Geographic Replication of Racial-Differential Charter Effects Outside North Caro

confidence: high · 3 sources

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Working research — not a recommendation.

This page records what the evidence says a policy does, not what anyone should do about it. It has been synthesized from the cited sources but has not been independently reviewed.

What the evidence says

The claims here come from two multi-site descriptive studies and one Boston lottery study. They address whether racial-differential charter patterns seen in North Carolina appear elsewhere. The evidence is uneven: it is strongest on who transfers and thinnest on achievement effects by race.

A seven-site RAND study (Zimmer, 2009) tracked students as they moved into charter schools. African American students who transferred moved to schools with higher concentrations of African American students in five of seven locales. The study reports that the effect on racial integration differs by place. Transfers to charter schools tend to marginally reduce racial integration in Philadelphia and in Texas, and marginally increase it in Chicago. Frankenberg (2011), summarizing the same study, reports that Black students moved to more segregated schools in five of seven locations. In Chicago and Milwaukee they attended slightly less segregated charter schools than they would have in public schools. Both of those traditional systems had very low percentages of White students. These findings are associational. The claims do not say whether the pattern reflects student preference, charter location, or capacity.

The same RAND study compares prior achievement of transfer students with same-race peers who stayed in traditional public schools. White students entering charter schools had higher prior achievement than their white peers in four of seven sites, and in one other site in one of two subjects. Lower prior scores for charter entrants appear in five of seven sites among African Americans and in four of seven sites among Hispanics. The direction of selection therefore differs by race in most sites. These are descriptive comparisons of prior scores, not effects of charter attendance.

On achievement effects by race, the evidence is thin. In Los Angeles Unified and San Diego, Frankenberg (2011) reports that charter student achievement did not vary substantially across the race or language status of charter students. In Boston, a lottery-based study finds that middle-school students who win the charter lottery score almost 0.2σ higher on ELA and 0.4σ higher in math. The authors report that separate estimation by race, not reported in detail, suggests the effects apply equally to Black and White students. Boston's charter schools also serve a high proportion of Black students, even relative to the majority non-white district. The Boston race-specific result is not shown in the source, so its magnitude is unsupported here.

No claim here covers a replication of North Carolina's specific racial-differential charter effects. The sources describe other places, not a direct test of the North Carolina result.

Where the evidence splits

The integration findings differ by location. Charter transfers are associated with marginally less racial integration in Philadelphia and Texas, and marginally more in Chicago. Frankenberg (2011) adds that Chicago and Milwaukee are the two sites where Black students ended up slightly less segregated. The sources attribute the Chicago and Milwaukee result partly to the very low percentage of White students in both traditional systems. They do not test that explanation, and they do not explain the other differences between sites.

The Boston lottery study and the RAND studies do not measure the same quantity. The RAND claims describe who transfers and the peer environment. The Boston claims estimate achievement effects of winning a lottery. The claims do not conflict on a shared outcome.

Thresholds and dose-response

No threshold established in the current sources.

Open empirical questions

Findings

Charter transfers increase the concentration of African American students in the schools African American transfer students attend in most sites

confidence — direction: mediumconfidence — magnitude: mediumconsensus: thin — two sources, both summarizing the same seven-site study
mechanism
not established; the source lists student preference, charter location or capacity, and neighborhood availability as open possibilities
effect
increases concentration of African American students relative to the school left, in five of seven locales
conditions / moderators
varies by locale; Black students attended more segregated schools in five of seven sites and slightly less segregated schools in Chicago and Milwaukee, where the traditional systems had very low percentages of White students

Charter transfers produce mixed evidence on racial integration by location

confidence — direction: highconfidence — magnitude: mediumconsensus: contested — the direction differs by site
mechanism
not established
effect
marginally decreases integration in Philadelphia and Texas; marginally increases it in Chicago
conditions / moderators
local factors such as charter law design, location, and capacity are not measured in these claims

Students who enter charter schools differ in prior achievement from same-race peers, in opposite directions by race

confidence — direction: highconfidence — magnitude: mediumconsensus: thin — one study
mechanism
not established; the source does not say whether this reflects selection or different school choice constraints
effect
white entrants had higher prior achievement in four of seven sites; African American entrants had lower prior scores in five of seven sites; Hispanic entrants had lower prior scores in four of seven sites
conditions / moderators
one further site showed higher white scores in one of two subjects; other sites not described

Charter achievement shows no measured differential by race or language status in Los Angeles and San Diego

confidence — direction: highconfidence — magnitude: mediumconsensus: thin — one source
mechanism
not established
effect
no measured effect of race or language status on charter student achievement differences; no magnitude given
conditions / moderators
Los Angeles Unified and San Diego only

Winning a Boston charter middle-school lottery increases math and ELA scores, with no differential by race suggested

confidence — direction: highconfidence — magnitude: low for the race-specific result; high for the overall estimateconsensus: thin — one study
mechanism
lottery-based identification of charter attendance effects; the claims give no instructional mechanism
effect
increases ELA by almost 0.2σ and math by 0.4σ; separate estimation by race suggests equal effects for Black and White students, not reported in detail
conditions / moderators
Boston only; predominantly Black and Hispanic district, and charter schools serve a high proportion of Black students even relative to the district