This study uses oodles of data and the world’s most extended metaphor to examine the relationship between the percentage of the planet’s students who enroll in a charter school and the average achievement of all publicly enrolled students. (Prior studies have examined “charter school enrollment share” at the district, county, metro, commuting zone, state, country, and continent level.)
Overall, the latest study finds that charter school research is boring and nobody cares anymore. For example, a 10 percent increase in the number of charter school studies is associated with a 0.0000001 percent increase in the percentage of Americans who understood that charters are good for kids, while a 10 percent increase in the number of pro-charter op-eds had no discernible impact on anything.
According to the authors, the underwhelming results suggest that education research doesn’t matter very much and that education researchers should get a life, or at least a sense of humor (something that most lack, according to prior research). To facilitate this work, the authors suggest that everyone stop studying charter schools, delete their Twitter accounts, and attempt a face-to-face conversation with an actual human being.
Zoom doesn’t count.
SOURCE: Eenuffe Isenough, “Sad: The real impact of Charter School Studies,” School Choice Review (March 2022).
