Evaluation of the Impact of Charter School Strategies

Contractor: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and University of Washington

Background/Research Questions:

The Public Charter Schools Program (Title V, Part B, Subpart 1 of ESEA) supports the planning, development, and initial implementation of charter schools in states and communities across the U.S, with funding of $190 million in FY 2008. A key component of both the federal program and the charters school sign with authorizers in their states is a promise to reach milestone's for students' academic achievement.

There remains ongoing debate about the extent to which charter schools improve students' academic achievement, with much of the evidence based on descriptive or quasi-experimental studies that cannot fully separate the effects of charter enrollment from the characteristics of students who choose to attend those schools. But with more than 4,000 charter school now operating in over 40 states policy interest has shifted from a sole focus on "are they effective" to what policy levers (e.g., the level of autonomy, types of authorizers, accountability oversight) and school characteristics might make them more effective. This study of charter middle schools will examine:

• What are the impacts of charter schools on student achievement, other indicators of performance, and parent and student satisfaction?
• To what extent does the degree of autonomy or policy environment under which charter schools operate seem to influence their effectiveness?
• In what ways are charter schools and the sending regular public schools different? What role do these school factors or characteristics play in determining student outcomes?

Design:

NCEE is conducting the first large-scale randomized controlled trial of charter schools. Two cohorts of oversubscribed charter middle schools were selected to meet the study's data needs and to reflect variation in the policy environment, for a total of nearly 40 participating schools. Among applicants to each charter school, about 30 students in the entry grade have been randomly assigned to be admitted to the school (treatment group) or to attend another school of their own choosing (the control group). Schools were recruited in early 2005 and in early 2006, although the student admission lotteries conducted in the subsequent spring in these schools determined whether the schools had sufficient oversubscription to participate in the study. For both cohorts, two years of data are being collected and include student records, annual test scores, and surveys of students, principals, and parents.

Duration: 6.5 years (September 2003–March 2010).

Current Status: The final round of data collection is underway and will be completed in early 2009. The report for this study will be published a year later, in March 2010.