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What Can We Learn from Charter School Lotteries?
Abstract
We take a closer look at what can be learned about charter schools by pooling data from lottery-based impact estimates of the effect of charter school attendance at 113 schools. On average, each year enrolled at one of these schools increases math scores by 0.08 standard deviations and English/language arts scores by 0.04 standard deviations relative to attending a counterfactual public school. There is wide variation in impact estimates. To glean what drives this variation, we link these effects to school practices, inputs, and characteristics of fallback schools. In line with the earlier literature, we find that schools that adopt an intensive "No Excuses" attitude towards students are correlated with large positive effects on academic performance, with traditional inputs like class size playing no role in explaining charter school effects. However, we highlight that No Excuses schools are also located among the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. After accounting for performance levels at fallback schools, the relationship between the remaining variation in school performance and the entire No Excuses package of practices weakens. No Excuses schools are effective at raising performance in neighborhoods with very poor performing schools, but the available data have less to say on whether the No Excuses approach could help in nonurban settings or whether other practices would similarly raise achievement in areas with low-performing schools. We find that intensive tutoring is the only No Excuses characteristic that remains significant (even for nonurban schools) once the performance levels of fallback schools are taken into account.
... The meta-study suggests that results are better for students in private schools and that systems with school choice and vouchers are cost-effective even when municipal and private alternatives perform equally well. Cohodes and Parham (2021) assess the impact of U.S. charter schools in a review where most studies take advantage of the fact that students are assigned to charter schools by lottery (see also Chabrier et al. 2016;Epple et al. 2016). Like Swedish free schools, charter schools are publicly funded; about six percent of all American students are currently enrolled in these schools, 12 percent of which are for-profit entities. ...
... 2 While student results in charter schools are on par with comparable traditional alternatives overall, charter school test scores are consistently superior in metropolitan areas, particularly for non-white students and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups (Angrist et al. 2013;Walters 2018). Some effects are of such a magnitude that a few years in charter schools for black students would bridge the so-called black-white achievement performance gap (Chabrier et al. 2016). A crucial explanation for the large effects is that public schools in big American cities, which usually make up the comparison group, often do poorly. ...
... Yet, while it affects student test scores positively, the disciplinary component does not appear directly necessary (Felix 2020). Instead, these schools' intensive tutoring component seems to be the most critical factor behind student success (Dobbie and Fryer 2013;Chabrier et al. 2016; see also Nickow et al. 2020 for evidence regarding the robust literature on the gains from tutoring). As we remember, Biasi et al. (2021) also attributed the demonstrable success of CAL software in the classroom to that technology's ability to replicate tutoring. ...
... Kraft and Blazar (2017) examined the MATCH Teacher Coaching (MTC) model using a randomized experiment in New Orleans charter schools and found that participation in the coaching model resulted in improvement across a range of teacher practices consistent across subjects, grade levels, and schools. Some additional evidence suggests that successful charter policies and practices include teacher coaching and feedback within research on a number of school characteristics (Chabrier et al., 2016;Gleason, 2019). Missing from this research were the types and frequency of professional development experiences and opportunities offered to charter school teachers. ...
... Intensive tutoring has been considered a key characteristic of the "no excuses" charter models, with high achieving charter schools more likely to offer high-dosage tutoring consisting of small groups of students meeting with teachers multiple times per week (Dobbie & Fryer, 2013). One lottery-based charter school study found a strong positive association between high quality tutoring and math scores in charter schools even after controlling for other charter school characteristics (Chabrier et al., 2016). Another quantitative study found that students with the lowest levels of achievement made the highest gains, suggesting some measure of focus or emphasis on meeting the needs of struggling students (Cohodes, 2016). ...
... "No excuses" schools include well-known school networks such as KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Achievement First as well as stand-alone, independent charters (Krowka et al., 2017). These models typically include previously mentioned characteristics of strict discipline, high dosage tutoring, additional instruction time, teacher feedback, and a commitment to each student (Chabrier et al., 2016), with some quantitative studies finding positive academic effects but other qualitative studies providing critiques of some aspects of the model. Because of the common instructional aspects encompassed by this model and because a number of sources (20) used this label explicitly, we include "no excuses" research as a separate instructional design rather than as a school culture model. ...
Charter school policies have focused on improving three aspects of schools—autonomy, innovation, and accountability—with the intention of promoting advances in curriculum, instruction, and learning that lead to better student outcomes. However, most research on charter schools tends to neglect school organizational and instructional conditions. Overall, reviews show that charter schools have inconsistent effects on student achievement scores, a finding that masks heterogeneous effects among different types of charter schools, operators of charter schools, and authorizers of charter schools and the organizational and instructional conditions under which they operate. This systematic review of the literature focuses on what we know about the organization of charter schools and the resources—material, human, and social as well as professional development and teaching practices—within them. We end by identifying gaps where more research is needed.
... 5 Notably, charter school test scores are consistently superior in metropolitan areas, particularly for nonwhite students and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups (Angrist et al., 2012;Walters, 2018). Some effects are of such a magnitude that a few years in charter schools for black students would bridge the black-white achievement performance gap (Chabrier et al., 2016). ...
... A meta-analysis of No Excuses schools shows significant learning gains in mathematics and English (Cheng et al., 2017). These schools' intensive tutoring component seems to be the most critical factor behind student success (Chabrier et al., 2016;Dobbie & Fryer, 2013). ...
... 5 Notably, charter school test scores are consistently superior in metropolitan areas, particularly for nonwhite students and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups (Angrist et al., 2012;Walters, 2018). Some effects are of such a magnitude that a few years in charter schools for black students would bridge the black-white achievement performance gap (Chabrier et al., 2016). ...
... A meta-analysis of No Excuses schools shows significant learning gains in mathematics and English (Cheng et al., 2017). These schools' intensive tutoring component seems to be the most critical factor behind student success (Chabrier et al., 2016;Dobbie & Fryer, 2013). ...
... Our positive results for Massachusetts are qualitatively similar to those found by Ridley and Terrier (2022); and our small and imprecise effects for North Carolina are similar to those found by Gilraine et al. (2021). 13 As further corroboration, our results also align with prior findings that charter school effects are more positive in urban areas, for ELA (versus math) scores, and possibly for no-excuses charters (CREDO 2023, Chabrier et al. 2016, Cohodes and Parham 2021, Campos and Kearns 2022, Angrist et al., 2013b. ...
... standard deviations more than in non-MA districts. This pattern is consistent with prior charter school participant effects by urbanicity (CREDO, 2023, Chabrier, Cohodes, andOreopoulos 2016). ...
... Researchers who have utilized lottery studies have generally found that lottery winners -and thus urban chartersexperience a higher increase in student achievement. (Chabrier et al., 2016). For example, in a study focused on Boston, Abdulkadiroglu et al. found that both middle and charter high schools substantially increased their students' academic scores in English / Language Arts and Math (Abdulkadiroglu et al., 2011). ...
... These oversubscribed schools whose students are mostly low-income or minority are almost exclusively urban charter schools, which means they cannot be generalized to charter schools as a whole. Additionally, as far as we can tell, only around 26% of charter middle schools were likely to be oversubscribed in the 2006-2007 school year (Chabrier et al., 2016). ...
As charter schools continue to increase their presence throughout the U.S., there remains a considerable debate over charter schools’ impact on student achievement. Appearing at the end of the 20th century, the push for this new form of education has largely arisen from families who are unsatisfied with their traditional school districts and demand for more school options to accommodate their student’s own unique needs. Charter schools, granted greater autonomy over their curriculums, have been promoted as a better alternative to the traditional district school, particularly in promoting access to higher quality education for students in economically depressed communities. But whether they truly do so is quite nuanced – as well as their impacts on remaining traditional public schools. After juxtaposing the funding structures of charters and district schools to establish background for the debate, this research dives into numerous empirical studies detailing charter school effectiveness on student achievement by comparing the English and Math test scores of students from charter schools against their traditional district school peers. While the results are quite mixed, there does seem to be consistent improvement among “effective” urban charter school and specific charter school networks. If circumstances were to remain, there also arises questions over what policies should be implemented to help expand student access to these effective charter schools. In response, this article considers three recommendations, some already being tested in select cities, for policymakers to consider as the search to promote education equity and access for every student in American cities continues.
... It is generally impossible to conduct such an experiment. But where there is more demand than supply for charter school places, schools may use a lottery to determine who will be offered a place, a fact that has been exploited in many studies, especially in the USA (Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos 2016). This type of natural experiment approximates the conditions of a randomized trial in some respects. ...
... 23 These results suggest a substantial advantage in educational achievement for students enrolled in private schools as opposed to public schools. These effects are consistent with those identified in the academic literature (see, for example, Abdulkadiroğlu et al. 2011;Angrist et al. 2002;Angrist, Pathak, and Walters 2013;Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos 2016;Fryer 2011, 2015). ...
This article investigates the effect of private lower secondary schools on student achievement in France. I use propensity score matching on a large French database to estimate the effect of enrollment in a private school on academic achievement as measured by ninth-grade test scores in three school subjects. I find that private school attendance has a large and significant effect on educational success. Boys' (girls') scores in private school were between 0.193 (0.138) and 0.222 (0.198) standard deviations higher on standardized tests in ninth grade. A series of checks confirm the robustness of these results.
... These findings beg the question of how "no-excuses" charter schools produce their positive results. Although various factors may underlie their success (Berends 2015), a recent evaluation of their effectiveness across several cities (Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos 2016) concluded that the characteristic of no-excuses schools that mattered most is the use of required intensive tutoring. Rigorous studies of tutoring effects have found results of tutoring that are as large or larger than the effects of having a good teacher (Ritter et al. 2009). ...
... No Child Left Behind-type accountability systems had only small positive effects (Dee and Jacob 2011) and widespread undesirable consequences (Jennings and Sohn 2014). The possibility that high-intensity tutoring is behind the positive effects on achievement of no-excuses charter schools (Chabrier et al. 2016) is potentially of great value, but the feasibility of tutoring for inequality reduction depends on how much we know about tutoring and its effects, costs, and scalability. Is it feasible to improve the effectiveness of less than intensive tutoring, for example, through better tutor training, or through the combination of traditional in-person tutoring with online tutoring using (continually improving) educational software? ...
Social inequality is a central topic of research in the social sciences. Decades of research have deepened our understanding of the characteristics and causes of social inequality. At the same time, social inequality has markedly increased during the past 40 years, and progress on reducing poverty and improving the life chances of Americans in the bottom half of the distribution has been frustratingly slow. How useful has sociological research been to the task of reducing inequality? The authors analyze the stance taken by sociological research on the subject of reducing inequality. They identify an imbalance in the literature between the discipline’s continual efforts to motivate the plausibility of large-scale change and its lesser efforts to identify feasible strategies of change either through social policy or by enhancing individual and local agency with the potential to cumulate into meaningful progress on inequality reduction.
... Many CMOs in the US operate so-called 'no excuses' policies. While these have been associated with better attainment outcomes in some studies, analyses from New York City and Massachusetts, in which different elements of the approaches of successful charter schools were separated, suggested that the very strict behaviour policies associated with this approach are not a necessary correlate of improved attainment [39,40]. ...
Recent decades have seen the emergence of new forms of governance in education. Market-oriented education policies have seen schools removed from local government oversight, and instead sees them run by independent school trusts. This begs the question of what effectiveness and quality in a trust framework mean. In this paper, we review the literature from four countries with relatively comparable trust structures: England, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US, to look at the evidence base on trust quality, leadership, and effectiveness. We find that the evidence base itself is relatively limited in scope. It is strongest in relation to impact on the organisation, especially with regards to the importance of HR, relationships within the trust, and quality assurance mechanisms. There is evidence at the network level on the importance of knowledge and skills of governors, effective forms of collaboration, and a shared vision across the trust. Trusts can improve the quality of education through professional development of teachers, developing consistent approaches, and sharing knowledge. Evidence of how trusts can enhance their impact in the community is limited.
... This is in part because, lacking plausibly random variation in charter school policy at the market-level, the literature tackles pieces of the larger puzzle separately. 1 The first strand of work asks whether students who choose to attend charter schools benefit. While compelling lottery-based evidence demonstrates that certain charter schools are highly-effective (Chabrier et al., 2016), test score value-added and matching estimates suggest that many charters are not better than the average traditional public school. The second branch of literature examines whether charter school choice has positive spillovers on students who remain in public schools. ...
... The general conclusion is that positive effects are usually found in deprived urban neighbourhoods with very poor-performing public schools. Successful schools are usually those who adopted intensive after class tutoring programmes (for a review, see Chabrier et al. 2016). ...
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
In the 2000s, Swedish elementary and secondary school students’ scores in international assessments began to fall, which suggests both a long-term and substantial weakening of the Swedish school system. The chapter provides a detailed presentation of what is known about the performance of Swedish students before the first TIMSS assessment in 1995 and the subsequent decline in international tests. It shows that the downward trend in attainment is a result of deteriorating scores across the board, from the highest-performing students to those who obtain the lowest scores. Moreover, the chapter suggests that the decline in knowledge among Swedish students is likely to have strong effects on future economic growth. A rough calculation based on updated cross-country estimates suggests that the Swedish growth rate per capita may fall by 0.4–0.5 percentage points.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
The chapter shows how the educational trend of “post-truth” schooling continued in Sweden into the twenty-first century. It offers a close reading of the national curriculum that was in force at the time of writing (in 2021). The chapter also discusses how the Swedish school system in just a few years went from being very strictly regulated to being the polar opposite. These changes included a radical marketization of primary and secondary schooling that is unparalleled in any wealthy Western country. The chapter analyzes the school choice market in Sweden and describes how it interacts with postmodern social constructivist ideas, to the detriment of the teaching of knowledge in a classical sense.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
In many Western countries, school systems are in deep crisis. Average results are disappointing, differences across schools and neighborhoods are increasing, and a student’s family background and gender have become more decisive for how well he or she fares. The chapter provides some reflections on the way forward for Sweden and Western education in general. It suggests that a reform strategy involving a paradigm shift in what is arguably the most crucial institution of the school system—the stipulated view of truth and knowledge—has the potential to yield radical improvement.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
The chapter describes the evolution of the view of knowledge in the Swedish school system. It begins in the immediate postwar years and ends in the mid-1990s with a discussion of the radical national curriculum enacted in 1994. This curriculum consolidated the paradigm of “post-truth” schooling. It expresses, explicitly or implicitly, many of the notions that are emblematic of the postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge. It suggests that there are no objectively established facts and that what is legitimized as knowledge is a product of social and historical forces. Moreover, the curriculum recommended mixing academic subjects, incorporating “deconstruction” into schoolwork, and giving students the major responsibility for the content of their education. The chapter demonstrates that the school system of Nazi Germany was grossly misinterpreted in Sweden to justify a view that the teaching of knowledge could potentially be subversive to democracy.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
There has never been a golden age in Swedish education. However, there was a “silver age” that began approximately in the second half of the nineteenth century and ended around 1960. The chapter outlines this history. It demonstrates that the established view of the previous school system is deeply misleading. In fact, an increasing share of young cohorts were offered excellent educational opportunities. After World War I, a truly national curriculum was introduced that imparted relevant knowledge and skills to students based on the principles of teacher-led presentation, repetition, and practice, and by matching the sequence of topics to each student’s maturity and prior knowledge. A key element in the modernization of the educational system was the state’s preoccupation with ensuring that highly qualified and motivated persons were attracted to the teaching profession.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
The chapter outlines two conflicting visions of knowledge: the classical view and the postmodern social constructivist view. According to the classical view, the purpose of schooling is to give students the kind of valuable knowledge and skills, including relevant knowledge of the wider culture in which they are expected to spend their lives as adults, that they cannot acquire in any other way. On the other hand, the postmodern social constructivist view rejects the existence of objective knowledge. In the context of schooling, this translates to a preference for student-directed pedagogy, the mixing of subjects, and an emphasis on developing generic critical thinking rather than on acquiring domain-specific knowledge. The chapter argues that the classical view is consistent with both modern scientific research and received wisdom. Moreover, it suggests that the stipulated view of knowledge is the single most important institution for the functioning and development of any school system.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
A significant drop in students’ knowledge and skills is not the only problem facing Sweden’s schools. The chapter discusses the emergence of a systemic malaise that includes grade inflation, increasing gender differences in performance, and declining civic mindedness. Moreover, the work environment is marred by rising levels of bullying, unacceptable levels of rule-breaking, truancy, and a high incidence of mental health problems. The chapter also discusses the deterioration of working conditions for teachers and the flight from the teaching profession. Teachers self-report that their professional status is low in society, teacher-training programs do not attract top-level students, roughly half of the students in those programs drop out, and a substantial share of those who graduate leave the profession after a couple of years. The wholesale introduction of NPM methods has robbed teachers of the professional autonomy that used to be a key element of the profession’s attractiveness.
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
The chapter summarizes our main findings and examines the effects of “post-truth” schooling in combination with marketized education on students and teachers in Sweden. It does this in three parts. First, it discusses the deteriorating academic performance, including the gender difference in knowledge attainment and the rise of grade inflation. Then, it looks at the health and attitudes of students. Finally, the chapter discusses the unattractiveness of the teaching profession.KeywordsGrade inflationPostmodernismStudent wellbeingTeacher status
... 19 There is now considerable evidence regarding which teaching methods are efficient, and research shows that by using these methods children from underprivileged environments can also perform well. See, e.g., Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016), Fryer and Dobbie (2013), and Woessman (2013). and students' knowledge in other societies-for example, the Canadian province of Québec, the United Kingdom,Finland,and France. ...
Foreign observers of Sweden have attributed the country’s socially inclusive economic growth, which was sustained during nearly one hundred years, to the expansion of the Social Democratic welfare state. However, this analysis overlooks the fundamental causes of Sweden’s economic takeoff. The crucial feature that Sweden exhibited was its uniquely large and evenly distributed stock of human capital. A widespread appreciation for learning and the development of education from the 1600s onwards were the key drivers of the strong development. Against this background, the decline of the Swedish educational system should be cause for serious concern about the country’s future. The chapter provides a summary of the problems regarding schooling in Sweden and presents our view of their causes. The origin of Sweden’s academic decline is mainly attributable to a phenomenon that we refer to as “post-truth” schooling—education based on a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge.
... Rather, our descriptive results might nudge policymakers to consider a broad spectrum of other cost-effective evidence-based policies benefiting disadvantaged students. For example, experimental evidence supports the expansion of tutoring (Nickow et al., 2020) and "No Excuses" charter schools in urban areas (Chabrier et al., 2016;Gleason, 2019). In addition, well-implemented policies that target early learners may disrupt the predictability of student achievement gaps that form as soon as children enter school and stay at a similar level in the early elementary grades (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). ...
This article examines the differences between low-income and high-income students in access to effective teachers in 26 districts around the U.S. Measured differences in access are small--low-income students are nearly as likely as high-income students to have an effective teacher.
... Take for example, Mexico's conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades. Since its inception in 1997, it has been replicated in over 52 countries around the world. 1 Other examples of policy interventions that have been exported to various settings include pay-forperformance schemes for teachers, charter schools (Chabrier et al., 2016), access to microcredit (Banerjee et al., 2015b), and BRAC's ultra-poor graduation program (Banerjee et al., 2015a). ...
This paper presents a framework for how to incorporate prior sources of information into the design of a sequential experiment. This information can come from many sources, including previous experiments, expert opinions, or the experimenter's own introspection. We formalize this problem using a multi-prior Bayesian approach that maps each source to a Bayesian model. These models are aggregated according to their associated posterior probabilities. We evaluate our framework according to three criteria: whether the experimenter learns the parameters of the payoff distributions, the probability that the experimenter chooses the wrong treatment when deciding to stop the experiment, and the average rewards. We show that our framework exhibits several nice finite sample properties, including robustness to any source that is not externally valid.
... The relative newness and on-going growth of charter schools has inspired an extensive body of research. The focus has been on their performance in increasing student achievement relative to traditional public schools, with the primary identification challenge being student selection into charter schools on unobservables. 4 Here we provide a brief summary and refer the reader to Epple, Romano, and Zimmer (2016) for a comprehensive review of this research up through about 2015, and to Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos (2016) for review of lottery studies of charter schools. 5 The thrust of the literature is that: (i) Overall, charter schools have mixed performance in increasing achievement, but with an upward trend and average positive gains in urban areas (see especially National Charter School Study, CREDO 2015 6 ). ...
... These studies show that new, non-governmental schools which combine a suite of teaching practices and other components known to be effective can substantially improve learning, relative to traditional public schools. Furthermore, gains are largest in contexts, similar to ours, where the status quo option is of particularly low quality (Chabrier, Cohodes, and Oreopoulos 2016). ...
... Rather, our descriptive results might nudge policymakers to consider a broad spectrum of other cost-effective evidence-based policies benefiting disadvantaged students. For example, experimental evidence supports the expansion of tutoring (Nickow et al., 2020) and "No Excuses" charter schools in urban areas (Chabrier et al., 2016;Gleason, 2019). In addition, well-implemented policies that target early learners may disrupt the predictability of student achievement gaps that form as soon as children enter school and stay at a similar level in the early elementary grades (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). ...
We examine access to effective teachers for low-income students in 26 geographically dispersed school districts over a 5-year period. We measure teacher effectiveness using a value-added model that accounts for measurement error in prior test scores and peer effects. Differences between the average value added of teachers of high- and low-income students are 0.005 standard deviations in English/language arts and 0.004 standard deviations in math. Differences between teachers of Black, Hispanic, and White students are also small. Rearranging teachers to obtain perfect equity would do little to narrow the sizable student achievement gap between low- and high-income students. We also show that a higher proportion of novice teachers in high-poverty schools contributes negligibly to differences in access to effective teachers.
Researchers and policymakers have often debated whether urban schools of choice enroll students who are relatively advantaged compared to their traditional public school peers. Existing research has not adequately answered this question due to a reliance on inadequate quantitative measures of socioeconomic status and an emphasis on differences between racial or class groups rather than within them. This mixed-methods study contributes new evidence based on novel survey data and interviews with parents and educational leaders in Detroit. Detroit charter schools enroll significantly fewer students living in deep poverty than neighborhood schools, and selective schools enroll a distinctly advantaged population. These stratified enrollment patterns result from differences in geographic constraints, the influence of social networks, school type reputations, and school practices.
School districts are traditionally subject to a variety of state regulations on educational inputs. Absent regulations, policymakers fear that districts will make inappropriate decisions. However, it is also possible that regulations hinder schools from optimizing student learning. This article tests the salience of these hypotheses by estimating the impact of the Texas District of Innovation statute, which allows districts to opt out of regulations on inputs like teacher certification and class sizes. Using web-scraped implementation data, I document widespread exemptions and variation in regulatory preferences. However, staggered difference-in-differences analyses demonstrate a limited impact of deregulation within 4 years, suggesting that deregulation alone is a relatively weak lever for spurring innovation and changing the state of education.
We investigate the effects of private schools on reading and numeracy scores using rich population data. Conditional on lagged test scores and narrowly defined neighborhood indicators, Catholic and non-Christian faith private schools on average raise test scores by 0.18 standard deviations or more relative to the average public school, while non-Catholic Christian private schools have negligible effects. The effects of secular private “prep” schools are similar to those of Catholic schools, but selection bias is a greater concern in this case. We use schoolspecific estimates of effectiveness to investigate private school choice decisions and the determinants of private school effectiveness.
We estimate the longitudinal effects of charter schools authorized by different authorizing bodies on student achievement by using student-level data from Indiana. The results of our analysis point to substantial variation, especially between the state’s two largest authorizers: Ball State University and the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office. Some of the variation is driven by the types of operators these bodies authorize to run charter schools. However, operator effects are not consistent across authorizers, suggesting a more complex story about how authorization affects student achievement. These results point to the ways that public and private interests in charter schools may complicate the work of authorizers and suggest a need for policymakers to offer more guidance in how authorizers carry out their various accountability mandates.
The view that empirical strategies in economics should be transparent and credible now goes almost without saying. By revealing for whom particular instrumental variables (IV) estimates are valid, the local average treatment effects (LATE) framework helped make this so. This lecture uses empirical examples, mostly involving effects of charter and exam school attendance, to illustrate the value of the LATE framework for causal inference. LATE distinguishes independence conditions satisfied by random assignment from more controversial exclusion restrictions. A surprising exclusion restriction is shown to explain why enrollment at Chicago exam schools reduces student achievement. I also make two broader points: IV exclusion restrictions formalize commitment to clear and consistent explanations of reduced‐form causal effects; the credibility revolution in applied econometrics owes at least as much to compelling empirical analyses as to methodological insights.
Outsourcing the management of ninety-three randomly-selected government primary schools in Liberia to eight private operators led to learning gains of .18σ after one year, but these effects plateaued in subsequent years (reaching .2σ after three years). Beyond learning gains, the program reduced corporal punishment (by 4.6 percentage points from a base of 51%), but increased dropout (by 3.3 percentage points from a base of 15%) and failed to reduce sexual abuse. Despite facing similar contracts and settings, some providers produced uniformly positive results, while others present trade-offs between learning gains, access to education, child safety, and financial sustainability.
StudentU is a comprehensive program that provides education, nutrition, and social support services to disadvantaged middle and high school students outside of the regular school day. In this paper I investigate the effects of this multi-year program on the early high school outcomes of participating students by exploiting data from oversubscribed admissions lotteries. I find that the subgroup of lottery winners who entered the comprehensive program with low baseline achievement earned more course credits (0.82 credits), achieved higher grade point averages (0.37 grade points), and were less likely to be suspended (17.1 percentage points) during ninth grade than their lottery loser counterparts. Investigation of intervening variables indicates that on-time grade progress and decreases in course failure and disciplinary infractions are potential mediating channels. Using an index of early high school outcomes, I predict that lottery winners are around 4 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than lottery losers (5 percent effect). These results suggest that comprehensive services delivered outside of the regular school day have the potential to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged students.
Increased charter school demand creates a critical need for reliable information on outcomes. Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) has a series of influential reports on charter schools using the virtual control record (VCR) method. However, the VCR method has been criticized and the validity of CREDO’s findings challenged, leading to confusion among stakeholders. In this paper, we synthesize charter school evaluation literature, explain CREDO’s methods as well as other evaluation methods, and consider the limitations of matching in this context. We find that, while the matching techniques are imperfect, they provide necessary information on the greatest percentage of charter school students.
While school choice may enhance competition, incentives for public schools to raise productivity may be muted if public education is imperfectly substitutable with alternatives. This paper estimates the aggregate effect of charter school expansion on education quality while accounting for the horizontal differentiation of charter programs. Our research design leverages variation following the removal of North Carolina’s statewide cap to compare test score changes for students who lived near entering charters to those farther away. We find learning gains that are driven by public schools responding to increased competition from non-horizontally differentiated charter schools, even before those charters actually open. (JEL H75, I21, I28)
Children in many extremely poor, remote regions are growing up illiterate and innumerate despite high reported school enrollment ratios. Possible explanations for such poor outcomes include demand – for example, low perceived returns to education compared to opportunity cost; and supply – poor state provision and inability of parents to coordinate and finance better schooling. We conducted a cluster-randomized trial in rural Guinea Bissau to understand the effectiveness and cost of concerted supply-based interventions in such contexts. Our intervention created simple schools offering four years of education to primary-school aged children in lieu of the government. At endline, children receiving the intervention scored 58.1 percentage points better than controls on early grade reading and math tests, demonstrating that the intervention taught children to read and perform basic arithmetic, from a counterfactual condition of very high illiteracy. Our results provide evidence that particularly needy areas may require more concerted, dramatic interventions in education than those usually considered, but that such interventions hold great potential for increasing education levels among the world’s poorest people.
Harry J. Holzer and Sandy Baum’s recent book, Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students, provides an excellent up-to-date review of higher education. My review first summarizes its key themes: (i) who gains from college and why, (ii) mismatch and the need for more structure, (iii) problems with remediation, (iv) financial barriers, and (v) the promise of comprehensive support. I then critique the book’s proposed solutions using some of my own qualitative and quantitative data. Some recommendations are worth considering, while others are too expensive or unlikely to make a meaningful difference without addressing the underlying lack of preparedness and motivation of college students. I argue that making mandatory some existing services, such as application assistance and advice, proactive tutoring and advising, and greater career transition support, has the most immediate potential. (JEL I22, I23, I24)
Can schools that boost student outcomes reproduce their success at new campuses? We study a policy reform that allowed effective charter schools in Boston, Massachusetts to replicate their school models at new locations. Estimates based on randomized admission lotteries show that replication charter schools generate large achievement gains on par with those produced by their parent campuses. The average effectiveness of Boston’s charter middle school sector increased after the reform despite a doubling of charter market share. An exploration of mechanisms shows that Boston charter schools compress the distribution of teacher effectiveness and may reduce the returns to teacher experience, suggesting the highly standardized practices in place at charter schools may facilitate replicability. (JEL H75, I21, I28)
Creation of the nation's first charter school law surprised even its most ardent supporters. Today, schools need more collaboration from all corners in order to deliver a better education.
This paper considers the interpretation of evidence from social experiments when persons randomized out of a program being
evaluated have good substitutes for it, and when persons randomized into a program drop out to pursue better alternatives.
Using data from an experimental evaluation of a classroom training program, we document the empirical importance of control
group substitution and treatment group dropping out. Evidence that one program is ineffective relative to close substitutes
is not evidence that the type of service provided by all of the programs is ineffective, although that is the way experimental
evidence is often interpreted.