Student achievement in charter schools: A complex picture

Since the inception of charter schools over a decade ago, policymakers have wanted to know how charter schools are performing. This is difficult to answer because there is no single charter school approach to educating students. By design, charter schools have innovative and distinctive education philosophies. In this research, we capture some of the uniqueness of charter schools by clustering them into four major categories: charter schools that convert from conventional public schools, charter schools that start from scratch, charter schools that rely primarily on classroom-based instruction, and charter schools that have a significant portion of instruction outside of the classroom. Based on these four distinctions, we find significant differences in performance. These differences suggest that policymakers may want to focus greater resources on certain types of charter schools versus others. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

The performance of charter schools in Wisconsin

How have charter schools in Wisconsin performed relative to traditional public schools? Two analyses provide an answer: First, a comparison of achievement test scores for students in Milwaukee charter and traditional schools from 1998 to 2002 for grades 3 through 10 finds a relative advantage for charter school students using fixed effects and first difference specifications. Second, a methodological approach new to the debate over performance in choice schools assesses schoollevel standardized tests in the fourth and eighth grades for 2000-01 and 2001-02. The results for fourth grade are generally favorable for charter schools; those for eighth grade are mixed. Overall, the results from these two analyses suggest that charter schools in Wisconsin are performing somewhat better than the traditional public schools from which they draw students. © 2007 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management