Charter School Productivity in Nine Cities
Johnson, Alison H., McGee, Josh, B., Wolf, Patrick J., May, Jay F., Maloney, Larry, D.
Based on CREDO’s findings, we estimate that charter school students across nine cities perform 2.4 points (0.06 standard deviations, or SD) higher on the eighth grade reading NAEP exam and 1.3 points higher (0.03 SD) on the math exam, compared to matched TPS students.
- We find that charter schools demonstrate an approximately 40 percent higher level of costeffectiveness than TPS on average across nine cities, earning an additional 4.4 points (0.12 SD or a 41 percent difference) on the eighth grade NAEP reading exam and an additional 4.7 points (0.12 SD or a 40 percent difference) in math per $1,000 of funding allocated per pupil (see Figure ES1).
- Charter schools demonstrate a higher level of cost-effectiveness than TPS in seven cities; we find the largest gaps in NAEP points per $1,000 of funding in Indianapolis—an additional 11 points or 0.29 SD in reading (a 76 percent increase in cost-effectiveness) and an additional 12 points or 0.3 SD in math (78 percent increase). There are also large gaps in Camden, with an additional seven points or
0.18 SD in reading and eight points or 0.19 SD in math (103 percent increase for both), and San Antonio, with an additional four points or 0.11 SD in reading (25 percent) and five points or
0.12 SD in math (23 percent).
- Across the nine cities, we estimate that attending a TPS for 13 years yields a 294 percent ROI, or $3.94 per dollar invested (see Figure ES2), whereas attending a charter school for 13 years yields a 525 percent ROI or $6.25 per dollar invested; therefore, we estimate that attending a charter school for 13 years, compared to a TPS, increases the ROI by 58.4 percent (about $2.30 in additional returns per dollar invested).
- The charter schooling ROI advantage varies across the eight cities for which we can make a TPS-charter school ROI comparison; it is largest in terms of dollars in Indianapolis (106 percent higher, or an additional $4.75 in returns per dollar invested) and largest in terms of percent in Camden (131 percent higher, or an additional $3.71 in returns per dollar invested).
