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Unfulfilled Promises: Transfer to a Charter School and Student Achievement in Indiana

Sun, April 15, 2:45 to 4:15pm, New York Hilton Midtown, Floor: Second Floor, Madison

Abstract

Charter schools are touted as a key element in school reform, both because they serve as laboratories for improving education and because they provide an alternative to failing public schools. Research on charter school effectiveness has been equivocal, with the effects on student achievement and learning varying across studies. Using recent data from Indiana, this study extends previous research by assessing the sensitivity of charter school effects to unobserved heterogeneity and by examining the effects of attrition from charter schools on long-term effects. Results indicated that students who transferred to charter schools had significantly lower math achievement over their first two years than if they remained in traditional public schools, creating a deficit for those students returning to public schools.

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