Gains for NYC Charters

Funny how the CREDO studies that make charter schools look bad get all sorts of press – but the ones that show great things about charter schools get much less attention. Here’s the great NYC news (similar to the first NYC a couple of years ago):

Students in New York City charter schools make larger learning gains, on average, in both reading and mathematics, according to a new report from Stanford University researchers. But the gains are much more pronounced in math.

The report by Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) looked at nearly 20,000 students’ records from 79 schools. It relied on state data for six years of schooling, beginning with the 2005-2006 school year and concluding in 2010-2011, It compared students in grades 3 through 8 who transfer to charter schools to similar students who remained in the regular schools. The authors say they controlled for prior test scores and made sure the comparison group was similar in terms of gender, race, disabilities, family income and English language learner status.

Test scores were compared for students, and for whole schools. On average, charter students gained an additional one month of learning in reading over the course of a school year compared to their counterparts in district schools. Their advantage in math was much stronger: they gained an additional five months of learning over the course of a school year.

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