Do Charter schools out-perform traditional schools?
(Second Study)

Why is the question important? Over the past decade, Charter schools have been increasingly and enthusiastically adopted as a solution to poorly performing schools. Because these schools have been actively employed in urban areas to remedy the lagging performance of lower SES children, it is important that the model be rigorously studied to assure the intervention is effective. 

See further discussion below.

Source: A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, 2006

Results: Charter school mean scores in reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those for traditional public schools. The size of these differences was smaller in reading than in mathematics. Charter schools differ from one another in many ways. In reading and mathematics, average performance differences between traditional public schools and charter schools affiliated with a public school district were not statistically significant, while charter schools not affiliated with a public school district scored significantly lower on average than traditional public schools.

Implications: The growth of charter schools to over 1.4 million students across 40 states in a short 15 years is showing no sign of waning, as each year 100’s of new Charter schools open and waiting lists grow to more than 300,000 annually. Not surprisingly, Charter schools continue to attract the attention of reformers and will likely to remain in the forefront of improvement efforts for years to come, despite little being shared among charter schools. The study reveals a great variance in the performance of Charter schools. Schools in some states perform well and in other states perform worse than traditional public schools. This is not a surprising result, as Charter schools do not represent a common approach, set of practices or teaching methods. Charter schools are a prime example of the tendency for education reformers to focus on policy solutions as a quick fix as opposed to implementing evidence-based education practices. Research tells us effective education reform is complex, requiring complex solutions involving how we instruct children. What Charters schools do share is local governance and the fact parents have a choice to place a child in a Charter school. Unfortunately, these traits are not in themselves enough to ensure improvements in student achievement sought by parents and reformers.

Authors: Henry Braun, Frank Jenkins, and Wendy Grigg

Publisher: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

Study Description: This study is a statistical analysis of charter schools, conducted as part of the 2003 fourth-grade NAEP assessments comparing academic achievement for students enrolled in charter schools to that for students enrolled in traditional public schools. The school sample comprised 150 charter schools and 6,764 traditional public schools. Participation rates were 100 percent for both charter and traditional public schools. Student participation rates were 92% for charter schools and 94% for traditional public schools. The results employing data from the 2003 NAEP fourth-grade assessments in reading and mathematics were presented in the NCES report America’s Charter Schools: Results From the NAEP 2003 Pilot Study.

The report uses hierarchical linear models (HLM) to examine differences between the two types of schools when multiple student and/or school characteristics are taken into account. HLM were a logical choice for this analysis because they accommodate the multiple variables intrinsic to educational studies with nested structure of the data (i.e., students clustered within schools) and the inclusion of variables describing student and school characteristics.

There are a number of reasons for caution in interpreting the study:

1. The conclusions presented involve national estimates. Results based on a census of public schools in a particular jurisdiction may differ.
2. The data are obtained from an observational study rather than a randomized experiment.  The effects should not be interpreted as causal.
3. Charter schools are “schools of choice.”
   • Parents may have been attracted to charter schools because they felt that their children would receive a better education than provided by traditional public schools, or
   • The children may have lagged behind their classmates.
   • The parents of these children maybe more involved in their children’s schooling and provide greater support and encouragement.

Definitions:
1.  NAEP: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), otherwise known as the Nation’s Report Card, informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States.

2.  Charter school: A public school managed independently of the local school board, often with a curriculum and educational philosophy different from the other schools in the system.

3.  Hierarchical Linear Model: Statistical techniques to assess the impact variables such as schools or teachers on student achievement

Citation:
National Center for Education Statistics; Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2006460.asp