Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
59 Pages Posted: 12 May 2012
There are 3 versions of this paper
Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
Date Written: April 2012
Abstract
Estimates using admissions lotteries suggest that urban charter schools boost student achievement, while charter schools in other settings do not. Using the largest available sample of lotteried applicants to charter schools, we explore student-level and school-level explanations for this difference in Massachusetts. In an econometric framework that isolates sources of charter effect heterogeneity, we show that urban charter schools boost achievement well beyond that of urban public school students, while non-urban charters reduce achievement from a higher baseline. Student demographics explain some of these gains since urban charters are most effective for non-whites and low-baseline achievers. At the same time, non-urban charter schools are uniformly ineffective. Our estimates also reveal important school-level heterogeneity within the urban charter sample. A non-lottery analysis suggests that urban charters with binding, well-documented admissions lotteries generate larger score gains than under-subscribed urban charter schools with poor lottery records. Finally, we link charter impacts to school characteristics such as peer composition, length of school day, and school philosophy. The relative effectiveness of urban lottery-sample charters is accounted for by these schools' embrace of the No Excuses approach to urban education.
Keywords: human capital, charter schools, achievement
JEL Classification: I21, I24, I28, J45
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Charter Schools in New York City: Who Enrolls and How They Affect Their Students' Achievement
By Caroline M. Hoxby and Sonali Murarka
-
Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston's Charters and Pilots
By Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Joshua D. Angrist, ...
-
By Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer
-
By Joshua D. Angrist, Susan M. Dynarski, ...
-
By Joshua D. Angrist, Susan M. Dynarski, ...
-
An Examination of Student Achievement in Michigan Charter Schools
-
Estimating the Returns to Urban Boarding Schools: Evidence from Seed
By Vilsa Curto and Roland G. Fryer
-
Achievement and Behavior in Charter Schools: Drawing a More Complete Picture
-
Explaining Charter School Effectiveness
By Joshua D. Angrist, Parag A. Pathak, ...
-
Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City
By Will Dobbie and Roland G. Fryer