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What Can We Learn from Charter School Lotteries?

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Chabrier
  • Sarah Cohodes
  • Philip Oreopoulos
Abstract
We take a closer look at what we can learn about charter schools by pooling data from lottery-based impact estimates of the effect of charter school attendance at 113 schools. On average, each year enrolled at one of these schools increases math scores by 0.08 standard deviations and English/language arts scores by 0.04 standard deviations. There is wide variation in impact estimates. To glean what drives this variation, we link these effects to school practices, inputs, and characteristics of fallback schools. In line with the earlier literature, we find that schools that adopt an intensive “No Excuses” attitude towards students are correlated with large gains in academic performance, with traditional inputs like class size playing no role in explaining charter school effects. However, we highlight that “No Excuses” schools are also located among the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. After accounting for performance levels at fallback schools, the relationship between the remaining variation in school performance and the entire “No Excuses” package of practices weakens. “No Excuses” schools are effective at raising performance in neighborhoods with very poor performing schools, but the available data have less to say on whether the “No Excuses” approach could help in nonurban settings or whether other practices would similarly raise achievement in areas with low-performing schools. We find that intensive tutoring is the only “No Excuses” characteristic that remains significant (even for nonurban schools) once the performance levels of fallback schools are taken into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Chabrier & Sarah Cohodes & Philip Oreopoulos, 2016. "What Can We Learn from Charter School Lotteries?," NBER Working Papers 22390, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22390
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    1. Patrick L. Baude & Marcus Casey & Eric A. Hanushek & Gregory R. Phelan & Steven G. Rivkin, 2020. "The Evolution of Charter School Quality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(345), pages 158-189, January.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Sarah R. Cohodes & Susan M. Dynarski & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2016. "Stand and Deliver: Effects of Boston's Charter High Schools on College Preparation, Entry, and Choice," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 275-318.
    3. Joshua D. Angrist & Susan M. Dynarski & Thomas J. Kane & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2012. "Who Benefits from KIPP?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 837-860, September.
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    5. Christopher R. Walters, 2018. "The Demand for Effective Charter Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(6), pages 2179-2223.
    6. Helen F. Ladd & Charles T. Clotfelter & John B. Holbein, 2017. "The Growing Segmentation of the Charter School Sector in North Carolina," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 12(4), pages 536-563, Fall.
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    8. Abadie A., 2002. "Bootstrap Tests for Distributional Treatment Effects in Instrumental Variable Models," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 97, pages 284-292, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah R. Cohodes & Elizabeth M. Setren & Christopher R. Walters, 2021. "Can Successful Schools Replicate? Scaling Up Boston's Charter School Sector," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 138-167, February.
    2. Frederico Finan & Demian Pouzo, 2021. "Reinforcing RCTs with Multiple Priors while Learning about External Validity," Papers 2112.09170, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    3. Henrekson, Magnus & Wennström, Johan, 2019. "‘Post-truth’ schooling and marketized education: explaining the decline in Sweden's school quality," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(5), pages 897-914, October.
    4. Mauricio Romero & Justin Sandefur, 2022. "Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: the Impact of Outsourcing Schools in Liberia After Three Years," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(644), pages 1600-1619.
    5. Matthew Davis & Blake Heller, 2019. "No Excuses Charter Schools and College Enrollment: New Evidence from a High School Network in Chicago," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(3), pages 414-440, Summer.
    6. Aaron K. Chatterji, 2017. "Innovation and American K-12 Education," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 18, pages 27-51, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chen, Feng & Harris, Douglas N., 2023. "The market-level effects of charter schools on student outcomes: A national analysis of school districts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    8. Martin Bøg & Jens Dietrichson & Anna A. Isaksson, 2021. "A multi-sensory tutoring program for students at risk of reading difficulties: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," The Journal of Educational Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 114(3), pages 233-251, April.
    9. Ebrahim Azimi & Jane Friesen & Simon Woodcock, 2023. "Private Schools and Student Achievement," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 18(4), pages 623-653, Fall.
    10. Dennis Epple & Francisco Martinez-Mora & Richard Romano, 2021. "Charter School Practices and Student Selection: An Equilibrium Analysis," NBER Working Papers 29529, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Andrew Bibler & Stephen B. Billings, 2020. "Win or Lose: Residential Sorting After a School Choice Lottery," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 457-472, July.
    12. Edmark, Karin & Persson, Lovisa, 2021. "The impact of attending an independent upper secondary school: Evidence from Sweden using school ranking data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Diana McCallum & Christina Tuttle & Jeffrey Max & Brian Gill & Philip Gleason, "undated". "How Does School Choice Affect Racial Integration?," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 60be07fb436f46b6b40a9178f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    15. Philip Oreopoulos, 2021. "What Limits College Success? A Review and Further Analysis of Holzer and Baum's Making College Work," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 546-573, June.
    16. Angrist, Joshua D. & Pathak, Parag A. & Zarate, Roman A., 2023. "Choice and consequence: Assessing mismatch at Chicago exam schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    17. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus, 2023. "The Profit Motive in the Classroom - Friend or Foe?," IZA Discussion Papers 16301, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Wu, Jia & Wei, Xiangdong & Zhang, Hongliang & Zhou, Xiang, 2019. "Elite schools, magnet classes, and academic performances: Regression-discontinuity evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 143-167.
    19. Helen F. Ladd & John D. Singleton, 2020. "The Fiscal Externalities of Charter Schools: Evidence from North Carolina," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 191-208, Winter.
    20. Fazzio, Ila & Eble, Alex & Lumsdaine, Robin L. & Boone, Peter & Bouy, Baboucarr & Hsieh, Pei-Tseng Jenny & Jayanty, Chitra & Johnson, Simon & Silva, Ana Filipa, 2021. "Large learning gains in pockets of extreme poverty: Experimental evidence from Guinea Bissau," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    21. Philip Gleason & Sarah Crissey & Greg Chojnacki & Marykate Zukiewicz & Tim Silva & Sarah Costelloe & Fran O'Reilly, "undated". "Evaluation of Support for Using Student Data to Inform Teachers’ Instruction," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c8487f07fcc34792b99d2b144, Mathematica Policy Research.
    22. Léonard Moulin, 2023. "Do private schools increase academic achievement? Evidence from France," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 247-274, March.
    23. Aaron Chatterji, 2017. "Innovation and American K-12 Education," NBER Working Papers 23531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Shi, Ying, 2020. "Who benefits from selective education? Evidence from elite boarding school admissions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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