Study: Michigan Charter Schools maybe a little better than traditional public schools

A new study that compares the differences in student performance at charter schools and traditional public schools in Michigan found charters have a slight edge. This is in contrast to the majority of studies on the subject that have found essentially no difference in performance between the two types of schools.

The study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University examined data collected by the Michigan Department of Education between 2005 and 2011. It was recently posted on the National Education Policy Center’s website.

The report’s conclusions include:

• "On average, it was estimated that charter school students in Michigan experience more academic growth than traditional public school students. Overall, this difference was estimated to be 0.06 standard deviations for both reading and math. This is equivalent to about a 1/10 of 1% of the variation in academic growth is associated with school type.
• "Estimated differences were greatest for elementary schools, and were close to nonexistent for multi-level schools (i.e., those that combine middle school with elementary, high, or both).
• "On average, the gap in academic growth between white students and black and Hispanic students was smaller in charter schools than in traditional public schools. Conversely, the gap in growth between students in special education programs and other students was greater in charter schools."