The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently released a report, The Impact of Ohio Charter Schools on Student Outcomes 2016-2019. Dr. Stéphane Lavertu of The Ohio State University conducted a rigorous analysis of student-level data from 2015–16 through 2018–19.
We encourage you to read
the full report, however, listed below are a few key findings:
- In grades 4-8, students attending brick-and-mortar charters make significant gains on state exams relative to similar students attending district schools.
- Low-achieving students benefit most from attending charter high schools (schools serving grades 9–12 only).
- Gains are largest for Black students who, on average, move from the 25th to 40th percentile in statewide achievement when they attend brick-and-mortar charters from grade 4 to 8.
- High school charter students improve on state English end-of-course assessments (gains in math are not statistically significant).
- Student attendance rates increase and disciplinary incidents decrease when students enroll in brick-and-mortar charters.
- Charters that choose to hire a for-profit or nonprofit management company to run daily operations both produce positive results when compared to districts, but those with nonprofits tend to register stronger performance.