Texas charter schools, on average, appear to negatively affect students’ future earnings, according to a working paper by two economists.
The study also found that attending a “no excuses” charter school, which is described as having stricter rules, uniforms, and longer school days and years, was linked to higher test scores and four-year college enrollment, but not to higher earnings.
Other types of charter schools, however, stumble on all three study measures: hurting test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earnings.
Researchers Will S. Dobbie of Princeton University and Roland G. Fryer Jr. of Harvard University used data from the Texas Education Research Center to track students from kindergarten through college and into the workforce. They compared charter middle and high school students with students who had attended the same noncharter elementary schools and then continued into regular secondary schools.
