In January, and again this month, Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released research reports on the academic gains made by students in charter schools compared with their peers in traditional public schools. The January report focused on New York City, while this month’s report focused on Indiana.
In New York, the CREDO researchers found that students in the city’s charter schools performed significantly better than students in the comparable traditional schools, and that those gains occurred across reading and math, and were shared by black and Hispanic students, students in poverty, and students who had previously struggled academically, as well as by white students. The report analyzed data from 20,640 charter students in Grades 3-8 in 49 charter schools from the 2003-04 academic year to 2008-09 and compared them with students in the “feeder” schools from which the students came and/or the schools the students would have attended had they remained in the traditional system. The report was commissioned in 2009 by the New York City Department of Education after CREDO’s release of a national report on charter schools in June, 2009. The new New York City study shows that 51% of NYC charters are demonstrating achievement in math that was above what students would have achieved in their traditional schools, while 33% showed approximately comparable gains, and 16% under-performed their traditional counterparts. In reading, 29% of charters showed superior gains, while 59% showed little difference, and 12% turned in lower performance. The city’s charters delivered this superior performance despite the fact that charters in NY receive only 73% of the per-pupil funding, on average, that traditional public schools receive.
In Indiana, researchers examined charter performance over the 2005-08 period and found that 98% of charter schools achieved similar or superior growth in reading skills, while 100% of charters achieved similar or superior growth in math. Particularly important for those concerned about the stubborn “achievement gap” experienced by African-American students, black students in charters exhibited significantly better gains than black students in traditional public schools. In fact, their math achievement in charter schools grew at rates similar to those of average white students. Students in poverty also showed better gains in charters, as did students who had been retained a grade. Again, these gains were achieved with lower funding. In Indiana, charter schools receive, on average, only 58% of the per-pupil funding that traditional public schools receive.
These new specific studies from CREDO supplement the national study of charters released in 2009. That study was initially attacked by charter school opponents and Caroline Hoxby, based on specific statistical approaches that were taken. But those concerns were addressed by CREDO in a series of follow-ups appearing here and here. And now, the additional data in these newer state reports are validating, and amplifying, the gains shown in the 2009 study.
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