By Drew Jacobs, Senior Director of Policy, Research, and Evaluation at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

New research from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Sarah Cohodes (University of Michigan) and Astrid Pineda (Columbia University) finds that both urban and nonurban charter schools in Massachusetts increase college enrollment and college graduation rates compared to district peers. 

Using randomized admissions lotteries from 2002-2014 that corresponds to students who were projected to complete high in 2006-2018, the authors were able to examine college enrollment and completion and determine a positive casual impact of charter schools in Massachusetts on these measures. The study included students in 15 urban charter schools and 9 nonurban charter schools. 

Specifically, the study finds that urban charter schools boost four-year college enrollment by 8 percentage points and nonurban charter schools boost college enrollment by 11 percentage points. The study also finds that urban charter schools boost degree attainment by 5 percentage points and nonurban charter schools boost degree attainment by 10 percentage points. 

In addition to the positive college outcomes data for charter schools, Cohodes and Pineda’s paper offer several findings that challenge conventional wisdom on how to measure charter schools and underscore the importance of multiple measures in evaluating charter school success.  

Beyond the paper’s main findings, two big things to take away from this research are: 

1. Multiple measures really matter in evaluating charter schools. Previous research found that urban charter schools in Massachusetts, most of which were high academic press, “no excuses” schools had a positive impact on college preparation measures (test scores) while nonurban charter schools had a null or negative effect on these measures. However, this study finds that even though nonurban charter schools had a negative or null effect on college prep measures, students who attended nonurban charter schools were very successful in college both in terms of enrollment and completion. These findings challenge one of the most fundamental ways we measure charter performance—test scores. Test scores still matter and are important to measure, but this research challenges us to look beyond these measures to postsecondary data to get a full picture of the impact of charter schools. This research also cautions us against using just one measure to evaluate charter school performance.
   
2. School models matter and need to be researched further. The authors of the study point out that the urban charter schools in the study were typically no excuses while the nonurban charter schools were comprised of a wide range of charter school models. Yet, despite differences in college preparation measures, both urban and nonurban charter schools, a wide range of charter school models, yielded positive college outcomes for their graduates. As states consider various accountability arrangements going forward and as we think about evaluating the success of charter schools across the nation, we need to have a better understanding of different charter school types and the measures that make the most sense to evaluate the unique range of charter schools—everything from alternative charter schools to Montessori charter schools to STEM charter schools to charter schools serving immigrant populations.

This research from Cohodes and Pineda is yet another example of how charter schools—schools that are granted autonomy to meet the unique needs of communities across the nation—are having a positive impact on students not just during their K-12 experience but in college and in life.  

The preceding article originally appeared on August 8, 2024 at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools website and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.