In a new policy brief released by the Buckeye Institute, we analyzed the changes in student passing rates on Ohio Proficiency Tests (OPT) made by traditional and charter schools in the Big Eight urban districts between 2002 and 2004. Using a statistical analysis that controlled for the demographic characteristics of race and income, our study found that:
- Ohio's charter schools made greater gains on the OPT than traditional district schools on five subsections of the Ohio Proficiency Test: 4th grade Citizenship, Math, Reading, and Writing, and 6th grade Writing.
- There were no statistically significant differences between district and charter schools on five other tests: 4th grade Science and 6th grade Citizenship, Math, Reading, and Science.
- In all cases charter schools performed as well or better than traditional district schools.
This kind of analysis gets beyond the over-simplified pabulum that is usually produced when test scores are released. There are two questions to ask: Who is making improvements in the achievement levels of their students, and what is a fair sample to compare charter school results to? We believe that proper answers to those questions oblige one to examine relative gains, not just absolute scores, and we believe charter schools should be compared to those schools they compete with directly, in this case the Big Eight urban districts.
When comparing Ohio charter school gains to those of their district-run counterparts in similar geographic and socio-economic environments, we find that they outperform their peers in 6 of 11 categories and do as well in the other five. This suggests that the current legislative cap on charter schools serves mainly to deny students in poor performing schools the chance to get a better education. It also shows that charter schools are viable alternatives to an unsatisfactory education status quo.
To get a copy of this new report, please visit http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/.
Matthew Carr is a policy analyst at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Columbus. Samuel R. Staley is a senior fellow at the Buckeye Institute and director of urban and land use policy at the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.