Study Finds Charter Schools Not the Answer for Raising North Carolina Academic Performance
A study by Duke University Professor Helen Ladd finds that charter school students perform less well on average in charter schools than in public schools and the negative effects of attending a charter school are large.
Students in North Carolina charter schools are making smaller academic gains than they would have made in traditional public schools, according to a new study co-authored by Duke University Professor Helen Ladd and University of Connecticut Professor Robert Bifulco.
Their study reinforces nationwide charter school statistics released this week by the U.S. Department of Education. Those results show that children in charter schools are not performing as well on national math and reading tests than their counterparts in traditional public schools.
"Parents often expect charter schools to provide a stronger academic experience for their children than traditional public schools, but that is typically not the case," said Ladd, a professor of public policy studies and economics at Duke. "Our study finds that charter school students perform less well on average in charter schools than they would have in traditional public schools and the negative effects of attending a charter school are large."
Ladd and Bifulco's study compared reading and math achievement gains for nearly 6,000 students in grades 4-8 while they were in North Carolina charter schools from 1996-2002, with the gains of those same students while they were in public schools.
Because North Carolina has been testing all students in grades 3-8 for many years, this study is able to go far beyond the baseline comparisons reported in the national data, Ladd said.
According to the study, one factor contributing to the low achievement gains in charter schools is high student turnover. In North Carolina, even charter schools that have been open for five years have an average rate of student turnover twice as high as the rate in traditional public schools.
Therefore, federal policies that encourage students to change schools or to shift to charter schools may well reduce student achievement, Ladd said.
"Despite that some charter schools are undoubtedly doing a great job raising the achievement levels of their students, the bottom line is that North Carolina's system of close to 100 charter schools appears to have reduced overall academic achievement in the state," said Ladd, who co-authored (with Edward Fiske) the book "When Schools Compete: A Cautionary Tale" (Brookings Institution, 2000), which draws lessons for the U.S from New Zealand's experience with self-governing schools, parental choice and competition.
Bifulco, a professor at the University of Connecticut's Institute of Urban and Public Affairs, added, "Our findings suggest that states that want to use charter school programs to improve student academic achievement need to proceed carefully."
The complete manuscript, currently under review for publication, is available at <http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/people/faculty/ladd/>.
Funding for the research was provided by the Smith Richardson Foundation.
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