The now famous (or infamous) CREDO charter study from last June generated a ton of hype. (See our analysis here.) The results were largely mixed, seemly putting numbers behind the assertion that putting "charter" in front of (or after) a school name does not guarantee success. Then Caroline Hoxby released another charter report, which showed very encouraging results from charters in NYC.
We learn now that CREDO has issued ANOTHER charter study (pdf), this time looking at NYC specifically, and largely agreeing with Hoxby's conclusions. The first CREDO study and Hoxby's study have been compared, contrasted, and debated up the wazoo, despite the fact that CREDO did not look at NYC schools at all and Hoxby focused on them. Now we have a better comparison. But CREDO study director Macke Raymond doesn't see CREDO study 1 in conflict with CREDO study 2. As she??explained to Ed Week, "What New York City provides us with is an opportunity to step back and say, how is it possible that one market can have as robust a quality sector, where in other markets they're not able to get that kind of performance?"
What a great question. Here's a theory you may have heard before (probably here on Flypaper, in fact): New York state's tight charter cap forced that state's authorizing bodies to be more selective when granting charters. Far be it from me to advocate making the charter movement's life harder, but you have to admit: In light of RTTT's push to eliminate or at least seriously raise charter caps, this does raise some very interesting questions.
--Stafford Palmieri
