What impact
does losing students and resources to charter schools have on student
achievement
in Gotham's public schools?
STUDY REVEALS EFFECT OF CHARTER SCHOOL
COMPETITION ON
NEW YORK CITY'S PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS
New York, NY — Today, October 28th , Manhattan Institute
senior fellow Marcus A. Winters released a new study, "Everyone
Wins: How Charter Schools Benefit All New York City Public School
Students". The author uses student-level data to study the
effect of competition from charter schools on academic performance
in public schools.
This report is the first to focus on the effect that charter competition
has had on the math and reading proficiency of students who remain
in a New York City public school. Its findings compliment those
of recent research showing that students make academic gains when
they attend one of Gotham's charter schools.
Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) said, "The findings in this
study confirm what charter school advocates have believed for some
time and which other reports have shown; charter schools improve
student success across all schools. This makes a compelling case
for eliminating New York's cap on charter schools, something I am
calling for as part of the comprehensive reform initiatives in the
education bill I recently authored."
Highlights of the study include:
- For every 1 percent of a public school's students who leave
to attend a charter school, reading proficiency for those students
who remain at the school increased by about 0.02 standard deviations.
This directly contrasts the suspicions of charter school opponents
who claim that there would be a negative impact on public school
students.
- There is no effect on overall student achievement in math.
- The lowest-performing students in public school benefit in both
math and reading from charter school competition.
This new study demonstrates that even those students who remain
in New York City's public schools benefit from charter schools'
expansion. The findings of this report further demonstrate why New
York's cap on charter schools should be lifted.
The study can be accessed online at http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_60.htm.
If you would like to schedule an interview with the author, please
contact Kasia Zabawa at (646) 839-3342 or by email at kzabawa@manhattan-institute.org.
Marcus A. Winters Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Manhattan
Institute. He has performed several studies on a variety of education
policy issues, including high-stakes testing, charter schools, and
the effects of vouchers on the public school system. He received
his B.A. in political science with departmental honors from Ohio
University and his doctorate in economics from the University of
Arkansas.
The Manhattan Institute, a 501(c)(3), is a think
tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that
foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.
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