School & District Management What the Research Says

Tests Match Charter, Traditional Schools

By Andrew Ujifusa — October 01, 2019 1 min read
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There are “no measurable differences” between the performance of charter schools and traditional public schools on national reading and math assessments from 2017, a finding that persists when parents’ educational attainment was factored into the results.

That’s a takeaway from the National Center for Education Statistics study about charters, private schools, and home schooling.

NCES controlled for parents’ educational attainment. But a lack of data meant NCES couldn’t rule out other factors, like income, teacher quality, race, and ethnicity, that are potentially caught up in the test results.

The study also found 57 percent of traditional public schools have student populations that are more than 50 percent white, while 33 percent of charter schools can be described that way.

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A version of this article appeared in the October 02, 2019 edition of Education Week as Tests Match Charter, Traditional Schools

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