Advantage None: Re-Examining Hoxby's Finding of Charter School Benefits


 

Publication Date: April 2005

Publisher: Economic Policy Institute

Author(s): Joydeep Roy

Research Area: Education

Type: Brief

Abstract:

In late summer of 2004 researchers at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), drawing upon data in a not-yet-published study of charter schools by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), issued a report concluding that charter school students had lower achievement in both reading and mathematics compared to students in regular public schools. The differences were significant overall as well as for some of the very groups of students for whom charter schools are said by proponents to offer particular benefits, e.g., low-income children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches and students in central cities.

However, the AFT also found that minorities in charter schools had test scores that were not significantly different than those of their counterparts in regular public schools.