According to a report issued by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, students from minority backgrounds and low-income families have hugely benefited from charter schools with increased improvement in reading and math.
The overall performance of charter schools in 26 states and New York City has improved when compared to traditional public schools due to closure of under-performing charter schools and the presence of high-performing ones.
These schools are also coming to the rescue of disadvantaged and special-needs students.
Charter school students have better reading abilities than the students in traditional public schools. Traditional public schools and charter schools have scored equal in mathematics.
Among the 26 states, 25 percent of them showed better learning in reading; 56 percent indicated no considerable difference and 19 percent of the charter schools have significantly lower learning skills. In mathematics, 29 percent of the charter schools recorded better learning than their traditional public school peers, 40 percent reported no difference in learning and 31 percent of them were generally weak.
"The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average and that charter schools are benefiting low-income," said Margaret Raymond, Director of Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO). "As welcome as these changes are, more work remains to be done to ensure that all charter schools provide their students high-quality education."
The report is a follow-up survey which initially analysed charter school performance in 16 states. The current report features 11 additional states, including Michigan. The comparison between charter and public schools was made over a three-year period.
