Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools

The authors of these reports examined charter schools across the quality spectrum in order to learn which practices separate high-achieving from low-achieving schools. An expansive data collection and analysis project in New York City charter schools yielded an index of five educational practices that explains nearly half of the difference between high- and low-performing schools.

They then looked at preliminary evidence from demonstration projects in Houston and Denver and find the effects on student achievement to be strikingly similar to those of many high-performing charter schools and networks.

They assert that this preliminary evidence points to a path forward to save the 3 million students in our nation’s worst-performing schools, for a price of about $6 billion, or less than $2,000 per student.



Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools - Full Discussion Paper

Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools - Full Policy Brief