Earlier this year, we reviewed a working paper by Ron Zimmer and Cassandra Guarino whose findings countered the critique that public charter schools “push out” low-performing students. The final study, published by the American Educational Research Association, looks at the exit patterns of low-performing students in an unnamed large urban school district with a significant charter school market share. The data from school years 2000-01 through 2006-07 showed that although low-performing students do leave charter schools at a slightly higher rate than higher-performing students, this pattern is consistent with the exit rate of low-performing students in traditional public schools. The authors conclude, “our analysis suggests that there is no evidence consistent with the claim that charter schools are in general or at the individual level pushing out low-performing students.”
You must pay to access the full study, but you can read the abstract for Is There Empirical Evidence That Charter Schools “Push Out” Low-Performing Students?. Nora Kern is the senior manager of research and analysis at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
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