For more than twenty-five years, public charter schools have served Ohio families and communities by providing quality educational options beyond the local school district. But it's no secret that we've also had a long-standing debate over whether increasing school choice impacts students who remain in traditional districts. In important--and…

High school graduation represents a pivotal milestone with far-reaching implications for an individual's future in social, economic, professional, and personal spheres. Despite its significance, only approximately 85.5% of students in the United States successfully earn their diploma each year, with groups such as black, Hispanic, American…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is the nation's largest network of public charter schools. KIPP began as a network of charter middle schools designed to serve underserved communities, with the goal of closing achievement gaps and preparing students to succeed in college. KIPP has since expanded its model to include elementary and high…

Background and Purpose: Each school year, in the state of Texas, students unexpectedly change schools almost 450,000 times. In the Houston region alone, students change schools more than 60,000 times. These school changes are not random, tend to be geographically contained though not within school districts, and carry significant ramifications in…

Thanks to rapid increases in the state's Hispanic and Asian populations, the number of Texas students classified as English Learners has surged in the past decade, from approximately 830,000 in 2010 to more than 1.1 million today. In the charter sector, change has been even more rapid. In 2010, 16 percent of charter students in Texas were…

In 1995, Texas created its first charter schools, which consisted of open enrollment schools of choice, as part of education initiative/reform. However, low graduation rates among public schools in the state persisted. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that might contribute to students who received vouchers to attend private or…

This paper examines the economics of education in the United States, highlighting twelve key facts that illustrate the pivotal role of education in empowering individuals and driving economic progress. It underscores the persistent racial and economic disparities in educational achievement and attainment, particularly exacerbated by the COVID-19…

We study the combined effects of charter schools, and their various mechanisms, on a national level and across multiple outcomes. Using difference-in-differences and fixed effects methods, we find that charter entry (above 10 percent market share) increases high school graduation rate in geographic districts by about 2-4 percentage points and…

Charter schools are funded and governed by public agencies but operated by private organizations under government contracts. As private organizations, charter schools have more autonomy over their operations than traditional public schools. Charter school teachers typically do not work under collective bargaining units or have tenure protections,…

This digest provides descriptive, aggregated statistics related to the experiences of 10 cohorts of graduates of City Schools from school years 2010-11 through 2019-20. The compilers use multiple indicators of college access, including the process of applying for college and financial aid, enrollment in the fall following high school graduation,…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students enrolled in Secondary (9-12) alternative educational schools, i.e.--district schools vs. charter schools, demonstrate significant differences in achievement as measured by the 2019 A-F Letter Grade Accountability System, as well as to determine whether district and charter schools differ…

Using data on charter and public school districts in Texas, we test the hypothesis that the labor practices in charter schools, in particular their ability to easily dismiss poorly performing teachers, diminishes the negative effect of teacher turnover on student achievement and graduation rates in comparison to public schools. We find some…

The State of Alaska, by some measures the United States' most rural state, has long supported correspondence schools, a popular school choice option available to all students statewide and used primarily by homeschooled students. This paper first explores Alaska correspondence schools in historical context, and then quantifies capture rate,…

In 2009 the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) published "Charter School Success or Selective Out-Migration of Low-Achievers? The Effects of Enrollment Management on Student Achievement." The report profiles Boston's high-performing charter high schools and middle schools and calculates attrition rates for individual schools…

The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) issues an annual report to the Governor, the Legislature, and the public, in accordance with the Charter School Act, RCW 28A.710.250. The statute requires the annual charter school report to include the following: (1) the performance of the state's charter schools during the preceding school year,…