With the charter sector’s steady expansion comes the need for a deeper understanding of these schools’ performance, their effects on traditional public schools in their vicinity, and the potential reasons for their success with students—including those from disadvantaged communities. To support policymakers and practitioners in navigating this evolving landscape, we both conduct and commission rigorous studies on these topics. Through these analyses, we aim to shed light on best practices, challenges, and opportunities within the sector, thus ensuring that charter schools can continue to improve and provide high-quality education to all students.
Below find our most recent charter school studies and the pressing question that each addresses.
1. Can charter school authorizers predict which schools will be successful?
In the study, Do Authorizer Evaluations Predict the Success of New Charter Schools? (March 2024), University of Southern California’s Adam Kho, and his coauthors, Shelby Leigh Smith (USC) and Douglas Lee Lauen (UNC) examine the extent to which authorizers’ evaluations of new charter school applications predict their subsequent success.
2. Do charter schools protect students from the harmful effects of having to move to a new home?
In New Home, Same School: Charters and residentially mobile students (January 2024), University of North Carolina’s Douglas Lee Lauen asks if enrolling in charter schools offers unique benefits to students who experience “residential instability.”
3. What percentage of students choose something other than a district-run school?
In The Education Competition Index: Quantifying competitive pressure in America’s 125 largest school districts (December 2023), Fordham's David Griffith and Jeanette Luna estimate how much competition the 125 largest U.S. school districts face for various student groups and how the answer to that question has changed in the past decade.
4. Do charter schools do a better job of educating English language learners than regular public schools?
In Charter Schools and English Learners in the Lone Star State (May 2023), Deven Carlson of Oklahoma University investigates the effects of charter schools on the achievement, attainment, and earnings of English Learners in Texas, a state with a rapidly growing English Learner population.
5. Do charter schools drain funds from other public schools?
In Think Again: Do charter schools drain resources from traditional public schools? (March 2023)—which is part of our Think Again series— David Griffith considers the evidence for and against the claims that districts’ finances are compromised by the presence of charter schools.
6. Do teachers expect more from students in charter schools?
In The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools (November 2022), American University’s Seth Gershenson explores the differences in teacher expectations for charter and regular public schools, as well as how they influence student achievement and other key outcomes.
7. Do for-profit charter schools perform worse than non-profit charter schools?
In For-Profit Charter Schools: An evaluation of their spending and outcomes (September 2022), Stéphane Lavertu and Long Tran of the Ohio State University look at how charter schools’ use of for-profit management organizations impacts their spending and effectiveness.
8. Does higher enrollment in charter schools help students in regular public schools?
In Still Rising: Charter School Enrollment and Student Achievement at the Metropolitan Level (January 2022), Fordham’s David Griffith assesses the relationship between charter school enrollment growth and academic achievement in large metropolitan areas.
9. Do charter schools take money away from regular public schools?
In Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances (February 2021), Mark Weber of New Jersey Policy Perspective examines the financial impact of independent charter schools (those not authorized by traditional schools) on traditional school districts.
10. Do teachers improve faster in charter or regular public schools?
In Teacher Effectiveness and Improvement in Charter and Traditional Public Schools (December 2020), George Mason University’s Matthew Steinberg and University of Pennsylvania’s Haisheng Yang explore how teacher effectiveness varies and evolves in charters and traditional public schools.
