Here are some resources that indicate charter schools are succeeding:
–Fact-Checking Charter School Achievement:
Fact-Checking Charter School Achievement documents the true achievement of charter schools, a reform celebrated daily in more than 5,000 schools in 40 states around the country.

– How NYC Charter Schools Affect Achievement
This report shows that NYC charter school students will learn more over time than those students who remain in conventional public schools.

–DC Charter Scores Prove Success
Results from an accountability system fashioned by the DC Public Charter School Board show superior gains in charters versus traditional public schools. The system also notes schools that, according to the data, either need to buck up or be closed, which is something that this independent authorizer is willing to do.

–Democracy Prep Wins Big:
The U.S. Department of Education awarded Democracy Prep Charter School a $9.1M dollar expansion grant to open and turnaround 15 new schools across Harlem, NY, Camden, NJ, and other high-need communities. The most recent NY progress reports affirm Democracy Prep’s place as the highest performing charter management organization in NYC over the past 5 years.

You can find more on school choice and charter school success on the Choice & Charter School Achievement page and the Choice & Charter School Research page.

Uncorrelated Variables

CREDO’s analysis does not account for the great variances in charter laws from state to state or how those laws may differ from paper to practice.

• While the report suggests correlations exist between student achievement and charter law components, they admit to not fully understanding the impact of specific laws.
• The report suggests a negative correlation between student achievement and multiple authorizers. In fact, such charter authorizers vary greatly in law and practice, as CER’s 2012 study and scorecard demonstrate. There is clear evidence that charter students succeed in states witha number of meaningful, independent and highly accountable authorizers who compete for chartering. See our Multiple Authorizers Primer for more information on charter authorizers.
• The study was based on student population and not the overal strength of their charter system. Therefore CREDO missed most opportunities to see really strong charters in action.

Virtual Methodology

While there are virtual schools, there is no such thing as “virtual” student achievement.

• The CREDO report acknowledges the creation of new research tools to assess the unknowable. Instead of comparing real students who attend charter schools to real students who attend conventional public schools, CREDO merged demographic data to create “virtual twins.” Randomization, the gold standard of research, is not used.
• By virtually replicating the demographic profile of a charter school student — ethnicity, age, socio-economic status — and averaging that same profile in a conventional public school students, researchers ignore something every parent and teacher knows is an impossible comparison since no two students are alike. The study essentially treats group averages as if they were students themselves. (Respected researcher Caroline Hoxby explains this point in greater detail in Fact-Checking Charter School Achievement)
• The virtual twins were not created with state test data. Instead, the study uses National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, which are meant to provide snapshots of state performance and should not be used to gauge individual school performance. Meaningful comparisons cannot be made since relevant achievement data aren’t used.

Contradictory Demographics

The reports’ findings are inconsistent across demographic populations and geographic jurisdictions.

• While CREDO found that charter performance is lower for African-Americans and Hispanics, they find effects of charters greater for students in poverty. Well-documented and recognized survey work which represents more than a third of all charters, finds such demographics to be one and the same.
• The CREDO results are an anomaly in finding some states falling short on student achievement. Yet these same states – Florida, Minnesota, California, DC, and Georgia – have demonstrated enormous success on state and national assessments and have undergone intense scrutiny only to report superior student performance year after year.

The demonstrated success of, demand for, and attendance in charter schools escape broad stroke conclusions. Without student-by-student, school-by-school, and critical, specific data, we remain publicly ignorant of what makes schools work for children.