New state-level studies demonstrate more rigorous standard of research than national study
CER Press Release
Washington, D.C.
January 15, 2013
A recent report by CREDO, a Stanford University based organization, finds that Michigan charter school students are seeing two-month gains in learning over traditional schools in one year. The study also found that 35 percent of charters in Michigan have significantly more positive gains in reading and 42 percent of charters have more gains in math than their traditional school counterparts. Continuing a trend CREDO has found in other states in which they’ve conducted studies of state-level public school student achievement data.
The Center for Education Reform has been critical of the work CREDO performed in the past, specifically in its first, national study, which used incongruous state data about students to make conclusions about charter school performance in selected states. This national “study” on 16 states resulted in an inaccurate but often quoted characterization among lawmakers and in the press that charter schools in general are not performing as well as other public schools when in reality, that report did not make meaningful comparisons on students within states or nationally.
A review of CREDO’s recent state level reports shows an improved approach to handling data.
According to CER President, Jeanne Allen: “Where the approach and data used in CREDO’s national study remains flawed, we believe that the current methodology used in the Michigan and New Jersey studies is more sound, and more closely approximates the level of research expertise we should be using to judge charter school achievement. In these studies, it appears that more and better demographic and school level data were used to identify and compare individual students to their ‘traditional public school’ counterparts, providing a more realistic view of students, and therefore, more credible results.”
Many researchers, including Stanford Economist Caroline
