Federally sponsored study: Boston’s charter high schools work

The National Center for Education Statistics’ What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was established a number of years ago to find valuable needles in the incredibly large haystack of mostly unscientific, if not outright garbage, studies on education.

WWC applies fairly rigorous rules to evaluate the real quality of research. Reports that don’t meet minimum quality standards are identified as such and not used.

Recently, the WWC released an update review of a report titled “Stand and Deliver: Effects of Boston’s Charter High Schools on College Preparation, Entry, and Choice.”

We think the findings in this quality-reviewed report are worth noting. The report summary says:

“The study authors found that enrollment in Boston charter schools increased student achievement in math and reading, the rates of taking AP exams, performance on AP exams and the SAT, and college enrollment at 2-year colleges within 6 months of high school graduation. The study also found that enrollment in Boston charter schools decreased the fraction of students graduating within 4 years, but there were no statistically significant impacts on the fraction of students graduating within 5 years. The study also reported that enrollment in Boston charter schools improved performance on AP exams in Science, Calculus, and US History. Finally, the study reported impacts of Boston charter school enrollment on some key outcomes for student subgroups defined by gender, eligibility for free and reduced price lunch, and special education status. For several of these subgroups, the study found statistically significant improvements in student achievement in math and reading and the rates of taking AP exams.”

In other words, while some students needed an extra year to graduate (which actually is not a bad thing, considering that most charter-school students enter these schools of choice with below average educational levels), the Boston charters examined by the study produced all sorts of positive results.

One last note – The federal study review says:

“The WWC determined that the presentation of the findings in the study was credible.”

That’s a whole lot more than can be said for a really high percentage of so-called research about education, most definitely including charter schools.