CHARTER SCHOOLS IN OHIO

PERFORM SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW THEIR TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL PEERS

A new report issued by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

The analysis looks at student achievement growth on state achievement tests in both reading and math with controls for student demographics and eligibility for program support such as free or reduced-price lunch and special education. The analysis includes the most current student achievement data from 15 states and the District of Columbia and gauges whether students who attend charter schools fare better than if they would have attended a traditional public school.

Ohio

A supplemental report, with an in-depth examination of the results for charter schools in Ohio found that math gains for students attending charter schools were significantly below their traditional public school peers, with no discernable difference in reading performance. Hispanic charter school students performed significantly below their traditional public school counterparts in both reading and math. For students that are low income, charter schools had a larger and more positive effect than for similar students in traditional public schools. The results also suggest that new charter school students have an initial loss of learning in both reading and math compared to their counterparts in traditional public schools. In subsequent years, charter school students receive no significant benefit in reading from charter school attendance compared to their counterparts in traditional public schools. However, charter school students continue significant losses of learning in math after the first year of attendance.

To download a copy of the full Ohio report.