By: Don Driggers

According to an extensive study conducted by the Stanford University Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, charter schools in the United States are outperforming traditional public schools by significant margins, especially in urban areas like New York City.

The study’s director, Margaret Macke Raymond, emphasized that these results are not a coincidence and that the charter school sector has shown improvement nationwide.

In the past, national research indicated that the achievement gap between charter and traditional public-school students was narrower in reading, with public school students slightly ahead in math. However, the new study reveals that charter schools have made substantial strides in recent years, particularly noteworthy considering the learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Raymond suggested that policymakers and elected officials should seriously consider expanding charter schools or replicating their success.

The Stanford researchers analyzed the test results of 4 million students from 29 states, New York City, and Washington, DC, between 2015 and 2019. They translated the gains into the equivalent number of days of learning for students. The findings are as follows:

On average, charter school students demonstrated 16 extra days of learning in reading and 6 extra days in math compared to their local traditional public-school peers.

Urban charter school students had 29 additional days of growth per year in reading and 28 additional days in math compared to their traditional public-school counterparts.

The performance of charter school students in New York City and upstate New York was among the best in the country.

Charter school students in New York City gained an additional 80 days of learning in math and 42 days in reading compared to their peers in local districts. Similarly, upstate charter school students outperformed their traditional public school counterparts by 73 days in math and a staggering 75 days in reading.

Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 49 charter schools in New York City, achieved exceptional results, with students gaining 206 additional days of learning in math and 107 days in reading compared to surrounding traditional public-school peers.

Achievement First NY network, with 23 charter schools, saw students achieve 66 more days of learning in reading and a remarkable 146 additional days in math compared to their traditional public-school peers.

Kipp NYC network, consisting of 18 charter schools, had students surpass their neighboring public-school peers by 72 more days in reading and 138 additional days in math.

Despite the evidence of charter school successes, Democratic state lawmakers, influenced by anti-charter teachers’ unions, have refused to lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in New York. Only 14 new schools were permitted to open during the 2023 legislative session by reusing existing charter licenses.

The study also revealed that black and Hispanic students in charter schools, as well as students in poverty, fared significantly better in math and reading compared to their traditional school peers.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) attempted to dismiss the positive findings of the study for charter school students. A spokesperson for UFT claimed that until charter schools admit and support all students, including those with the greatest needs, comparisons like this study are pointless.