graduate from a four-year college. What’s more, test scores improved significantly for those who took city charters. However, non-urban charter students’ scores fell slightly but college enrollment did not.
After two years in an urban charter school, students’ math test scores increased by nearly half a standard deviation and their English test scores increased by 30 percent. For non-urban charter students, their scores actually dropped slightly, with a standard deviation drop of about 10 percent in math and English.
However, this does not appear to affect their college enrollment and graduation rates. Students in non-urban charter schools are 10 percentage points more likely to earn a four-year degree than students in traditional public schools. Scores for urban charter students jumped 4.1 points.
Why don’t non-urban charter students get the same score gains as urban students? The authors suggest this may be attributable to differences in the student populations and educational philosophies of urban and non-urban charter schools.
Urban charter schools most often adopt a “no excuses” strategy, which is based on “a culture of high expectations, frequent teacher observation and feedback, data-driven instruction, the use of coaching and strict discipline practices,” the researchers said. These schools “primarily serve minorities and the economically disadvantaged. This is not the case for non-urban schools, which use alternative charter school models and serve primarily white children. APW found that different practices and student populations help explain different test scores Achievement trajectories, and the existing literature on charter schools.
This latest paper largely confirms what researchers have long known about charter schools. While not perfect, they are an important alternative to public schools. For low-income minority parents, this often means removing their children from struggling urban school districts. By comparison, charter schools also offer more options for middle-class parents to forego pure academic achievement in favor of an alternative educational experience.
