Charter Schools: New Evidence of Student Success A nationwide Stanford study shows huge learning gains over union schools.
School choice is gaining momentum nationwide, and charter schools are a large part of the movement. A new study shows that these independently run public schools are blowing away their traditional school competition in student performance.
Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (Credo) report is the third in a series (2009, 2013, 2023) tracking charter-school outcomes over 15 years. The study is one of the largest ever conducted, covering over two million charter students in 29 states, New York City and Washington, D.C., and a control group in traditional public schools.
Credo’s judgment is unequivocal: Most charter schools “produce superior student gains despite enrolling a more challenging student population.” In reading and math, “charter schools provide their students with stronger learning when compared to the traditional public schools.” The nationwide gains for charter students were six days in math and 16 days in reading.
The comparisons in some states are more remarkable. In New York, charter students were 75 days ahead in reading and 73 days in math compared with traditional public-school peers. In Illinois they were 40 days ahead in reading and 48 in math. In Washington state, 26 days ahead in reading and 39 in math. Those differences can add up to an extra year of learning across an entire elementary education.
Credo’s first study in 2009 found that charters didn’t yield better student outcomes—and has long been cited by charter opponents. Teachers unions often claim charters and choice programs betray public education because they cherry-pick children and fail to serve those in greatest need. Credo’s results should also end that discussion.
The latest study shows that black and Hispanic students had some of the largest gains and that they “advance more than their TPS peers by large margins in math and reading.” Ditto for children in poverty. Unions should also read the section on what Credo calls “gap-busting schools,” which show black and Hispanic students succeeding as well as white peers. Credo says this shows that “learning gaps between student groups are not structural or inevitable.”
Not all charters are created equal, and the study shows a growing advantage in results for schools run by charter management organizations, which operate multiple schools. This is likely the result of a learning curve that can be applied to many locations. Around 15% of charters underperform their local public school, but lackluster charters are closed, unlike failing union schools.
This Credo installment covers 2015-2019 before the pandemic. With each new report, student progress has climbed further and the long lens of the study shows that charter schools are getting better. The Credo report may even understate the success of some charter schools. In the case of Ohio, the Credo methodology dilutes the strong results of brick-and-mortar charter schools by including remote schools and other specialized schools in its results. A 2020 Fordham Institute analysis of Ohio charter schools showed strong gains.
In a better world, results like this would trigger a movement to expand charters and increase their funding. But that won’t happen as widely as it should because unions will fight to keep up their near-monopoly. Washington state has only 17 charter schools serving about 4,700 students, well under its legal cap of 40 schools, according to the Mountain States Policy Center. The real reason the unions object to more is that charter learning proves there’s no excuse for failing children.
Comments are closed.
