Study: N.C. charters get better results for less money

Students in N.C. charter schools earned higher reading and math scores in 2011 than their counterparts in traditional public schools,  while the charter schools got less money for doing it,  according to a new study from the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform.

The latest study,  "The Productivity of Public Charter Schools,"  piggybacks on an April report that compared per-pupil spending on charters and other public schools.  It compares scores on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade reading and math exams for the two groups and links those to spending.

The report,  which looks at all states that had charter schools in 2011,  shows that N.C. charter school students averaged 13 points higher in reading and nine points higher in math than students in N.C. school districts.  Meanwhile,  charter schools averaged $8,277 per charter student compared with $9,999 per district student.  The study does a lot of other number-crunching but that's the gist:  Higher scores for less money.

Skeptics may assume that's because charter schools are working with the students who tend to score higher.  But according to this study,  the N.C. charter schools averaged slightly higher percentages of low-income and disabled students than public schools across the state.

Of course,  there are plenty of caveats to consider,  and the 43-page report explores many of them.  This is one year's performance  (a year that precedes North Carolina's charter school expansion)  for one grade level.  As the study notes,  those students may have experienced a mix of charter and traditional public schooling  (and,  for that matter,  private and home-schooling),  all of which contributes to eighth-grade scores. The report uses that data to extrapolate a  "return on investment"  based on lifetime earnings.  I'm skeptical of that technique,  which is used to turn small data points into huge savings by any number of educational groups,  including traditional public schools.

The researchers note that the overall analysis leads to one clear national finding:  "Charter schools tend to exhibit more productivity than traditional public schools."

You can bet that will come up as North Carolina debates how to balance its investment in various forms of public education.

Baker

Update: A reader steered me to a University of Colorado National Education Policy Center review of the April report on charter inequities. Reviewer Bruce Baker of Rutgers University says the University of Arkansas study  "displays complete lack of understanding of intergovernmental fiscal relationships."  For instance,  he writes,  money that is passed through school districts for distribution to charters is counted as school district revenue in per-pupil calculations  (CMS passed through about $23 million in 2013).

"In addition, the report suffers from alarmingly vague documentation regarding data sources and methodologies, and it constructs entirely inappropriate comparisons of student population characteristics,"  Baker writes.  "Simply put, the findings and conclusions of the study
are not valid or useful."

As some of you have noted,  and as I pointed out in the post about the April report,  the University of Arkansas research is part of the university's School Choice Demonstration Project,  which is funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

Read more here: http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/search?q=+university+arkansas+charter#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/2014/05/report-nc-charter-schools-dont-get-fair.html#storylink=cpy

Report: NC charter schools don't get fair share

North Carolina's charter schools averaged $1,722 per pupil less than the state's traditional public schools in 2011,  according to a new report from the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform.

"Charter School Funding:  Inequity Expands" follows up on similar national studies done by other groups, comparing funding in 2003 and 2007.  The latest study is part of the university's School Choice Demonstration Project and is funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

"Since public charter schools are becoming increasingly politically popular and therefore common in the U.S., we might expect that they would be funded at levels comparable to traditional public schools. After all, they are public schools, too,"  the authors write.  "We would be mistaken."

The researchers found a national gap of 28.4 percent,  with charters averaging $3,814 less per pupil from combined state,  local,  federal and private money.  In North Carolina the gap was 17.2 percent,  or $8,277 per charter student compared with $9,999 per district student.

As charter advocate Larry Bumgarner and I have been discussing in recent comments,  per-pupil funding is a complex and confusing system.  The university's report on North Carolina provides a detailed explanation of state funding formulas. "In practice charter school State revenues are nearing parity with district per pupil State revenues, which is significant,"  the report notes.

The N.C. breakdown cites causes of the funding gap, including the absence of local money for charter school buildings and a lower level of federal funding for charters.  (Note that this study landed during the recession,  when federal stimulus money was coming in to local districts.  It also came before North Carolina's charter school expansion,  which might or might not affect per-pupil spending.)

The study does a breakout on Wake County charters and district schools,  but there's nothing on Mecklenburg,  which has the largest charter school enrollment.  I was interested to see that statewide,  charter schools served a slightly higher percentage of low-income and special-education students than district schools.  As the report notes,  that can vary widely by school.

The report gives North and South Carolina D grades for charter/district discrepancies.  Tennessee,  where charter schools averaged $15 per pupil more than district schools,  got the only A.

Also on charters and district schools:  I'm moving toward getting payroll data from area charters,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and nearby districts.  Expect more on that after the Observer/PNC forum on teacher compensation,  which takes place Monday evening.  Seats are still available;  click here for details and to reserve a seat.