“Everyone Wins” through NYC Chartering

Marcus Winters’ new Manhattan Institute study is terrific win-win news, nicely complementing the recent NYC study by Caroline Hoxby: Not only do the NYC charter schools appear to produce large achievement gains for students who attend, but they also have the effect of benefitting students who remain in the traditional public schools.  What’s more, the positive competitive effects are largest for lower-performing students.

Researchers have been trying to nail “competitive effects” of charters for years, and critics have assumed that charters take more adept kids and leave others behind.  Winters’ work joins others in FL, NC and TX that find positive district effects, but a couple of others have found negative effects (MI and OH).  Most of previous research, however, seems to see little charter impact on the performance of traditional public schools (see RAND’s study that includes Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and San Diego). 

We’re delighted to see a well-done study tilting this balance toward the positive. And of course we hope for more reports showing that charter competition is a tide that lifts all boats. Maybe that will be more true as charters gain market share, and districts find that substantive change in their own practice (not just better marketing) is required to meet the competitive challenge.  For now, it’s fair to say that as a general rule, charter schools are not harming students who remain in traditional public schools – and when district leadership responds as NY has done, with a big welcome mat and a spate of district improvements, all kids win.