Charter school entrants have similar or lower achievement than incumbents in all studied cities, suggesting no cream skimming¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2027: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In all 10 cities, charter school entrants have similar or lower overall academic achievement than charter school incumbents, which the report interprets as evidence that charter schools are not cream skimming academically well-prepared students. → Margaret E. Raymond 2022

Evidence¶

Margaret E. Raymond 2022¶

Margaret E. Raymond, Won Fy Lee. (2022). City Studies Project Meta-Analysis by CREDO of Stanford University: Cohort 1 Cities. Center for Research on Education Outcomes, Stanford University. https://credo.stanford.edu/city-studies/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Section 7 compares achievement levels of first-time charter entrants versus students enrolled for more than one year (incumbents) across the 10 cities, testing the cream-skimming hypothesis. Entrants show "similar or lower overall academic achievement than charter school incumbents" in all cities.

"In all cities, charter school entrants have similar or lower overall academic achievement than charter school incumbents, which suggests that charter schools are not cream skimming, ie., enrolling students who are academically well prepared."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Average charter schools perform about the same as nearby traditional public schools, with large variation in effects — a broader claim this one bears on
• Charter schools in many of the 10 studied cities make overall positive contributions to students' learning growth relative to state averages — related
• Charter school outcomes are mixed as a group, with 17% of charters producing greater academic gains and 37% performing worse than traditional public schools serving similar students — related
• Charter school students show more annual learning growth in reading and math than matched traditional public school peers — related
• New Mexico charter school students make similar one-year growth in reading and math as their traditional public school virtual twins — related
• South Carolina charter students show similar reading growth but weaker math growth than traditional public school peers, with a math disadvantage of 53 fewer days of learning per year — related
• Charter school impacts differ sharply by locale: urban charters show stronger reading growth while suburban and town charters show weaker growth in both subjects — related
• During its first seven years, the Kauffman School had substantial positive impacts on student achievement growth in mathematics, English language arts, and science beyond growth in other Kansas City public schools — related