In March 2019, the Florida Department of Education published a report titled Student Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools. The report consists almost entirely of simple graphs comparing achievement levels, achievement gaps, and achievement gains on statewide tests among charter school students to those among traditional public school students. Beyond the odd exercise of counting the number of comparisons that appear favorable to charter schools, the report offers no discussion. The comparisons are not even explained. The fact that the report merely presents comparisons required by law without putting any policy “spin” on them might be considered a virtue. The danger is that the report might encourage erroneous conclusions. The simple comparisons reveal very little about the relative effectiveness of charter schools and still less about other policy questions. At the very least, the report should have clarified the purposes of its comparisons and cautioned the reader against drawing unwarranted conclusions. 

The issue brief entitled Connecticut's Charter School Law & Race to the Top by the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) recommends changes to the state's charter school law that it argues would improve funding equity and are essential to closing the state's achievement gaps. The brief's specific proposals deserve careful attention, particularly its recommendation to tie charter school funding levels to student needs. The brief, however, offers no evidence for the claim that expanding charter schools would raise the achievement of low-income students, and it presents one-sided arguments for its policy positions that ignore important considerations. The brief does not provide the thoughtful discussion of the state’s educational goals and how charter schools might further these goals needed to improve charter school policy.

Suggested Citation: Bifulco, R. (2010). Review of “ onnecticut’s Charter School Law & Race to the Top." Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved [date] from http://epicpolicy.org/thinktank/review-Connecticut-Charter

The Impact of Milwaukee Charter Schools on Student Achievement: A recent report from the Brookings Institution presents panel data analyses using student fixed effects models to estimate the impact of Milwaukee charter schools on student achievement. The report finds that attendance at a charter school is associated with small positive increases in math test scores and with no significant differences in reading scores. The positive effects estimates for math are largely limited to earlier years of the charter school program and to gains made during the first year in a charter, and the results might be dependent on the study’s approach to modeling transfers between schools. The review identifies several questions about the internal and external validity of the reported estimates. Nevertheless, the methods used in the study do have important strengths. When the results are considered together with the large body of research on charter schools, the conclusion that charter schools should not be expected to have large effects on achievement in urban schools is reasonable.

Suggested Citation: Bifulco, R. (2009). Review of “The Impact of Milwaukee Charter Schools on Student Achievement.” Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved [date] from http://epicpolicy.org/thinktank/review-impact-Milwaukee-charter