Charter Schools at the Extremes of School Performance: Knowing, Understanding, and Confronting Major Performance Differences

• In Event: Inside Charter Schools: Teachers and Performance Differences

Abstract

Studies that compare the performance of charter schools and traditional public schools usually portray one category outperforming the other. Unlike those studies, our analysis of data on California public schools suggests that, relative to traditional public schools, charter schools are becoming disproportionately represented at both extremes – very high performing and very low performing. This paper seeks: (1) to identify the dimensions of the bifurcation across twelve indicators of financial resources, school quality, school performance, and academic productivity; and (2) to understand the factors that appear to correlate with, and possibly explain, this bifurcation. Hypotheses for future, confirmatory research are discussed.

Authors

• Guilbert C. Hentschke, University of Southern California

• Priscilla (Penny) Wohlstetter, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Joanna R. Smith, University of Southern California