Study: Charter schools get better results for less money
Published July 24, 2014
by Ann Doss Helms, Charlotte Observer, July 24, 2014.
Students in N.C. charter schools earned higher reading and math scores in 2011 than their counterparts in traditional public schools, while the charter schools got less money for doing it, according to a new study from the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform.
The latest study, "The Productivity of Public Charter Schools," piggybacks on an April report that compared per-pupil spending on charters and other public schools. It compares scores on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade reading and math exams for the two groups and links those to spending.
The report, which looks at all states that had charter schools in 2011, shows that N.C. charter school students averaged 13 points higher in reading and nine points higher in math than students in N.C. school districts. Meanwhile, charter schools averaged $8,277 per charter student compared with $9,999 per district student. The study does a lot of other number-crunching but that's the gist: Higher scores for less money.
Skeptics may assume that's because charter schools are working with the students who tend to score higher. But according to this study, the N.C. charter schools averaged slightly higher percentages of low-income and disabled students than public schools across the state.
Of course, there are plenty of caveats to consider, and the 43-page report explores many of them. This is one year's performance (a year that precedes North Carolina's charter school expansion) for one grade level. As the study notes, those students may have experienced a mix of charter and traditional public schooling (and, for that matter, private and home-schooling), all of which contributes to eighth-grade scores. The report uses that data to extrapolate a "return on investment" based on lifetime earnings. I'm skeptical of that technique, which is used to turn small data points into huge savings by any number of educational groups, including traditional public schools.
The researchers note that the overall analysis leads to one clear national finding: "Charter schools tend to exhibit more productivity than traditional public schools."
You can bet that will come up as North Carolina debates how to balance its investment in various forms of public education.
July 24, 2014 at 9:12 am
Richard Bunce says:
What is important here is the parents choice of school system for their children... expanding that choice to other than government run school systems is the next important step.
August 10, 2014 at 11:44 am
art hough says:
My son went to Arapahoe charter school in Kindergarten he was not keeping up he did not have good sentence structure and he failed kindergarten. We switched him to public school where he did fine and is now a productive member of society. He is a merchant mariner.
The other issue is the charter school in Pamlico county runs buses outside of the county using my tax dollars to run buses several miles not mention the environmental issue sending buses that would not run if the public school was the only school in town.
The reason the cost is less is the charters have no sports or activities. The charters school cost me money and is not well spent. Worst school I have seen. Kids cannot function in normal society is what my kids tell me.
They select students by ability not by need. They force them out if they are not the cream of the crop. Several students failed kindergarten that year. The response from the principle was send him to the public school and we will pass him. Underhanded with no regard for an education just the test scores.
August 11, 2014 at 11:18 am
Are Buntz says:
As a parent you made the right choice for your child. Do not deny other parents the opportunity to do the same. Some parents do not need the government school system to entertain their children with sports and other after school activities.
