A new report released last week by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that public charter schools in Los Angeles, which serve the largest number of students in the country, are outperforming traditional public schools. Following the methodology of CREDO’s 2013 National Charter School study, which found charter schools are outperforming their district peers across the country, the report translates the impact of attending a charter school into additional days of learning. This study finds that the typical student in a Los Angeles public charter school gains about 50 more days of learning in reading and an additional 79 days of learning in math.
Source: CREDO, pg. 37, http://credo.stanford.edu/pdfs/Los_Angeles_report_2014_FINAL_000.pdf. The study also found public charter schools are greatly impacting Hispanic students living in poverty— with these students gaining an additional half year of learning in math by being enrolled in a charter school. Below are the positive study results by different demographic groups, grade levels, type of charter school, and years enrolled. In each of these cases, “additional days of learning” is compared to traditional public school students.
Reading
Math
Charter Student Characteristics
Additional Days of Learning
Poverty (overall)
14
43
Black
14
14
Black in Poverty
36
58
Hispanic
43
72
Hispanic in Poverty
58
115
White
14
N/A
Asian
14
N/A
ELL
36
N/A
Grade Levels
Elementary
58
50
Middle
36
158
High
50
58
Multi-Level
36
65
Charter School Characteristics
CMO affiliated
65
122
Non-CMO affiliated
36
43
Urban
50
79
Suburban
65
101
Years of Charter Enrollment
1 Year
50
101
2 Years
58
72
3 Years
58
187
The report concludes with a strong endorsement of these results across student groups and over time: “…The typical student in a Los Angeles charter school gains more learning in a year than her [traditional public school] counterpart…These positive patterns emerge in a student’s first year of charter attendance and persist over time. Black and Hispanic students in poverty especially benefit from attendance at charter schools. A substantial share of Los Angeles charter schools appear to outpace [traditional public schools] in how well they support academic learning gains in their students in both reading and math.” The findings of this report show yet again that when public charter schools are allowed to thrive, so do our students. Click here to read the full Charter School Performance in Los Angeles report. Nora Kern is senior manager of research at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
