This is Part 2 in our series on a new research agenda for school choice. Read Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4.
During the last decade, the number of rigorous studies of charter school impacts has increased substantially. These studies have used lottery-based experimental methods and/or strong quasi-experimental methods. Most of these studies examine the impact of attending a charter school on students’ test scores. The studies have varied in terms of the groups of charter schools they have examined. Some focus on just a single school or small number of schools (often in a single large urban area), while others examine the impact of larger groups of charter schools in a given state or across multiple states. Despite the growing number of studies and charter schools that have been examined, however, some key questions remain unanswered. We explore some of those questions in the video below.
Additional resources on charter school research:
- Evaluation of the effectiveness of charter management organizations
- Working paper on policies and practices that make charter schools successful
- Florida study on charter high schools’ effects on long-term attainment and earnings
- Texas study on charter schools and labor market outcomes
- Florida and Chicago study on charter high schools’ effects on educational attainment
- Boston study of charter high schools’ effects on college preparation, entry, and choice
