A new Massachusetts study suggests that charter schools located in urban communities there significantly improved their students' mathematics and language arts performance on state assessments, while nonurban charter schools did not, and, in some cases, even appeared to hurt students academically.
The findings come in a working paper by researchers with the Cambridge, Mass.-based National Bureau of Economic Research. In the paper, released Aug. 22, the researchers trace the greater student academic growth in urban charter schools to the "no excuses" instructional approaches typical of urban charters in that state.
"These urban schools are seeing this intensive urgency to get these kids who are way behind up to level, whereas the suburban schools are seeing their mission differently," said Ms. Lake, whose Seattle-based center, affiliated with the University of Washington Bothell, oversees the National Charter School Research Project, which was not affiliated with Massachusetts charter study.
The researchers for the Massachusetts study—led by Joshua Angrist, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—tracked nearly 10,000 secondary school students in the Bay State who participated in entrance lotteries at 24 urban and nonurban charters from 2001-02 to 2009-10, and then compared their scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, the state's accountability test.
Massachusetts' charter law so far has led to more charter schools in urban areas than in suburban or rural districts. While only 9 percent of the students, statewide, in a district can attend a charter school, that figure doubles to 18 percent for the lowest-performing 10 percent of districts, all of which are in urban areas.
The researchers found that students attending urban charter schools were more likely to be poor and from a racial minority than those at suburban charters, and that they had considerably lower MCAS scores before attending the charters. In both math and language arts, the urban students scored about 40 percent of a standard deviation below the state average for middle and high school, while students in the nonurban charters scored, on average, more than 20 percent of a standard deviation above the state average in those subjects and grades.
Both Mr. Lippard and Ms. Lake noted that charters that open in higher-performing suburban districts tend to focus on an instructional theme, such as performing arts or language immersion, rather than on a straight college-preparatory track with an intensive test focus.
More than 70 percent of urban charter administrators said they fully or partially followed a "no excuses" charter model—popularized by national charter groups such as the San Francisco-based KIPP and the New York City-based Uncommon Schools—that focuses on intense math and reading instruction, extended learning time, discipline, and parent involvement. No nonurban charters identified with the approach.
The situation may change as the number of charters in nonurban districts rises. More administrators and parents in regular public schools are fighting charters in wealthier and better-performing districts outside New York and Chicago, for example. In New Jersey, the Princeton International Academy Charter School filed suit in August against the Princeton Regional, South Brunswick Township, and West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional school boards for blocking its attempt to open a Mandarin-language dual-immersion charter school.
This November, the center's National Charter School Research Project plans to release results of a study of achievement of about 13,000 students attending schools run by 20 charter managers nationwide, comparing the effectiveness of different charter strategies.
"Charter Operators Spell Out Barriers to 'Scaling Up'," August 24, 2011.