Analysis of Stanford’s landmark CREDO study, revealing impressive learning gains for charter students, continues to accrue. Yueting (Cynthia) Xu of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has developed an excellent list of seven top takeaways from the study. We’ve covered results from the CREDO study in some earlier posts (here and here), but one finding, highlighted in Xu’s post, deserves special attention. Not only does it affirm the value of the charter model for student performance right now, it also offers reason for even greater optimism as the movement continues to grow. Why? As Xu notes:
The charter school sector is demonstrating improvement over time.
From 2009 to 2023, charter school students consistently demonstrated substantial positive learning gains. In the 2009 CREDO study, charter school students showed less growth in reading (6 days less) [and] math (17 days less) compared to their district school peers. In the 2013 study, charter school students had stronger learning growth in reading (6 more days) and similar learning growth in math compared to their peers in district school. In 2023, charter school students gained an average of 16 additional days of learning in reading and 6 extra days of learning in math.
… This latest report from CREDO is one of the strongest pieces of evidence of charter school success in recent history. Between the 2009 and 2023 studies, amidst stagnant overall performance across the nation, the trend of learning gains for students enrolled in charter schools is both significant and positive. These results show that “the framework of charter schools helps current students and strengthens public education overall.”
Read more about the CREDO study in the Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine.
