Remember those dueling studies on charter schools issued earlier this year?
One— a national study—came in June from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University. Looking at data from 15 states and the District of Columbia, it found that more than 80 percent of students in charter schools either performed the same as—or worse than—students in traditional public schools on mathematics tests.
The second study, focusing on just New York City’s charter schools, found mostly positive results for the independently run public schools in that city. The author of that study, Stanford University researcher Caroline M. Hoxby, at the same time challenged the earlier findings by her colleagues at Stanford, igniting a debate that carried on for weeks.
Well, get ready for the next chapter. The Stanford center, which is run by researcher Margaret E. Raymond, is set to release a new analysis of charter schools this morning. This one focuses on—you guessed it—New York City. The study was conducted at the request of New York City school officials and the results are expected to offer a stark contrast to the center’s earlier study: It shows the city’s charter schools mostly outperforming their traditional counterparts.
Look for all the details later this afternoon on edweek.org. For more background, take a look at Edweek’s stories on the original CREDO study, the Hoxby study and CREDO’s rebuttal. The new CREDO study will also be posted after 11:30 Eastern Standard time on the center’s Web site.